I am unsure as to a concerted resistance, but if so i believe it would be cost related...
It would be nice to have it longer than 96 hours, i know there was a two year proposal at one stage but even 3 months would be awesome... even 2 weeks, after all that's more chance than what some Kudu get...
My best always
That Kudu comment got me going.
South Africa as a conservation story.
"It pays it stays."
A phrase that is unnerving in its scope.
Game pays better than cattle farming. More game animals.
Game animals can be farmed. More of them all the time.
Animals can be bought and sold for a profit. Game capture and breeding is a huge business.
Market forces drive prices and commodities. (Bought any Rhino Horn, Lion Bones, Elephant Ivory lately?)
If someone will buy it, they will supply it.
The farmers perspective on supply.
W acquired the lions when all the inedible waste from the abattoirs became a problem.
Each of the ... cattle slaughtered every month produces about 5 kg of such waste more
than 10 tons per month.
His lions are ..... not captured wild animals he bought them all and today farms with
them as he would with any other animal on the farm. It is no environmental or conservation
exercise.
Lions are amazing animals to farm with, says W they are lazy and all they wish to
do is eat and breed. You can feed them with any meat they eat anything. As far as they are
concerned, there is no such thing as rotten meat.
In order for the lions to be hunted, they need to be released and rehabilitated. Some are also
sold at auctions.
According to W, game farming is not only very profitable, it also helps restoring the
environment which had been badly damaged by overgrazing. Bush encroachment has made
successful cattle farming in the area just about impossible at today's beef prices.
His main concern, however, is the profitability of game farming. The conservation of scarce
or endangered species and the improved veld resulting from it, are added bonuses.
(Copied from some Game breeder article I read)
It was very shocking to me, coming from a place that has always had a huge fight against local game ranching (taking wild animals from the wild and farming them like cattle) to see game animals being purchased and sold at auction on a regular basis in Southern Africa. (We are fortunate to have huge spaces and reasonable hunting opportunities.)
It took a significant amount of time to investigate the reality of the culture and the countries to understand what issues I needed to look for.
The issues surrounding people making a living from hunting and how that may motivate them in a different manner than what I am used to.
For those of us that hunt with out friends most of the time, who would question your friends motive or story about what he saw today while you were hunting. I know he is always lying about the size of the one that got away.
How would he benefit from telling you he just saw one go over the ridge? He does not get paid or get a commission if you shoot an animal. His rent does not get paid by your success or failure. That was a brand new motivation in my hunting career and I had to get my head around it.
I invested nearly two weeks into a PH course.
It was the best investment of time and energy I could have made to learn about the realities of hunting in Africa. By no means did it cover everything, but it certainly provided an excellent frame of reference from which to continue my ongoing education in hunting.
"What's a Boma hunt?" Indeed, what the hell is a Boma?
Does a farmer care about your hunt experience?
Record book Nyala being arrowed in an enclosure not much bigger than an urban lot. He still got paid.
Indeed now discovering a whole industry based on producing horn by the inch, colour, etc.
Buying animals by the inch. Something is just off about that.
"Canned Lion"; What the hell is that? A new way to preserve meat?
Now we have; "captive bred", "PAC", "Botswana raiders", "released", "ranched", "estate", etc. It's hard to keep up.
One of the ongoing debates:
To try and distill the issues down into something managable a first time hunter tries to eliminate their concerns by oversimplifying the issues to a style of fencing.
It's NOT North America.
The only way you can have ownership and thus allow hunting on the property year round is to have a fence and the proper permits.
Now imagine this:
South Africa, the whole country is 1,219,912 sq km (51,190,000 population)
Alberta and Saskatchewan respectively 661,848 kmï½² (3,645,257 populations) 651,900 kmï½² (1,117,503 population)
That means South Africa has 11 times the population of Alberta/Saskatchewan in
93% of the space!
Where does wildlife fit in that picture?
As a hunter, you will create the demand for the commodity.
Decide on the story you want to write and make sure that the experience jives with that story.
Ask a lot of questions.
