tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/lions-8374/articles
Lions – The Conversation
2023-08-09T13:20:50Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211130
2023-08-09T13:20:50Z
2023-08-09T13:20:50Z
The fast, furious, and brutally short life of an African male lion
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541739/original/file-20230808-30-wgjkzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The death of a lion in Kenya’s picturesque savannas rarely tugs at people’s hearts, even in a country where wildlife tourism is a key pillar of the nation’s economy. But when one of the most tracked male lions in Kenya’s famous Masaai Mara was <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/news/jesse-king-of-maasai-mara-dies-in-tragic-rivalry-battle--4316734">killed</a> on 24 July 2023 the world took notice. Known as Jesse, he was killed during a fight with a coalition of three male lions from a rival pride, drawing attention to the brutally risky and dangerous lives of male lions.</p>
<p>Lions are organised in family groups known as a pride. Each pride is comprised of several related lionesses. One or more adult male lions will also be present. In the public imagination, male lions are better known by their popularised image as <a href="https://www.ourendangeredworld.com/are-lions-the-king-of-the-jungle/">kings of the jungle</a>. Their bravery, strength, and size (only tigers are larger) fits this profile.</p>
<p>But in reality, male lions live a life far more vulnerable. One in two male lions die in the first year of life. From the moment a male lion is born it faces a gauntlet of challenges – from snakebite and hungry hyenas to infanticide at the hands of other male lions. </p>
<p>If a male lion makes it out of their first year of life, and then to independence at around 3, they leave their pride for a period of nomadism. Nomads lead a dangerous existence, skirting the territories of established male coalitions. Out there on their own, few will make it to the age of 10. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541939/original/file-20230809-5449-78bb4n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young male lion rests in the branches of a tree in Uganda’s Ishasha sector. This particular cub was the son of a three male coalition of lions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy: Alexander Richard Braczkowski</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At no time, it seems, is the male lion safe. We know from the evidence collected by the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=683919633775825&set=a.642108107956978&type=3&ref=embed_post">Kenya Wildlife Trust</a>, resident guides, and tourists that Jesse administered and received many beatings from other male lions. We also know that Jesse, who lived to the ripe old age of 12, was eventually killed by three younger, stronger lions. Life comes full circle: killers frequently become victims themselves, of younger, brasher lions, or those in larger and thus more powerful coalitions. </p>
<p>We are three researchers with over 50 years of combined experience in big cat <a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=hnAe1zYAAAAJ&citation_for_view=hnAe1zYAAAAJ:F2VeH06lQh8C">ecology</a>, <a href="https://www.resilientconservation.org/founder-duan-biggs">conservation</a>, and <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-environ-120920-125536">the complexities of people and wildlife living together</a>. </p>
<p>We base our commentary on the extensive information gathered by conservation organisations, independent scientists and tourism guides working in the Maasai Mara. Information on Jesse has been collected mainly through sightings data compiled by these entities over time. </p>
<p>Often the survival of male lions will be dictated by the size and strength of their coalitions, and the make up of the lion landscape at large. This sometimes has bearing for conservation especially when lions stray out of national parks or <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073808">when male lions are hunted after leaving the safety of a protected area</a>.</p>
<h2>The trials of a young lion</h2>
<p>A young male lion’s biggest threat is his exposure to other male lions that aren’t their father or uncle. A host of <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12594">studies from the Serengeti in Tanzania to Zimbabwe</a> show that the most significant single cause of lion mortality in the first year of a lion’s life is attributed to other <a href="https://userpages.umbc.edu/%7Ehanson/Jane'sLions.pdf">male lions that kill them during infanticide</a>. </p>
<p>This involves incoming males seeking out and killing the cubs of other males or driving young males away, and attempting to take over prides. Killing cubs <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1257226?casa_token=DNGxjnBmO-EAAAAA%3A6peluEktzB8JVLut4SBuIMDVOMsiM_lBAmv-kAQDlDwEllpBWirZ68LnI-c11jzIN5sV3pder_KVf1rO">accelerates the onset of oestrus in pride females</a> and so is likely to increase the reproductive success of incoming males. </p>
<p>Most lions that get <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/oik.01266?casa_token=VqaDeZN7ZI8AAAAA:_vhYFHLGSO1jHTthWAkJaRoitzJrqq_4nMPjeY8xnxJ2yh2qgYfGs1xDOTDJPs8TKcnIFqFLUw-8quTe">pushed out of their pride when very young </a> don’t survive.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-closer-to-a-much-better-count-of-africas-lions-140945">Getting closer to a much better count of Africa's lions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Cubs that survive to independence – around 3 years of age – must leave their pride for a period of nomadism. During this time, they join up with cousins, brothers, and sometimes unrelated males of similar age to form what biologists term ‘coalitions’. The power of coalitions increases dramatically with the size of the group. This power can be defined by the number of different prides these coalitions are likely to rule, the number of offspring they will sire, and the number of times they will successfully be able to defend their prides from violent incursions from neighbouring male lions and their coalitions. </p>
<p>The tradeoff of larger coalitions is a watering down of a male lion’s reproductive opportunities. </p>
<p>Examples of such powerful coalitions include the six-strong <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapogo_lion_coalition">Mapogo</a>, and <a href="https://secretafrica.com/the-majingilane-lions-of-sabi-sands/">five-strong Majingilane</a> from South Africa. There is also the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg680YugRtc">Lake Quintet coalition from Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania</a>. </p>
<p>Contrastingly, Jesse had only one coalition mate, a lion known as Frank. The two were strong enough to kick out the duo of Dere and Barrikoi from the Offbeat pride in May 2014. After his coalition mate Frank disappeared, Jesse left the Offbeat Pride and led a largely nomadic lifestyle except when he unsuccessfully tried to take over the Rakero pride and even fought with his own son Jesse 2. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541450/original/file-20230807-20-8nygn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Birmingham coalition of five male lions in the Kruger National Park of South Africa. They regularly clashed with other powerful coalitions including the famed Majingilane lion coalition.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Three laws of the wild</h2>
<p>Mate, protect, fight. <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9IWaqAOGyt4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=what+is+the+purpose+of+mammal+life+on+earth&ots=1GBV4cKe6D&sig=5LtExzK4__-My_ZA5CkytjjIKRA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=what%20is%20the%20purpose%20of%20mammal%20life%20on%20earth&f=false">These are the three tenets most male animals live and die by in the animal kingdom </a> and this could not be truer for male lions. When male lions are in the prime of their lives somewhere between 5 and 9 years of age they will attempt to have as many cubs as they can. And they will do their best to protect and guard over as many prides as possible.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lions-are-still-being-farmed-in-south-africa-for-hunters-and-tourism-they-shouldnt-be-208584">Lions are still being farmed in South Africa for hunters and tourism – they shouldn't be</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But there is a fine line between holding tenure over many different prides, and successfully being able to defend them and their young. When fights do breakout between male lions they are usually over territorial and breeding rights. </p>
<p>At times they are mere squabbles between coalition mates. At other times, the battles are big enough to cause rifts and splits within coalitions. But in most cases fights are between rival coalitions. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om5nM54a1Wo">During these fights lions engage in a suite of bodily and olfactory engagements</a> including posturing, roaring and growling, swatting, and biting, and even urination and territorial demarcation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541448/original/file-20230807-15-nodvp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael, a male lion sits on the Kasenyi Plains with his two sons in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park. Michael killed multiple litters of cubs in this area during his takeover after leaving the south of the park.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>For conservation: look to the lionesses</h2>
<p>When it comes to the conservation of the lion species it is important to look to the lionesses. They are the sentinels of a populations health, specifically the number of animals in a group, and more importantly the ratio of lionesses to lions. Healthy populations can expect ratios of roughly <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2688-8319.12015">2 females for every male, but when under pressure due to poaching, killings by cattle farmers and a loss of prey these ratios invert towards males</a>. </p>
<p>The story of Jesse highlights how, in spite of their status as king of the beasts, lions are vulnerable. While in this instance, the cause of death was another lion, much more commonly, lions die at the hands of humans. This can be through being shot or poisoned to protect livestock, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-019-01866-w">being poached for their body parts</a> or being caught as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320723002483">by-catch in traps and snares set for other animals by bushmeat poachers</a>. </p>
<p>On the plus side, the fascinating pride dynamics and trials and tribulations of individual lions can help capture the public’s imagination and foster a love for the species and other wildlife. Although human pressures are high, Kenya retains a large lion population and a suite of iconic wildlife areas. These assets are a great source of pride for many Kenyans, and rightly so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Richard Braczkowski received funding from Griffith University and the Southern University of Science and Technology when carrying out this study.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Duan Biggs is the Olajos Goslow Chair at Northern Arizona University. Dr Biggs previously received funding from the Australian Research Council and WWF the Luc Hoffmann Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Lindsey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From the moment a male lion is born it faces a gauntlet of challenges, ranging from snakebite to infanticide.
Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Research Fellow at the Centre for Planetary Health and Resilient Conservation Group, Griffith University
Duan Biggs, Professor and Chair, Southwestern Environmental Science and Policy, Northern Arizona University
Peter Lindsey, Research associate, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210332
2023-08-03T14:37:30Z
2023-08-03T14:37:30Z
Conflict between humans and wildlife in Tanzania is being poorly managed – and climate change is making things worse
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539924/original/file-20230728-25-3kbixh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elephants are being forced into confrontations with humans</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Human-wildlife conflicts are a challenge for authorities in African countries where people live near protected areas. Programmes for communities to participate in wildlife tourism and share its benefits have been put forward as one solution. </p>
<p>Those benefits are substantial in Tanzania. Wildlife tourism is a major source of foreign revenue for the country. In 2021, the tourism sector <a href="https://www.tanzaniainvest.com/tourism">generated</a> US$2.6 billion, or 5.7% of gross domestic product (GDP). </p>
<p>The country’s <a href="https://www.parliament.go.tz/polis/uploads/bills/acts/1662104063-CHAPTER%20283-THE%20WILDLIFE%20CONSERVATION%20ACT.pdf">2022 Wildlife Conservation Act</a> offers financial and material compensation for any eligible person negatively affected by human-wildlife conflict incidents. Between <a href="https://academicjournals.org/journal/IJBC/article-abstract/9D1C40570983">2012 and 2019</a>, more than 1,000 human-wildlife mortality cases were reported nationwide, with rural residents forming the large majority of the victims.</p>
<p>As a sustainability scholar with a research interest in farming and the environment, I set out to understand the experiences of people who’d been victims of human-wildlife conflict in Tanzania. In my <a href="https://academicjournals.org/journal/IJBC/article-abstract/9D1C40570983">study</a>, I spoke with people in the villages of Kiduhi and Mbamba. These two villages share borders with the <a href="https://www.mikuminationalpark.net/">Mikumi National Park</a>, the fourth-biggest national park in Tanzania. </p>
<p>I asked them about what drives human-wildlife conflict, in their view, when and how they experienced it, how it affected their livelihood or well-being, and what could be done to prevent it in the future. </p>
<p>Incidents of human-wildlife conflict had become common in the two villages, but I found that the victims’ experiences were underreported. I also found that the conflict was driven by habitat losses that pushed wild animals from the park to seek food and water outside. Changing weather patterns also played a role in tensions between wild animals from the park and residents of Kiduhi and Mbamba. Other <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01608-5#Abs1">research</a> has linked changing patterns like this to climate change. </p>
<h2>Water scarcity and loss of grassland</h2>
<p>Villagers in Kiduhi and Mbamba believed that a decrease in rainfall and long periods of drought were what drove elephants, hyenas and lions to seek food outside the park. This claim from residents was echoed by wildlife experts from Mikumi National Park. </p>
<p>They said the lack of rainfall led to a loss of vegetation inside Mikumi, forcing large animals like elephants to forage further afield. Potential prey for lions, such as deer and wildebeest, also moved far away in search of food and water. As a result, lions and hyenas from the park targeted cattle and goats in neighbouring villages.</p>
<p>In Kiduhi, a predominantly Maasai community that keeps livestock, hyena attacks and killings of goats had become frequent, endangering the lives of residents. Some reported risking their lives by patrolling at night to protect their cattle and chase away hyenas that were reported to be frequently seen in the area. One victim in Kiduhi told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In February 2021, a lion attacked my boma and killed 11 goats but ended up eating just one goat. Though the attack happened at midnight, the lion didn’t leave immediately; it stayed until early morning. I reported the incident to wildlife authorities, who came and freed the lion. But, to date, I have not been compensated for my loss.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Crop losses</h2>
<p>The research also found that elephants raiding neighbouring villages’ farms was the major cause of human-elephant conflict around the park. Victims from Mbamba reported that clashes between them and elephants happened almost every day from May to August, the peak harvest season. </p>
<p>Since most Mbamba residents are subsistence farmers, the damage that elephants cause to their farms has a devastating impact on livelihoods. Women expressed concerns about household food shortages because most of the food they produced was damaged by elephants from the park. One woman farmer said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For me, it happens almost every year; they raid and eat all the crops, especially maize and rice. I have now accepted that when I grow maize, I also grow for elephants because they come every season.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Poor response</h2>
<p>In Kiduhi, most Maasai men and women interviewed in this study felt the local government and park officals had not shown concern about the livestock losses they experienced from hyena and lion attacks. Despite their quest for compensation, they had received nothing but daily promises of resolution.</p>
<p>In Mbamba, some villagers said they didn’t bother to report losses because no action would be taken.</p>
<h2>What needs to be done about it</h2>
<p>Across Africa, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1012972108">financial compensation</a> for victims of human-wildlife conflicts is a popular management policy. Though some conservation experts have <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1012972108">questioned</a> its effectiveness, proponents of financial payments argue that ignoring victims’ economic losses could make the situation worse. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272272">Studies</a> in Tarangire and Serengeti national parks in Tanzania revealed that inadequate compensation schemes and limited engagement of neighbouring communities were the primary cause of retaliation killings in both parks. </p>
<p>So, firstly, the government needs to improve its compensation scheme. </p>
<p>Secondly, local climate conditions in Tanzania need attention. Longer periods of drought and water scarcity are <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.674363/full">expected</a> in the coming years. Human-wildlife conflict cases may escalate. Despite <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.674363/full">known evidence</a> of the devastating impact of climate change on wildlife resources, the government of Tanzania has been very slow in responding to these risks. </p>
<p>One practical intervention would be investing in nature-based solutions like restoring degraded land and water sources within the park and its neighbouring villages. This would reduce tensions over these resources. </p>
<p>Neglecting victims’ welfare, and a lack of tangible benefits of wildlife tourism to communities adjacent to protected areas, could pose a serious threat to the survival of wildlife. Concrete measures to address this complex conservation challenge are critical for Tanzania, given the significant contribution of wildlife tourism to its economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210332/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research project was funded by the National Geographic Society.</span></em></p>
Measures to address tensions between wildlife and humans are critical for Tanzania.
Evodius Waziri Rutta, Sustainability Researcher, Queen's University, Ontario
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208584
2023-06-29T14:35:11Z
2023-06-29T14:35:11Z
Lions are still being farmed in South Africa for hunters and tourism – they shouldn’t be
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534742/original/file-20230629-21-1i6qhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lions at a commercial facility in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Bloodlions</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A man <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/fur-crying-out-loud-man-en-route-to-vietnam-with-lion-bones-in-luggage-arrested-at-or-tambo-airport-20230624">was arrested</a> at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 23 June 2023 with five lion carcasses in his luggage. He was about to board a flight to Vietnam, where the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1617138120301205">use of lion bones</a> in traditional medicines is practised.</em></p>
<p><em>The seizure is commendable but highlights South Africa’s controversial legal industry of breeding lions in captivity. Wildlife researchers Neil D'Cruze and Jennah Green, who <a href="https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/85292/">have studied</a> <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/animal-welfare/article/welfare-concerns-associated-with-captive-lions-panthera-leo-and-the-implications-for-commercial-lion-farms-in-south-africa/BDD074F3A15EB226827F1BCE78AEE8ED">lion farming</a> in South Africa, share their insights into the industry and explain why it should be shut down.</em></p>
<h2>Why are lions being farmed?</h2>
<p>Lions have been intensively farmed for commercial purposes in South Africa since <a href="https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/85108/">the 1990s</a>. </p>
<p>These wild animals are exploited as entertainment attractions for tourists, like cub petting and “<a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJSSP-09-2019-0187/full/html?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=International_Journal_of_Sociology_and_Social_Policy_TrendMD_1&WT.mc_id=Emerald_TrendMD_1&origin=3cae929be2db3212856de1b1d31d40b3">walk with lions</a>” experiences. Others are used for <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/moving-targets-the-canned-hunting-of-captivebred-lions-in-south-africa/929CD0F7D4825D9DB6CD52DEEE1B9B27">“canned” trophy hunting</a>, where the lion is hunted in an enclosed space, with no chance of escape. </p>
<p>They are also used for traditional medicine both in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.906398/full">South Africa</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1617138120301205?via%3Dihub">internationally</a>, where their body parts, particularly their bones, are exported to Asia. They’re used as ingredients in traditional Asian medicine, such as <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/who-buys-lion-bones-inside-south-africas-skeleton-trade">“wines” and tonics</a>. These would usually contain tiger bone, but lion bones are <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.18004">being used as a substitute</a>. </p>
<p>They’re also <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217409">sold live</a>.</p>
<h2>What does the lion farming industry look like?</h2>
<p>According <a href="https://www.conservationaction.co.za/answer-to-south-african-parlimentary-question-noting-there-are-approximately-7979-lions-in-captivity-in-366-facilities/">to official records</a> in 2019, around 8,000 lions are being held in over 350 facilities in South Africa. In contrast, the current wild population in the country is estimated to be about <a href="https://research.tees.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/58421649/s10592_023_01530_5.pdf"> 3,500 lions</a>. </p>
<p>Some farms also breed <a href="https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/85108/">other big cats</a>, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/tigers-in-south-africa-a-farming-industry-exists-often-for-their-body-parts-198238">tigers</a>, cheetahs, leopards, jaguars and hybrids. </p>
<p>The exact number of lions and other species on commercial “lion farms” across South Africa, however, is unknown. The industry has <a href="https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/85108/">never been fully audited</a> and not all farms are officially registered. In addition, corruption and a lack of proper <a href="https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/85292/">record-keeping</a> make it difficult for authorities to manage the industry and ensure facilities comply with the law.</p>
<h2>How is the industry regulated?</h2>
<p>A major problem is how the lion farming industry is being regulated in South Africa. </p>
<p>At a national level, governance of this industry has fallen under a patchwork of legislation including the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/national-environmental-management-biodiversity-act-0">National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act</a> and regulations around <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/national-environmental-management-biodiversity-act-lists-threatened-and-protected-species">threatened or protected species</a>. With national and provincial concurrence, the regulation of the industry falls to the provincial nature conservation authorities. </p>
<p>But, as there is no centralised national system, transparency and enforcement is difficult. This results in grey areas that cloud the legality of the industry and its associated activities, contributing to <a href="https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/85108/">confusion and noncompliance throughout</a>.</p>
<p>Likewise, at an international level, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249306">lion bone exports are regulated</a> under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). But the industry has been under scrutiny since 2019, when a <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2019/337.html">high court in South Africa declared</a> the lion bone export quota unconstitutional – due in large part to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/animal-welfare/article/welfare-concerns-associated-with-captive-lions-panthera-leo-and-the-implications-for-commercial-lion-farms-in-south-africa/BDD074F3A15EB226827F1BCE78AEE8ED">animal welfare concerns</a>. </p>
<p>Consequently, since that time, the CITES export quota <a href="https://speciesplus.net/species#/taxon_concepts/6353/legal">has been deferred</a>, resulting in a “zero quota”. This means that lion skeletons cannot be legally exported for commercial purposes. And any subsequent exports originating from lion farms are illegal.</p>
<h2>Why is this industry a problem?</h2>
<p>Lion farming in South Africa is controversial. </p>
<p>The industry has been <a href="https://academicjournals.org/journal/IJBC/article-abstract/6AC3AF766598">estimated by some</a> to contribute up to R500 million (US$42 million) annually to the South African economy. However, in 2021 a <a href="https://www.dffe.gov.za/sites/default/files/reports/2020-12-22_high-levelpanel_report.pdf">high level report</a> compiled by relevant experts (including traditional leaders, lion farmers and scientists) highlighted that the industry posed a risk to public health (because of the potential transmission of <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/9/1692">zoonotic disease</a> and <a href="https://bioone.org/journals/african-journal-of-wildlife-research/volume-53/issue-1/056.053.0021/Biting-the-Hand-that-Feeds-You--Attacks-by-Captive/10.3957/056.053.0021.short">lion attacks</a>), “does not contribute meaningfully to the conservation of wild lions”, and was tarnishing the country’s reputation with “political and economic risks”. </p>
<p>This led to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment <a href="https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202106/44776gon566.pdf">announcing its intention</a>, which cabinet later adopted, to immediately halt the “domestication and exploitation of lions, and to ultimately close all captive lion facilities in South Africa”.</p>
<p>But nothing has changed. The captive breeding and canned hunting of lions has continued.</p>
<h2>What should be done about the industry?</h2>
<p>The minister’s public announcement of South Africa’s intention to stop lion farming was a defining development regarding this controversial industry and its future. However, in late 2022, a <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/forestry-fisheries-and-environment-ministerial-task-team-identify-and-recommend-voluntary">ministerial task team</a> was asked to “develop and implement a voluntary exit strategy for captive lion facilities”. This was the first time the word “voluntary” had been used in public government communications on this issue. It raised serious questions about whether the government was wavering in its stated intention to end commercial captive lion breeding.</p>
<p>It is highly doubtful whether a voluntary phasing out alone can halt the commercial exploitation of lions and establish a process to close lion farms as recommended in the high level panel report. Instead, it should only be considered as an initial step. <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/6/1717">There should be a strategy</a> which includes a mandatory time bound termination of the lion farming industry in its entirety. </p>
<p>Until then, to aid enforcement agencies and their efforts, lion farms should be required to stop breeding more lions and stop their canned hunting operations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil D’Cruze works for an international NGO, World Animal Protection as the Global Head of Wildlife Research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennah Green is affiliated with an international NGO, World Animal Protection as a Wildlife Research Manager. </span></em></p>
About 8,000 lions are being held in facilities across South Africa. In some cases, a legal operation is plugged into an illicit trade network.
