Subsistence, commercial, and sport hunting involve the pursuit and killing of wild animals.

SUBSISTENCE HUNTING

Subsistence hunters hunt animals for food, skins and bone, and at some time in the history of all nations it was an essential way of obtaining food. Today, subsistence hunting is very important all over Africa. In Botswana bush meat (e.g. spring hares, small antelopes, birds) is an important source of protein for many people. Other regions where subsistence hunting is still important include the arctic, and the rain forests of the Amazon and Central Africa.

COMMERCIAL HUNTING

Commercial hunting, where legally carried out, involves the killing and sale of animals surplus to the carrying capacity of a region. The commercial value of game birds and mammals has encouraged many farmers to run wild animals together with domestic stock. This has resulted in an increase in numbers of many species, for example springbok, impala, and blesbok in South Africa, and the saiga antelope in Russia.

Illegal commercial hunters (or commercial poachers) break the law to hunt animals for sale. This is highlighted in Africa by the illegal hunting of elephants for their ivory, and rhinos for their horns. No regard is given to the future of the species, their future economic, potential or to sport. This form of hunting is opposed by both the public and government agencies.

SPORT HUNTING  

Sport hunting, where animals are not hunted for food or profit, but for the enjoyment of the hunter, is subject to increasing criticism. To many, it is repugnant that people should enjoy killing animals. Those opposed to sport hunting believe that we have no right to kill animals simply for our own enjoyment. Sport hunting often revolves around the acquisition of a trophy.

On the other hand, the sport hunter of today does not regard the act of killing as being the object of his sport. If it were so, he could simply buy and kill domestic animals such as sheep or chickens. To the sport hunter, hunting involves the challenge of outwitting the quarry in the wild. It means learning the behaviour of the animal, the habitats it prefers, the tracks and signs which indicate its presence. It requires an ability to stalk prey, and proficiency in the use of one's weapon, be it rifle, shotgun or bow and arrow. To hunt means to be outdoors, the more unspoilt and natural the country and the more challenging the quarry, the greater the degree of enjoyment.

HABITAT AND SPECIES CONSERVATION

The sport hunter is prepared to pay large amounts of money for his sport. In so doing he gives an incentive to the landowner to maintain the natural habitats which are home for the hunted animals. Thus large areas of land, incorporating a variety of habitats, plants and animals are conserved because it pays the landowner to do so. If he was not earning money from hunters, he would have to farm his land conventionally, with crops or domesticated livestock, usually at the expense of wildlife.

National parks and game reserves are a very small part (approximately 6%) of southern Africa. Wildlife in most areas within the region faces major threats from the loss of natural habitats for agriculture, forestry, or human settlement. These natural habitats, and the wildlife that need them, will have to compete on economic terms with other forms of land use if they are to survive.

IF IT PAYS, IT STAYS

In the face of the ever expanding human population and its demands on resources, all resources must earn money. One way of making natural, conserved areas pay, and thus assure a future for wild animals and habitats, is to promote well managed sport hunting.

In the U.S.A., sport hunters requested a tax be placed on hunting goods and that the proceeds be allocated to wildlife management. This fund has raised over 1,89 billion dollars in the last 40 years. While several hunting groups have suggested similar schemes in southern Africa, no such programme has yet developed.

Hi! Handsome hunting man
Fire your little gun.
Bang! Now that animal
Is dead and dumb and done.
Nevermore to peep again, creep again, leap again,
Eat or sleep or drink again, Oh, what fun!
A poem by Walter de la Mare

DID YOU KNOW

* Hunting earn South Africa approximately R200 million each year.

* The Wildlife Society of southern Africa was started by hunters in 1926 when it was called the Wildlife Protection and Conservation Society of Southern Africa.

* In nature, individual animals, usually the weak or old, are killed by predators or parasites. This enhances the productivity and vigour of the population.

TOPICS FOR DEBATE

* Should we reject conservation policies which ignore the right to life of individual animals, thereby allowing them to be killed if the species is not threatened by hunting?

* Can killing for fun ever be justified in a compassionate and caring society? If killing is not the purpose of hunting (as many hunters claim), why not take a camera instead of a rifle?

* Must animals be killed to raise funds for conservation? Is it not a warped system that kills the objects of its concern in order that they may be saved?

FURTHER READING

ON WILDLIFE CONSERVATION. R. Thompson. United Publishers International, South Africa, 1988.

THE CONSERVATIONISTS AND THE KILLERS. J. Pringle. T.V. Bulpin and Books of Africa, Cape Town, 1982.

THE WILDLIFE GAME. R. Thompson. Nyala Wildlife Publications Trust, Natal, 1992.

HUNTING - ON SAFARI IN EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA. A. Wynne-Jones, Southern Books, Johannesburg, 1990.

ANIMAL LIBERATION. P. Singer. Jonathan Cape, London, 1990.

THE RIGHTS OF NATURE. R.F. Nash. University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.

WAR ON WILDLIFE. FALCON, address below.

CONTACT ORGANISATIONS

Professional Hunters Association of Southern Africa. P O Box 770, Cramerview, 2060. Tel. 011-7067724.

Falcon: Front for the liberation and conservation of nature. PO Box 755, Kloof, 3640. Tel.031-751950

Beauty Without Cruelty. PO Box 23321, Claremont, 7735. Tel. 021-61 4583. Branches country-wide.