On a Canadian forum there was a thread posted concerning the Africa Events Canada show this weekend. An individual had posted this question: "Why not hunting buffalos for example , why exotic animals ? At the beginning of 20th century in Africa was 5M elephants , now just 300K left . Lions pop. drops from 200K to 20K its not fair , humans having precision tool to terminate them . There is bunch of others animals , hunt them , why exterminate exotics ? Thats my point hunt for food , not for fun."
The response was as follows:
"Again, you are generalizing issues. Firstly in some places in Africa there are very few elephants while in others, the government is conducting a cull because the populations are damaging habitat. The lion populations you will note are extremely low in places where there is little or no hunting. The reason. The locals do not care about the species going extinct. They care about their goats and their livelihood. I can tell you 100% that the animals are used for food, not only for the hunters but for all those people employed by the outfitter. In the place I hunted, my tracking who was a local commented that if he did not get meat from the hunting outfitter, his family would have limited access to protein. Have a look at Kenya, a place with zero hunting. They are struggling to stop locals and poachers from destroying animals. Hunting in places like Zimbabwe fund almost in its entirety the park ranger/anti poacher programs.
Also, I think you assume that the African governments in the various states are incapable of managing wildlife. In most places, that is furthest from the truth. The reality is they fully recognize the importance of hunting and set quota and numbers that ensure a sustainable population.
Far too many people make sweeping generalizations about Africa without really understanding the facts.
I thought this was an intelligent response
