New paper says it's OK to kill lions if sustainable quotas are set in place

Dec 19, 2013 12:46 GMT  ·  By
Researchers say hunting lions is not all that bad, can actually benefit conservation efforts
   Researchers say hunting lions is not all that bad, can actually benefit conservation efforts

Towards the middle of November, a picture of a TV presenter smiling next to the corpse of a lion she had just shot dead took the online community by storm, and an online petition demanding that Melissa Bachman be banned from ever again setting foot in South Africa was signed by hundreds of thousands.

As much outrage as the TV presenter's pride and joy at the sight of the body of a dead lion might have sparked, it turns out that hunting such felines and others of their kind is not as bad as people think, and might actually benefit conservation efforts. Or at least this is what a group of researchers now say.

In a paper recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, specialists working with the Imperial College London and the Universities of Stirling and Cape Town argue that it is OK to kill lions, as long as hunters are forced to abide by very strict quotas.

In their report on the matter at hand, the specialists detail that, for the time being, hunting is allowed in 9 out of the 28 African countries that are home to wild lions.

In some cases, hunters are asked to pay up to $125,000 (€90,825) before they are given permission to shoot one such feline, and the money is used to protect the felines' natural habitats.

Hunting quotas have been established in all of the countries where hunting lions is legal. However, it appears that these quotas have little to do with sustainability. Hence, Africa's lion population has declined from about 100,000 specimens to merely 30,000.

In an attempt to solve this problem, the researchers have developed a new method to calculate hunting quotas in various areas and ensure that the number of lions that hunters are allowed to kill on a yearly basis does not negatively affect the overall headcount for the species.

As detailed on the official website for the Imperial College London, the algorithm that these specialists have come up with has been tested, and the results are encouraging, to say the least.

Thus, if hunting quotas established according to this new method were to be implemented in areas that are not home to all that many lions, it would only take about 30 years for the local male lion population to up from around 40 to some 100 individuals.

Once this happens, authorities would be able to also increase the hunting quota from 15 to 22 animals, meaning that people who fancy this sport would also benefit from the move.

“Our model shows that it is possible for lion numbers to grow even where there is hunting, but this only works if you set quotas for hunting at the right level, and in many places this is not happening at the moment. Our new method for setting quotas relies on information that is easy for governments to get hold of and it should be simple for them to use,” explains Professor E.J. Milner-Gulland.

The researchers now wish to test their algorithm in the field and, should their predictions prove true-to-facts, they will recommend that it be adopted on a wide scale.