Botswana elephant poaching debate: Wildlife vet speaks his mind.
Post Series Archives:
Scientists question BBC reporting over elephant poaching crisis in Botswana
A group of prominent scientists have questioned the reporting by the BBC of the elephant poaching crisis in Botswana.
Elephants: Listen to the people of the Okavango – opinion
The elephant – an iconic species that is beloved around the world is not such a gentle giant to the people who actually live with Earth’s largest mammal. This is the story of over 16,000 people from 15 settlements in the eastern Okavango Delta panhandle who are trapped between a river and over 18,000 elephants.
Leopard hunting quota was issued despite official report showing significant population declines
The official report into leopard populations reveals significant population reductions, and yet the SA government has announced a resumption in trophy hunting. Does this make sense? A respected biologist suggests not.
Biologist questions science behind leopard trophy hunting quota
After only two years of no leopard hunting, we now have apparently accumulated enough population data to reinstate a hunting quota and lift the zero quota. I find this very hard to believe for such a cryptic species.
Video: South African rhino doing circus tricks in Russia – what’s next for our wildlife industry?
A two-ton white rhino, sold from a South African farm, is being forced to perform tricks at Russian circuses.
Skye the lion – the beginning of the end for trophy hunting in the Greater Kruger?
The highly controversial shooting of a male lion by a trophy hunter in the Umbabat section of the Greater Kruger could conceivably mark the beginning of the end for trophy hunting in this part of Africa.
Opinion: The (high) road to a Greater Kruger National Park
An alternative, constructive perspective to the Greater Kruger Protected Area is offered, in contrast to the more acrimonious narratives that are doing the rounds in response to the hunting of a lion in the area.
Kruger lion hunted – what we know
A large male lion was trophy hunted on Thursday morning last week in the Greater Kruger National Park.
Zambia’s hippo cull: Valid concerns and questions from those affected
A showdown is looming between tourism operators in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park and trophy hunters, in the wake of the Zambian government’s decision to cull up to 2,000 hippos over a 5-year period in Luangwa Valley, across the river from the tourism lodges – and to award the culling contract to a South African trophy hunting outfit Umlilo Safaris (so much for the empowerment of local people and generation of revenue that stays in Zambia).
Opinion: Africa is not Disneyland
Some imagery that comes to our screens can be tough to stomach, and every now and then Africa really tests one’s emotional make-up.
Opinion: Timbavati increases conservation levy to fund anti-poaching and other costs
An opinion piece that touches on finding ways to increase financial contribution to the conservation effort in the Greater Kruger.
Mr President: Selling wild-caught baby elephants to China is just plain evil
An open letter to the president of Zimbabwe regarding the recent exportation of wild-caught baby elephants from Zimbabwe to China.
Opinion: Hunting’s threat to conservation
An opinion piece in response to Peter Flack’s recent article that offered a hunter’s perceived threats to conservation in South Africa.
Opinion: Elephants damage only 1% of Hwange’s vegetation
One of the main motivations for killing elephants in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe is the argument that they destroy the plants and this is accepted by many as a problem. Let’s discuss whether this argument is not just an excuse for proponents of culling to get more ivory for the ivory trade, or to justify higher quotas for nearby hunting areas.
Opinion: Hunting is sustainable (ab)use
None of the existing role players in conservation understand what is required to save Africa’s vanishing wilderness. The issue is just too broad and deep – and politically charged.
Opinion: The voice missing from the elephant trophy debate? Africans
People are likely to live with wildlife only when they have some realistic incentives to bear the costs of doing so. If wildlife doesn’t in one way or another form part of the livelihoods of people, it will inevitably make way for activities that do. For elephants, these incentives mean tourism and, yes, even trophy hunting.
Land issues: The story of beauty and violence
Land, an emotive subject, a limited resource that builds nations or breaks them. Use it well and you thrive, use it unwisely and you will sink to the bottomless pit of chaos and poverty.
Opinion: The trouble with trophy hunting
Frank Pope, CEO of Save the Elephants, shares his insight into the latest news around the import of elephant trophies from Zimbabwe to America.
Opinion: Too many lions in Kunene
Whether tourism operators and armchair lion-lovers like it or not, there are now too many lions in some parts of the Kunene region. Trying to save the lions that are killing livestock, or harassing the farmers who kill them, including impounding their firearms, will not serve the interests of conservation in the region.
