Big Game Hunting, and Why You Should Care.

Are you among those who are totally, completely against Big Game Hunting?  You know, hopping on a plane, heading off to the Dark Continent and bagging an elephant or rhino or Cape Buffalo?  That's Big Game.

Oh yeah, there's Medium Game, and Small Game.  But for the purposes of this essay, to all but members of PETA, who wish the animals were in charge (they are in Sacramento!), we'll confine our attention to Africa and the Big Five:  Elephant, Black Rhinoceros, Lion, Cape Buffalo and Hyena.  Just kidding.  The fifth is the much-admired spotted leopard.  And it's become a cottage industry to be adamantly against hunting such beautiful and rare and majestic beasts.  

I know, I know.  Most people are dead-set against this form of hunting.  Or even hunting in general.  I get it.  But there's another side of the equation that should be considered.  The economic impact of big game hunting on Africa is so amazingly yuuuuuge it's almost difficult to imagine.   

Example:  An 18-day hunt to bag just one elephant can cost $150,000 or more!  That princely sum covers the cost of preparation, weaponry, travel, the license (roughly $25,000), the Trophy Fee (upwards of $25,000!), the PH (Professional Hunter), the safari crew (as many as 20 local bearers at $375 - $450/day, each!), and all the food and gear necessary for a movable hunt.  And if you don't run across one in the given time, tough!  You lose!  Africa - and the elephants - win.  

Let's put it this way:  A full-blown African hunt for 3 of the Big 5 can cost from $186,000 - $287,000!  That's some serious money!

Buuuuuuut, if you are so lucky as to bring down an elephant, then the real fun begins.  The tusks will be taken, along with one or two feet (wastebaskets!), plus the tail, and maybe the head if the hunter is so loaded down with cash that he feels the need to spread a lot more of it around.  

These parts and pieces will be shipped off to the local taxidermist for him to work his magic.  That'll cost another $5 - $20,000 or so.  The rest of the carcass will just disappear as several hundred local villagers swarm it!  They'll turn it into a pile of bones within one-half hour.  Not a shred of protein will remain once they've performed their magic. 

And that magic is likely all the food their village will have as least for at least the next month. Hunting feeds Africa.  Africa cannot afford to feed Africa, but hunting can.  And does.  And without it, many (more) tribesmen and villagers in Africa would starve to death.

Many did in the aftermath of the Cecil the Lion fiasco.  The dentist who shot this old lion was immediately excoriated, lost his practice, went bankrupt and his wife left him.  And that was on top of the yuuuuuge fee he paid for the license to shoot the animal.  Which, by the way, Africa would not let him bring home.  

Didn't hear about that, did you?

I guess this could be filed under "be careful for what you want, you might get it."

But following this PR nightmare, lion hunts were immediately cancelled.  Along with elephant, rhino, Cape Buffalo and Greater Kudu hunts.  And two notable things occurred in the aftermath:  Villagers starved, and if they weren't starving, they were being eaten by the lions whose numbers had swelled following Cecil's death.  More than 200 extra, unwanted and unneeded lions were counted in the two years following Cecil.  And those lions were not concerned about Political Correctness.  Or, it should be noted, in staying within the confines of their Game Preserve.  

PH's, paid by the Government, were turned loose to cull the lion herd.  They did.  It was a wholesale killing to bring the lion herd down to a level that was sustainable, within their Game Preserve, without being a danger to the locals.  This is called Game Management, and the key to effective Game Management is legal hunting.

No different than what we do here in 'Murica.  Deer tags are offered each fall depending upon the herd size and the need to keep it under control.  Game Management.  Annual hunting fees bring in the much-needed revenue necessary to deal with overpopulation.  And they do.  Deal with it...

So, I'd like to offer up another in a series of The Chuckmeister's little Words to Live By:  Screwing around with something that's working is almost never a good idea.   

And that proves doubly true if you're a villager trying to outrun a hungry lion...