Neil D’Cruze, Global Head of Wildlife Research, World Animal Protection, and Visiting Researcher, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), University of Oxford
Jennah Green, Wildlife Research Manager at World Animal Protection, and Visiting Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201628
2023-04-03T12:28:42Z
2023-04-03T12:28:42Z
Sabertooth cat skull newly discovered in Iowa reveals details about this Ice Age predator
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518845/original/file-20230401-22-bgasdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=145%2C64%2C5246%2C3306&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Heavier than a modern lion, these big cats were fearsome predators.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/smilodon-sits-on-a-rock-surrounded-by-golden-royalty-free-illustration/168839739">Daniel Eskridge/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253010421/sabertooth/">sabertooth cat is an Ice Age icon</a> and <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/11538/smilodon">emblem of strength, tenacity and intelligence</a>. These animals <a href="https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/giant-sloths-and-sabertooth-cats/">shared the North American landscape</a> with other large carnivores, including short-faced bears, dire wolves and the American lion, as well as megaherbivores including mammoths, mastodons, muskoxen and long-horned bison. Then at the end of the Pleistocene, between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2015032117">they all vanished</a>. The only place to see them now is in the fossil record.</p>
<p>Carnivore fossils are extremely rare, though, in comparison to those of their prey. Prey are always more abundant than predators in a healthy ecosystem. So the probability of burial, storage and discovery of carnivore bones and teeth is therefore slim compared to those belonging to herbivores.</p>
<p>Scientists have a relatively small and scattered inventory of sabertooth fossils. The exception comes from Rancho La Brea in downtown Los Angeles, where over <a href="https://archive.org/details/biostor-215051">1,000 individual sabertooths</a> were mired in tar-seep death traps.</p>
<p>That’s why the recent discovery of an exquisite sabertooth cat skull in southwestern Iowa is so exciting. The <em>Smilodon fatalis</em> skull was collected from late Pleistocene sand and gravel exposed along the East Nishnabotna River. My colleague, <a href="https://www.nwmissouri.edu/naturalsciences/directory/easterla.htm">biologist David A. Easterla</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SvSuuIcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">and I</a> are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108045">studying this specimen to learn more</a> about the life history, prey selection and eventual extinction of this ancient predator. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="side view of a fossil skull with one long tooth on the animal's left" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518601/original/file-20230330-24-fohkrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The recent sabertooth find is a complete cranium, albeit missing one of its namesake sabers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Gannon, ISU News Service</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Clues from a cranium</h2>
<p>The animal’s common name – sabertooth cat – comes from its highly distinctive, saberlike canine teeth that poke out of the mouth as much as 5 or 6 inches (13 to 15 centimeters).</p>
<p>Sabertooths are sexually dimorphic, with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048352">males generally larger than females</a>. The Iowa skull is larger than those of many adult males from Rancho La Brea. Several bones of the skull have not sealed together and the teeth are basically unworn, leading us to believe this individual was almost certainly a young male between 2 and 3 years old that was still growing.</p>
<p>We estimate he weighed 550 pounds (250 kilograms). That’s upwards of 110 pounds (50 kilograms) greater than the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1980.tb01433.x">average adult male African lion</a>. Given a few years to mature and fill up loose skin, he might have tipped the scale at 650 pounds (300 kilograms).</p>
<p>Observations of the life cycles of <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo42069173.html">modern lions</a> <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo3635439.html">and tigers</a> suggest this sabertooth was newly independent or on the cusp of independent living.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="four lions attacking an African buffalo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518846/original/file-20230401-14-2med49.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sabertooths might have lived and hunted together in groups like modern lions – but all other modern cats live more solitary lifestyles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/the-chase-royalty-free-image/534361693">jez_bennett/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, whether sabertooths stuck together in groups or were loners is hotly debated. Disagreement revolves around just how much of a size difference there is between males and females. In many living animals, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1997.tb02932.x">males are typically larger than females</a> in male-dominated harems, as in modern lions. In the case of sabertooths, some scholars identify this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048352">pronounced sexual dimophisim between the sexes</a> and contend these ancient cats lived in groups, akin to today’s lions. Other researchers see only minimal size differences and view sabertooth cats <a href="https://doi.org/10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022%5B0164:SDSBAI%5D2.0.CO;2">generally as solitary predators</a>, perhaps more like tigers and all other felines.</p>
<p>Whatever the case, at 2 or 3 years old the cat obviously possessed the weaponry – jaws and paws – and heft to take down large prey alone. He likely garnered experience hunting by first watching his mother locate, stalk, ambush and kill prey and defend the carcasses, then perhaps with her help, and finally, alone. His learning curve was probably a lot like lions and tigers as they mature physically and behaviorally. </p>
<p>Hunting for survival is high stakes. Repeated failure means death from starvation. And attacking large prey equipped with defensive gear like horns, antlers, hooves and trunks is always dangerous and sometimes lethal. For instance, a recent study of 166 modern lion skulls from Zambia revealed that 68 had healed or partially healed injuries associated with taking down prey. Put another way, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11313">40% had survived major head trauma</a> to hunt another day.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="anterior view of sabertooth cat cranium, with only one long tooth on the right" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518594/original/file-20230330-21-l5xqa8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of this cat’s distinctive sabers was broken off before it died.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Gannon, ISU News Service</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One saber in the Iowa skull is broken off where the canine tooth emerges from the roof of the mouth. Morphological details of the fracture edges indicate the damage happened around this animal’s time of death. It’s possible the break may relate to a defense wound thanks to a prey animal’s well-placed hoof, antler, horn or swat. Since the stub is not worn, the encounter may have even caused the cat’s death. </p>
<h2>Additional technical analysis yields more info</h2>
<p>A technique called <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/the-use-of-stable-isotopes-in-the-96648168/">stable isotope analysis</a> allows researchers to figure out what an animal ate and even where it lived based on ratios of isotopes in its teeth or bones. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oJ4ztXAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Andrew Somerville</a>, a specialist in isotopic biogeochemistry, is leading this effort with the Iowa sabertooth. Our team suspects that sabertooth cats in this area would have focused their hunting on the <a href="https://iceage.museum.state.il.us/mammals/jefferson%E2%80%99s-ground-sloth">Jefferson’s ground sloth</a>, a massive, lumbering and solitary browser. With adults weighing around a ton, its size was probably a major deterrent to other predators – but not necessarily to sabertooths. Sharp sabers to the neck could have killed the sloth, size be damned.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I are also developing what natural science researchers call diet-breadth mixing models. Using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen preserved in Ice Age carnivore, herbivore and omnivore bones from southwest Iowa, our models should tell us if sabertooths, short-faced bears and dire wolves competed for the same prey, the habitats they searched for prey and, possibly, how these food-web connections collapsed at the end of the Ice Age.</p>
<p><iframe id="yB8BX" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/yB8BX/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/carbon-14-dating">Radiocarbon dating</a> indicates this Iowa sabertooth lived between 13,605 and 13,455 years ago, making it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108045">among the last of its kind</a> to walk the Western Hemisphere. Slightly younger dates – but not by much – come from Rancho La Brea, eastern Brazil and far southern Chile.</p>
<p>These dates mean sabertooths and the first people to infiltrate these places – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2021.153">Clovis foragers in North America</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.80.2.376">Fishtail foragers in South America</a> – shared the landscape for a short period of time. People probably chanced upon sabertooth tracks, scat and kills now and again. Maybe a few lucky people observed the magnificent animal going about its life. But neither knew what the future had in store. </p>
<p>The big cat vanished from both continents shortly after people arrived. The ultimate cause of the die-off is difficult to pinpoint, and multiple factors were certainly at play. However, at least with sabertooths, we can say extinction was a hemisphere-wide synchronous event that transpired in a geological instant, perhaps over just 1,000 or 2,000 years, which makes it difficult to directly or indirectly tie people to the die-off.</p>
<p>The Iowa skull, combined with other fossil evidence from the region and observations of modern large carnivores, has cast new light on the life history and behavior of sabertooth cats. Ongoing research promises to provide additional clues about the diet and ecology of this iconic predator.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201628/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew G. Hill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Researchers are analyzing the fossil cranium of a Smilodon fatalis that lived more than 13,000 years ago to learn more about the lifestyle of this iconic big cat.
Matthew G. Hill, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Iowa State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199451
2023-02-17T12:09:58Z
2023-02-17T12:09:58Z
Reintroducing top predators to the wild is risky but necessary – here’s how we can ensure they survive
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509239/original/file-20230209-20-7c87m0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C1272%2C848&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Collared leopard being released into North Ossetia, Russia in 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pavel Padalko</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Large carnivores are critical to the balance of an ecosystem. In Yellowstone National Park in the western US, <a href="https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Gray-Wolf">grey wolves</a> keep elk populations at a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320711004046">healthy level</a>. This prevents vegetation from being overgrazed and leads to taller woody plants which allow other species, such as beavers, to flourish. </p>
<p>But habitat loss and persecution have <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1241484">eliminated</a> many large carnivores from their historical environment. The Eurasian lynx could be found in the UK over a thousand years ago and wolves roamed the country until the mid-18th century.</p>
<p>However, our attitudes towards these animals are gradually changing and large carnivores are now viewed by many as the <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1257553">victims of human expansion</a>. Many areas are seeing these animals return as a result. Yellowstone’s grey wolves were reintroduced in 1995 after 70 years, and in 2020, voters approved <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2022/09/09/where-colorado-will-reintroduce-wolves/">the species’ reintroduction</a> to the state of Colorado.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1561730584329732096"}"></div></p>
<p>Like these wolves, many other species require human intervention to reach their former habitats. But this is costly, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/rec.13243">controversial</a> and often ends in failure. The relocation of a single animal can <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0105042">cost thousands</a> and once released, these animals can <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/COBI.12959">prey on local livestock</a>.</p>
<p>But since 2007, we’ve seen <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1877343520300592">technological advances</a> in wildlife monitoring, <a href="https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/2013-009.pdf">improved guidelines</a> for carrying out reintroductions and the global <a href="https://rewildingeurope.com/">rewilding movement</a> gathering pace.</p>
<p>These factors make now the perfect moment to determine whether carnivore reintroductions are becoming more effective. In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109909">new study</a>, my colleagues and I studied the success of almost 300 carnivore reintroductions worldwide involving 18 different species between 2007 and 2021.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510538/original/file-20230216-24-2tr9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four maps split by continent showing the locations of the reintroductions studied." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510538/original/file-20230216-24-2tr9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510538/original/file-20230216-24-2tr9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510538/original/file-20230216-24-2tr9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510538/original/file-20230216-24-2tr9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510538/original/file-20230216-24-2tr9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510538/original/file-20230216-24-2tr9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510538/original/file-20230216-24-2tr9vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=781&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Global distribution of the large carnivore reintroductions studied.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Thomas et al (2023)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Indicators of success</h2>
<p>Between 2007 and 2021, 66% of all the reintroduced carnivores studied were still alive six months later. Survival at the six month mark was our measure of success.</p>
<p>Success rates for wild-born carnivores increased from 53% to 70%, while twice the number of captive-born animals (64%) now survive reintroduction than did so in 2007. </p>
<p>The most successful species in our study were <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/maned-wolf">maned wolves</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/puma-mammal-species">pumas</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/ocelot">ocelots</a>. In contrast, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/lion">lions</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/brown-hyena">brown hyenas</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/cheetah-mammal">cheetahs</a>, <a href="https://wildcatconservation.org/wild-cats/eurasia/iberian-lynx/">Iberian lynx</a> and grey wolves were least able to survive their new environment.</p>
<p>We tested various factors, all of which were under the project manager’s control, that influence the success of animal reintroductions – practical changes that could improve the outcome of future rewilding efforts.</p>
<p>So-called “soft releases”, where animals are allowed an acclimation period at the release site anywhere between <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0105042">10 days and 5 months</a> long, had a clear influence on survival. These releases had an 82% success rate compared to just 60% for releases with no period of adjustment.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A puma walking next to a chain fence in a forested area." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509635/original/file-20230213-14-2o3a7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509635/original/file-20230213-14-2o3a7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509635/original/file-20230213-14-2o3a7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509635/original/file-20230213-14-2o3a7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509635/original/file-20230213-14-2o3a7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509635/original/file-20230213-14-2o3a7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509635/original/file-20230213-14-2o3a7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A puma in a pre-release enclosure before being released into Serra do Japi, São Paulo, Brazil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Associação Mata Ciliar</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Younger animals and those born in the wild were also more likely to survive reintroduction. Wild-born animals had a 72% survival rate compared to 64% for animals born in captivity. This is good news for rehabilitated and orphaned carnivores which are taken from the wild for their survival. These animals represent a sizeable proportion of all reintroduced carnivores and made up 22% of the animals in our study. </p>
<p>We found higher success rates when carnivores were released into unfenced areas. This is surprising as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ele.12091">research</a> finds that fenced nature reserves tend to support higher densities of carnivores and reduce conflict with humans. </p>
<p>But greater competition for resources and direct conflict with other carnivores in these reserves may have a negative impact on the survival of reintroduced animals. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15627020.2003.11657196">Research</a> on the range and movement patterns of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wild_dog">African wild dogs</a> in South Africa’s fenced Pilanesberg National Park found that the dogs actively avoid interaction with lions.</p>
<h2>Rewilding on the horizon – but there’s a catch</h2>
<p>Large carnivore reintroductions are becoming more effective, prompting countries to consider reintroducing large predators. In the UK, debates are ongoing surrounding the possible <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315175454-6/community-divided-steven-lipscombe-chris-white-adam-eagle-erwin-van-maanen">reintroduction of the Eurasian lynx</a>. Our findings could help inform their release. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/eurasian-lynx-how-our-computer-model-highlighted-the-best-site-for-restoring-this-wild-cat-to-scotland-113624">Eurasian lynx: how our computer model highlighted the best site for restoring this wild cat to Scotland</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But our research also highlights the alarming fact that one-third of all large carnivore reintroductions fail. And even when successful, the establishment of a population has proved a challenge. Just 37% of the animals that survived reintroduction successfully reproduced and the number of animals who will have raised young to adulthood is likely even lower. It seems that many rewilded animals take far longer than six months to establish themselves in an ecosystem and find a potential mate.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A lynx being released into the wild." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509639/original/file-20230213-27-ffpb1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509639/original/file-20230213-27-ffpb1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509639/original/file-20230213-27-ffpb1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509639/original/file-20230213-27-ffpb1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509639/original/file-20230213-27-ffpb1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509639/original/file-20230213-27-ffpb1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509639/original/file-20230213-27-ffpb1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A male lynx was released together with two female lynx in the Slovenian Alps in 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Polona Bartol</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Preventing species loss in their current ranges should thus always take priority. This will involve measures to tackle urbanisation and climate change, which are at present two leading causes of global habitat loss. </p>
<p>Despite their increasing success, the reintroduction of large carnivores still leads to the death of many of the animals involved and often fails to establish a population. The risky nature of these interventions makes it even more important that they have local support or they are likely doomed to fail from the start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199451/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seth Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
New research studies the factors that determine whether large carnivore reintroductions will be a success.
Seth Thomas, Research assistant, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198238
2023-01-20T16:33:24Z
2023-01-20T16:33:24Z
Tigers in South Africa: a farming industry exists – often for their body parts
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505532/original/file-20230120-26-t92yp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tigers in South Africa are being intensively farmed for commercial trade.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hristo Vladev/NurPhoto via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A tiger <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/tiger-euthanised-south-africa-after-escaping-private-home-2023-01-18/">escaped</a> from a residence and roamed the countryside outside Johannesburg, South Africa, for four days this month. It attacked a man and killed several animals, and was eventually shot by the authorities. Tigers aren’t native to South Africa and are considered an alien species. Its escape <a href="https://www.news24.com/fin24/climate_future/environment/sa-exported-hundreds-of-tigers-in-recent-years-slammed-for-intensive-breeding-20230120">highlights</a> the country’s controversial commercial captive breeding industry and the key role South Africa plays in the international big cat <a href="https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/85292/">trade</a>. Tigers are being intensively farmed for tourism, hunting, and commercial trade in live individuals and in their body parts.</em> </p>
<p><em>Moina Spooner, assistant editor at The Conversation Africa, asked Neil D'Cruze and Angie Elwin to share their insights into the industry.</em></p>
<h2>What are your main concerns about South Africa’s captive predator industry?</h2>
<p>The recent tiger escape in Johannesburg demonstrates the safety risk that this industry poses to wildlife farm workers, visitors and the public. Attacks by big cats in South Africa have resulted in <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/just-in-man-killed-in-lion-attack-at-game-reserve-north-of-pretoria-20190820#:%7E:text=A%2070%2Dyear%2Dold%20man,the%20man%20who%20was%20attacked.">multiple</a> life-changing human injuries and deaths in recent years. </p>
<p>Although individual tigers can be tamed to varying degrees, this should not be confused with domestication. They are wild animals. They have biological and behavioural needs that can only be fully met in the wild. </p>
<p>Another concern we have is for animal welfare. Big cat breeding facilities in South Africa have been consistently <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/lion-farm-south-africa">criticised</a> for their substandard conditions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505603/original/file-20230120-87-lno3mf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505603/original/file-20230120-87-lno3mf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505603/original/file-20230120-87-lno3mf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505603/original/file-20230120-87-lno3mf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505603/original/file-20230120-87-lno3mf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505603/original/file-20230120-87-lno3mf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505603/original/file-20230120-87-lno3mf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lion and tigers in a mixed enclosure at a commercial captive breeding facility in South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">courtesy BloodLions.org</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Also, none of the big cat facilities in South Africa have demonstrated that they are basing their breeding programmes on internationally recognised stud books or have successfully released any tigers back into the wild. Therefore, currently they provide no demonstrable direct conservation benefit.</p>
<p>Rather, there are serious concerns that South Africa’s legal industry in captive bred tigers is a detrimental conduit for international illegal trade. A large proportion of the tigers are <a href="https://media.4-paws.org/a/e/4/4/ae445daeb7163daba12521cc1c79a6a71b8fc1e0/FOUR%20PAWS%20Year%20of%20the%20Tiger%20Report.pdf">exported</a> as live animals and body parts to China, Vietnam and Thailand. These are renowned hotspots for demand in tiger body parts and the illegal tiger trade.</p>
<p>In addition, <a href="https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/">World Animal Protection</a>, an animal protection organisation that we also work with, has received intelligence which indicates poachers are targeting tigers in captive breeding facilities. Their heads and paws are harvested and trafficked to meet Asian consumer demand. </p>
<p>Another major concern we have, from our intelligence reports, is that some farm owners appear to be shifting operations from lions to tigers and ligers, lion-tiger hybrids. This may be in response to South Africa’s recent <a href="https://www.dffe.gov.za/speeches/creecy_releaseofhlpreport_pretoria?fbclid=IwAR071TG1zwa1IX5kpFLvubD6NEhQfmculxdT6rYLBdh-TVPpY6jQn7RHKhU">announcement</a> of its decision to end lion farming.</p>
<h2>Is there any data on the number and location of tigers in South Africa?</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/resources/reports/answer-to-south-african-parlimentary-question-noting-there-are-approximately-7979-lions-in-captivity-in-366-facilities/">Minister</a> of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, there are more than 350 private or government-owned facilities in South Africa that actively breed or keep big cat species. These include tigers, lions, cheetahs, leopards, jaguars, pumas, caracals, servals and hybrids.</p>
<p>The exact captive population size of these species is unknown, as the industry has never been fully audited. This is because there’s a lack of adequate and effective regulation, resources and political will. However, according to latest unpublished data held by the provincial authorities (that we are reviewing as part of our research) and online research by <a href="https://bloodlions.org/">Blood Lions</a>, 492 tigers were kept in registered private facilities in 2022. According to published <a href="https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/85108/">data</a>, in 2019 permits were held for 5,291 lions, 373 cheetahs and 176 leopards in Mpumalanga, Free State, North West, and Gauteng alone.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505626/original/file-20230120-12-vm5shh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505626/original/file-20230120-12-vm5shh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505626/original/file-20230120-12-vm5shh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505626/original/file-20230120-12-vm5shh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505626/original/file-20230120-12-vm5shh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505626/original/file-20230120-12-vm5shh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505626/original/file-20230120-12-vm5shh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Captive tiger at a commercial captive breeding facility in South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">courtesy BloodLions.org</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even if these figures are only part of the picture, that’s an apparent increase in South Africa’s captive tiger population. Previous reports by the <a href="https://eia-international.org/wildlife/saving-tigers/tiger-farming/illegal-trade-seizures-captive-tiger-trade/">Environmental Investigation Agency</a> and <a href="https://media.4-paws.org/a/e/4/4/ae445daeb7163daba12521cc1c79a6a71b8fc1e0/FOUR%20PAWS%20Year%20of%20the%20Tiger%20Report.pdf">Four Paws</a> indicated that around 100 tigers were held in facilities across seven provinces between 2019 and 2021.</p>
<p>Exactly how tigers end up on commercial farms in South Africa is unclear. However, the CITES Trade Database <a href="https://trade.cites.org/">shows</a> that 66 live tigers were imported into the country over the last decade, mainly from Germany, Botswana, Romania and Lesotho. In comparison, 384 were exported live, mostly to zoos, circuses and breeding facilities in Vietnam, China, Thailand, Bangladesh and Pakistan.</p>
<h2>Is enough being done to manage the industry?</h2>
<p>South Africa is one of the few countries in Africa that still allows the commercial captive breeding, keeping and hunting of tigers, along with their domestic and international trade. This is despite a ban in <a href="https://cites.org/sites/default/files/document/E-Res-12-05-R18.pdf">1987</a> on international tiger trade and a 2007 international treaty <a href="https://cites.org/eng/node/48507">decision</a> to prohibit the commercial captive breeding of tigers for trade in their parts or derivatives. These derivatives include their bones, bile, fat and blood, which are used in traditional medicines. </p>
<p>The main statute regulating big cat species in South Africa is the 2004 National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/national-environmental-management-biodiversity-act-0">(NEMBA)</a>. Though provincial regulations vary considerably, under the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/national-environmental-management-biodiversity-act-0">Biodiversity Act</a> anyone who has a permit can import, possess, breed or trade in tigers. </p>
<p>To match legal measures already taken by the international community, South Africa should make a public commitment to end the commercial captive breeding, keeping, hunting and international trade in tigers and their body parts. </p>
<p>It is unclear why South Africa has not yet done this. Economic reasons are likely to be a main driver, but this is debated given the potential economic harm caused by damage to the country’s international <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989420306983?via%3Dihub">reputation</a>. Other reasons could be the right to private ownership of wildlife and potential constitutional issues. </p>
<p>A comprehensive, well-managed plan will be required to ensure a responsible transition away from the current industry. This should include regular audits, inspections by the relevant authorities and proper record keeping. </p>
<p>This decision should be mandatory, made in lock step across all provinces in South Africa. It should also be extended to other big cat species that could potentially be used as substitutes for the illegal international trade in tiger bones.</p>
<p><em>The authors extend their thanks to Dr Louise de Waal of <a href="https://bloodlions.org/">Blood Lions</a> for her informative insights and for sharing the latest data on number of big cats on predator facilities.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198238/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil D’Cruze works for an international NGO, World Animal Protection as the Head of Wildlife Research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angie Elwin works for an international NGO, World Animal Protection as a Wildlife Research Manager. </span></em></p>
Tigers exist in South Africa because they’re being intensively farmed for commercial trade in live individuals or their body parts.
