Trophy Hunting: A Controversial Practice for Wildlife Conservation

Running head: TROPHY HUNTING
Trophy Hunting
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1TROPHY HUNTING
Trophy hunting refers to the shooting practice by hunters to kill big animal such as lions,
bears, elephant, pumas, rhinos by paying money and using license given by the government. The
whole practice is for only pleasure purpose. In this case, the trophy is the dead animal that is shot
by the hunter. However, it may be the skin, head, horn or other portion of the body. In many
countries in the world, the practice of trophy hunting is used as a process of wildlife
conservation. However, when this practice is used in an improper way, it become a serious threat
to the wild animals specially who are endangered in nature. Trophy hunting has become a fruitful
conservation tool for various endangered species in those countries who are using this method in
a scientific and controlled manner. However, in some countries like Kenya, trophy hunting is
totally banned in order to protect the wildlife endangered species. The fund generated from
trophy hunting practice can be used in conservation of wildlife animals WWF (2016). So it can
be said that, although it is not a good practice, it should not be an abolished totally in order to
improve the conservation processes in different cases. In this essay, the beneficial aspects of the
trophy hunting is discussed.
The issue of trophy hunting is very much controversial as it is hampering the
conservation of the endangered and also it is associated with the ethical practices. However
countries like South Africa, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia and some countries of
Africa (almost half of the total countries in Africa) still believe that, trophy hunting is a helpful
practice in order to conserve the species. Moreover, the practice of trophy hunting is legal and
there are various social stigma that trophy hunting is illegal, photographic tourism is an
alternative way of trophy hunting. According to a report of IUCN (2016), trophy hunting
practice has become very successful in South Africa. From the report it is seen that, the number
of White Rhinos has increased to 18400 from 1800 in the time period of 1895- 2015 and after

2TROPHY HUNTING
introducing the trophy hunting program in 1968 there is a stiff rise in the numbers of White
Rhinos in South Africa. In case of black rhinos the number has increased to 3500 in Namibia and
South Africa. In these countries, the trophy hunting helps to conserve 90% of African rhinos by
2015. Whereas only 0.34% of white rhinos and 0.05% of black rhinos were killed by the trophy
hunting. From limited spot hunting of rhinos in Africa, the private land lords had built their own
herd of white rhinos (approx. 6140 white rhinos and 630 black rhinos) on their private lands. A
rhino reserve of South Africa is had managed to increase the number of white rhinos up to 195 in
their reserve along with other endangered species. Surprisingly this self-financed organization
revealed that since last eight years, the key sources of their income was the trophy hunting
(almost 63%). Whereas, only 18% of total fund was generated from tourism and between this
time periods only 7 rhinos were killed. This reserve organization had used all of the earnings
from trophy hunting in the conservation and protection of rhinos. The ban on import of lion
trophy to US had impacted negatively on the income with dropped order of hunting (IUCN
(2016). According to Hurley et al. (2015) the number of bighorn sheep in North America was
almost 1800 in 1950 and after using the funds generated from the trophy hunting had helped to
enhance the number (almost 80,000). In US and Canada, the auctions of Bighorn sheep had
generated almost $350,000 per year and from that amount 70% was used to help the conservation
process of bighorn sheep. In Zimbabwe, the Save Valley Conservancy (SVC) has owned 344,000
ha land to conserve wildlife species and they had almost 117 black rhinos, 43 white rhinos, 280
lions and 1500 African elephants. From their largest property named Sango Ranch, almost US$
600,000 was generated per year from trophy hunting. Another, conservation agency named
Bubye Valley Conservancy (BVC) earned almost US$ 1380,605 from trophy hunting in 2015. In
a recent study in Namibia showed that, if trophy hunting was banned in Namibia, maximum