[ ::: ♥Keep_Mailing♥ ::: ]™ Hunting Endangered Species In Africa

 

Bloody Trade: Inside The (Mostly) Legal Practice Of Hunting Endangered Species In Africa

By Richard Stockton

 

Big game hunting is serious business in Africa. Each year, at least 18,500 hunters from wealthy countries make a kind of pilgrimage to sub-Saharan Africa with the purpose of tracking down one (or several) of the continent's rarest and most majestic animals and shooting them dead for sport.
 

The trade does not shy from controversy: Proponents of safari hunting claim that their activities are part of a responsible approach to wildlife management and help inject cash into unpopular tourist destinations, while opponents point out that the most desirable trophies come from threatened and endangered species and that the money these hunters bring actually does little to improve local livelihoods.
 

Who are the people who travel across the world to bag big game, and what are they willing to do to indulge their hobby? What animals do they hunt and why, and how do local authorities ensure that their animals aren't hunted to extinction, like so many others? Which are the most popular animals to shoot, and how are they handled after the fact? What is it like to travel to a distant place and hunt some of the largest and most impressive land animals in the world?