Neil D’Cruze, Global Head of Wildlife Research, World Animal Protection, and Visiting Researcher, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), University of Oxford
Angie Elwin, Wildlife Research Manager at World Animal Protection and Visiting Research Fellow, University of Reading
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/187740
2022-08-10T17:05:31Z
2022-08-10T17:05:31Z
Trophy hunting: why a UK import ban threatens wildlife conservation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478315/original/file-20220809-19-2xqc9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5615%2C3741&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A large African male lion in a game reserve at night.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/large-african-male-lion-south-game-1833949438">Sunshine Seeds/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Trophy hunting, where animals with characteristics such as large antlers are legally hunted, and their meat usually eaten - is highly contested. While some argue it is <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10160">unethical</a> and delivers few benefits, others say it provides <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320706003831">an important incentive</a> for conserving threatened species and habitats by helping generate revenue for governments and local communities.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hsi.org/news-media/trophy-hunting-qa/">Restrictions</a> on trophy hunting imports have been imposed in the US, Europe and Australia, while the UK recently <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/importing-of-hunting-trophies-banned-to-protect-worlds-threatened-species">announced</a> that it would “ban imports from thousands of species … as part of a wider UK drive on international conservation”. As a professor of wildlife conservation with over 25 years’ field experience, I strongly believe that trophy hunting import bans are driven more by <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.13605">misinformation</a> than the weight of scientific <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252259835_Does_sport_hunting_benefit_conservation">evidence</a>, and risk increasing threats to wildlife and undermining <a href="https://resourceafrica.net/open-letter-celebrity-campaigns-undermine-successful-conservation-and-human-rights/">local rights and livelihoods</a>.</p>
<p>My colleague Hans Bauer <a href="https://theconversation.com/trophy-hunting-will-not-save-africas-lions-so-the-uk-ban-on-imports-is-a-positive-step-for-wildlife-conservation-185907">recently argued the opposite case</a> in The Conversation, supporting an import ban based on what he considers trophy hunting’s disappointing contributions to conservation and local development. Here’s why I’m not convinced.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trophy-hunting-will-not-save-africas-lions-so-the-uk-ban-on-imports-is-a-positive-step-for-wildlife-conservation-185907">Trophy hunting will not save Africa's lions – so the UK ban on imports is a positive step for wildlife conservation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A complex situation</h2>
<p>Bauer cites <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0083500#:%257E:text=The%2520lion%2520has%2520undergone%2520a,lions%2520persist%2520across%2520the%2520region.">alarming</a> lion population collapses in West Africa to support trophy import bans. But for effective policy, we must understand the reasons behind these trends. The cited steep declines among lion populations in West African countries with trophy hunting could be taken to imply that trophy hunting was an important factor, but the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10661-011-2475-y">2011 paper</a> referenced in the previous article attributed wildlife declines to poaching, habitat loss and disease. It never mentioned trophy hunting as a threat, but did say that it can help fund anti-poaching and wider management, as well as providing community benefits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person holding binoculars looks out over an African savannah." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478311/original/file-20220809-9835-nhjwpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478311/original/file-20220809-9835-nhjwpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478311/original/file-20220809-9835-nhjwpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478311/original/file-20220809-9835-nhjwpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478311/original/file-20220809-9835-nhjwpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478311/original/file-20220809-9835-nhjwpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478311/original/file-20220809-9835-nhjwpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author in the Ruaha landscape of southern Tanzania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Johann Vorster</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bauer also uses another West African conservation area, the W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) complex as another example of how he thinks trophy hunting has failed lions. But a 2016 <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155763">study</a> found that “the lion population was not significantly affected by hunting” in the region. The authors of this study also said: “An import embargo on lion trophies from the WAP would not be justified. It could ruin the incentive of local actors to conserve lions in hunting areas, and lead to a drastic reduction of lion range in West Africa.”</p>
<p>Even if the West African case example was clear-cut, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173691">which it is not</a>, insights from one region are often not representative of elsewhere. With the proposed UK import ban purported to affect <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/importing-of-hunting-trophies-banned-to-protect-worlds-threatened-species">nearly 7,000 species</a> (a <a href="https://twitter.com/Nikolaj_Bi/status/1469713219648618503">baffling figure</a> as there aren’t 7,000 species trophy hunted worldwide), it is crucial to consider the bigger picture. <a href="https://bantrophyhunting.org/about-us/#:%257E:text=Killing%2520endangered%2520wildlife%2520for%2520pleasure%2520only%2520helps%2520push,against%2520trophy%2520hunting%252C%2520and%2520tough%2520penalties%2520for%2520offenders.">Campaigns</a> to ban trophy hunting often raise the risk of extinction. But it seems no one can cite a single species for which trophy hunting is a major conservation threat. Far greater <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/threat-analysis-for-more-effective-lion-conservation/45236AADD7F142BC04FFC22E17AFA4A5">threats</a> to lions include loss of habitat and prey, and conflict with people.</p>
<p>Just like photo-tourism, trophy hunting can help reduce those larger threats. Both businesses generate revenue from wildlife, which can <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12877">incentivise</a> wildlife and habitat conservation, help fund anti-poaching efforts and mitigate conflict between people and wildlife. Numerous case studies show the positive contributions of trophy hunting to conservation, including for <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12877">rhinos</a>, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0190369#sec008">lions</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320704001971">argali</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667010021001542">markhor</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667010021001542">Marco Polo sheep</a> and others. Hunting can also help support non-hunted species (including endangered ones) by contributing to wider <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00207233.2013.800383">habitat and species</a> conservation.</p>
<p>Conservation <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=flEwoquwpGUC&oi=fnd&pg=PA222&dq=does+sport+hunting+benefit+conservation&ots=npj2L15o5d&sig=A5NQtxjyllLdFEhtit77IuIuZe8&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=does%252520sport%252520hunting%252520benefit%252520conservation&f=false">costs and benefits</a> from trophy hunting vary between locations and species. It can harm populations if poorly managed: if quotas are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320706003843">too high</a> for example, or if females or <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature02395">younger males</a> are hunted. It’s particularly worrying when hunting adds <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/eap.1377">additional pressure</a> to small, threatened populations. But it’s often possible to reduce those threats by <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.12951">restricting the age</a> of animals killed, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320716306504">reducing quotas</a> or instituting temporary bans.</p>
<p>But why take the risk? Why not ban trophy hunting and replace it with photo-tourism? The argument that trophy hunting has failed to deliver effective conservation could be levelled at photo-tourism just as strongly, if not more so, given how heavily it is promoted as a supposedly better option. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716305481?casa_token=y_YkAWxcg-0AAAAA:B6sGLeFOBNvaOsLft1PeW8mnR4hVShjORp83IL8gmuB1YgR_6AEravy-eu1fv7nhvDTn0STb">Fewer than a third</a> of African protected areas with lions (including photo-tourism and hunting areas) have managed to maintain lions at half the capacity the land could support. The underlying reason is a lack of funding. Even with photo-tourism, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1805048115">around 90%</a> of African state-owned protected areas with lions are underfunded, meaning managers are unable to tackle major threats such as poaching, human-wildlife conflict or livestock encroachment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person attends the bloated corpse of a lion." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478312/original/file-20220809-13115-i2mbvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478312/original/file-20220809-13115-i2mbvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478312/original/file-20220809-13115-i2mbvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478312/original/file-20220809-13115-i2mbvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478312/original/file-20220809-13115-i2mbvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478312/original/file-20220809-13115-i2mbvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478312/original/file-20220809-13115-i2mbvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author examining a lion poisoned by local people after it killed livestock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lion Landscapes</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Campaigners for trophy hunting bans <a href="https://www.bornfreeusa.org/2014/10/30/elephants-are-worth-76-times-more-alive/?more=1">have shared</a> that an elephant is apparently “worth US$1.6 million” in its lifetime from photo-tourism: perhaps <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/elephants-are-worth-76-times-more-alive-than-dead-report/">US$23,000</a> per elephant annually. With roughly 400,000 African elephants, that should equate to US$9.2 billion a year. Yet protected areas with lions (most of which overlap with elephants), receive <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1805048115">combined management funding</a> of only US$381 million annually. If any land use is making unmet promises, it’s photo-tourism. </p>
<p>The conservation business model is failing – this applies to photo-tourism, donor funding and trophy hunting. So, given the mismatch between expected and actual revenue, <a href="https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20193294090">should photo safaris be banned</a>? Most people would say no – that some revenue is better than none, and revenue streams should be increased, not diminished. The same conclusion holds for trophy hunting.</p>
<p>Crucially, Bauer offers no explanation for how bans would reverse wildlife decline. They won’t – without better, locally-accepted alternatives are ready to replace any benefits of hunting at the same scale. Those alternatives don’t appear ready, despite many areas without trophy hunting where they could be developed. Without viable alternatives, bans would only <a href="https://resourceafrica.net/open-letter-celebrity-campaigns-undermine-successful-conservation-and-human-rights/">undermine local rights</a> and <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0163249">accelerate the loss of wildlife</a>.</p>
<p>Placing faith in international finance mechanisms to cover all the costs of conservation is overly optimistic; donors have <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02846-3">failed to meet</a> other commitments, such as helping developing countries adapt to climate change. Relying on countries like the UK to deliver full financing after bans seems unrealistic, while many community representatives are <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-02-22-can-a-global-conservation-fund-bridge-the-gap-between-global-finance-and-the-realities-for-indigenous-communities/">unimpressed</a> that they should be forced to switch from legal, regulated, natural resource use to dependence on external funding.</p>
<p>Bans, including trophy import bans, will reduce revenue in hunting areas, making them less economically viable. Already, <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/cobi.13943">data from Tanzania</a> highlights that operators giving up hunting areas is an emerging threat, with more illegal use in areas without active management. Bans risks increasing habitat loss and conflict with people – leading to more, <a href="https://scienceplusstory.com/science-celebrities-a-call-for-partnership/">and more horrible</a>, wildlife killings.</p>
<p>If the UK hates trophy hunting, it should first ban it domestically, especially as it exports far more trophies (such as red deer antlers), than it imports. <a href="https://www.survation.com/conflicting-attitudes-around-the-trophy-hunting-ban/">A recent poll</a> found most Britons wouldn’t support import bans if they harmed wildlife or people. That should be respected when setting policy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A stuffed deer's head mounted on a tartan-patterned wall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478331/original/file-20220809-15346-qqm53q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478331/original/file-20220809-15346-qqm53q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478331/original/file-20220809-15346-qqm53q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478331/original/file-20220809-15346-qqm53q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478331/original/file-20220809-15346-qqm53q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478331/original/file-20220809-15346-qqm53q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478331/original/file-20220809-15346-qqm53q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A deer adorning a British pub wall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stuffed-animal-deer-british-pub-interior-41239855">Kirill Kuzminykh/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Any import bans should be carefully targeted <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.13932">smart bans</a> to avoid unintended consequences: these would only permit imports if community and conservation benefits could be demonstrated.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Bauer and I both long for a future where conservation is effectively funded, including through finance mechanisms less reliant on hunting. Better alternatives will hopefully emerge over time, perhaps including <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2022/03/23/wildlife-conservation-bond-boosts-south-africa-s-efforts-to-protect-black-rhinos-and-support-local-communities">wildlife bonds</a> or biodiversity <a href="https://pubs.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/migrate/16664IIED.pdf">credits</a>, where countries and communities are financially rewarded for maintaining their biodiversity. This is something I and many others are working on, but they are not yet available at scale and the market for them is uncertain.</p>
<p>But if those better alternatives emerge, they will naturally outcompete trophy hunting, so there is simply no need for bans – instead, gradual transitions would occur without the <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cobi.13943">major risk</a> of vacant hunting areas. </p>
<p>Until better, locally-desired alternatives do emerge, campaigns for bans <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaz0735">risk intensifying threats</a> to biodiversity, and sow harmful divisions among people who want wildlife to thrive. But, unlike many of the immense conservation challenges we currently face, this one can be reduced simply: by not supporting misguided bans which ignore the weight of conservation evidence and risk major harms for people and wildlife.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187740/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Dickman receives her salary from the Recanati-Kaplan Foundation and Panthera, and consultancy funds from the Darwin Expert Committee, the Arabian Leopard Fund and Jamma International. The Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), which Amy directs, and Amy's field project, Lion Landscapes, both receive funding from various donors, including those supportive of trophy hunting and those opposed. For both organisations, funding from donors with a stance against trophy hunting is larger than donations from pro-hunting groups. All views expressed here are personal.</span></em></p>
Bans on importing hunting trophies risk harming, not helping, endangered species.
Amy Dickman, Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/185907
2022-06-29T11:23:18Z
2022-06-29T11:23:18Z
Trophy hunting will not save Africa’s lions – so the UK ban on imports is a positive step for wildlife conservation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471413/original/file-20220628-23-niwf4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=120%2C60%2C6579%2C4365&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Over the past 25 years, lion numbers have decreased by 43% throughout Africa, as their range has declined by more than 90%.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/closeup-lion-resting-grass-during-safari-1720635907">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past 25 years, I have spent a lot of time counting lions as part of my job. Only last month, I spent three hours with two males – possibly brothers – right next to my car in Maze National Park, Ethiopia. Lions come in the night, very quietly. Despite weighing well over 20 stone (around 150kg), you do not hear their footsteps. What you hear is their breathing, the turbo of the killing machine.</p>
<p>Had I turned on a light immediately, they would have run away. These lions are skittish, even if they face no threat from trophy hunters in Africa’s national parks. So we spend half an hour in the pitch dark before I finally switch on a small red light to count the eye reflections. Another pause, then a bigger red light enables us to see their sex and age.</p>
<p>We get lucky: with the big spotlight they move to a discrete distance, but we still get to watch them for an hour before retiring to our tents a few hundred metres away. The lions have long lost interest in us but the ranger makes a campfire which smoulders all night, just to be safe. This park has no outposts, no visitors and no emergency services, so we need to stay out of trouble.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471197/original/file-20220627-11-msasrl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471197/original/file-20220627-11-msasrl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471197/original/file-20220627-11-msasrl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471197/original/file-20220627-11-msasrl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471197/original/file-20220627-11-msasrl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471197/original/file-20220627-11-msasrl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471197/original/file-20220627-11-msasrl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Assisting with translocating a livestock-raiding lion to Waza National Park, Cameroon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Maybe you have counted lions in a zoo or wildlife park: “I see three – no wait, there’s a tip of another tail and a flickering ear, so four, or five?” People on safari in popular destinations where lions are habituated to cars may have had the same experience. In the wilderness, however, lions are hard to spot – across much of their range you don’t see them very often at all, especially during the day.</p>
<p>I have spent countless nights sitting on top of my vehicle, playing buffalo or warthog cries with a megaphone, trying to catch a glimpse of lions attracted by these sounds. I have walked for days to find footprints or put up automated camera traps. For every day of fieldwork there is a day of grant writing before and a day of reporting afterwards – but yes, it is a wonderful job.</p>
<p>I once found lions in a part of Ethiopia <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-35460573">where they had not been documented</a> and added a blob on the distribution map. Unfortunately, over the last 25 years, it has been much more common to reduce or delete entries from our <a href="https://www.ewt.org.za/sp-aug-2020-science-snippets-an-update-on-the-african-lion-database/#:%7E:text=The%20African%20Lion%20Database%20(ALD,of%20Lions%20across%20the%20continent.">African Lion Database</a>.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1500664112">research</a> shows that during this time, lion numbers have decreased by 43% throughout Africa, and that their range has declined by more than 90%. There are now roughly 25,000 lions in 60 separate population groups, half of which consist of less than 100 lions. Their existence is particularly threatened across West, Central and East Africa.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>This story is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> and is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>I first went to Cameroon in 1992 to do my masters project in Waza National Park, and have worked in various parts of Africa ever since (I currently live in Mali). My main research focus with <a href="https://www.wildcru.org/about-wildcru/">WildCRU</a> – Europe’s first university-based conservation research unit – is the mitigation of human-lion conflicts. I <a href="https://www.wildcru.org/members/dr-hans-bauer/">study the difficult balance</a> between people’s livelihoods and the conservation of biodiversity, working close-up at village level but also at national and international perspectives.</p>
<p>This led to me being asked to give evidence to the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on <a href="https://appgtrophyhunting.wordpress.com/">Banning Trophy Hunting</a>, which on 29 June 2022 presented its report on the impacts of trophy hunting to the environment secretary, George Eustice. This follows the UK government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/importing-of-hunting-trophies-banned-to-protect-worlds-threatened-species">announcement in December 2021</a> that it would ban the importing of body parts of 7,000 species including lions, rhinos, elephants and polar bears. On average, roughly ten lion “trophies” are imported into the UK each year, among many other threatened species.</p>
<p>There are many ways to look at this issue, and the debate usually ends up in a deadlock between utilitarians and moralists. I won’t hide my sympathy for the latter – I work with organisations such as the <a href="https://www.bornfree.org.uk/about-us/?gclid=CjwKCAjwh-CVBhB8EiwAjFEPGS7Gn-484ZitXXUlfeACcZqItg65A-o5rLuEJ8MNWCr4GzUGgYH-xRoCx-cQAvD_BwE">Born Free Foundation</a>. But after a week in the field living on pasta and tinned tomato sauce, I will eat bushmeat in a village with no alternatives if it has been harvested legally and sustainably.</p>
<p>The future of trophy hunting in Africa was not on the table during the APPG’s discussions about a UK import ban – and if it was, it would be for African scientists to advise their governments of the pros and cons. In my view, however, the evidence is clear that trophy hunting has not delivered for wildlife in most parts of Africa, and that local communities benefit next to nothing from its continued practice.</p>
<h2>How trophy hunting works</h2>
<p>Trophy hunting is a controversial topic in conservation circles. In some cases, the fact that lions are doing better in parts of southern Africa has – wrongly, in my view – been attributed to it. But in itself, trophy hunting is not the lions’ biggest threat either; <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/threat-analysis-for-more-effective-lion-conservation/45236AADD7F142BC04FFC22E17AFA4A5">my research</a> shows that more are killed when they attack livestock, or perish when their habitat and prey is diminished by agricultural encroachment or poaching.</p>
<p>In Africa, trophy hunting’s popularity grew during colonial times when all sorts of slain animals were sent back to Europe. Nowadays, antelopes are this industry’s most hunted animals – but the most prestigious targets remain the “big five”: lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471189/original/file-20220627-15980-gynpjj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471189/original/file-20220627-15980-gynpjj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471189/original/file-20220627-15980-gynpjj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471189/original/file-20220627-15980-gynpjj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471189/original/file-20220627-15980-gynpjj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471189/original/file-20220627-15980-gynpjj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471189/original/file-20220627-15980-gynpjj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lion image from a camera trap in Dinder National Park, Sudan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A client might pay a local entrepreneur or hunting guide anywhere between £10,000 and £100,000 for a “bag” that includes a lion – and the super-rich may pay (or donate) even more. It’s a lot of money for a holiday, and trophy hunting mostly attracts rich, white, middle-aged men from western countries.</p>
<p>Hunting guides are businessmen (almost all are male). They generally lease government land that has been designated for conservation through “sustainable use”. Known as trophy hunting “blocks”, these areas vary widely (anywhere between 500km² and 5,000km²) and each has annual quotas for the amounts of different species that may be shot by trophy hunters.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-closer-to-a-much-better-count-of-africas-lions-140945">Getting closer to a much better count of Africa's lions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In theory, this restricts the killings to a level the population can sustain. Hunting guides then manage their blocks to maintain these wildlife numbers, including organising anti-poaching patrols. The guides employ staff, pay the land lease, trophy fees and a bunch of other costs – including to a taxidermist and export company to deliver the skin and skull to their client after the kill. It is a big industry that <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.13932">claims to be good for both wildlife and local people</a>, but these guides are not charity workers; they maximise their benefits and minimise their costs.</p>
<p>Trophy hunting also does not focus (as is sometimes suggested) on killing off the older, weaker animals in any block. Wildlife populations grow fastest when their densities are low, so that food and aggression are not limiting factors. In order to minimise any such competition – and to offer the biggest trophies – trophy hunts will target healthy animals, not just the old and infirm.</p>
<h2>Lions and livestock</h2>
<p>The methodology used for setting trophy hunting quotas varies from country to country. Cameroon, for example, has traditionally had very high quotas for lions, but these were not based on scientific rigour. In 2015 we published <a href="https://chm.cbd.int/api/v2013/documents/9AC174A3-DA9D-FD8C-764C-E2691FA90EE8/attachments/205672/Bauer_et_al_2015_AJE_Benoue.pdf">our first survey results</a> based on observations done by three teams tracking lions over a vast range.</p>
<p>Each team drove for thousands of kilometres across Cameroon, very slowly, always with two trackers stationed on the bonnet of each 4x4 looking for footprints. We got stuck, camped, waited for trophy hunters to depart before being allowed into a particular area, struggled to get diesel, tolerated the heat and the tsetse flies – it was all part of our daily routine following the lions.</p>
<p>Ultimately, we counted 250 lions, 316 leopards and 1,376 spotted hyenas. Cameroon does not offer a trophy hunting quota for leopards, and hyenas are not popular with hunters – but as a result of our count, the country’s annual lion quota was reduced from 30 to ten. Today this quota is still applied throughout northern Cameroon’s <a href="https://en.unesco.org/biosphere/africa/benoue">Bénoué ecosystem</a>, which has 32 trophy hunting blocks in between its three national parks.</p>
<p>Of these 32 blocks, however, more than ten no longer have any resident lions. And when the blocks lose their lions, this also threatens those living in the national parks – as there is a big difference between having 250 lions spread across 30,000km² of contiguous habitat, or three isolated populations of 50 in parks of 3,000km² each.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471193/original/file-20220627-14-269xfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471193/original/file-20220627-14-269xfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471193/original/file-20220627-14-269xfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471193/original/file-20220627-14-269xfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471193/original/file-20220627-14-269xfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471193/original/file-20220627-14-269xfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471193/original/file-20220627-14-269xfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grazing livestock can be easy prey for lions at night.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When I visited Cameroon again in 2021, I observed cattle everywhere – which is not a good combination with lions. Many of these herds had come from neighbouring countries – <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/pastoralism#:%7E:text=Pastoralists%20are%20people%20who%20practice,is%20key%20to%20this%20system.">pastoralists</a> running from the threat of terrorists in Mali and Niger. As a result, the pressure on these areas, and those who manage them, is intense. It is hard enough to integrate local communities in conservation work, much harder with nomadic people.</p>
<p>Whenever livestock grazes in an area with lions, you inevitably get some depredation. Lions will kill some livestock and, in retaliation, people will kill some lions. This is perhaps the biggest challenge in lion conservation, and all the programmes I know are working to mitigate it. There are tools available to reduce the damage, from flashlights and watchdogs to mobile enclosures and more. But this only works if you know the people living there and can collaborate towards a common goal – not if you have different people passing through every time.</p>
<p>In fact, the pastoralists I have met are usually quite <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/culture-of-tolerance-coexisting-with-large-carnivores-in-the-kafa-highlands-ethiopia/F3ABFD5C2FD5B224AAF55F2DAA022105">tolerant</a> – they like lions. A herder in Cameroon once told me: “If a lion attacks one cow this year, I will know that God has not forgotten me.” Another in Ethiopia said: “We do not think lions take our livestock to hurt us. As a result, we do not refer to it as an ‘attack’ or ‘killing’ – they are taking what they need.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, some people – pastoralists and others – inevitably pay a high price for co-existing with lions, and they would prefer them in someone else’s backyard.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eP-nV-JSCGg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>I have collared lions in several countries. I know the thrill of a hunt, but a dart gun does not kill – and the information you get from a lion’s collar is amazing. In Waza National Park, I followed lions this way and some behaved very well – but the worst offender killed a hundred-thousand dollars’ worth of cattle in our time there. The park’s warden <a href="https://web.universiteitleiden.nl/cml/bieb_internet/dissertations/pdf/2003_thesis_bauer.pdf">asked me</a>: “How long do you think the local people will pay this price for lion conservation?”</p>
<p>Almost all lion trophy hunting zones in Africa are part of larger ecosystems that include national parks, and in most cases the hunt quotas are based on the entire population of lions, including those living in the parks. An argument used by trophy hunters is that they are protecting extra land with extra lions – but it’s not that simple.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/outrage-over-cecil-the-lion-slaying-three-years-ago-left-little-in-its-wake-99163">Outrage over Cecil the lion slaying three years ago left little in its wake</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While trophy hunting blocks do add lions and extra habitat, they can still become a drain on the overall population when lions move out of the parks into emptied territories within the blocks. These so-called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source%E2%80%93sink_dynamics#:%7E:text=Source%E2%80%93sink%20dynamics%20is%20a,patch%20might%20affect%20a%20population.">source-sink dynamics</a>” became a global news story in July 2015 because of Cecil, the black-maned lion that my <a href="https://www.wildcru.org/research/cecil-the-lion/">WildCRU colleagues were satellite-tracking</a> when he was killed by an American trophy hunter.</p>
<p>Cecil had been <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/cecil-lion-baited-killed-book-alleges/story?id=53528189">lured</a> from Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe and was shot by Walter Palmer, a dentist from the Minneapolis area. It was actually quite a routine occurrence, but the death of Cecil the Lion created a worldwide media storm – feeding into the UK’s proposal for a ban on trophy hunt imports.</p>
<h2>The model starts to unravel</h2>
<p>Throughout most of Africa, lion numbers are declining. While trophy hunting is far from the only reason for this, the evidence clearly shows it has failed in its promise to provide a significant boost to wildlife conservation. I once thought it might offer benefits too, but studying its impacts and costs has taught me otherwise.</p>
<p>Trophy hunting is allowed in countries throughout East, Central and West Africa including Burkina Faso, Benin, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Sudan and the Congo – and in all these countries, lion declines have been particularly steep. The Central African Republic is the most extreme example: almost half the country was designated as hunting blocks, yet wildlife there has all but disappeared. In 2012, the late researcher and conservationist <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/protected-areas/201804/philippe-bouch%C3%A9">Philippe Bouché</a> published <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10661-011-2475-y">Game Over!</a> – the title said it all.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471195/original/file-20220627-22-4f7sn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471195/original/file-20220627-22-4f7sn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471195/original/file-20220627-22-4f7sn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471195/original/file-20220627-22-4f7sn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471195/original/file-20220627-22-4f7sn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471195/original/file-20220627-22-4f7sn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471195/original/file-20220627-22-4f7sn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A male lion in Zakouma National Park, Chad.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photograph: Chiara Fraticelli</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Trophy hunting has proved increasingly vulnerable to, on one hand, rising management costs due to the increased threats of agricultural encroachment and poaching (of both lions and their prey), and on the other, reduced income from smaller wildlife populations.</p>
<p>Two rules-of-thumb are widely used: a sustainable annual “harvest” is <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01576.x">one lion per 2,000km²</a>, and the annual management of a trophy hunt block costs around <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1805048115">US$1,000 per km²</a> . Together, they suggest it costs around two million dollars to “produce a lion”. These numbers vary hugely between areas and, of course, trophy hunters shoot other species at the same time, but exceptional conditions are needed for the hunt companies to break even. At the same time, local communities living with wildlife are, understandably, demanding their fair share. The model starts to unravel and fall apart.</p>
