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The head and skin of a lion, prepared for display by a taxidermy shop in South Africa, are
boxed for shipment to the American who killed the animal in 2010. In response to dwindling
numbers of lions in the wild and doubts about the conservation value of hunting them, the
U.S. has since made it harder for hunters to import lion trophies.
Nitro Express double rifle. These guns, costing
up to $200,000, are favored for big-game trophy
hunting because of their stopping power, and this
is what he was here for, of course—a trophy. Two
of them, actually. An avid hunter whose adventures
had led him to Central Asia to shoot Marco
Polo sheep at 15,000 feet and to Africa to shoot a
leopard, he was now back in Africa for elephants.
According to Marnewecke, the going rate for a
14-day, single elephant hunt is about $80,000. The
trophy hunt limit of five elephants a year in Nyae
Nyae represents real money to the San. A portion
of the fee is paid directly to community members
and to a fund for conservation projects to protect
the area’s wildlife. As for the elephant trophies
themselves, the client would take the tusks home,
while the meat would all go to the San.
Marnewecke and his client—anonymous at
his request, given the controversial nature of
ele phant hunts—hoisted their rifles over their
shoulders and fell in behind Dam, who took off
at the speed of a jackrabbit. Marnewecke turned
to me and said, as I stumbled to keep up, “I swear,
there’s no better tracker in Africa. If it takes 30
miles, he never gives up.”
FROM CHARLES DARWIN and John James Audubon
to Theodore Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway,
the most enlightened hunters have long
viewed themselves as naturalists and conservationists,
committed to sustainability among
animal populations and the preservation of wild
places where they stalk game. The linkage has
become inextricable. Revenues of hundreds of
millions in federal excise taxes levied on hunters
go directly to wildlife management and related
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