Possible relationships between the South African captive-bred.pdfVIP

Possible relationships between the South African captive-bred lion hunting industry and the hunting and conservation of lions elsewhere in Africa P. Lindsey1,2*, R. Alexander,3 G. Balme,2 N. Midlane2,4 J. Craig5 1Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa 2Panthera, New York, U.S.A. 3Department of Environmental Studies, Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA 24595, U.S.A. 4Department of Zoology, University of Cape Town, South Africa 5Department of Economics, Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA 24595, U.S.A. Received 20 December 2011. Accepted 14 May 2012 The trophy hunting of lions is contentious due to increasing evidence of impacts on wild populations, and ethical concerns surrounding the hunting of captive-bred lions in South Africa. The captive-bred lion hunting industry in South Africa has grown rapidly while the number of wild lions hunted in other African countries has declined. In 2009 and 2010, 833 and 682 lion trophies were exported from South Africa, respectively, more than double the combined export (2009, 471; 2010, 318) from other African countries. There has been an associated increase in the prevalence of the export of lion bones from South Africa: at least 645 bones/sets of bones were exported in 2010, 75.0% of which went to Asia. Such trade could be problematic if it stimulated demand for bones from wild lions or other wild felids. Captive-bred lion hunting differs from wild lion hunting in that lions are hunted in smaller areas (49.9 ± 8.4 km2