<p>In Zambia and Tanzania, for example, 40% and 72% respectively of trophy hunting areas have been abandoned. Management costs are rising and private operators do not find it profitable any more, except in a handful of the best areas. This is not due to any outright ban but rather, the inability to balance of costs and benefits.</p>
<p>Across Africa, in the vast majority of cases, trophy hunting has not delivered more lions – whether because of financial imbalances, increased terrorism, land mismanagement or increased livestock mobility (or a combination of these factors). This failure to deliver undermines the already contested justification for the continued killing of lions by trophy hunters. And as the decline continues, many communities stand to lose a wildlife heritage that could, under a different approach to conservation, provide them with employment and stability.</p>
<h2>Success stories?</h2>
<p>Namibia and Botswana in southern Africa are often cited as models for conservation, which implies their experience could be replicated elsewhere. Trophy hunting has been presented as a success factor in these countries. But in reality, how instructive are the experiences of two large countries with a combined population of less than 5 million people for the other billion-plus Africans living in more densely populated areas?</p>
<p>Certainly, these two countries have a lot of wildlife – but is this due to the effects of trophy hunting, or to very low human population densities, diversified tourism industries and well-resourced wildlife institutions? In Botswana, trophy hunting was banned from 2014 to 2020, but despite abundant polemicising from both pro- and anti-hunting advocacy groups, I’m not aware of any evidence of a significant impact on its national lion and elephant numbers. In short, Botswana’s conservation efforts will succeed with or without trophy hunting.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three lions walking together" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471582/original/file-20220629-25-rz01wg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471582/original/file-20220629-25-rz01wg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471582/original/file-20220629-25-rz01wg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471582/original/file-20220629-25-rz01wg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471582/original/file-20220629-25-rz01wg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471582/original/file-20220629-25-rz01wg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471582/original/file-20220629-25-rz01wg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lion numbers are holding up well in Botswana.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pride-lions-botswana-1375251266">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While southern Africa has, in general, been quite successful in keeping its wildlife species stable, this is also not always through natural processes. There has been a lot of habitat engineering and captive breeding, so that many of the animals you find in confined nature reserves are, in fact, bred and auctioned.</p>
<p>In South Africa, for example, around <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217409">8,000 lions live in captivity</a> for the benefit of a small number of rich owners, having been bred like livestock. This model does nothing to improve habitat or biodiversity levels, nor does it support rural socio-economic development. The country’s overall trophy hunting quota is around five wild lions and 500 captive lions each year, and while the <a href="https://africageographic.com/stories/usa-bans-trophy-imports-captive-south-african-lions/">US banned trophy imports</a> from South Africa in 2016, most imported lion trophies into the UK have been killed there.</p>
<p>Another issue for Africa as a whole is that biologists have flocked to southern Africa’s conservation hotspots such as the Okavango Delta in Botswana and Kruger National Park in South Africa, which possess good infrastructure and lots of wildlife. As a result, there is an over-representation of people who have worked there among Africa’s community of conservation science, advocacy and practice. Many may never have worked outside southern Africa, and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-01343-6">may not be aware</a> of what is happening in the rest of the continent.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-role-in-the-trade-in-lion-bones-a-neglected-story-101842">South Africa's role in the trade in lion bones: a neglected story</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>I’m not denying that some countries have been successful in their conservation efforts, and that trophy hunting has, in isolated cases, been part of that success. But the “if it pays, it stays” approach which seems to underpin many arguments in favour of trophy hunting has much more often led to the loss of natural ecosystems. This decay affects the vast majority of lion ranges, and an even greater majority of African citizens.</p>
<p>The banning of trophy hunt imports in the UK and elsewhere can, I believe, help to reduce or even reverse this decline. The UK ban is supported by a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/importing-of-hunting-trophies-banned-to-protect-worlds-threatened-species#:%7E:text=The%20Government%20consulted%20on%20a,with%2086%25%20supporting%20further%20action.">large majority of British voters</a>. France, the Netherlands and Australia have already banned lion trophy imports, and the EU and US have restricted their imports. Since most clients want their trophy, that means significantly fewer potential clients overall, indirectly affecting Africa’s policy options.</p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>Throughout the continent, most policymakers stick to the prevailing narrative that trophy hunting supports conservation. In this way, a small white elite continues to have exclusive access to conservation areas that are off-limits for the average citizen to visit, or for public agencies to invest in. Trophy hunting is getting in the way of much-needed innovation and investment.</p>
<p>I agree with trophy hunters that the land they use is important habitat for lions and their prey. No one wants these areas to spiral down. However, the current situation feels like that famous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog">frog in boiling water story</a> – countries in Africa are afraid to jump out until they no longer can. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471187/original/file-20220627-21-6fbazs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471187/original/file-20220627-21-6fbazs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471187/original/file-20220627-21-6fbazs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471187/original/file-20220627-21-6fbazs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471187/original/file-20220627-21-6fbazs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471187/original/file-20220627-21-6fbazs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471187/original/file-20220627-21-6fbazs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hans Bauer assisting authorities to move a confiscated lion cub in Ethiopia. Photograph: Aziz Ahmed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The largest and most important conservation area in West Africa is the 25,000km² <a href="https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/52602.html#:%7E:text=Together%20with%20the%20adjacent%20Arly,conservation%20area%20in%20West%20Africa.">W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) region</a>, on the boundary between Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger. With around 400 lions, it is the only three-digit lion population in West Africa, and it also possesses the largest West African populations of elephant and buffalo.</p>
<p>Half of WAP’s land is managed for trophy hunting. Yet over 20 years, these blocks have <a href="https://www.iucn.org/content/big-game-hunting-west-africa-what-its-contribution-conservation">contributed less than 1%</a> of the region’s total conservation budget. Much of the area is now increasingly threatened by terrorist incursions and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/burkina-fasos-wildlife-reserves-have-become-a-battle-zone-overrun-by-militants-and-poachers/2020/09/12/dae444bc-f1c0-11ea-9279-45d6bdfe145f_story.html">large parts have been abandoned</a>, including the hunting blocks.</p>
<p>In Benin, however, the situation is changing. Lion trophy hunting has been ditched and a <a href="http://fsoactf.org/en/">trust fund established</a> that promises to fund the country’s conservation activities in perpetuity. While mainly funded by Benin and German government agencies, the fund has an independent international structure and several other donors have contributed. The park’s management, now delegated to a non-profit organisation, is striving to improve local livelihoods by generating employment and offering support for community initiatives that do not harm the local wildlife.</p>
<p>Of course, we should not expect wildlife to fix poverty and instability where 50 years of development work have been unsuccessful. But I visit Benin every year and where I used to find a dozen friendly but unorganised staff, I now see hundreds of local people trained, employed and proud. In the past, some children might have gone to school reluctant to learn things they would not need as subsistence farmers. After visiting the park, however, I see signs that they want to learn skills and compete for career options their parents did not have.</p>
<p>Another glimpse of a better future can be seen in Akagera National Park, Rwanda, which was completely depleted in the 1980s and 1990s. Rwanda is the only country in Africa with a population density higher than India’s. It is a country facing a huge number of challenges, yet Akagera is a <a href="https://www.observatoire-comifac.net/publications/edap?lang=en">conservation success story</a>. Following an initial investment in the area’s recovery, it is now breaking even through ecotourism with primarily Rwandan visitors. While this cannot be expected to work everywhere, it has worked in this most unlikely of places.</p>
<p>The true cost of saving African lions, and their prey and habitats, is <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1805048115">estimated</a> to be around US$1billion per year. With such funding, Africa could quadruple its lion numbers up to 100,000 without creating any new protected areas. At the moment, lions exist at only about a quarter of their ranges’ full capacities. Funding and community engagement are both critical to increasing this figure. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-arrived-at-a-1-billion-annual-price-tag-to-save-africas-lions-105411">How we arrived at a $1 billion annual price tag to save Africa's lions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Ultimately, international solidarity is a much more substantial, and sustainable, source of funding than trophy hunting. Our approach to the extinction crisis should be similar to the one for climate: biodiversity justice as well as climate justice. The 2021 <a href="https://theconversation.com/cop26-experts-react-to-the-un-climate-summit-and-glasgow-pact-171753">COP26 climate summit</a> in Glasgow discussed the proposed <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02846-3">annual fund of US$100 billion</a> to help less wealthy nations adapt to climate change and mitigate further rises in temperature. A similar fund for supporting global biodiversity will be proposed at the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/21/montreal-to-host-delayed-cop15-summit-to-halt-alarming-global-biodiversity-loss">COP15 summit</a> in Montreal in December 2023. A billion dollars for Africa’s lions and other wildlife may sound unrealistic, but in the arena of international policy, it should not really be a problem.</p>
<p>African nations are sovereign, and hold the key to the future of the lion. Some may be keen to retain trophy hunting – but they know that demand is shrinking as UK politicians are the latest to respond to the concerns of their constituents.</p>
<p>Above all, the trophy hunting debate is divisive, draining energy from conservationists in Africa and around the world who agree on most other issues. Now is surely the time to focus our efforts on far better alternatives for the conservation of lions and other endangered species.</p>
<p>Remember those two lions in Maze National Park? They are part of a small population which has the park as its core area, but which roam the entire landscape in that part of southern Ethiopia. Sometimes a few lions make it across to the next park for some welcome genetic exchange. Maze’s head warden has lots of rangers to assist in monitoring them, but only one motorbike. There is no hotel for hours around, no fuel station, no media. He does not need trophy hunters, he needs a car.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/embracing-uncertainty-what-kenyan-herders-can-teach-us-about-living-in-a-volatile-world-174075?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Embracing uncertainty: what Kenyan herders can teach us about living in a volatile world
</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-triggering-global-collapse-in-insect-numbers-stressed-farmland-shows-63-decline-new-research-170738?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Climate change triggering global collapse in insect numbers: stressed farmland shows 63% decline – new research
</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/12-best-ways-to-get-cars-out-of-cities-ranked-by-new-research-180642?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">12 best ways to get cars out of cities – ranked by new research
</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
<p><em>To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK"><strong>Subscribe to our newsletter</strong></a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prof. Dr. Hans Bauer works at WildCRU and has received research funding from various organisations, including the Born Free Foundation, National Geographic, Panthera, Zoo Leipzig, US Fish and Wildlife Service. He is affiliated with the IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group and the University of Antwerp. Views expressed here are mine, not those of any of these institutions.</span></em></p>
An Africa-based conservation expert explains why trophy hunting has not delivered for wildlife in most parts of Africa, and that local communities benefit next to nothing from its continued practice
Hans Bauer, Research fellow: Northern Lion Conservation, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183841
2022-05-25T13:31:09Z
2022-05-25T13:31:09Z
Snare and shotgun injuries reveal more about threats to lions and leopards in Zambia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465272/original/file-20220525-20-m0gxi3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">GettyImages</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Wildlife and people are coming into more and more conflict across Africa as human populations expand. Habitat loss and fragmentation of animal populations are causing declines in species.</p>
<p>In Zambia, the Luangwa Valley and Kafue are two important wildlife areas. Both support populations of lion and leopard which are genetically linked to populations in neighbouring countries. They have great conservation value and are crucial for Zambia’s tourism industry too.</p>
<p>It was here that Paula White, director of the Zambia Lion Project at the University of California in the US, noticed something strange while <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2022.803381/full">researching</a> the conservation of carnivores. Looking at the skulls of lions and leopards to estimate the animals’ ages, she saw unnatural wear marks on the teeth of these big cats. This was caused by biting and pulling on snare wire to get free. What is more, many of the lions had old shotgun pellets embedded in their skulls. They had survived these injuries – but how many more animals had not?</p>
<p>Behind the threat to the lions and leopards are complex social and economic issues. People move to where there are opportunities to make a living – from wildlife tourism and associated economic activity, for example. This can bring them into conflict with animals. Some people set snares because they need food, not necessarily to catch carnivores. And they may fire shotguns to drive off predators, not to kill them.</p>
<p>It is vital to understand the complexities of these relationships. People who live close to parks need to receive the benefits of wildlife, as our guest explains in today’s episode of Pasha.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Photo:</strong>
“Portrait Of Lion Standing On Grassy Field, Kasempa, Zambia” by Stock Photo <a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/portrait-of-lion-standing-on-grassy-field-kasempa-royalty-free-image/1271839829?adppopup=true">Getty Images</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Music:</strong>
“Happy African Village” by John Bartmann, found on <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/happy-african-village">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 1</a>.</p>
<p>“Somewhere Nice” by John Bartmann, found on <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/happy-african-village">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 1</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183841/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
As humans and wildlife come into closer contact, it is crucial to ensure that there's a relationship that benefits both people and animals.
Ozayr Patel, Digital Editor
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/176056
2022-02-17T13:59:38Z
2022-02-17T13:59:38Z
African wild dogs have a feeding queue: why it makes sense
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443419/original/file-20220131-23-1svmn6c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Megan Claase</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whether it’s a fancy dinner party or a routine family lunch, meals can be highly social affairs. And patterns of food sharing – or otherwise – can shape or describe relationships. </p>
<p>But this is not unique to humans. From the “finders keepers” approach of <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/zo/zo9930507">Tasmanian devils on small carcasses</a>, to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0162309594900388">female bonobos trading food for sex</a>, animals acquire and distribute food in various ways, with diverse social consequences. Despite its importance in shaping social systems, food-sharing by animals that hunt in groups is not well understood. </p>
<p>We set out to fill some of this knowledge gap by <a href="https://rdcu.be/cEvjF">recording</a> social aspects of feeding behaviour in endangered African wild dogs in Botswana. African wild dog packs revolve around a dominant pair and their offspring that remain in their pack and support their parents in rearing subsequent litters. </p>
<p>Much is known about the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0003347295800484">costs and benefits of hunting</a> from the pack perspective but individual feeding patterns and their consequences are not well understood. Quantifying these feeding patterns is key to understanding the origin and implications of many aspects of animal social lives, and for African wild dogs the results were intriguing. </p>
<h2>Feeding structure and hunting habits</h2>
<p>First we <a href="https://rdcu.be/cEvjF">confirmed</a> the presence and basic structure of the feeding queue confirming that the youngest feed first and are given uncontested access to kills they did not catch themselves. When packs arrive at a kill that one or more of their pack-mates have made, the pups are immediately given access to the spoils, while others fall back. </p>
<p>After the pups have had their fill, next in line are the dominant pair. Access then cascades through the pack in increasing age order, with older dogs having least access to carcasses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A running African wild dog" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A successful hunter, with blood marks on its legs, leaves the kill to recruit the rest of the pack to join it there.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bobby Jo Vial</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This age-based system of food-sharing is extremely unusual in animal societies. In fact, it has previously only been anecdotally described in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00296390">African</a> and <a href="https://www.ias.ac.in/public/Volumes/reso/001/02/0074-0079.pdf">Asiatic wild dogs</a>. </p>
<p>This made us wonder why an African wild dog’s breakfast look so different, and what are the implications for this endangered pack-living animal?</p>
<p>It is possible that allowing pack-mates uncontested access to food they have not caught themselves may be an extension of other helping behaviour, prioritising those least able to catch food themselves. </p>
<p>While young pups still at the den are <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.3957/056.048.013005">fed regurgitated meat</a>, older pups tagging along on hunting trips are allowed to feed directly. In this context, it’s probably much more efficient to allow the pups to feed themselves than to eat and regurgitate for them. </p>
<p>Additionally, this unusual system may also protect African wild dogs from their competitors. Packs are highly cohesive and begin <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11033?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base%3BJSOInzqETp6cCHBt5QiV3Q%3D%3D">hunting together</a> but it is common for one or a few dogs to become separated during the chase. Successful hunters can thus find themselves away from the rest of the pack on a kill leaving them exposed to their competitors. </p>
<p>The dogs are also said to be on an <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/35131">an energetic knife-edge</a> due to the impacts of losing their kills to spotted hyenas in some areas. They also live alongside lions, which are a major cause of <a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/acv.12328">African wild dog mortality</a>. </p>
<p>In this context, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-zoology/article/abs/feeding-success-of-african-wild-dogs-lycaon-pictus-in-the-serengeti-the-effects-of-group-size-and-kleptoparasitism/FA81CBA6EBC63289D91119D7C2231813">pack size</a> is key to defending themselves and their food. We argue that the age-based feeding structure promotes full and fast attendance of the pack at the dinner table. </p>
<p>After a quick feed on high value organs, successful hunters will return to recruit the rest of the pack to the kill-site. This provides safety in numbers, and due to their size and speed advantage, adult recruits can arrive quickly. This increases their chances of getting a meal. </p>
<p>Smaller pups and younger yearlings also benefit by arriving promptly. Priority of access guarantees them food on arrival, and an early arrival increases their share of the spoils. </p>
<p>The speedy arrival of all provides <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/animal-conservation-forum/article/abs/crucial-importance-of-pack-size-in-the-african-wild-dog-lycaon-pictus/41FE7F620BBAE117137EC0688DF51868">safety in numbers</a>, and structured access means cohorts waiting their turn can watch the surroundings for incoming threats. </p>
<p>This system is a neat solution to competition with lions and hyenas. It also has interesting social consequences for the dogs themselves. In particular, we discovered that it affects which individual dogs invest in hunting.</p>
<p>All pack members may benefit to some extent when prey is captured. But to get to that point some individuals must undertake the risky business of tackling potentially dangerous prey. Which individuals step up? </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="African wild dog with a bone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Old subdominant feeds on skin and bone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bobby Jo Vial</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our study showed that the older subdominants in the pack were more likely to participate in killing prey. Being low in the feeding queue seems to motivate hunting – hunters gaining early access to the choicest bits of meat before the carcass is turned over as soon as the youngsters arrive. </p>
<h2>Perceptions of the species</h2>
<p>Our findings have wider implications that could help perceptions and therefore conservation of the species.</p>
<p>For a long time the view that wild dogs are bloodthirsty and wanton killers <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0075-64582017000200003&script=sci_arttext&tlng=es">persisted in some quarters</a>. As recently as the late 1970s, African wild dogs were <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/african-wild-dog/1B501942DC632C003E1F405BF74D7EE2">shot as vermin</a> even within some protected areas. </p>
<p>While recent work, including ours, has illuminated African wild dogs in a more positive light, promoting them emotively should be avoided. Whether species persist through means we consider admirable or unsavoury, they should not be judged on this basis. In healthy ecosystems, all species play their role and deserve a seat at the table.</p>
<p><em>Samantha Lostrom contributed to this article, and Dr J Weldon McNutt, Reena Walker and Dr Leanne van der Weyde contributed to the research described here.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176056/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil R Jordan is a Conservation Biologist at the Taronga Conservation Society Australia, and is an honorary research associate with Botswana Predator Conservation. He receives funding from Natural Selection Conservation Trust, The Hermon Slade Foundation, National Parks and Wildlife Service NSW, MidCoast Council, and the Taronga Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominik M Behr, Krystyna Golabek, Laura Plimpton, and Megan Jane Claase do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Food-sharing by animals that hunt in groups is not well understood. A new study sheds light on African wild dogs.
Neil R Jordan, Senior lecturer, UNSW Sydney
Dominik M Behr, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Zurich
Krystyna Golabek, Adjunct Lecturer
Laura Plimpton, PhD Student, Columbia University
Megan Jane Claase, Research Fellow, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/130636
2022-02-16T13:15:35Z
2022-02-16T13:15:35Z
African wild dogs cope with human development using skills they rely on to compete with other carnivores
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446628/original/file-20220215-27-1h2k3xj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=782%2C684%2C3566%2C2353&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wild dogs are usually with their pack mates.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Creel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Large carnivores in Africa are important from ecological, economic and cultural perspectives, but human activities put them at risk. Increasingly, lions, hyenas and African wild dogs are restricted to protected areas like national parks. Within these limited areas, they must compete for the same food sources.</p>
<p>Competition is, of course, nothing new. For several million years, African wild dogs have evolved within a set of large carnivores that all prey on the same large herbivore species, like wildebeest and warthogs. Wild dogs are lanky, long-distance hunters that always live in groups, usually of eight to 10 adults. Cooperation with pack mates allows them to hunt prey much larger than themselves. Weighing in at about 40-62 pounds (18-28 kilograms), wild dogs have been shaped by the necessity to compete with larger species like the lion and spotted hyena.</p>
<p>There may be a silver lining to being the bottom dog in the competitive hierarchy. Research that my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IiQjBP8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">colleagues with the Zambian Carnivore Programme</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IBEIw1QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">and I</a> have conducted in Zambia and Tanzania suggests why smaller, subordinate species like wild dogs are better able to move through human-modified landscapes. Understanding how is essential for their conservation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four African wild dogs around a kill" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pack of African wild dogs makes a formidable hunting team.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-wild-dog-lycaon-pictus-herd-on-a-kill-a-royalty-free-image/1255884159">slowmotiongli/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Meeting the African wild dog</h2>
<p>In the late 1980s, I was studying dwarf mongooses in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park when an extraordinary thing happened. While I sat on the roof of an ancient Land Rover watching mongooses on a nearby termite mound, a wild dog trotted past. And then another, and another. Wild dogs had been missing from most (perhaps all) of the Serengeti for years due to a combination of intense competition from larger carnivores and outbreaks of rabies. But here they were, back again.</p>
<p>Over the next year, I occasionally followed the dogs to watch them hunt on the shortgrass plains, where they were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1993.1059">constantly shadowed by spotted hyenas</a>. Several hyenas often trailed the dogs even as they set out to hunt, and hyenas quickly aggregated when the dogs killed a gazelle or wildebeest – often alerted by the unmistakable sound of vultures plummeting through the air in their own race to the fresh carcass. </p>
<p>Although they are half the size, wild dogs do not easily give up a kill to hyenas. A pack of wild dogs making a coordinated attack on one or two hyenas can easily drive them off. But hyenas are also social animals, and researchers found that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1993.1059">dogs generally lost their kills to hyenas</a> when their numbers were equal. Given the large population of hyenas in Serengeti, they took nine out of 10 kills that the dogs made. And lions are simply too dangerous to fight, so the big cats could always take over a kill from the dogs, and kill them surprisingly often. </p>
<p>At that time, very little was known about wild dogs in places other than Serengeti and South Africa’s Kruger National Park, a more wooded ecosystem where researchers had found a flourishing population that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1644/05-MAMM-A-304R2.1">often hunted impala</a>. Biologists started to rethink the prevailing view that wild dogs were specialized to live and hunt in open grasslands.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I spent six years in the 1990s observing wild dogs in the Selous Game Reserve, confirming the Tanzania Wildlife Department’s belief that this large ecosystem was a major stronghold for the species. We found that the density of wild dogs in Selous was very good, at least partly because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10020526.x">wild dogs were better able to avoid problems</a> with lions and spotted hyenas in the miombo woodland of Selous than in plains of the Serengeti. It was more evidence that not only could they survive outside of grasslands like in the Serengeti, but African wild dogs found advantages to other kinds of environments.</p>
<p>By the mid-1990s, a scientific consensus was emerging that the persistence of wild dogs in an area depends at least partly on their ability to avoid losing food to hyenas or being killed by lions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="African wild dog pack on the edge of a paved road" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">African wild dogs have been less separated by human development, like roads, than some other large carnivores.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/pack-of-african-wild-dogs-on-the-road-royalty-free-image/669588630">Simoneemanphotography/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Being bottom dog can pay off</h2>
<p>Many studies, including our current research in Zambia, have confirmed that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12231">wild dogs are adapted to “live in the cracks”</a> of a landscape where they are outnumbered and outsized by spotted hyenas and lions.</p>
<p>In the short term, wild dogs move quickly away from an encounter with lions – or an experimental playback of their roars over a loudspeaker – in a straight line that would be unusual under other circumstances. Over the long term, wild dogs avoid areas that are heavily used by larger competitors, even though this requires them to <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1997.96252.x">hunt in areas with fewer prey</a>.</p>
<p>But there may be a benefit to being at the bottom of the competitive hierarchy. Compared to most species, all of the large African carnivores live in small and isolated populations that <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1999.98366.x">must remain connected</a> to maintain genetic diversity. But humans have now modified <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12558">more than half of the Earth’s terrestrial surface</a>, cutting lines of movement and increasing the isolation of protected areas. Despite this general pattern, some species are better adapted than others to maintain connections between ecosystems. </p>
<p>Our research has used advances in genetic sequencing to test how well connected wild dogs and lions are in several ecosystems across Zambia and Tanzania. The basic idea is that well-connected populations remain genetically similar, but poorly connected populations become genetically distinct from one another over time.</p>
<p>We wondered whether the adaptations of wild dogs that allow them to move through a landscape dominated by lions and hyenas might <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52904-0">also help them move through a landscape altered by humans</a>. For example, wild dogs could move more quickly and in a straighter line after an encounter with people, just as they do after an encounter with lions. We hypothesized that genetic data would show that wild dogs have stronger connections between ecosystems than lions, and that their connections are less affected by humans.</p>
<p>And this is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52904-0">just what the data showed</a> when we compared the genotypes of 96 wild dogs and, separately, 208 lions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="map of where dogs were living and their genetic similarity" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each dot represents an individual wild dog, and similarity in their color represents genetic similarity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Creel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wild dogs in eastern, central and western Zambia were genetically quite similar, showing that these populations remain well connected. In contrast, lions were much less genetically similar, with distinct populations that were not well connected.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="map of where lions were living and their genetic similarity" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each dot represents an individual lion, and similarity in their color represents genetic similarity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Creel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also mapped the degree to which human effects such as land conversion, agriculture and roads hinder animal movement, differentiating between areas with relatively little resistance to animal movement and areas with strong human effects. The genetic differences between lion populations were strongly correlated with human resistance, but there was no such correlation for wild dogs. That is, places that were less hospitable to animal movement had more genetically isolated populations of lions, but didn’t affect the genetic diversity of the wild dogs in the area.</p>
<p>While it is still too early to know if this pattern will apply to other species, it suggests that eons of dealing with lions and hyenas have provided the wild dog with tools that help them maneuver through the unforgiving landscapes that humans create outside of national parks.</p>
<p>[<em>Get fascinating science, health and technology news.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=science&source=inline-science-fascinating">Sign up for The Conversation’s weekly science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130636/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Creel received funding from the US National Science Foundation and the Wallenberg Foundation.</span></em></p>
African wild dogs are used to evading hyenas and lions. Genetic research suggests they are using the same strengths to get around human development as well.
