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.
Category Archives: Opinion Editorial
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.
The Extinction Business: Lion bone trade threatens world’s big cats
The Extinction Business: South Africa’s ‘Lion’ Bone Trade is an investigative report by EMS Foundation and Ban Animal Trading that reveals startling and alarming factors that have a significant negative impact on worldwide big cat conservation.
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.
Wild grey parrot trapping methods are ruinous, says new research
A research paper has investigated how different capture methods and other aspects of the grey parrot trade, other than just the actual volume of birds taken from the wild, can affect sustainability of harvest.
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.
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
Why Namibia’s desert-adapted lions are being killed
Namibia’s desert-adapted lions in the Tomakas region of Namibia are being killed off in a sad whirlpool of human politics, with the recent killing of the last of the famous ‘5 Musketeers’ being one such example.
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.
Private game reserves are vital for conservation
Without detracting from the wonderful and critical role that our national parks play in conservation we would like to take an opportunity to focus on the positive achievements of the private sector in this regard.
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.
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
Rhino horn?
Removing the rhino’s horn to prevent poaching is a controversial and emotional matter – as is the related debate about trading in rhino horn
Why you should vote to stop trade in African grey parrots
Sign this petition and help to save thousands of wild African grey parrots!
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.
The risk of captive carnivores
The EWT calls for the public to question the role of captive carnivore facilities and the management of the animals in their care.
Fly SA Express at your peril
Open letter to SA Express CEO, Inati Ntshanga.
Elephant charities – the good, the bad & the gly
In September 2013, a high-profile announcement was made in New York about a bold Clinton Global Initiative, bringing together NGOs, governments and concerned citizens to stop the slaughter of Africa’s elephants. Making international headlines, the Initiative pledged $80 million over three years to counteract the elephant crisis with a three-pronged strategy to “stop the slaughter, …
Continue reading “Elephant charities – the good, the bad & the gly”
A response to the hunting debate
A response from well-known conservationist Gail Potgieter on the hunting debate.
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 …
Lion King or Commodity?
AN ANALYSIS OF
THE LION BREEDING INDUSTRY
IN SOUTH AFRICA
Ivory – the burning question
AMERICA’S ONGOING DEBATE OVER THE TRADE IN IVORY
How the engagement ring proves that we shouldn’t trade rhino horn
Is your engagement ring to you what rhino horn is to the Chinese? We investigate some marketing myths in light of the proposal to legalise the trade in rhino horn.
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
