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Cecil the lion

Aledinho

Aledinho

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Following up on Crimson Audio's post: The Ace of Spade HQ blog that I read had an entry on this that said the only benefit of having an apex predator like a lion in your area is the revenue they generate from tourism and especially hunting. They can get very salty so I won't link the blog but here is a excerpt.

The numbers attest to the program's success. Ten years after the program began, wildlife populations had increased by 50 percent. By 2003, elephant numbers had doubled from 4,000 to 8,000. The gains have not just been for wildlife, however. Between 1989 and 2001, CAMPFIRE generated more than $20 million in direct income, the vast majority of which came from hunting. During that period, the program benefitted an estimated 90,000 households and had a total economic impact of $100 million.

The results go beyond the CAMPFIRE areas. Between 1989 and 2005, Zimbabwe's total elephant population more than doubled from 37,000 to 85,000, with half living outside of national parks. Today, some put the number as high as 100,000, even with trophy hunters such as Parsons around. All of this has occurred with an economy in shambles, regime uncertainty, and mounting socio-political challenges.
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TIDE-HSV

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crimsonaudio said:
Perspective...

http://www.westernjournalism.com/a-...dium=WesternJournalism&utm_content=2015-08-04
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That same perspective almost drove wolves to extinction here and has come close to doing the same to grizzly bears and cougars, has in most of their former range. I've always regarded Africa's main problem as being overpopulation for a subsistence economy. The remaining 10% of lions remaining from the mid 20th century have basically been driven back into preserves, the border of one being where Cecil was killed. He was killed slowly and painfully by a man using a crossbow, because, as a felon, he couldn't own a gun. If we don't maintain some perspective, we'll have a world without these magnificent animals, given man's predilection for not tolerating competing apex predators. I hate for my children to have to grow up in that world, but I suspect they will...
 
Bamaro

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TIDE-HSV said:
That same perspective almost drove wolves to extinction here and has come close to doing the same to grizzly bears and cougars, has in most of their former range. I've always regarded Africa's main problem as being overpopulation for a subsistence economy. The remaining 10% of lions remaining from the mid 20th century have basically been driven back into preserves, the border of one being where Cecil was killed. He was killed slowly and painfully by a man using a crossbow, because, as a felon, he couldn't own a gun. If we don't maintain some perspective, we'll have a world without these magnificent animals, given man's predilection for not tolerating competing apex predators. I hate for my children to have to grow up in that world, but I suspect they will...
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True. Even as horrible as this incident was, the biggest problem faced by Africa's wild animals is loss of habitat. However, that makes it even more important to address poaching.
 
Jon

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92tide

92tide

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Jon said:
there are 1.111 Billion people in Africa and best I can find roughly 70 deaths by Lion a year. This is the perspective of one guy in a billion (literally) who happened to live in a bad area for lion attacks of course he's going to be for it. But painting lions as a serious risk to the African population as a whole is ludicrous
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TheAccountant

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Tide1986 said:
The following deserves quoting:
It was the American “tendency to romanticize animals,” he concluded, that turned an otherwise ordinary hunting expedition into “what seems to my Zimbabwean eyes an absurdist circus.”
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Why then are the Zimbabwean officials pursuing charges against all involved in this "otherwise ordinary hunting expedition"?
In fact, I would say it is the wealthy Americans and the guides who they pay thousands upon thousands of dollars so they can feed their egos with these "trophy" kills that romanticize the animals more than anyone else.
 
Jon

Jon

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TIDE-HSV said:
That same perspective almost drove wolves to extinction here and has come close to doing the same to grizzly bears and cougars, has in most of their former range. I've always regarded Africa's main problem as being overpopulation for a subsistence economy. The remaining 10% of lions remaining from the mid 20th century have basically been driven back into preserves, the border of one being where Cecil was killed. He was killed slowly and painfully by a man using a crossbow, because, as a felon, he couldn't own a gun. If we don't maintain some perspective, we'll have a world without these magnificent animals, given man's predilection for not tolerating competing apex predators. I hate for my children to have to grow up in that world, but I suspect they will...
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and look what happens when the Apex predators come back http://www.yellowstonepark.com/2011/06/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/
 
Tide1986

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Jon said:
there are 1.111 Billion people in Africa and best I can find roughly 70 deaths by Lion a year. This is the perspective of one guy in a billion (literally) who happened to live in a bad area for lion attacks of course he's going to be for it. But painting lions as a serious risk to the African population as a whole is ludicrous
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I didn't know that lions were "native" to all of Africa.
 
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Jon said:
and look what happens when the Apex predators come back http://www.yellowstonepark.com/2011/06/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/
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Very interesting read.

"What we’re finding is that ecosystems are incredibly complex .." Um, Duh!

Every time we fool around with conservation or eradication it seems we find out we have no clue what the result of our action will be. Even though we never learn, and constantly make mistakes, I still think we need to keep trying to maintain some wild areas the best way we can. Like HSV said, if we don't we may lose them for good.
 
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