Scott Creel, Professor of Conservation Biology & Ecology, Montana State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/176268
2022-02-10T14:04:04Z
2022-02-10T14:04:04Z
Genetic diversity is key in conservation: here’s a list to help manage lion populations
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445057/original/file-20220208-19-3ob7k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lion diversity is distributed across four different evolutionary lineages: East Africa, Southern Africa, West/Central Africa and India.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laura Bertola</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Biodiversity exists at three different levels: diversity between ecosystems, between species, and within species. The genetic diversity that exists within a species is what enables the species to evolve and adapt. Many studies have shown that genetic diversity provides resilience against extinction. </p>
<p>Conserving biodiversity, then, means more than preventing the extinction of a species. It also means preventing loss of genetic diversity within that species. </p>
<p>One way of losing genetic diversity is when populations go extinct in a particular location and specific <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/E6089">genetic lineages</a> come to an end. Another way is when individuals in small and isolated populations become more strongly related to each other. It can lead to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/hdy2009155">inbreeding depression</a> – when offspring are less fertile and less likely to survive. This has been described for many species, including lions.</p>
<p>Conservation managers can intervene to support genetic diversity in a species. For example, to expand and restore the natural range of a species, managers can release individual animals in an area where they have previously gone extinct. Or if a population has become so small and isolated that its genetic health is in danger, managers may bring in new, unrelated individuals to mimic natural migration between populations. </p>
<p>In practice, though, these initiatives usually focus on the population or numbers of individuals. They don’t always take genetic information <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-moving-south-african-lions-to-rwanda-is-not-without-problems-46273">into account</a>. That’s dangerous. When managers don’t choose genetically suitable animals, moving them to another population can fail. It can even have a negative influence on overall biodiversity. </p>
<p>In African wildlife management, individual animals for translocations are often sourced from <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7159/1/2/11">South Africa</a>. The country has many intensively managed parks, which regularly have surpluses of certain species. But shipping South African animals across the continent and reintroducing them far away from their original population could have adverse effects for biodiversity. If they integrate into resident populations at the target site, they may spread their genes there, influencing the genetic makeup of the local population. This could even lead to the loss of genetic adaptation to local environments. And if it happens on a large scale, across multiple localities, all populations could become similar.</p>
<p>When planning a translocation, the genetic makeup of both the source and target populations needs to be taken into account. Preferably, both populations should be from the same genetic lineage. In this way, the translocation resembles natural migration between populations. </p>
<h2>Lion genetics</h2>
<p>We recently published a scientific article in which we assess available genetic data and its implications for translocations in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eva.13318">the lion</a>.</p>
<p>The lion has been a popular subject for studying diversity on <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep30807">the genetic level</a>. Lions are a species that many people know and care about, with a vast range throughout sub-Saharan Africa and into India. Genetic data show that lion diversity is distributed across four different evolutionary lineages: East Africa, Southern Africa, West/Central Africa, and India. The first two lineages are grouped together as the southern subspecies, while the latter two are grouped together as the northern subspecies. To conserve the lion in the long term, we need to conserve its genetic diversity.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445058/original/file-20220208-13-1d58z6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Lion on the grass with a tree in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445058/original/file-20220208-13-1d58z6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445058/original/file-20220208-13-1d58z6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445058/original/file-20220208-13-1d58z6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445058/original/file-20220208-13-1d58z6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445058/original/file-20220208-13-1d58z6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445058/original/file-20220208-13-1d58z6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445058/original/file-20220208-13-1d58z6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1170&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In less than 40 years, over 1,000 individual live lions have been moved between countries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laura Bertola</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our study, we’ve listed 132 lion populations or conservation units and provided information on genetic assignment, uncertainty and suitability for translocation for each source and target combination.</p>
<p>To get a better insight into the extent and directions of lions being moved around the continent, we also mined trade data from the <a href="https://trade.cites.org/">CITES Trade Database</a>. This records all import and export permits for transboundary trade. There is additional information on the origin of the individuals and the purpose of the transport. The data show that in less than 40 years, over 1,000 individual live lions have been moved between countries, and into countries in which wild lions occur.</p>
<p>We then assessed whether, based on all genetic information that’s currently available, these transports were within or between genetic lineages. We identified three levels of suitability, based on the genetic differentiation between populations. We scored a translocation between subspecies as “unsuitable”, as well as a translocation of “captive” individuals, with unknown genetic background. </p>
<p>We concluded that the vast majority of the translocated lions would be scored as “unsuitable”. That is, they could be a risk to the genetic diversity of lions and to biodiversity more generally.</p>
<h2>Integrating genetics in decision making</h2>
<p>Even though genetic data may be unavailable for some populations, based on our understanding of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep30807">lion diversity</a> and known locations of the boundaries between different lineages, we can often infer which genetic group they belong to. So genetics can be taken into account, even when genetic data from a particular population is missing. </p>
<p>We hope that the three different suitability levels we’ve provided will help conservation managers to explore different options when making their decisions. We encourage them to follow the natural distribution of genetic diversity in the lion when searching for suitable source populations.</p>
<p>In management interventions there are many other factors that need to be taken into account too – ecological, behavioural and even political. Even though these factors are not taken into account here, we hope that our work provides guidance and support to integrate genetics in future management decisions. </p>
<p>It’s in the interest of the lion, as a species, to focus not just on the persistence of populations, but also on the underlying genetic diversity. This will increase its resilience and adaptability, which is necessary for long-term survival of the species.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176268/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Bertola does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
When planning a translocation, the genetics of the lion must be taken into account.
Laura Bertola, Postdoctoral fellow at Copenhagen University, Leiden University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173549
2021-12-16T15:06:55Z
2021-12-16T15:06:55Z
Hydroelectric dams take toll on endangered big cats, study shows
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438036/original/file-20211216-25-cs8qnt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5007%2C3335&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/amur-tiger-walking-water-dangerous-animal-694592521">Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big cats are among the most widespread top predators on Earth. Lions stalk zebra in the African savanna, tigers ambush antelope in the forests of Asia and jaguars hunt deer in the jungles of South America. They play an important role in ecosystems by regulating the numbers of these herbivores, in turn, reducing the deterioration of vegetated habitats and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1064397">maintaining species diversity</a>.</p>
<p>Tigers, lions and jaguars must cover large areas to find food, so they need a lot of energy. As with many large carnivores, big cats are under threat from habitat loss, which leaves them with less to eat. Their spread-out populations and slow reproductive rates make them particularly vulnerable. While the habitats in which big cats live range from boreal forests at high latitudes to tropical rainforests at the equator, the causes of habitat loss are largely the same: logging for wood and fuel, plantations, farming and urbanisation.</p>
<p>Aside from depriving wildlife of a home, forest loss also <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-tackling-deforestation-is-so-important-for-slowing-climate-change-170287">contributes to climate change</a>. It’s ironic then that hydroelectricity, which is being developed worldwide (<a href="https://www.hydropower.org/status-report">especially in South American and Asian countries</a>) as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels, is a big cause of deforestation.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-54980-8">Building hydroelectric dams</a> has caused extinctions and spread diseases in rivers globally, but the threat to ecosystems on land has largely been overlooked. In <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02878-5">a recent study</a>, researchers from China and Portugal investigated how existing and planned hydroelectric dams might affect two carnivores: the near-threatened jaguar (with an estimated global population of 173,000) and the endangered tiger (thought to number between 3,200 and 3,500 worldwide). </p>
<p>The distribution of jaguars and tigers has shrunk 50% and 93% respectively, but the researchers found that hydroelectric plants pose a substantial risk of further declines. They found 164 dams that already intersect the jaguar range and 421 dams that do the same for tigers. This equates to one in five tigers that are likely to be affected by dams, compared with one in 200 jaguars. Since tiger numbers are already so low, this could have a considerable influence on the population’s capacity to recover and may even result in local extinctions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large concrete dam surrounded by tropical forest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438038/original/file-20211216-19-1l6fegz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A dam on the Narmada River in India, where the endangered Bengal tiger is native.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dam-on-holy-narmada-river-sardar-1773340118">Ankit K Sinha/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Damning developments for big cats</h2>
<p>Large expanses of land are flooded to create reservoirs when building hydroelectric plants in low-lying, relatively flat areas. Although tigers and jaguars can and do swim, they mainly hunt species such as deer that live on land. Sites chosen for dams typically incorporate floodplains and areas along rivers that are important for both species, since they tend to contain lots of prey. </p>
<p>The flooded area will force both predators and prey into surrounding areas. If the vegetation here can support the influx of herbivores, tigers and jaguars will probably persist. But if it cannot, the predators may be forced further afield in search of food, potentially drawing them into conflict with people who may kill them. </p>
<p>Relatively pristine habitats are under threat. The number of hydroelectric dams is set to quadruple across the jaguar’s range with a further 429 planned, while 41 are expected where tigers roam. Aside from the direct loss of habitat, these new constructions can increase the presence of people in remote areas. Roads built to access new dam sites consequently open up areas that were previously impenetrable. Roads can be a barrier to some species and kill those that try to cross. Roads can also encourage new towns and villages, which divide the habitat further.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A yellow road sign depicting a jaguar next to a road surrounded by tropical forest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438039/original/file-20211216-17-q4po23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A road in Brazil which drives deep into jaguar habitat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/animal-road-sign-jaguar-itatiaia-national-1476185558">Ricardo de O. Lemos/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mitigating the damage</h2>
<p>Where dams exist, the researchers suggest habitat loss could be limited by incorporating the surroundings into a protected area with suitable enforcement. Any new dams, though, especially in conservation areas or areas where top predators prowl, should be avoided. Sadly, most of the dams planned in Asia overlap with significant portions of the tiger’s range. </p>
<p>One way to mitigate the damage from building new hydroelectric plants may be to do it on slopes outside of areas that are crucial for conserving tigers and jaguars. The amount of flooded area needed to produce electricity from these plants when they’re on a slope is smaller compared to those built on lower ground, reducing the overall damage to the surrounding habitat. But impact assessments would need to confirm the plant wasn’t simply creating new issues elsewhere. </p>
<p>Alternative sources of energy are important for a sustainable future, but their benefits should not come at a substantial cost to species already under threat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173549/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tara Pirie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
One in 200 jaguars are likely to be affected by dams, versus one in five tigers.
Tara Pirie, Postdoctoral Researcher, People and Wildlife Research Group, University of Reading
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171789
2021-11-18T13:05:38Z
2021-11-18T13:05:38Z
Joe Exotic channels the spirit of America’s 19th-century tiger kings
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432212/original/file-20211116-19-1w9i47r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C5%2C3672%2C2420&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Big cat showmen have long sought to distance themselves from allegations of animal abuse.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lion-tamer-circus-poster-1873-news-photo/629437865?adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“I am never gonna financially recover from this,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV7lz6wCcfM">grumbles Joe Exotic</a>, the subject of Netflix’s “Tiger King” documentary series. </p>
<p>Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, blithely utters the line after one of his employees has been brutally mauled by a tiger, making him seem comically indifferent to the man’s suffering. </p>
<p>This lack of compassion isn’t unique to Joe Exotic. As a <a href="https://www.frieze.com/article/why-are-we-rooting-tiger-kings-joe-exotic">self-proclaimed</a> “gun-toting gay redneck” and the former operator of a shabby wildlife park, he may seem like the furthest thing from a cutthroat capitalist. </p>
<p>But I study 19th-century showmen like P.T. Barnum, and as I rewatched season one of “Tiger King” to prepare for the new season, I was struck by the similarities between my research subjects and the larger-than-life world of Joe Exotic. </p>
<p>These impresarios also had money on their minds. And like Joe Exotic and the other flamboyant big-cat aficionados of “Tiger King,” they weren’t strangers to fierce competition, threats and bizarre drama.</p>
<h2>Lying about lions</h2>
<p>In “Tiger King,” viewers learn that Joe Exotic is part of a larger network of big cat exhibitors who regularly trade and sell animals to one another, often <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/us/tiger-king-doc-antle-charged.html">in violation of the Endangered Species Act</a>. </p>
<p>The groups include characters such as Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, the elephant-riding, polyamorous owner of Myrtle Beach Safari wildlife park, who is currently <a href="https://www.oag.state.va.us/media-center/news-releases/1848-october-9-2020-owner-of-myrtle-beach-safari-and-owner-of-virginia-roadside-zoo-indicted-on-wildlife-trafficking-charges">under indictment</a> for felony wildlife trafficking. There’s also Jeff Lowe, who purchased Joe Exotic’s zoo and is also <a href="https://www.ktnv.com/13-investigates/tiger-kings-jeff-lowe-still-a-wanted-man-in-las-vegas">facing charges in Las Vegas</a> related to possessing exotic animals without permits. Carole Baskin, Joe Exotic’s archnemesis, aims to take down this network of breeders and traffickers by pushing to ban the private possession of big cats. </p>
<p>In the 19th century, when the total number of exotic animals in the country <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2708114?seq=7#metadata_info_tab_contents">was much lower</a>, big cat exhibitors didn’t have to smuggle cubs. In fact, back then, the big cat trade network actually included legitimate scientific institutions.</p>
<p>In 1895, James A. Bailey of the Barnum & Bailey circus was involved in a dispute with Frank Baker of the Smithsonian National Zoo over a trade involving two lions. </p>
<p>From Baker’s <a href="https://findingaids.princeton.edu/catalog/TC040_c01854">telegrams to Bailey</a>, it’s clear that Baker felt the showman scammed him. When the circus representative arrived at the Smithsonian with the feline cargo, Baker “was very much surprised to find that he did not bring with him the lion which [Bailey] agreed to let me have but a smaller one.” Baker felt duped and demanded they trade back, but Bailey refused, accusing Baker of giving him an inferior lion.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Side profile of man with beard." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432266/original/file-20211116-13-8eggbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432266/original/file-20211116-13-8eggbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432266/original/file-20211116-13-8eggbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432266/original/file-20211116-13-8eggbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432266/original/file-20211116-13-8eggbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432266/original/file-20211116-13-8eggbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432266/original/file-20211116-13-8eggbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">James A. Bailey drove a hard bargain with the Smithsonian National Zoo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cigar-box-label-reads-james-a-bailey-and-features-an-news-photo/1176806892?adppopup=true">Buyenlarge/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite continued demands from Baker, Bailey didn’t budge, and in the last letter of their exchange, an exasperated Baker folded – but not before writing in a delightfully passive-aggressive, 19th-century manner that “I agree to accept the exchange of lions notwithstanding the fact that you have endeavored to force it upon me without my consent.” </p>
<h2>Education, entertainment or exploitation?</h2>
<p>The circus’s relationship with the Smithsonian hints at another parallel between 19th-century circuses and today’s wildlife exhibitions: Both attempt to blur the line between entertainment and education. </p>
<p>By claiming that they are <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2708114?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">not mere entertainment</a>, but opportunities for enlightenment, animal exhibitors then and now have sought to legitimize their business and distance themselves from allegations of animal abuse. </p>
<p>Joe Exotic, “Doc” Antle and Carole Baskin all claim in “Tiger King” that their work is truly about <a href="https://people.com/tv/tiger-king-doc-antle-slams-salacious-documentary-lauren-and-jeff-lowe-call-portrayal-unfair/">educating the public</a> about endangered species – that, deep down, their primary motivation is to promote conservation efforts. They all attempt, with varying success, to use the veneer of education to distance themselves from stereotypes that their roadside zoos are seedy and rife with abuse. </p>
<p>In the increasingly capitalist society of the late-19th century, promoters like P.T. Barnum <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/circus-age-culture-society-under-the-american-big-top/oclc/48858223">wanted the circus to appeal to as many customers as possible</a>. So he and his peers began emphasizing the educational potential of their shows. This was not merely a display of animals doing tricks, <a href="https://archives.nypl.org/mss/215">they’d insist</a>; this was, as an advertisement for Barnum & Bailey’s circus proclaimed, “better than a college for rare knowledge.” </p>
<p>Back in the day, Barnum even went so far as to call his animal keepers “professors,” a title eerily similar to that of the questionable “Doc” Antle.</p>
<h2>Petty feuds and frauds</h2>
<p>Joe Exotic was a traveling showman for a while, <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/ct-sta-landmarks-eisenberg-st-0601-20200531-j6onarc6bvhbpeqs3tcqine4km-story.html">taking a small exhibition of tigers on tours of local shopping malls</a> and other small venues. Amusingly, Exotic called this venture Big Cat Rescue Entertainment, an obvious reference to rival Baskin’s organization, Big Cat Rescue Corporation.</p>
<p>The petty move on Exotic’s part is once again something that could have come from a Gilded Age showman’s playbook. </p>
<p>Nineteenth-century entertainment impresarios often published notices <a href="https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=cl&cl=CL1&sp=NYC&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------">in trade papers</a> warning others to be on the lookout for fraudulent companies masquerading under the name of another well-established show, such as when the popular Sells Bros. Circus <a href="https://www.circusesandsideshows.com/circuses/sellsflotocircus.html">took the Sells-Floto Circus to court</a> over the latter’s use of the Sells name, despite having no owner by that name.</p>
<p>In one case, a rival circus put together <a href="https://findingaids.princeton.edu/catalog/TC040_c00659">an entire pamphlet full of insults</a> directed at Bailey, with lines like “J.A. Bailey, you are a thoroughly exposed, convicted, baffled, beaten, desperate and crazy fraud.” </p>
<p>And in an insult that sounds like it could have come straight from Exotic’s lips, the pamphlet added that even Bailey’s “performing lions are cringing, crawling, sneaking frauds.”</p>
<p>Had these men had access to Facebook Live, I can only imagine the content they’d create.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>While I have yet to come across any archival information suggesting my research subjects were involved in any murder-for-hire plots – Exotic is currently serving a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdok/pr/joe-exotic-sentenced-22-years-murder-hire-and-violating-lacey-act-and-endangered">22-year prison sentence</a> for trying to have Baskin killed – I have seen rival companies being accused of <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36219/36219-h/36219-h.htm">literally burning bridges</a> to hamper their competitors. </p>
<p>Describing the competition between shows as “opposition warfare,” W.C. Coup, a business partner of P.T. Barnum’s, once wrote that he suspected a rival circus of destroying a bridge to prevent their train from arriving on time for their gig. Although he had no proof, Coup wrote that he “knew [his competitors] were driven to desperation and were capable of resorting to any such outrage.” </p>
<p>That’s just a small sampling of the entertaining and sordid anecdotes that can be found in archives devoted to Gilded Age show business. </p>
<p>Perhaps it’s time for the circus to get the Netflix treatment. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pT4NYto3abM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A bizarre cast of characters involved in the exotic animal trade returns in ‘Tiger King 2.’</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madeline Steiner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The flamboyant big-cat aficionados of the Gilded Age weren’t strangers to fierce competition, threats and bizarre drama.
