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THE PRICE ON THEIR HEADS
The cost of trophy hunts in Africa varies widely by
rate, the overall cost can include fees to governments
and landowners and money for community development
support and antipoaching measures.
Minimum price for trophy hunting packages in 2011
(in U.S. dollars)
Mozambique
Namibia
Tanzania
Zambia
Zimbabwe
$24,113
$12,893
$55,530
$19,772
$73,228
$39,101
$76,116
$45,686
Leopard Lion
investment every year, “and you’re not going to
get that shooting lions for $10,000.”
For some, the hunting-antihunting debate
boils down to Western environmentalists trying
to dictate their agenda to Africa—a form of
neocolonialism, as Marnewecke puts it. “Who
gives anybody the right, sitting in another continent,
to preach to us how we should manage our
wildlife?” Hunters make the point that with all
the outfitters paying to operate in conservancies
and with trophy hunters paying fees for the game
they shoot, hunting indeed has made significant
financial contributions to the continent, and to
habitat protection, while all that antihunting
forces have done is make noise.
As for what happens to the hunters’ fees, that
is notoriously hard to pin down—and impossible
in kleptocracies. And anyway, Packer says, when
it comes to funding lion conservation, “it’s such
an underwhelming amount generated by sport
hunting, it’s no wonder that despite years of lion
hunting being allowed in these countries, the lion
population has plummeted.” The International
Union for Conservation of Nature, which monitors
animal populations, reports that the number
of lions in five populations in Tanzania fell by
two-thirds from 1993 to 2014.
Yet hunters say they’ve helped fund everything
from health clinics to schools to water
wells to boots-on-the-ground assistance against
poachers, all while leaving a lighter footprint
on the land than the often cited alternative to
killing game: wildlife-watching in the form of
photographic safaris. The UN World Tourism
Organization estimated that 35.4 million international
tourists visited sub- Saharan Africa in 2015
and spent $24.5 billion. Operations designed to
attract a higher-end clientele that craves a warm
shower, big meal, and cool drink at the end of the
day require infrastructure and equipment, maybe
including a fleet of vehicles.
There’s a danger, some hunters argue, that
too many tourists will spoil the very experience
they’re seeking. “The Serengeti is amazing,”
says Natasha Illum- Berg, a Swedish-born professional
buffalo hunter based in Tanzania, who,
like Marnewecke, leads clients into the bush
for “hunting experiences” and trophies. “The
Ngorongoro Crater is a miracle. All these national
parks that are filled with minibus after minibus
of photographic tourists—it’s fantastic,” she says,
noting that the minibuses also put pressure on
those iconic wildlands. “But what about the other
areas?” she says. “How many people have been to
the area I work in, that’s 500 square miles? This
year maybe 20 people.” Without trophy hunting,
Illum-Berg argues, there would be no antipoaching
there, no management. “I keep on saying:
Give me a better idea than hunting as long as it’s
sustainable.” She adds, “The big question in the
end is, ‘Who’s going to pay for the party?’ ”
THE EARLIEST EVIDENCE of an elephant having
been killed by human hands dates back to a bluemud
swamp in Siberia nearly 14,000 years ago.
MONICA SERRANO, NGM STAFF; MEG ROOSEVELT
SOURCE: PETER A. LINDSEY, VERNON BOOTH, AND OTHERS, PLOS ONE,