Problem lions announcement: Conservationist challenges Namibian minister
Conservationist challenges Namibian minister in open letter regarding decision to relocate or kill problem lions in the Kunene region.
Kruger should cull 88% of its elephants, says hunter Ron Thomson
Celebrated hunter Ron Thomson believes that 88% of Kruger National Park’s elephants should be culled.
Rhino horn: Recipes for disaster
In the middle of the sixth mass extinction, when 50% of the living species are at risk of extinction due to the ever growing, destructive human hands, the six rhinoceros species are at the tip of the pyramid, among the most endangered species on Earth.
Kruger: Is this the technological future?
Presently, we are able to instantly globally share everything we see and hear in Kruger and just about every other destination on earth. Animal sightings and locations are given in real time and we are able to send photos and videos across a host of social media platforms.
Opinion: Are Maasai cattle to blame for overgrazing in Tanzania?
Living with the Maasai has taught me that conservation is not only about animals but is just as much about us humans; that to preserve any one place we have to be mindful of the local communities that live within it and try to understand the way they view the world to be able to work alongside them to protect mother nature.
Kruger: Impact of social media and mobile phones – good or bad?
Technology and social media have shaped the Kruger experience into something radically different from what it was ten years ago.
The rhino in the room: South Africa’s domestic trade in rhino horn
On the surface, the upcoming legal auction of rhino horn set to begin on August 21 might appear to be a harmless propaganda exercise, but it may in fact signal a deepening of the rhino crisis.
The BIG LIE about lion trophy hunting
The trophy hunting of Africa’s wild, free-roaming lions is not sustainable and has to stop – opinion piece by Simon Espley
Let’s boycott African tourism. Not
Some keyboard warriors regularly call for the boycott of an entire country’s tourism industry in reaction to the death of animals that could conceivably have been prevented.
Rhinos to Australia: is this conservation?
There are plans afoot to move rhinos from Africa to Australia as an ‘insurance policy’ and for ‘safekeeping’ in large grass paddocks amongst the gum trees. Is this a valid conservation project (as claimed) or a misdirection of energy and resources by a well-meaning Western society intent on privatising African conservation into their own backyard?
Opinion: Rhino horn trade = extinction in the wild
It is now legal in South Africa to trade domestically in rhino horn, after this country’s Constitutional Court recently overturned an eight-year ban on domestic trade, based on a technicality.
No Timbavati ‘100 Pounder’ elephant hunt
The last few weeks have witnessed some pretty vicious social media attacks on lodges within Timbavati Private Nature Reserve in the Greater Kruger National Park
Why conservation is failing
There is a war going on in African conservation, and the other side is winning hands down – why is that? Op-ed by Simon Espley
Letter: flaws in plan to sell rhino horn
Examining the concept of a central selling organisation in the legalisation of the trade in rhino horn – a flawed business model
Trophy hunting – a compromise?
Trophy hunting – the debates rage on. This analysis of the arguments put forward to justify trophy hunting makes for interesting reading
How China’s taste for wildlife feeds a killing frenzy
Africa’s extraordinary and charismatic wildlife is clearly under siege from the wrecking ball that is China.
Saving a little elephant
An elephant calf is saved after he became trapped in a dam at Phalaborwa Copper, Limpopo – thanks to the heroic team of Elephants Alive
Asia’s Golden Triangle – a conduit of death for Africa’s animals
The Asian end of the grisly wildlife trade business and a place that has become China’s illegal wildlife supermarket.
An open letter to point out flaws in legalising the rhino horn trade
An open letter to Mr. Hume, the owner of South Africa’s largest privately owned rhino herd, with regards to his wish to lift the CITES ban on the rhino horn trade.
Fly SA Express at your peril
Open letter to SA Express CEO, Inati Ntshanga.
The Thing About Hunting
The thing about hunting is that the topic is so polarising that it prevents meaningful discourse between people who probably have more in common than they care to admit. And, while the protagonists battle it out, the grim reapers continue to harvest Africa’s wildlife and other natural resources. We humans tend to silo information to …
Trophy hunting in the context of community conservation
A thought-provoking blog post about how a well-managed trophy hunting operation has a positive effect on both wildlife and communities.
Is walking with lions good conservation? Probably not.
Is walking with lions good for conservation? NO, despite what slick marketing material and convincing volunteers and promoters may tell you