Madeline Steiner, Post-Doctoral Fellow of History, University of South Carolina
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/155587
2021-03-02T10:19:20Z
2021-03-02T10:19:20Z
Recreational hunting, conservation and livelihoods: no clear evidence trail
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386982/original/file-20210301-14-k2dfgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In some African countries, lion trophy hunting is legal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Riaan van den Berg</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In sub-Saharan Africa, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320706003831">almost 1,400,000 km² of land</a> spread across many countries — from Kenya to South Africa — is dedicated to “trophy” (recreational) hunting. This type of hunting can occur on communal, private, and state lands. </p>
<p>The hunters – mainly foreign “tourists” from North America and Europe – target a wide variety of species, including lions, leopards, antelopes, buffalo, elephants, zebras, hippopotamus and giraffes. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/big-game-banning-trophy-hunting-could-do-more-harm-than-good-52854">Big game: banning trophy hunting could do more harm than good</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Debates centred on the role of recreational hunting in supporting nature conservation and local people’s livelihoods are among the <a href="https://therevelator.org/trophy-hunting-conservation/">most polarising</a> in conservation today. </p>
<p>On one hand, people argue that recreational hunting generates funding that can support livelihoods and nature conservation. It’s estimated to generate <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320706003831">US$200 million</a> annually in sub-Saharan Africa, although <a href="https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/factsheets/factsheet-how-much-does-hunting-contribute-african-economies">others dispute</a> the magnitude of this contribution.</p>
<p>On the other hand, hunting is heavily criticised on ethical and moral grounds and as a potential threat to some <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/news/defend-wild">species</a>. </p>
<p>Evidence for taking a particular side in the debate is still unfortunately thin. In our recently published <a href="https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(21)00060-9">research</a>, we reviewed the large body of scientific literature on recreational hunting from around the world, which meant we read and analysed more than 1000 peer-reviewed papers. </p>
<p>We used this vast body of information to summarise the diverse implications of hunting for nature conservation and the livelihoods of people.</p>
<p>We found that studies quantified the revenues generated by hunting, but they often stopped short of determining on how these revenues benefited conservation and local people.</p>
<p>Likewise, there is only a little research documenting the effectiveness of recreational hunting areas for conserving ecosystems, and who really benefits from the revenues generated.</p>
<p>Ultimately, we still do not have enough evidence to answer the pressing questions of where and how hunting contributes to sustainable conservation efforts that also benefit local people. While it is not self-evident why this is so, it is important that future research addresses these gaps.</p>
<h2>Targeted species</h2>
<p>A lot of the research we examined focuses on how hunting affects a particular species. The most-studied species are large mammals from North America, Europe, and Africa – such as red deer, white-tailed deer, wild boar, moose, and lions. Of these, only the lion is of <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/15951/115130419">conservation concern</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386583/original/file-20210226-15-5ozc90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386583/original/file-20210226-15-5ozc90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386583/original/file-20210226-15-5ozc90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386583/original/file-20210226-15-5ozc90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386583/original/file-20210226-15-5ozc90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386583/original/file-20210226-15-5ozc90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386583/original/file-20210226-15-5ozc90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386583/original/file-20210226-15-5ozc90.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 12 most-studied species in recreational-hunting research (a), and the percentage of studies dedicated to mammals and birds (b). IUCN Red List (iucnredlist.org) threat status: LC = Least Concern; VU = Vulnerable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">One Earth © the authors</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The impacts on the populations targeted by hunters varied among species. For example, red deer hunting <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2006.01183.x">appears</a> to be sustainable, while there is evidence that reindeer hunting has caused some populations to <a href="https://esj-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/1438-390X.12030">decline</a>. Hunting did not cause population declines in <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.01.014">studies</a> of 17 African hoofed mammal species, with only eland declining due to hunting. </p>
<h2>Impacts on lions</h2>
<p>The impacts of hunting also varied within species, with <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073808">lions</a> being a good example. </p>
<p>Evidence shows that while lion hunting is well-regulated and sustainable in some <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.12951">places</a> – such as <a href="http://niassalion.org/niassa-national-reserve/">Niassa National Reserve</a> in Mozambique – in other places it is detrimental to <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0005941">local populations</a>. For example, the lion population in Zambia’s <a href="https://www.southluangwa.com">South Luangwa National Park</a> declined from 125 lions in 2009 to 94 in 2012. Trophy hunting was the leading cause of death, with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320714003875">46 males harvested</a>. These declines resulted in a trophy hunting ban in 2013. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386587/original/file-20210226-23-byfk0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386587/original/file-20210226-23-byfk0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386587/original/file-20210226-23-byfk0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386587/original/file-20210226-23-byfk0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386587/original/file-20210226-23-byfk0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386587/original/file-20210226-23-byfk0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386587/original/file-20210226-23-byfk0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386587/original/file-20210226-23-byfk0o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The world map shows the country contribution (as number of studies) to research based on countries where the studies on recreational hunting were done.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">One Earth © the authors</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hunting has also negatively affected carnivores elsewhere in the world. For example, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0005941">puma</a> (cougar) populations in North America and <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2014.1840">brown bears</a> in Europe. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, we also found that while the literature is extensive, there were biases toward certain continents and either “charismatic” species, or species that are not under imminent threat of extinction. </p>
<h2>How hunting affects ecosystems and people</h2>
<p>Far less research has been done to measure the broader impacts of hunting on ecosystems. Or how hunting contributes to, or detracts from, the livelihoods of local people.</p>
<p>In terms of livelihoods, research from <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-africas-conservation-and-trophy-hunting-dilemma-140029">South Africa</a> and <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cobi.12643">Namibia</a> concluded that stopping hunting would negatively affect conservation initiatives and local livelihoods by the loss of the major revenue it generates. Trophy hunters spend <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2018.e00510">US$250 million</a> in South Africa each year.</p>
<p>Recreational hunting was particularly important in areas where ecotourism was not a viable alternative because of a lack of infrastructure, rare wildlife, or a dearth of <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0135595">spectacular scenery</a>, such as much of the <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/XwjAKu5ECgGn1iqD7">Northern Conservation Zone</a> in Botswana.</p>
<p>In West and Central Africa, there are various <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-01343-6">constraints</a> to the revenue that trophy hunting can generate. These include few remaining trophy species – such as lions – and policies, such as the European Union’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-trophy-hunting-imports-wont-save-the-worlds-wildlife-109034">bans on the imports of trophies</a>. There are also high costs associated with countering threats from poaching and agricultural encroachment. </p>
<p>These constraints have meant the revenue generated from trophy hunting are not enough to cover the costs needed to manage hunting blocks effectively. Trophy hunting, for example in <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cfa/ifr/2016/00000018/a00101s1/art00010">Cameroon</a>, wasn’t enough to provide a meaningful contribution to local communities. </p>
<p>In terms of the broader impacts of hunting on ecosystems, we found evidence for some benefits from North America, Europe, and Africa. </p>
<p>Most <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.13131#:%7E:text=We%20review%20the%20literature%20that,food%20and%20rear%20and%20release.&text=63%25%20of%20the%20122%20significant,non%E2%80%90game%20species%20were%20positive.">evidence</a> suggests that habitat management for game birds is positive for many other species in agricultural landscapes. For instance, in North America, fees from waterfowl hunters have made it possible to conserve or restore more than <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10871209.2017.1310960">50,000 km²</a> of wild bird habitat.</p>
<p>However, recreational hunting can also mean that predators are killed to make way for popular game species kept at artificially high densities via <a href="https://conservationbytes.com/2015/11/04/game-bird-madness/">breeding and introduction programs</a>.</p>
<p>In South Africa, benefits generated from trophy hunting of white rhinos incentivised landowners to conserve and restore this species across more than <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12741">16,000 km²</a>. This helped conserve other species and ecosystems.</p>
<h2>New research agenda needed</h2>
<p>Even though the literature on recreational hunting is extensive,
research must be extended towards less-charismatic species and to all continents where recreational hunting happens. For example, we need a lot more evidence to support or debunk some claims that hunting increases the quantity and quality of conservation interventions.</p>
<p>Likewise, there is still only limited research addressing questions pertaining to the sustainability of recreational hunting, who benefits from it, and how local people feel about it. Assessing the role of recreational hunting in diverse contexts is essential to develop equitable ecosystem conservation and restoration practices, while simultaneously contributing to the livelihoods and aligning with the values of local people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155587/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Enrico Di Minin receives funding from the European Research Council (ERC) for funding under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement #802933). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Haukka receives funding from the Kone Foundation and was previously supported by an University of Helsinki early-career grant to Enrico Di Minin.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Hausmann receives funding from the European Research Council for funding under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement #802933 to Enrico Di Minin)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christoph Fink receives funding from the European Research Council for funding under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement #802933 to Enrico Di Minin)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corey J. A. Bradshaw receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gonzalo Cortés-Capano receives funding from the European Research Council for funding under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant agreement #802933 to Enrico Di Minin). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hayley Clements receives funding from Kone Foundation and a Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Research Grant</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ricardo A. Correia is currently supported by funding from the University of Helsinki. </span></em></p>
Debates centred on the role of recreational hunting in supporting nature conservation and local people’s livelihoods are among the most polarising in conservation today.
Enrico Di Minin, Associate Professor in Conservation Geography, University of Helsinki
Anna Haukka, PhD student, University of Helsinki
Anna Hausmann, Postdoctoral fellow, University of Helsinki
Christoph Fink, PhD Student, University of Helsinki
Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University
Gonzalo Cortés-Capano, Researcher and PhD candidate, University of Helsinki
Hayley Clements, Researcher, Stellenbosch University
Ricardo Correia, Post-doctoral researcher, University of Helsinki
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/155664
2021-02-26T17:38:13Z
2021-02-26T17:38:13Z
Artificial insemination in captive lions is bad news for conservation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386687/original/file-20210226-17-g07z94.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=628%2C310%2C3477%2C2249&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/regallooking-lion-standing-on-small-hill-547175677">Shutterstock/2021Photography</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is tempting to believe that technology will save the day when it comes to environmental and wildlife conservation crises. The recent success story of a lion cub, Simba, born <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55837829">at Singapore zoo</a> as a result of artificial insemination, is a case in point. </p>
<p>It was widely reported as a success for wildlife conservation. But presenting accounts of technological success against the backdrop of <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/15951/115130419">rapidly diminishing</a> wildlife loss could do more harm than good. </p>
<p>The psychologist Robert Gifford called this “technosalvation” in his 2008 study <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254734365_The_Dragons_of_Inaction_Psychological_Barriers_That_Limit_Climate_Change_Mitigation_and_Adaptation">of psychological barriers</a>. Gifford outlines the psychological and cognitive barriers (what he calls “Dragons of Inaction”) that impede human behaviour in response to challenges like climate change.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dm8NhKqMaxo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The argument is simple. While technology has improved our standards of living, overconfidence in its ability to solve complex environmental problems becomes a psychological barrier for human behaviour change. The philosophy that “we don’t need to do anything to save the planet because technology will do it for us” is attractive because it absolves us of responsibility. In other words, it’s a quick fix. </p>
<p>Gifford was writing about human inaction with respect to climate change but I believe technosalvation is also having an effect on conservation.</p>
<p>When Simba the lion cub was born in October 2020 – as a result of artificial insemination – his 20-year-old father, Mufasa, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55837829">didn’t survive</a> the electro-ejaculation procedure required to extract his semen. </p>
<p>Simba wasn’t the first lion cub bred this way. The world first occurred in September 2018, at Ukutula Conservation Center, in South Africa, with the arrival of Victor and Isabel to similar worldwide <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6226411/Worlds-test-tube-lion-cubs-healthy-normal.html">press fanfare</a>.</p>
<p>There are scientific and moral arguments for and against this procedure in lions. Lions breed easily <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-truth-about-lions-11558237/">in the wild</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/captive-lion-breeding-in-south-africa-the-case-for-a-total-ban-121131">captivity</a>, when given the opportunity. So why do we need more of them? </p>
<p>Willi Jacobs, owner of Ukutula, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dmxk9r_bto&t=48s">responded</a> to a “misunderstanding” on the part of the public about the value of such technological advances. He claimed that their aim was not to increase lion numbers, but to offer a conservational tool to increase numbers of other more endangered cat populations, such as the <a href="https://www.scottishwildcataction.org/about-wildcats/">Scottish wildcat</a>, the <a href="https://wildcatconservation.org/wild-cats/asia/asiatic-golden-cat/">Asiatic golden cat</a> and the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/petite-cat-worlds-deadliest-killing-more-prey-single-night-leopard-does-six-months-180970695/">black-footed cat</a>.</p>
<p>It is difficult to argue against the usefulness of having this particular tool in the conservation toolbox. But what is concerning is that these stories of technological wizardry are reported, or inferred, as success stories for wildlife conservation. And wildlife conservation is oversimplified as a problem of numbers.</p>
<p>Both the Singapore and the Ukutula cases have been framed as such. The events were reported against a backdrop of rapidly diminishing wild lion numbers. And it’s true that according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/african-lion-populations-drop-42-percent-in-past-21-years/">more than 40%</a> of the wild lion population has disappeared in the last 20 years. Current estimates show wild lion numbers stand between <a href="https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/lion-cub-simba-born-singapore-artificial-insemination">23,000 and 30,000</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Male and female lions with three cubs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386689/original/file-20210226-21-14vn8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A family of lions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/family-lions-resting-sun-looking-alert-731828410">Shutterstock/Teresa Moore</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Against this gloomy backdrop, it is tempting to infer that the silver technological bullet in the conservation toolbox will save the day and if numbers get too low of a threatened animal species, science can make more of them. Problem solved.</p>
<h2>Dragons and shortcuts</h2>
<p>But this is the the kind of thinking that feeds the “Dragons of Inaction” Gifford warned of. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0010028573900339">Psychological research</a> has shown how humans use cognitive shortcuts to simplify their interaction with the world. For example, the frequency, importance and likelihood of events are judged on the basis of how easily they can be brought to mind. </p>
<p>So humans are selective. We respond to immediate, highly visible and personal dangers while discounting long term and less visible risks. Humans are essentially short term reactors, rather than long term planners. Consequently, the slow creep of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss was not on our radar. We didn’t notice it quickly enough. </p>
<p>Technology won’t fix the quirks in human behaviour responsible for the drop in wild lion numbers. Quirks including, loss of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-012-0381-4?hc_location=ufi/&error=cookies_not_supported&code=b7e0e3c4-90a6-4e95-999a-5a41c0d06668">habitat</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282151189_The_Influence_of_Prey_Pastoralism_and_Poaching_on_the_Hierarchical_Use_of_Habitat_by_an_Apex_Predator">loss of prey</a> due to increased competition for space and food with humans, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989414000122?via%3Dihub">desertification</a>, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/112/5/1464.full.pdf">disease</a> and <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073808">hunting</a>. All these issues require a change in human behaviour. </p>
<p>Changing the way humans think and behave is fundamental to protecting and restoring wild lion populations. Anything else is a diversion of attention and resources. </p>
<p>So it’s fine to applaud technological advances, such as artificial insemination in lions. But it needs to be seen in context and it needs to be recognised that it is not a success stories for wildlife conservation. The complexity of biodiversity loss – and our collective responsibility for it – needs to be addressed because technosalvation won’t save the day. Changing the way we think and behave, will.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackie Abell received funding from Coventry University (2016) for research work on human-wildlife conflict (lions) in Zimbabwe.
I am a member of the African Lion Working Group. I'm also a member of the IUCN Conservation Planning Specialist Group. </span></em></p>
Presenting accounts of technological success in captive lion breeding against the backdrop of rapidly diminishing wildlife loss lets humans off the hook too easily.
Jackie Abell, Reader/Associate Professor in Psychology, Coventry University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/152301
2020-12-18T15:26:28Z
2020-12-18T15:26:28Z
Not so fast: why India’s plan to reintroduce cheetahs may run into problems
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375893/original/file-20201218-13-a8h8uq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C407%2C5515%2C2924&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">slowmotiongli / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A nature reserve in India could soon be the only location in the world to host wild populations of four major big cat species – tiger, lion, leopard and cheetah. Kuno-Palpur, in central state of Madhya Pradesh, may not be one of India’s best-known sanctuaries but it is certainly becoming one of its most controversial. In early 2020, the country’s supreme court agreed that wildlife authorities there could <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/supreme-court-allows-introduction-of-african-cheetah-in-india/story-MTyJF0GdfibIp63A7hNKml.html">reintroduce the cheetah</a> to India, 70 years after its local extinction. </p>
<p>Cheetahs once roamed across much of India and the Middle East, but today the entire Asian cheetah population is confined to just a few dozen animals in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/23/asiatic-cheetahs-iran-conservationists">remote regions of Iran</a>. The reluctance of the Iranian authorities to part with any of these rare creatures has led India farther afield in its attempts to secure a founder population. Currently, the favoured option is African cheetahs available from Namibia, which has the world’s largest population. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of Africa and Asia showing cheetahs former and current range." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375907/original/file-20201218-23-4lmr5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The world’s 10,000 or so cheetahs live in a tiny portion of their former range.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333398548_Cheetahs_Race_for_Survival_Ecology_and_Conservation">Laurie L Marker / Cheetah Conservation Fund</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kuno-Palpur was identified as the preferred location for India’s relocation programme as it has large grasslands, ideally suited to the cheetah’s need to build up speed without worrying about trees or other obstacles. These grasslands were formed, in large part, through the removal of villages and rewilding of agricultural land to make way for the relocation of the Asiatic lion.</p>
<p>The Asiatic lion is itself an endangered species. Like the Asian cheetah it was once common right across India and the Middle East, but it now only survives as a single population of <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/science/lions-roar-in-gujarats-gir-population-of-asiatic-lions-up-by-29/1987582/">almost 700</a> in Gir Forest, a national park in the state of Gujarat, western India. Fears that a single disruption event – such as a disease outbreak or poaching epidemic – may be sufficient to consign the entire species to extinction, prompted the search for a second home for these big cats. This search ended in the identification of Kuno-Palpur, <a href="https://qz.com/india/1757900/kuno-will-soon-be-indias-next-lion-sanctuary-after-gujarats-gir/">almost 30 years ago</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A lion sits and faces camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375925/original/file-20201218-19-152lp1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Asiatic lions are smaller than their African cousins, have smaller and darker manes, and all live in one forest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew M. Allport / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2016 India’s supreme court, citing unacceptable delays, ordered the lion relocation process to be completed <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/supreme-court-gir-asiatic-lions-5387343/">within six months</a>. At the same time, the court dismissed a parallel application for the reintroduction of cheetahs, reasoning that it would be paradoxical to elevate the claims of an exotic subspecies (African cheetahs) over those of an endemic (Asiatic lions).</p>
<p>Today there are still no lions in Kuno-Palpur, although it does retain a stable leopard population. This non-compliance has been widely attributed to parochial politics, wrapped up in what has been described as <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3ega9/narendra-modis-home-states-pride-may-be-putting-the-last-wild-prides-of-asiatic-lions-at-risk">Gujarati pride</a>. Despite the fact that all wildlife is deemed a national resource under the Indian constitution, Gujarat appears determined to hold on to its <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/gujarat-govt-not-in-favour-of-translocating-lions-to-mp-6553895">state monopoly on the creatures</a>. </p>
<p>Then, in early 2020, the court made an unexpected U-turn and gave the green light for cheetah reintroduction to begin. Some experts questioned the science behind the decision. For example they point out that the cheetah is a wide-ranging species, known to travel across areas <a href="https://round.glass/sustain/conservation/return-cheetah-will-roam/">up to 1,000 sq km</a> in a single year. Indian parks tend to be much smaller than those in Africa, offering less chance for such free movement. And, while the habitat is currently suited to cheetahs – and lions – some fear that it may ultimately evolve into dry, scrubby forest more suited to tigers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cheetah chases after a small antelope." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375908/original/file-20201218-13-1l8yz8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Springbok hunting in Namibia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elana Erasmus / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is also <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/6-rajasthan-tigers-in-kuno-mp-afraid-of-losing-lions/articleshow/47350151.cms">credible evidence</a> that tigers are already dispersing to Kuno-Palpur as animals from a reserve in neighbouring Rajasthan seek to escape territorial over-crowding. This suggests there is a functioning wildlife corridor between the two reserves, a stated priority for Indian conservation.</p>
<p>This is not a simple issue to resolve. As the supreme court is increasingly called upon to adjudicate between the various factions, so these conundrums are likely to intensify in the future. There is no science available currently to suggest that cheetahs, lions, tigers and leopards can coexist comfortably in the same habitat. It has never occurred anywhere else before, so there is no real-life experience to draw upon. </p>
<p>In my research for a forthcoming book on tigers I found India’s wildlife is becoming <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304002831_Commercialization_of_Nature_Can_Market-Based_Mechanisms_Deliver_Positive_Conservation_and_Development_Outcomes">increasingly commercialised</a> and much of what we accept as rational conservation can just as easily be viewed through an economic lens – one that reflects the benefits of tourism. On the surface, the cheetah scheme feels more like a vanity project than a conservation imperative; no doubt a boon for wildlife tourism but maybe also presenting a threat of intra-species and human-wildlife conflict.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
India’s last cheetah was killed 70 years ago. Should the country import a different subspecies from Namibia?
Simon Evans, Principal Lecturer in Ecotourism, Anglia Ruskin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/142488
2020-08-07T10:49:35Z
2020-08-07T10:49:35Z
Lions are less likely to attack cattle with eyes painted on their backsides
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351299/original/file-20200805-372-13dw8pi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"Eye cows"</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bobby-Jo Photography</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The predation of livestock by carnivores, and the retaliatory killing of carnivores as a result, is a major global conservation challenge. Such human-wildlife conflicts are a key driver of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-top-predators-are-in-decline-and-its-hurting-us-too-21830">large carnivore declines</a> and the <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cobi.13471">costs of coexistence</a> are often disproportionately borne by rural communities in the global south. </p>
<p>While current approaches tend to focus on separating livestock from wild carnivores, for instance through fencing or lethal control, this is not always possible or <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ele.12145">desirable</a>. Alternative and effective non-lethal tools that protect both large carnivores and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-conservation/article/cost-of-carnivore-coexistence-on-communal-and-resettled-land-in-namibia/142960101075A81193D3EEBA8E0E6229">livelihoods </a> are urgently needed. </p>
<p>In a new <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-01156-0">study</a> we describe how painting eyes on the backsides of livestock can protect them from attack. </p>
<p>Many big cats – including lions, leopards, and tigers – are ambush predators. This means that they rely on stalking their prey and retaining the element of surprise. In some cases, being seen by their prey can lead them to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40980790">abandon the hunt</a>. We tested whether we could hack into this response to reduce livestock losses to lions and leopards in Botswana’s Okavango delta region. </p>
<p>This delta, in north-west Botswana, <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1432/">has</a> permanent marshlands and seasonally flooded plains which host a wide variety of wildlife. It’s a Unesco world heritage site and parts of the delta are protected. However, though livestock are excluded, the cordon fence is primarily intended to prevent contact and disease transmission between cattle and Cape buffalo. Large carnivores, and other wildlife including elephants, are able to <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2656.12039">move freely across it</a>, and livestock losses to large carnivores <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/WR16160">are common</a> in the area. In response, lethal control through shooting and poisoning can occur. </p>
<p>While the initial focus of the study was ambush predators generally, it soon became clear that lions were responsible for most of it. During the study, for instance, lions killed 18 cattle, a leopard killed one beast, and spotted hyaenas killed three. </p>
<p>Ultimately, our study found that lions were less likely to attack cattle if they had eyes painted on their rumps. This suggests that this simple and cost-effective technique can be added to the coexistence toolbox, where ambush predators are involved.</p>
<h2>Eye-catching solution</h2>
<p>Conflict between farmers and wildlife can be intense along the borders of protected areas, with many communities bearing <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cobi.13471">significant costs of coexisting with wildlife</a>. The edge of the Okavango delta in Botswana is no exception, where farmers operate small non-commercial livestock enterprises.</p>
<p>Livestock rub shoulders with lions, leopards, spotted hyaenas, cheetahs, and African wild dogs. To protect the cattle, herds (anything between about six and 100 individual cattle) are kept within predator-proof enclosures overnight. However, they generally graze unattended for most of the day, when the vast majority of predation occurs.</p>
<p>Working with <a href="https://www.bpctrust.org/">Botswana Predator Conservation</a> and local herders, we painted cattle from 14 herds that had recently suffered lion attacks. Over four years, a total of 2,061 cattle were involved in the study. </p>
<p>Before release from their overnight enclosure, we painted about one-third of each herd with an artificial eye-spot design on the rump, one-third with simple cross-marks, and left the remaining third of the herd unmarked. We carried out 49 painting sessions and each of these lasted for 24 days. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351301/original/file-20200805-215-1qc58fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351301/original/file-20200805-215-1qc58fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351301/original/file-20200805-215-1qc58fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351301/original/file-20200805-215-1qc58fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351301/original/file-20200805-215-1qc58fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351301/original/file-20200805-215-1qc58fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351301/original/file-20200805-215-1qc58fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nenguba Keitsumetsi demonstrates the eye-cow technique to local farmer, Rra Ketlogetswe Ramakgalo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bobby-Jo Photography</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cattle were also collared and all foraged in the same area and moved similarly, suggesting they were exposed to similar risk. However the individuals painted with artificial eye-spots were significantly more likely to survive than unpainted or cross-painted control cattle within the same herd. </p>
<p>In fact, none of the 683 painted “eye-cows” were killed by ambush predators during the four-year study, while 15 (of 835) unpainted, and 4 (of 543) cross-painted cattle were killed. </p>
<p>These results supported our initial hunch that creating the perception that the predator had been seen by the prey would lead it to abandon the hunt. </p>
<p>But there were also some surprises. </p>
<p>Cattle marked with simple crosses were significantly more likely to survive than unmarked cattle from the same herd. This suggests that cross-marks were better than no marks at all, which was unexpected. </p>
<p>From a theoretical perspective, these results are interesting. Although eye patterns are common in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/biological-reviews/article/role-of-eyespots-as-antipredator-mechanisms-principally-demonstrated-in-the-lepidoptera/F915D76EAC12BE1D68C08376FF951150">many animal groups, notably butterflies, fishes, amphibians, and birds</a>, no mammals are known to have natural eye-shaped patterns that deter predation. In fact, to our knowledge, our research is the first time that eye-spots have been shown to deter large mammalian predators. </p>
<p>Previous work on <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0051738">human responses to eye patterns</a> however do generally support the detection hypothesis, perhaps suggesting the presence of an inherent response to eyes that could be exploited to modify behaviour in practical situations, such as to prevent human-wildlife conflicts, and reduce criminal activity in humans.</p>
<h2>Possible limitations</h2>
<p>First, it is important to realise that, in our experimental design, there were always unmarked cattle in the herd. Consequently, it is unclear whether painting would still be effective if these proverbial “sacrificial lambs” were not still on the menu. Further research could uncover this, but in the meantime applying artificial marks to the highest-value individuals within the herd may be most pragmatic.</p>
<p>Second, it is important to consider habituation, meaning that predators may get used to and eventually ignore the deterrent. This is a fundamental <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.190826">issue for nearly all non-lethal approaches</a>. Whether the technique remains effective in the longer term is not yet known in this case. </p>
<p>Protecting livestock from wild carnivores – while conserving carnivores themselves – is an important and complex issue that requires the application of a suite of tools, including practical and social interventions. While adding the eye-cow technique to the carnivore-livestock conflict prevention toolbox, we note that no single tool is likely to be a silver bullet. Indeed, we must do better than a silver bullet if we are to ensure the successful coexistence of livestock and large carnivores. Nevertheless, as part of an expanding non-lethal toolkit, we hope that this simple, low-cost approach could reduce the costs of coexistence for some farmers.</p>
<p><em>Dr J Weldon McNutt (Director, Botswana Predator Conservation) and Tshepo Ditlhabang (Coexistence Officer, Botswana Predator Conservation) contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil R Jordan receives funding from Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Natural Selection Conservation Trust, and the Hermon Slade Foundation, and is an honorary research associate with Botswana Predator Conservation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cameron Radford receives funding from the Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship and a grant from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tracey Rogers receives funding from ARC. </span></em></p>
Many carnivores are ambush predators. Being seen by their prey can lead to them abandoning the hunt.
