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Trophy hunting lions + Madagascar + Mara Champagne safari
The butterfly effect is a simplistic explanation of how a tiny movement – like a butterfly flapping its wings – can later result in a far greater effect elsewhere – like a tornado. Your African safari is a bit like that. And the more remote and off-the-beaten-track your destination is, the larger the local effect. Your holiday creates employment and sustainable livelihoods, which promotes pride, long-term thinking and substantial conservation benefits. Convince a friend to join you or follow in your footsteps and your butterfly effect will amplify. This is no bunny-hugger wishy-washy namby-pamby fairytale – it’s proven fact. And I have seen it with my own eyes – many times. Be a butterfly for Africa – create a whirlwind of safari goodness. My team are standing by for your safari enquiry.
This is a good time to remind you about the Africa Geographic manifesto – what drives teamAG and makes us do what we do
Keep the passion
Simon Espley – CEO, Africa Geographic
From our Editor – Taryn van Jaarsveld
Lion numbers have decreased by 43% throughout Africa in the past 25 years, and their range has declined by more than 90%. Trophy hunting cannot be tagged as the primary culprit for declining lion numbers, but there is little evidence to prove the wildlife conservation benefits that many supporters claim.
This week we share one of the most comprehensive overviews of the relationship between lion trophy hunting, community development and lion conservation. In our second story below, Dr. Hans Bauer, an Oxford University research fellow who has been working in the African conservation space for the past 25 years, examines how trophy hunting has delivered (or, as his findings reflect, failed to deliver) for wildlife on the continent, and highlights how local communities benefit very little from this industry. This is an important article that highlights challenges to conservation in Africa, and questions trophy hunting’s true value in habitat and wildlife preservation.
On a brighter note, we shine a light on one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in Africa, featuring tropical rainforests, azure lagoons, and white beaches. Northern Madagascar offers a wide array of weird and wonderful fauna, flora and scenery. Not to mention the opportunity to see fossas and lemurs up close! The extensive guide below is the last in our four-part Madagascar series, offering in-depth insight into travelling this magical land.
Happy travelling Africa to you all!
From our Scientific Editor – Jamie Paterson
In a tiny pocket of forest in northwest Madagascar lives a very unusual lemur. It is critically endangered, and there are believed to be fewer than 1,000 individuals remaining. They look almost identical to the closely-related black lemur (Eulemur macaco) but for one striking difference…
Did you know that the blue-eyed black lemur (Eulemur flavifrons) is one of the only primate species apart from humans to have consistently blue eyes? As far as scientists can tell, there is no shared genetic basis between the blue eyes of humans and those of lemurs. Instead, it is an example of the convergent evolution of a rare phenotype on the distant branches of the primate family tree.
Just a fun fact to keep in mind while reading our first story below!
Story 1
https://africageographic.com/stories/northern-madagascar-biodiversity-hotspot/
NORTHERN MADAGASCAR
Biodiversity, lush rainforests, mangroves, azure lagoons, palm-fringed beaches, lemurs and ferocious fossas
Story 2
https://africageographic.com/stories/trophy-hunting-will-not-save-africas-lions-opinion-editorial/
LION TROPHY HUNTING
Op ed: Trophy hunting won’t save Africa’s lion populations & UK’s ban on imports is a positive conservation step – Hans Bauer
TRAVEL DESK UPDATES:
This signature Maasai Mara safari offers supreme luxury, a private vehicle, hot-air ballooning and champagne breakfasts. And your huge room has magnificent views as far as the eye can see
SPECIAL OFFER – pay 5, stay 4 – Arriving at El Karama Lodge in Kenya’s Laikipia is like walking into your own bushveld home – the privacy and authenticity evoke a sense of peace and relaxation. Enjoy activities to fill your day, or just chill at the pool after yoga and a massage. Expect locally sourced food and mouth-watering bushveld cuisine
Our East African adventure
App subscriber Chanan Weiss and family travelled to Rwanda, DRC and Tanzania’s Mafia Island with AG in June. Visiting Nyungwe Forest – one of Africa’s oldest rainforests – Chanan had the joy of coming across a troop of Angola colobus monkeys. Chanan captured this intimate moment between a colobus and its baby. The Weiss family also experienced straw-coloured fruit bats on Lake Kivu’s Napolean Island, Grauer’s gorilla in Kahuzi-Biéga National Park, and mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park.
“This was a long-anticipated adventure that was better than we could have imagined,” says Chanan.
Book with AG and you too can head out on an African adventure, and spend a few days on the mountainous edge of the Nyungwe Forest at dreamy forest retreat Nyungwe House.
WATCH: Why Africa needs community-led conservation: In this TED Talk, conservationist Resson Kantai Duff calls for a major shift in how conservation in Africa works, showing why the people closest to the land are the ones best fit to care for it (13:32). Click here to watch
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