^ Cecil the lion.

There are a lot of different ideas circulating about trophy hunting lions after Cecil's death, so let's take a look at them.

What is the purpose of trophy hunting?

In the words of one trophy hunting advocate: "For the thrill of the hunt and a trophy. Fun." Killing for fun, huh? That's odd, but I thought that was the definition of sadism.

As most of you probably know, I'm a pro-life Christian, and as such I am very much against trophy hunting. Trophy hunting is extremely wasteful as the majority of trophy-hunted animals are left to rot after their heads, horns, etc. are removed. It is not "manly," "heroic,", "primal," or "tough" in the least. When challenged about this, trophy hunters typically respond with aggressiveness rather than logic and science. They claim we don't understand how brave they are. Sure, we don't. We just don't understand the bravery of trekking into the wilderness under controlled, planned conditions with $50,000 of technology and engineering to shoot unarmed animals from a distance. Hunters can suffer sunburns or hangovers from celebratory drinking. Their flights could be delayed, resulting in severe inconvenience. Their hotel pillows may be over-starched and make them really itchy. Such brave individuals to risk these deadly dangers, don't you think? Unfortunately, trophy hunting is one of the biggest money-making businesses related to wildlife conservation, and much of the money poured into conservation comes from trophy hunting. One could say it's a necessary evil.

What happened to Cecil the lion?

Well, enough of that. You probably remember the story of Cecil the lion (a rare, dark-maned Southwest African lion Panthera leo bleyenberghi) who was shot and killed for sport by an American dentist in Zimbabwe. On July 2, 1025, Walter J. Palmer shot Cecil the lion, who had been lured out of Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park by hunting guides and killed despite wearing a tracking collar. Cecil was shot with an arrow, fled the scene after being injured, and wasn't killed until the next day when his injury slowed him down. Cecil was found beheaded, and skinned, and his meat was left to go to waste.

Cecil was not a threat to the locals. He was not a man-eater, nor was he unusually aggressive. He was also protected by law: he wore a tracking collar, identifying him as a member of a wildlife research study (a study which was ultimately destroyed when he was killed), and he was living in the Hwange National Park and was therefore supposed to be protected from hunting. Palmer and his guide illegally lured Cecil out of the park in order to kill him. It's uncertain whether Palmer was aware of the park's border, but his guide certainly should have known better. Palmer has said he relied on his professional guides to ensure the lion hunt was lawful, which it was not.

Trophy hunting in decline?

Since Cecil's death, there have been fewer trophy hunters in Zimbabwe. Many have speculated that it's because they fear public reprisal that Americans are less likely to travel overseas to hunt. This is being dubbed the "Cecil Effect." Others, such as Byron du Preez, the project leader at Bubye, believe differently. Preez said in an email that linking declining hunts to Cecil’s demise may be an overreach: “In my opinion, the ‘Cecil Effect’ doesn’t even exist,” he said. “Hunters are not coming because there is a massive recession [in the U.S.].” Plummeting oil prices have further led to a drop in the number of visitors from US states such as Texas, from where traditionally large numbers of hunters go to Zimbabwe.

Bubye Valley Conservancy and its "overpopulation" of lions...

Yes, you read that correctly. Bubye Valley Conservancy is claiming that there are too many of an endangered species within its borders.

Whatever is causing the lack of tourist hunting, the Zimbabwe hunting industry (mostly Bubye Valley Conservancy) is attempting to start a panic to bring back the flow of cash. One of their latest tactics is to claim that lions have suddenly "overpopulated" in less than a year and are overrunning all of Africa, and must either be hunted or culled. Some hunting groups have even made the claim that lion populations had more than doubled in the mere few months since Cecil's death. (If lions were capable of doubling their population in less than 6 months, they would not be an endangered species.) One conservancy (Bubye Valley Conservancy) even put forward a proposal that would have allowed for the culling of over 200 of its lions (nearly half of its population of 500 lions), but, fortunately, that proposal has so far been dismissed. Bubye Valley has since denied that it ever made the proposal to cull its lions after wildlife biologists debunked their claims of "overpopulation" and suggested that Bubye relocate their lions if they don't want them anymore. Bubye is built to sustain over 600 lions. 500<600. If Bubye were to successfully cull 200 of their lions, as they originally wanted to do, they would have only 300 left, which is half the lions they are capable of sustaining. Overpopulation? I think not!