Neil R Jordan, Lecturer, UNSW Sydney
Cameron Radford, PhD Candidate, UNSW Sydney
Tracey Rogers, Associate Professor Evolution & Ecology, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/123504
2019-09-25T12:12:37Z
2019-09-25T12:12:37Z
Sneaky lions in Zambia are moving across areas thought uninhabitable for them
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293046/original/file-20190918-187980-1ekemtt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=117%2C64%2C1151%2C824&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Where has this Zambian lion been?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paula White</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Zambia, a country in southeast Africa, has approximately <a href="http://www.africanliongroup.org/uploads/5/0/0/7/5007626/session_minutes_final.pdf">1,200 lions</a>, one of the largest lion populations on the continent. More than 40% of the U-shaped country is <a href="http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0094109">protected land</a>, with over 120,000 square miles of national parks, sanctuaries and game management areas for lions to roam.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293818/original/file-20190924-51463-5pwiyp.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293818/original/file-20190924-51463-5pwiyp.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293818/original/file-20190924-51463-5pwiyp.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293818/original/file-20190924-51463-5pwiyp.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293818/original/file-20190924-51463-5pwiyp.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293818/original/file-20190924-51463-5pwiyp.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293818/original/file-20190924-51463-5pwiyp.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293818/original/file-20190924-51463-5pwiyp.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zambia’s lion populations benefit from lots of protected lands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217179">Curry et al., PLOS ONE 2019</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Zambian lions are split into two subpopulations, with one in the Greater Kafue Ecosystem in the west and the other in the Luangwa Valley Ecosystem in the east. Between these two geographically different regions lies Lusaka, Zambia’s largest city, which is surrounded by farmland.</p>
<p>People had assumed that the two groups of lions <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-012-0381-4">did not – even could not – mix</a>. After all, they’re separated by a geographical barrier: the two regions feature different habitats, with the east an offshoot of the Great Rift Valley system and the west part of the southern savannas. The lions are also separated by what’s called an <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/201308110044.html">anthropogenic barrier</a>: a big city that lacks wildlife protection, making it seemingly unsuitable for lions.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=a_TzvI0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">So my</a> <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paula_White4">colleagues</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vAkgkSsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">and I</a> were surprised when we found that a small number of lions are in fact <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217179">moving across the area</a> in between presumed to be uninhabitable by lions. These sneaky lions – and their mating habits – are causing the high levels of genetic diversity we found in the entire Zambian lion population.</p>
<h2>Identifying which genes are where</h2>
<p>Working with the Zambian Wildlife Authority, <a href="http://safariclubfoundation.org/zambia-lion-project/">biologist Paula White</a> collected hundreds of biological samples from lions across Zambia between 2004 and 2012. Eventually a box of this hair, skin, bone and tissue, meticulously packaged and labeled with collection notes and sampling locations, arrived at my lab at Texas A&M University.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293826/original/file-20190924-51463-1693ods.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293826/original/file-20190924-51463-1693ods.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293826/original/file-20190924-51463-1693ods.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293826/original/file-20190924-51463-1693ods.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293826/original/file-20190924-51463-1693ods.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293826/original/file-20190924-51463-1693ods.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293826/original/file-20190924-51463-1693ods.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293826/original/file-20190924-51463-1693ods.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unwrapping African samples in a Texas lab.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caitlin J. Curry</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our goal was to investigate genetic diversity and the movement of various genes across Zambia by extracting and analyzing DNA from the lion samples.</p>
<p>From 409 lions found inside and outside of protected lands, I looked at two kinds of genes, mitochondrial and nuclear. You inherit mitochondrial DNA only from your mom, while you inherit nuclear DNA from both of your parents. Because of these differences, mitochondrial and nuclear genes can tell different genetic stories that, when combined, paint a more complete picture of how a population behaves.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293828/original/file-20190924-51410-1jwh2lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293828/original/file-20190924-51410-1jwh2lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293828/original/file-20190924-51410-1jwh2lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293828/original/file-20190924-51410-1jwh2lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293828/original/file-20190924-51410-1jwh2lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293828/original/file-20190924-51410-1jwh2lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293828/original/file-20190924-51410-1jwh2lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293828/original/file-20190924-51410-1jwh2lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Both nuclear (left) and mitochondrial (right) analyses show two genetically distinct Zambian lion subpopulations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/f5CFy6-FaC4">Photo by Wade Lambert, diagram by Caitlin J. Curry</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My mitochondrial analysis verified that, genetically, there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143827">two isolated subpopulations of lions</a> in Zambia, one in the east and one in the west. However, by also looking at the nuclear genes, we found evidence that small numbers of lions are moving across the “unsuitable” habitat. Including nuclear genes provided a more complex picture that tells us not only which lions were moving but also where.</p>
<h2>Genes on the move as lions roam</h2>
<p>The amount of variation from alternate forms of genes found within a population is known as genetic diversity. Genetic diversity is important for a wildlife population because more genetic options give animals a greater chance for adaptation in a changing environment. Genetic diversity can also tell biologists about ways a population can fluctuate.</p>
<p>To a geneticist, migration, also referred to as <a href="https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_21">gene flow</a>, is the movement of genes from one geographical place to another. Mitochondrial DNA, inherited from the mother, can only tell researchers where genes from mom have been.</p>
<p>In the lion mating system, males travel long distances to find new prides, while females remain in or close to the pride they were born in. So, for the lion, it’s primarily males that are responsible for the movement of genes between prides. This male-mediated gene flow explains the lack of gene flow seen in mitochondrial genes compared to that of nuclear genes – female lions aren’t making the journey, but they do mate with new males who come from far away.</p>
<p>Male-mediated gene flow has helped keep the lions of Zambia genetically healthy, increasing genetic diversity by introducing new genes to new areas as male lions move between subpopulations. The eastern and western subpopulations each have high levels of genetic diversity; since only a few lions move between the groups each generation, the subpopulations stay genetically distinct.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293829/original/file-20190924-51434-1bwagis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293829/original/file-20190924-51434-1bwagis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293829/original/file-20190924-51434-1bwagis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293829/original/file-20190924-51434-1bwagis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293829/original/file-20190924-51434-1bwagis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293829/original/file-20190924-51434-1bwagis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293829/original/file-20190924-51434-1bwagis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293829/original/file-20190924-51434-1bwagis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How genetically similar are individual lions? Represented by dots, individuals clustered together share more genes than those far apart. Lion dots are colored based on which national park they were found in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217179">Curry et al, PLOS ONE, 2019</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My colleagues and I were also able to determine where the lions are moving based on which individuals are more <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_by_distance">genetically similar to each other</a>. Lions in the North and South Luangwa National Parks, part of the eastern subpopulation, appear completely separated from the western subpopulation. Gene flow is occurring through the southern regions of the eastern subpopulation.</p>
<p>Lions are most likely traveling a route between the Lower Zambezi National Park and eastern corridor to the Kafue National Park in the west, possibly along the Kafue River. We can’t tell which way they’re moving, but by looking at where lions are more closely related, we can see where genes are being moved.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293833/original/file-20190924-51463-q5av8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293833/original/file-20190924-51463-q5av8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293833/original/file-20190924-51463-q5av8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293833/original/file-20190924-51463-q5av8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293833/original/file-20190924-51463-q5av8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293833/original/file-20190924-51463-q5av8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293833/original/file-20190924-51463-q5av8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293833/original/file-20190924-51463-q5av8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s male lions that travel to find new prides.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paula White</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lion data can help manage wildlife overall</h2>
<p>Human-lion conflict is a big issue in Zambia, <a href="https://www.cms.int/sites/default/files/document/ac27_cites_periodic_rev_status_african_lion_across_range_e.pdf">particularly outside of protected land</a>. If lions were moving across human dominated areas, you’d think they’d be seen and reported. But these lions are sneaking through virtually undetected – until we look at their genes. </p>
<p>As a large, charismatic carnivore, lion research and conservation influences many other species that share their habitat.</p>
<p>Wildlife managers can use these findings to help with lion conservation and other wildlife management in and around Zambia. Now that we generally know where lions are moving, managers can focus on these areas to find the actual route the big cats are taking and work to maintain or even increase how many lions can move across these areas. One of the ways of doing this is by creating more protected land, like corridors, to better connect suitable habitat.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This project received funding from Zambia Wildlife Authority, Professional Hunters Association of Zambia, Safari Hunters and Outfitters Association of Zambia, the Boore Family Foundation, Dallas Safari Club, Safari Club International Foundation and the Texas A&M Foundation. </span></em></p>
Male lions are responsible for the movement of genes between prides. New research confirmed that the genes are traveling long distances – even though no one has been spotting the lions on the journey.
Caitlin J. Curry, Phd Student in absentia of Veterinary Pathobiology, Texas A&M University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/121131
2019-07-30T13:24:20Z
2019-07-30T13:24:20Z
Captive lion breeding in South Africa: the case for a total ban
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286008/original/file-20190729-43104-78mfnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lion bones masquerade as tiger bones in China.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_Africa-Johannesburg-Lion_Park01.jpg">Wikimedia commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A <a href="https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.uk/news/lions-and-tigers-being-farmed-bone-wine-and-other-traditional-medicine">new report</a> by global NGO, World Animal Protection, provides a damning indictment on the captive predator breeding industry. Big cats are being bred for the use of their bones in traditional Chinese medicine. China is estimated to house about <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/07/wildlife-watch-news-captive-tiger-farms-trafficking-investigation-vietnam-laos/">8 000 tigers</a> in captivity, while South Africa may have as many as <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-ongoing-disgrace-of-south-africas-captive-bred-lion-trade">14 000 lions</a>. Nontobeko Mtshali asks Ross Harvey to analyse the issues around captive breeding in South Africa.</em></p>
<p><strong>Is the South African government doing enough to manage the fact that it’s got the biggest number of wild cats in captivity?</strong></p>
<p>No. The fact that it has the <a href="https://www.bornfree.org.uk/storage/media/content/files/Publications/Born_Free_Lion_Breeding_Report.pdf">largest number</a> of big cats in captivity in the world – anywhere north of 8 000 – across an estimated 300 facilities – is <a href="https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/PCEA-Captive-Lion-Breeding-Colloquium-Report-20181108.pdf">evidence</a> of an industry out of control. It remains largely unregulated. </p>
<p>The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/resources/reports/the-economics-of-captive-predator-breeding-in-south-africa-2/">admits</a> that it doesn’t know how many facilities there are. Nor does it know how many predators are in captivity. </p>
<p>Captive breeding is permissible under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The trade in products arising from it is permitted under an annotation. But the International Union for the Conservation of Nature – the world’s foremost conservation body – has <a href="https://portals.iucn.org/congress/motion/009">unequivocally called for its termination</a>. </p>
<p>The South African government has been slow to act against the industry despite significant welfare concerns. These include the fact that regular practices include removing cubs born in captivity from their mothers a few hours after birth. And that they are regularly sold into the captive-origin (canned) hunting industry after they’ve outlived their usefulness, or sold directly into the Asian tiger bone trade. </p>
<p>On top of this South Africa’s legal trade is <a href="https://eia-international.org/report/the-lions-share/">actively encouraging</a> the consumption of tiger parts, which is imperilling highly endangered wild tigers. This is because lion bones masquerade as tiger bones in China, where the purchase of tiger products is illegal. </p>
<p>The government’s interpretation that the industry can continue, provided it draws up legislation to govern it, contradicts <a href="https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/PCEA-Captive-Lion-Breeding-Colloquium-Report-20181108.pdf">a set of resolutions</a> articulated by the country’s parliament in 2018 that called for laws to be reviewed with a view to shutting the industry down. There is no room in that instruction for the government to continue allowing the industry.</p>
<p><strong>What are the biggest issues it should be addressing?</strong></p>
<p>In my view, any new law should terminate the industry. </p>
<p>There is a counter-argument to this, that breeding <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comments?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217409">may provide a buffer</a> against wild lion exploitation. But this remains speculative, as the poaching of wild lions isn’t declining. There are probably fewer lions left in the wild than rhinos. </p>
<p>Also, legal supply availability undermines efforts to reduce demand. And the idea that South Africa and CITES can successfully regulate a legal trade in captive-bred lion parts or govern the industry well is a fantasy. The government has neither the will nor the resources to do this. </p>
<p>In fact it’s <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/07/lion-numbers-halved-since-original-lion-king/">not clear</a> that a continued legal trade can have any positive conservation value. The price of lion skeletons would have to be just right –- a Goldilocks price that incentivised farming but somehow simultaneously disincentivised poaching. In an <a href="https://www.up.ac.za/media/shared/61/WP/wp_2015_33.zp56983.pdf">excellent scientific article</a> on why a legal trade in rhino horn will not solve the rhino poaching problem, Douglas Crookes and James Blignaut show that it is always cheaper for a poacher to extract parts from wild slaughtered animals than to farm them sustainably. </p>
<p>Legal trade only works if it crowds out illegal supply, and that is almost <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40603279">economically impossible</a>. It is further compounded by the fact that some consumers are after evidently wild-sourced product.</p>
<p>Finally, welfare considerations of lions’ lives in captivity bestow a responsibility on the government to end the industry. There are no easy answers. But South Africa’s Constitutional Court <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2016/46.html">has ruled</a> that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>welfare and animal conservation together reflect two intertwined values.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>What useful research has been done to help guide it in its decision-making?</strong></p>
<p>Both sides use research to bolster their arguments.</p>
<p>The government is citing a study it commissioned that was <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comments?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217409">published</a> in an academic journal article last year. It conveys findings from a survey of a large proportion of South Africa’s breeders. </p>
<p>The government has indicated that it takes one finding in particular to be concerning – some breeders intimated that they would find illegal channels to sell their skeletons if the government’s export quota was too restrictive. Policy-making to accommodate these threats looks more like a hostage negotiation than a well-considered and impartial plan. </p>
<p>The article also argues that South Africa should continue to allow the legal industry to flourish so as to avoid introducing a price-shock to the market. </p>
<p>But parliamentarians point to a <a href="https://www.bornfree.org.uk/publications/cash-before-conservation">number</a> of <a href="https://emsfoundation.org.za/wp-content/uploads/THE-EXTINCTION-BUSINESS-South-Africas-lion-bone-trade.pdf">reports</a> and a <a href="http://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Harvey_180818_WorkingPaper_PredatorBreedingSA.pdf">working paper</a> have been published to examine the various problematic elements of the lion bone trade and the captive predator breeding industry. These informed parliament’s resolution to shut the industry down. But they have largely been ignored by the government.</p>
<p><strong>What moral issues should it consider?</strong></p>
<p>If welfare and conservation are inextricably linked, then the industry should be terminated on those grounds alone. But there’s a more pernicious moral issue at play. </p>
<p>Justifying the continuation of predator breeding farms on the grounds that there is no causally established relationship between farming and increased poaching is a form of <a href="https://www-cambridge-org.ezproxy.uct.ac.za/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F14B8EC7C395C77EB4D803E1A5535B8A/S0265052509090128a.pdf/interpretation_of_maximizing_utilitarianism.pdf">crude utilitarianism</a>. The utility to be maximised is a limited increase in wild lion and tiger poaching. If breeding serves that end, the means are justified. </p>
<p>This calls us to ignore the suffering of individual animals, which is morally objectionable. Science is not value-neutral, nor is its practice always impartial. It should never be used to ignore ethics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121131/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Harvey previously worked for the South African Institute of International Affairs, which conducted two research projects for Stop Ivory and the Humane Society International respectively. He is now a freelance economist who works with the Conservation Action Trust. </span></em></p>
South Africa has the biggest captive big cat industry in the world and it is largely unregulated.
Ross Harvey, Independent Economist; PhD Candidate, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/120660
2019-07-21T20:02:30Z
2019-07-21T20:02:30Z
It’s Sarabi’s pride, Mufasa just lives there: a biologist on The Lion King
<p>Last week saw the release of the rebooted The Lion King, an attempt to capitalise on the billion-dollar success of the 1994 original. With a star-studded cast, the reboot closely follows the plot of the first movie (spoilers to follow, obviously).</p>
<p>Mufasa, king of the lions (and of every other creature in his territory), raises his son Simba to follow in his footsteps. But Mufasa is murdered by his jealous brother Scar, and his young heir is chased into the desert. Years pass, and eventually Simba reclaims his rightful place as the ruler of Pride Rock. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lions-sometimes-suffer-if-they-attack-a-porcupine-so-why-do-they-do-it-117849">Lions sometimes suffer if they attack a porcupine. So why do they do it?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The remake is likely to be the box office hit of 2019. But in my job as a big cat biologist, I spend plenty of time with Pride Rock’s real-life counterparts. While Disney was somewhat accurate, the real life dynamics of a lion pride in Uganda or Tanzania’s national parks can be far more Game of Thrones than The Circle of Life. </p>
<h2>Sarabi’s pride: the anchors of lion society</h2>
<p>The key to survival in lion society is strength in numbers, and lionesses are the anchors of lion prides. They form a matrilineal society, and generally stay in the territory of their birth. It is the males that leave. </p>
<p>The Lion King gets the fundamental premise of pride society right: its strength is the <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/293/5530/690">number of lionesses</a> in a pride. </p>
<p>You might assume this would be for successful hunting, but far more fundamentally, it is the key to successfully raising young. Lionesses will often give birth at a similar time (usually a few months apart). This means they can suckle each other’s cubs. </p>
<p>Genetically, this makes sense, as they are related as mothers, sisters, aunts and nieces. If one lioness dies, a relative will raise her offspring. Moreover the strength of numbers means lionesses can defend their cubs from males trying to kill them. </p>
<p>Males (typically not the father) will kill cubs to force their mothers back into heat. Infanticide is one of the the leading causes of death for young lions; about <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2013/08/serengeti-lions/">25% of all lion cubs</a> will die in this way. It is perhaps understandable why Disney chose to omit this aspect of lion society from their children’s films. </p>
<h2>Scar and Mufasa would be partners, not enemies</h2>
<p>Where the Lion King takes a turn towards fiction is in the relationship between Scar and Mufasa. In the film they are brothers, and enemies. But in real life they would be partners and rely intimately on each other. </p>
<p>In lion society, young males are evicted from their mothers’ pride once they mature. To survive they <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/282839a0%E2%80%8B">band together</a>, looking for a new pride they can take up residency in and sire offspring. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k0hcFLeuUDc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The more males in a coalition, the higher the likelihood they will secure tenure in a new female pride. Yes, Mufasa and Scar may have had the odd squabble over mating rights to females in the pride, but they wouldn’t kill each other. </p>
<p>Instead, their fight would be with other males. Arguably the best example of this was seen in the mid-2000s in South Africa’s Sabi-Sands game reserve. A coalition of six adolescent males, <a href="https://africageographic.com/blog/the-legend-of-the-mapogo-lions/">known as the Mapogos</a> (meaning rogues or vigilantes), joined forces to rule an area of 170,000 acres for six years.</p>
<p>They sired a multitude of offspring, but killed at least 40 cubs, females and adult males during their reign, before finally being dispatched by two other lion coalitions (the Majingilanes and the Southern Pride).</p>
<p>Interestingly, in the 1994 original Scar was the bearer of a gorgeous, black mane, far darker than his brother Mufasa’s. Seminal experiments with dummy lions showed lionesses <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/297/5585/1339%E2%80%8B">prefer males with darker manes</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XkU23m6yX04?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Scar’s dark mane would be irresistible to lionesses. In real life, however, lions generally do not command armies of hyenas.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Those same dark-maned males feature more testosterone and can heal up quicker after big fights. Rather than the outcast Scar is made out to be, his black mane would be an important indicator of fitness and very sexy to lionesses! </p>
<h2>Run away and (really) never return</h2>
<p>One of the key moments in The Lion King is Simba leaving his mother’s pride, fuelled by guilt over Mufasa’s death. </p>
<p>The act of leaving is dead right, but it would not have been voluntary. Adult lions cannot stand the presence of young and upcoming males in their areas, although they will tolerate young cubs to a degree. When males are between two and a half and about four, they are forcibly evicted by their fathers, uncles and other pride members. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c9ZyCDy9EEI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>I recently saw one of my favourite Ugandan lions, a 3 year-old male called Jacob (pictured below), get swatted around by a coalition of three massive mature males. Jacob immediately submitted, laying on his back and cowering. Simba’s journey away from home would not have been a smooth one.</p>
<p>When lions leave their birth pride, they’re setting out on a long, arduous journey (which makes it all the more important to have your brother or cousin with you). </p>
<p>Lions can move hundreds of kilometres in search of a new “home”, a new pride they can challenge the incumbent males for. They can cross electrified fences into new reserves, move across cattle farms and even <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/CDE002EC458890809D81DDE543821D99/S0952836902003126a.pdf/reduced_dispersal_and_opportunistic_territory_acquisition_in_male_lions_panthera_leo.pdf">international borders</a>.</p>
<p>The likelihood of Simba returning to his mother’s pride are next to none, barring some extreme event resulting in the males dying (for example trophy hunters or poachers). Of course, if he did return, it would be to mate with as many lionesses as he could, many of whom – if not all – would be closely related to him. </p>
<p>While I personally revel in the opportunity to study lion society in its totality, even the fights and hardships, I can understand why Disney chose to skim over some of these aspects of lion life in favour of fantasy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dynasties-lions-may-disappear-without-urgent-funding-for-conservation-107116">Dynasties: Lions may disappear without urgent funding for conservation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Although the story of The Lion King is ultimately positive, African lions are thought to have undergone a <a href="https://theconversation.com/dynasties-lions-may-disappear-without-urgent-funding-for-conservation-107116">50% decline</a> since the original film. The new Lion King gives us all an opportunity to be inspired by this magnificent cat and help its conservation in the wild.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Carbone receives government funding through Research England.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Richard Braczkowski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Lions don’t generally have armies of hyenas, but not every aspect of The Lion King is inaccurate.