Bubye’s lions are supposedly decimating populations of antelope, along with other animals such as giraffe, cheetah, leopards and wild dogs, after the driest summer on record kept grasses low and made the small game easy targets (see sources below). However, antelope, giraffe, cheetahs, leopards, and wild dogs are all prized trophy-hunting targets for tourists. Besides, animal welfare activists are not the cause of the lions' success: the driest summer on record is (see sources below). It ought to be obvious that the decimation of antelope and other animals (if it is even actually happening) is a direct result of an extreme drought, not a lion overpopulation. Of course, organizations like BVC, which make their profit based on how many of its animals are killed by hunters, won't admit that the lions' success is due to a dry summer. Remember, this is the hunting industry we're talking about. When your money comes from people killing animals, you'll use whatever excuse you can to get people to come back and kill some more.

An endangered species cannot be overpopulated.

Aside from the fact that it's simply ridiculous to think that several hundred fully-grown lions have magically popped out of nowhere to overpopulate, this particular subspecies of lion (Panthera leo bleyenberghi) is an endangered species. They were added to the endangered species list in 2015. Africa’s lion population has dropped to about 20,000 - 30,000 in recent decades, mainly due to habitat destruction, trade in lion parts, trophy hunting, disease, and killings from human-lion conflict. If there is truly an overpopulation of lions in a given area, those lions should be relocated to an area where there are too few lions and breeders are trying to increase the population. Nigeria, for example, is on the verge of forever losing its lion population: www.theguardian.com/environmen…. Tanzania is another place where lions are teetering on the edge of extinction and conservationists are desperately trying to increase the population: animals.nationalgeographic.com…. Relocating members of an endangered species ought to be common sense. However, this is the hunting industry that we're talking about. (Who said anything about contraception?) It wasn't until after the Bubye proposal was rejected that the conservancy admitted that maybe moving the lions instead of killing them would be a better idea. Blondie Leathem, general manager of Bubye Valley Conservancy, said:

“I wish we could give about 200 of our lions away to ease the overpopulation. If anyone knows of a suitable habitat for them where they will not land up in human conflict, or in wildlife areas where they will not be beaten up because of existing prides, please let us know and help us raise the money to move them.”

At least someone is thinking along the right lines. For heaven's sake, Bubye Valley Conservancy, CONTACT THE BIG CATS INITIATIVE!

Fortunately, lions have been added to the Endangered Species List. The U.S.'s ESA listing can't do much to protect lions as it is, seeing as the U.S. has no ruling in Africa. The International Fund for Animal Welfare said that while it falls short of a full ban on importing lion trophies, "it is still a huge step in the right direction." Unfortunately, even a ban on importing trophies can't stop trophy hunters from killing lions for fun and then leaving the entire animal to rot. “If we do not act on this crisis now, lions could disappear from the wild in our lifetime, and that would have disastrous consequences,” said Philip Muruthi, AWF’s vice president of species protection. A ban on importing lion trophies could also hamper the trade of captive-bred lions and parts from lions that have died natural deaths (organizations such as CITES work to prevent illegal imports of endangered animal trophies, and it can be difficult for them to determine which are legal and which are not.) Sadly, that's the way of things: the innocent suffer because of the actions of others. If you or someone you know plans on bringing home a legally-killed endangered species, be sure you can prove that it was captive-bred.

Are people no longer defending themselves from lions?

All that said, no one should ever hesitate to kill any animal out of self-defense. One guide has been killed by a lion since the killing of Cecil, and even though people have been killed by lions and other big predators throughout all of history, hunting advocates claim that he was killed because he was "afraid to kill the lion out of fear of public reprisal." Forgive me for being insensitive, but when your face is being chewed off, I think public reprisal is the last thing on your mind. Everyone has the right to protect their own lives, even if a member of a threatened species is the one that's attacking you.

5 Things You Should Know About Cecil:

4. Cecil had six cubs when he was killed, who unfortunately will probably be killed by a new male lion from another pride due to their father's death. Fortunately, they are all female cubs so the likeliness of their survival is higher than if they were males.
5. Having a rare dark mane made Cecil more attractive to lionesses. The darker the mane, the more attractive a lion is to potential mates. Dark manes are rare among lions.











More information:
www.theguardian.com/environmen…
www.thezimbabwenewslive.com/bu…
m.news24.com/news24/Africa/Zim…
theodysseyonline.com/alabama/r…
www.usatoday.com/story/news/na…
www.globalpost.com/article/670…
www.grandviewoutdoors.com/big-…
www.foxnews.com/world/2016/02/…
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/world…
www.smh.com.au/world/how-long-…



______________________________________________________________________________________________________________





Visit my group for more updates and information about protecting all life, no matter the species, age, race, gender, etc.