Alexander Richard Braczkowski, PhD Candidate - Wildlife Cameraman, The University of Queensland
Chris Carbone, Senior Research Fellow, Zoological Society of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/120040
2019-07-09T12:55:11Z
2019-07-09T12:55:11Z
Lion and tiger farming may be inhumane, but we don’t know if it increases poaching
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283307/original/file-20190709-44453-1cfh49c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Around 1,000 tigers are kept at this facility in China.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">World Animal Protection</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is never pleasant to see wild animals caged and abused. A new report by the NGO <a href="https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.uk/news/lions-and-tigers-being-farmed-bone-wine-and-other-traditional-medicine">World Animal Protection</a> suggests that captive-breeding operations for lions and tigers have expanded to meet an increasing demand for big cat products used in traditional Asian medicine. While this is clearly bad news for the captive cats themselves, confined in often horrible conditions, we are not convinced by the report’s findings on what this means for wild populations.</p>
<p>Animal welfare organisations often <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/wildlife/species_news/tiger_farming/">suggest</a> that farming wild species will lead to an increased loss of animals from their natural habitats. Either this is because animals are taken from the wild to stock the farms, or because the sale of farmed products increases demand for the wild version, leading to more illegal killing (also known as “poaching”). </p>
<p>For instance, the new report found anecdotal evidence that wild lionesses were sometimes killed in order to capture their cubs and smuggle them into captive facilities to diversify the gene pool and reduce inbreeding problems. World Animal Protection suggests that by “sustaining demand for [big cat] products” these farming operations are “exacerbating the decline” of big cats in the wild.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283312/original/file-20190709-44472-1vyh2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283312/original/file-20190709-44472-1vyh2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283312/original/file-20190709-44472-1vyh2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283312/original/file-20190709-44472-1vyh2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283312/original/file-20190709-44472-1vyh2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283312/original/file-20190709-44472-1vyh2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283312/original/file-20190709-44472-1vyh2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The farms mostly rear big cats for traditional ‘medicines’, like this tiger bone ointment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">World Animal Protection</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, we argue there is insufficient data to prove that overall poaching of lions or tigers has increased specifically because of these farming operations. Even if poaching has increased since farming operations have expanded, there’s not yet been a cause-effect mechanism found to prove that farming has contributed to an increase in poaching. To understand this conundrum, we would need to look at the counterfactual: with all other things being equal, what happens to overall poaching numbers when there is or is not farming?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.traffic.org/site/assets/files/2474/bones_of_contention_report.pdf">One study</a> that looked at the impact of South Africa’s lion farms found that the trade had negligible effects on wild lion populations. <a href="https://www.traffic.org/publications/reports/reduced-to-skin-and-bones-re-examined-short/">Another report</a> found that seizures of illegal tiger parts were increasing, but attributed it to expanding tiger farm operations (so more supply flowing in the illegal trade) rather than increased poaching of wild tigers. It is also not clear if an increase in enforcement effort could partly explain this increase in seizures reported. Again, to really understand a cause-effect relationship, we need more (and better) data.</p>
<h2>Taking the pressure off</h2>
<p>In some instances, farming of wild animals has helped to reduce poaching. Crocodiles for instance were once regularly hunted for their hide and meat. The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation then <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/w7540e/w7540e0h.htm">provided assistance</a> to set up crocodile farming operations, which took the pressure off wild populations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283310/original/file-20190709-44441-mk2wzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283310/original/file-20190709-44441-mk2wzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283310/original/file-20190709-44441-mk2wzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283310/original/file-20190709-44441-mk2wzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283310/original/file-20190709-44441-mk2wzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283310/original/file-20190709-44441-mk2wzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283310/original/file-20190709-44441-mk2wzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283310/original/file-20190709-44441-mk2wzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Why hunt crocs when you can farm them?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Niki Rust</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is, however, one large difference between the crocodile trade and the big cat trade: many consumers of big cat parts say they prefer <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/tiger-farms-trafficking/">wild-caught</a> individuals, whereas purchasers of crocodile leather products prefer farmed, as you generally get better quality hides. But people who say that they prefer wild animal products may not always then go on to buy them in real life, especially if it’s easier, cheaper or more legal to buy from farms. To suggest that farming big cats increases poaching potentially is misleading without providing firm evidence that poaching of wild animals will decline without the farms.</p>
<p>Though some may argue for the <a href="https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1672&context=nrj">precautionary principle</a> (that is, ban everything then work out what the best approach is), until we know more, closing these farming operations may have the unintended consequence of actually increasing the poaching of wild animals. In examples like the lion and tiger trade where farming already exists, we must first understand and tackle demand for these products before bans are put in place, to ensure we do not accidentally increase pressure on wild animals.</p>
<p>It is tempting to act swiftly due to the widespread and alarming <a href="https://www.ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment">decline of biodiversity</a>. However, we caution against rushed actions that, while well meaning, may not be based on firm evidence and could end up creating worse problems. What we really need first is better data on how captive-bred farming affects wild animal populations. The conditions for individual animals on many of these farms may be abhorrent, but if the main goal is to conserve wild species, we must act on science rather than emotion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120040/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niki Rust consults for the Luc Hoffmann Institute and is a member of the IUCN Sustainable Use and Livelihoods group</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Hinsley is working with IUCN and the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration on an investigation of bear farming in China. She is a member of the IUCN Sustainable Use and Livelihoods group.</span></em></p>
New report reveals big cats are kept in awful conditions. But the link to poaching in the wild is not clear cut.
Niki Rust, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University
Amy Hinsley, Research Fellow, Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117849
2019-06-12T08:38:53Z
2019-06-12T08:38:53Z
Lions sometimes suffer if they attack a porcupine. So why do they do it?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276591/original/file-20190527-193518-1dpfzts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A male lion with a porcupine quill lodged in his cheek.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">WOLF AVNI/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not much can mess with a lion. They’re powerful top predators that can bring down large prey like wildebeest, zebra, and even buffalo. </p>
<p>But they’re not invincible, as <a href="https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-east-african-natural-history/volume-108/issue-1/028.108.0101/Lion-Porcupine-Interactions-in-Africa-Including-Impacts-on-Lion-Predatory/10.2982/028.108.0101.full">our new study</a> into the interactions between lions and porcupines show. In the battle between these two very different beasts, the spiked rodents can come out ahead. </p>
<p>We examined historical records of lions that have been injured by porcupines, which allowed us to develop a better picture of the conditions that lead lions to try and hunt porcupines – and what happens to the lions who get impaled by the porcupines’ quills.</p>
<p>There are stories and records of lions getting injured by porcupines going back hundreds of years. In many of these cases the lions’ injuries made it harder for them to hunt or eat. They sometimes turned to easier prey like livestock, including cattle – or eventually humans. </p>
<p>The clashes between porcupines and lions are common knowledge. But before our study, no one had systematically reviewed all the records of lions injured by porcupines to better understand the two species’ relationship. Our team scoured scientific literature, stories in the popular press, and even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r2rDBVFAv4">YouTube videos</a> looking for evidence of lion-porcupine interactions. We also used CT scans to assess the effects porcupine quills had on individual lions by reviewing museum specimens. Our research was drawn from different parts of the continent, including Kenya, Namibia and South Africa.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fSKlgg21dW4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Lions try to take on prickly porcupines.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The team found evidence of about 50 lions that had been injured or killed by porcupines since the 17th century. By exploring these cases, we were able to identify why lions sometimes hunt porcupines. One reason appears to be prey deficient landscapes, given that lions prefer to hunt larger hooved animals. This insight has broader ecological significance – knowing this may help local authorities to put better strategies in place and treat lions that are wounded by porcupines before they become incapacitated and desperate.</p>
<h2>Historic happenings</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_porcupine.html">African porcupines</a> are large rodents that can weigh up to about about 20kgs. Predators – including humans – seek them out for their tasty meat. But this is no easy meal. Porcupines’ backs are covered in sharp quills made of keratin, the same material as fingernails, though much stronger. These quills, which can be needle-sharp, can detach and get stuck deep into a predator’s flesh.</p>
<p>We dug way back into historic literacy, including very early sources. One member of our team, Tom Gnoske, who is an assistant collections manager at Chicago’s Field Museum, uncovered a treasure trove of historical information, including the translation of a diary from June-August of 1656. In it, an official from the Dutch East Company in Cape Town wrote about three different lions that had been stuck with porcupine quills. </p>
<p>Overall, we found evidence of about 50 lions that had been injured or killed by porcupines. Several trends appeared to emerge from this data. </p>
<p>First, we found that lions living on harsher, drier terrain with limited numbers of large herbivores (normally the lions’ preferred prey), such as the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Botswana and South Africa, seemed to rely more on porcupines for food, at least periodically. This was perhaps because other prey weren’t available. </p>
<p>Second, it emerged that young male lions were more likely to try to hunt porcupines than older lions or lionesses. There was a tendency for these males to be wounded or killed by porcupines more often – a sort of a “young foolish male syndrome”. To compound matters, young males weren’t just taking part in risky behaviour: they tended to be alone when they did so. This made them more vulnerable when hurt. In social contexts, a lion can remove porcupine quills with the help of another lion. </p>
<h2>CT scans</h2>
<p>It wasn’t just historical content that helped us conduct this study. We also used CT scans to carefully examine the effects that porcupine quills have had on lions. For instance, we scanned the skulls of two man-eating lions from Kenya killed in 1965, to assess the injuries they had sustained after they had encountered porcupines. </p>
<p>One had been stuck through the nose with a nine-inch quill, and the other had an inch-long segment of a quill embedded in the nerve pulp of its broken canine tooth.</p>
<p>The scans showed evidence of bone infections that would have impaired the injured lions’ ability to eat (or, in the case of the lion with a quill through its nose, to smell its prey). </p>
<p>We have evidence that some lions had attacked humans because of their injuries which made it difficult for them to take down their usual prey.</p>
<p>This is useful information to help understand what can lead lions to harm people. From a conservation perspective it is crucial for lions with embedded porcupine quills, especially in the paws or face, to be treated before they become problem animals. This is already happening in some places, like in Kenya through the <a href="https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/projects/veterinary-unit">David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Mobile Veterinary Unit</a>.</p>
<p>And the study has broader ecological significance, too. The data we’ve collected suggests that by the time the lions are relegated to eating porcupines rather than the big meaty, hooved animals they prefer, there’s already a problem with the local food supply. Historic records tell us that when environmental conditions deteriorate, particularly in areas where lions and their preferred prey are already living on the edge, they often find themselves in serious trouble with nearby humans or their livestock.</p>
<p><em>Kate Golembiewski and Thomas Gnoske also contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Kerbis Peterhans receives funding from the Barbara Brown Fund at the Field Museum, Chicago</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gastone Celesia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The team found evidence of about 50 lions that had been injured or killed by porcupines since the 17th century.
Julian Kerbis Peterhans, Professor, Roosevelt University
Gastone Celesia, Professor Emeritus, Neurology and Volunteer at the Field Musuem, Loyola University Chicago
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/113853
2019-03-21T12:55:57Z
2019-03-21T12:55:57Z
South Africa kicks the can down the road on captive predator breeding
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264870/original/file-20190320-93039-a740u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Once cubs in captivity get too big to be stroked and cuddled by tourists, they're sold into the canned hunting and Asian bone trade industries.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world’s leading lion scientists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605312000695">argue that</a> captive predator breeding has no conservation value. Successful reintroduction from captivity into the wild among large felids is extremely rare. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the captive predator breeding industry in South Africa operates on the pretext that reintroduction to the wild is a viable strategy, and that it <a href="https://academicjournals.org/journal/IJBC/article-full-text/6AC3AF766598">contributes</a> to broader conservation. </p>
<p>The industry’s proponents also <a href="http://www.sapredators.co.za/images/photos/SAPA-FINAL-MANAGEMENT-PLAN-FOR-CAPTIVE-LIONS-Oct2017.pdf">contend</a> that it may serve as a buffer against wild lion poaching. The logic is that if captive-bred lions can supply the market for lion and tiger bones in East Asia, then wild lions will not be poached. South Africa’s Scientific Authority – a body that advises the Minister of Environmental Affairs on conservation issues – made this speculative argument <a href="https://www.environment.gov.za/sites/default/files/gazetted_notices/nemba10of2004_nondetrimentfindingsGN41393.pdf">last year</a>. </p>
<p>But speculation is insufficient grounds on which to continue the practice. Growing <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/recent-news/roaring-trade-in-lion-bones-fills-gap-in-the-market-for-tiger-parts/">evidence</a> shows that wild lions in other parts of Africa are being poached, driven by East Asian demand for their parts. So, while the Scientific Authority is correct that South Africa’s wild lions are not imperiled by captive predator breeding, this does not mean that other lion populations are safe. </p>
<p>Despite these concerns, the latest <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/28092/?utm_campaign=minute-alert&utm_source=transactional&utm_medium=email">development</a> reveals a gaping hole in South Africa’s governance of the industry. The Department of Environmental Affairs – in its first quarterly report to parliament this year – revealed that the industry is still thriving. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-role-in-the-trade-in-lion-bones-a-neglected-story-101842">South Africa's role in the trade in lion bones: a neglected story</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>South Africa’s parliament has <a href="https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Final-PCEA-Captive-Lion-Breeding-Colloquium-Report-13112018.pdf">unequivocally condemned</a> the captive breeding of predators for human interaction, canned hunting and the East Asian lion bone trade. It saw it as a blight on South Africa’s tourism and conservation reputation. <a href="https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Harvey_180818_WorkingPaper_PredatorBreedingSA.pdf">A paper</a> by the South African Institute of International Affairs estimates that the continued protection of the captive predator breeding industry may cost South Africa as much as R54 billion (about US$3.8 billion) in reputation damage over the next decade. South Africans themselves are <a href="http://www.hsi.org/assets/pdfs/public_opinion_poll_on_south_african_lion_breeding_08_20_2018.pdf">overwhelmingly opposed</a> to the practice and believe that it harms the country’s brand.</p>
<p>But the government appears to have kicked the can down the road. It does not appear to have taken on board parliament’s or South Africans’ strong views. </p>
<h2>Policy instructions from parliament</h2>
<p>The parliamentary portfolio committee for Environmental Affairs hosted a <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/26878/">two-day workshop</a> in August 2018 entitled: ‘Captive Lion Breeding for Hunting In South Africa: Harming or Promoting The Conservation Image of The Country’. The purpose was to review <a href="https://emsfoundation.org.za/wp-content/uploads/THE-EXTINCTION-BUSINESS-South-Africas-lion-bone-trade.pdf">reports</a> and presentations from conservation and <a href="http://www.cphc-sa.co.za/association-principles/">hunting</a> organisations on the topic. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Final-PCEA-Captive-Lion-Breeding-Colloquium-Report-13112018.pdf">final report</a> by the committee called for the Department of Environmental Affairs to urgently </p>
<blockquote>
<p>initiate a policy and legislative review of Captive Breeding of Lions for hunting and lion bone trade with a view to putting an end to this practice…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It further called for an audit of captive lion breeding facilities throughout the country </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to ascertain the conformity with the current threatened or protected species regulations and other applicable legislation in light of ongoing and increasing disquiet about the (captive lion breeding) industry.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A lucrative industry</h2>
<p>The captive breeding industry is <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/moving-targets-the-canned-hunting-of-captivebred-lions-in-south-africa/929CD0F7D4825D9DB6CD52DEEE1B9B27">lucrative</a>. Lion “encounter” operations buy or rent cubs from breeders. Some conduct <a href="https://emsfoundation.org.za/wp-content/uploads/Artifical-Insemination-UCC-and-UPta.pdf">questionable research</a> on the cats. Unsuspecting tourists pet, feed, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cuddle-Kill-Account-Breeding-Industry/dp/1775845931">cuddle</a> and walk with the big cats, mostly for the sake of a selfie. Some even pay for the privilege of <a href="https://www.claws-out.com/my-volunteering-experience">volunteering</a> at these facilities, falsely believing that they are contributing to conservation. The <a href="https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Harvey_180818_WorkingPaper_PredatorBreedingSA.pdf">South African Institute of International Affairs paper</a> estimates that the encounter element of the industry is worth roughly $180 million per year, the majority of which accrues to a handful of beneficiaries. </p>
<p>Once the cubs have exceeded their economic utility to encounter facilities, they are often sold into the <a href="http://www.tinashegroup.co.za/">canned hunting industry</a> and thereafter into the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-role-in-the-trade-in-lion-bones-a-neglected-story-101842">Asian bone trade</a>. </p>
<p>Given the recent <a href="http://www.bloodlions.org/">controversy</a> around canned hunting, some breeders sell directly into the bone trade, which has led to the creation of <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/media-articles/lions-in-limbo-at-free-state-abattoir-while-dea-and-daff-point-fingers/">lion abattoirs</a>. These abattoirs execute captive-bred lions for their skeletons. Under the Animal Protection Act of 1962, which prohibits the slaughter of wild animals, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has the power to shut these down. It should do so. </p>
<h2>The problem</h2>
<p>The department’s <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/28092/?utm_campaign=minute-alert&utm_source=transactional&utm_medium=email">defence</a> of the industry in terms of fulfilling its mandate to conserve biodiversity, enforce international agreements and protect whole ecosystems, appears flimsy.</p>
<p>In 2016 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature issued <a href="https://portals.iucn.org/congress/motion/009">a motion</a> that urged the South African government to </p>
<blockquote>
<p>terminate the practice of breeding lions in captivity for the purpose of canned shooting through a structured, time-bound process. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The motion also called for captive breeding to be limited to those facilities that were evidently conservation-orientated. </p>
<p>The Department of Environmental Affairs didn’t mention this. But it has at least proposed an amendment to regulations covering threatened or protected species that would see issuing authorities – the Provincial Environmental Departments – refusing to grant a permit for breeding listed large predators unless they could demonstrate conservation value. What’s unclear, though, is how such value will be identified or verified.</p>
<p>In respect of the audit it was instructed to carry out, the Department admitted that it still doesn’t know exactly how many breeding facilities there are, or how many big cats are being held in captivity. It inspected a total of 227 facilities between 2015 and 2018, 88 of which (38%) were found to have violated existing regulations.</p>
<p>But the department has <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/recent-news/anger-over-green-light-given-to-lion-farms/">re-issued permits</a> for most of these facilities. It did not provide reasons for doing so.</p>
<h2>What next</h2>
<p>The department is in the process of establishing a high-level panel to conduct a more comprehensive legislative and policy review of the industry, though its operating terms have not yet been established. Most of the committee members (except for the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance) seemed satisfied with the department’s feedback. This is difficult to understand given their vehement dislike of the industry and its negative impact on the country’s reputation.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that, increasingly, ethical tourism is gaining ground. South Africa can ill afford to become a pariah again. It therefore has to move faster against industries that threaten its tourism and conservation brand value.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113853/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Harvey works for the South African Institute of International Affairs, which has - in the past - received research funding from the Humane Society and Stop Ivory. </span></em></p>
While the international conservation community unites against the captive breeding of big cats in South Africa, the government stalls.
Ross Harvey, Senior Researcher in Natural Resource Governance (Africa), South African Institute of International Affairs
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/109034
2018-12-19T11:56:01Z
2018-12-19T11:56:01Z
Banning trophy hunting imports won’t save the world’s wildlife
<p>Well-meaning celebrities and MPs recently published <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/17/ban-imports-of-hunting-trophies-to-the-uk">a letter</a> in the Guardian, calling for a ban on trophy hunting imports into the UK. To the novice conservationist, this surely sounds like a good thing, right? After all, trophy hunting kills animals so how could it possibly be good for conservation? </p>
<p>Unfortunately, these arguments are, at best, <a href="https://theconversation.com/trophy-hunting-is-not-poaching-and-can-help-conserve-wildlife-29938">ill-informed</a> and, at worst, they divert attention from the most pressing causes of biodiversity loss.</p>
<p>The Guardian letter states that, over the last decade, hundreds of trophies have been imported into the UK. The <a href="https://trade.cites.org">CITES trade database</a> lists the number of trade-restricted wildlife products entering and leaving a country. A quick perusal of it shows that, between 2008-2017, the UK imported more than 800 CITES-listed trophy products, averaging fewer than 100 trophies imported per year.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1074697924259561472"}"></div></p>
<p>To put this into perspective, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/24/elephant-poaching-drops-africa-but-populations-continue-to-fall">more than 100 elephants</a> are thought to be illegally poached every two days for their ivory, meaning the elephants killed for trophies and imported into the UK are an infinitesimally small number compared to the massive threat of poaching. </p>
<p>Poaching for the illegal ivory trade is <a href="https://theconversation.com/trophy-hunting-is-not-poaching-and-can-help-conserve-wildlife-29938">not the same thing</a> as legal trophy hunting and, while every death counts towards the decline of a species, we must not forget that trophy hunting helps reduce the greatest threat to terrestrial mammals: <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/wildlife/problems/habitat_loss_degradation/">habitat loss</a>.</p>
<h2>Trophy hunting is a red herring</h2>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, trophy hunting is morally repugnant. I cannot understand why anyone would want to kill an animal for fun – just as I can’t understand why anyone with other dining options would eat an animal, as we don’t need meat to survive. </p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12232">Ethically</a>, it makes sense to ban trophy hunting imports if the goal is to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of animals. But there are issues with this line of reasoning.</p>
<p>Habitat loss, where land is converted for human use, remains the biggest driver of <a href="https://www.fauna-flora.org/conservation-challenges/habitat-loss">wildlife declines</a>. Hunting reserves <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-killing-lions-like-cecil-may-actually-be-good-for-conservation-45400">retain natural land</a> for the benefit of trophy species like zebras and impalas, as well as a whole host of other biodiversity, such as birds, plants, insects and small mammals. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trophy-hunting-is-not-poaching-and-can-help-conserve-wildlife-29938">Trophy hunting is not poaching and can help conserve wildlife</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In effect, trophy animals become martyrs killed so other wild animals can benefit from the ever-dwindling resource of land.</p>
<p>By diverting attention from these more pressing causes of wildlife decline by focusing on banning trophy imports, we may be left patting ourselves on the back and thinking that we’ve done our part for conservation and can all go home. I wish conservation needed such an easy fix, but sadly that is not the case.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251337/original/file-20181218-27746-1votb2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251337/original/file-20181218-27746-1votb2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251337/original/file-20181218-27746-1votb2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251337/original/file-20181218-27746-1votb2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251337/original/file-20181218-27746-1votb2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251337/original/file-20181218-27746-1votb2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251337/original/file-20181218-27746-1votb2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Habitat loss and climate change are significantly more pressing concerns for biodiversity than trophy hunting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/deforestation-aerial-photo-rainforest-jungle-borneo-1098811376?src=sAzpQi5gEfzFJGzZoVWk2A-1-0">Rich Carey/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If these animal-loving politicians and celebrities are serious about conserving wildlife, they may be more effective focusing their energy towards the much bigger issues of <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/biodiversity-the-ravages-of-guns-nets-and-bulldozers-1.20381">agricultural expansion</a>, the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/illegal-wildlife-trade-is-one-of-the-biggest-threats-to-endangered-species-and-the-uk-is-a-key-a8103381.html">illegal wildlife trade</a> and the ever-expanding threat of <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/wildlife-warming-world">climate change</a>. </p>
<p>If we addressed these more drastic problems we would likely save far more animals from untimely death while ensuring we have wildlife populations for generations to come.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-arrived-at-a-1-billion-annual-price-tag-to-save-africas-lions-105411">How we arrived at a $1 billion annual price tag to save Africa's lions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If we really want to <a href="http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/15241/">“bend the curve”</a> on biodiversity loss, we may do better by<a href="https://josephpoore.com/Science%2520360%25206392%2520987%2520-%2520Accepted%2520Manuscript.pdf">reducing our meat intake</a>, hold politicians accountable for the UK’s <a href="https://www.theccc.org.uk/tackling-climate-change/reducing-carbon-emissions/what-can-be-done/">climate change targets</a> and reduce our <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/the-human-footprint%23">overall consumption</a> of goods.</p>
<p>Like the signatories of the Guardian’s letter, I too want to protect the world’s wildlife. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking red herrings like banning UK trophy hunting imports will be the silver bullet needed for addressing the sixth mass extinction. Knee-jerk reactions, while imbued with noble intents, will not save lions, elephants and rhinos.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109034/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niki Rust does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Few people could argue that hunting wildlife for trophies is moral, but conservationists have bigger fish to fry to reverse biodiversity loss
Niki Rust, Postdoctoral Researcher, Newcastle University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.