Mentioning the word ‘safari’ will usually often raise questions about whether you are referring to a photographic or a hunting safari. The two are usually kept quite separate, but it is possible for a single safari to cover both options because hunters like to take photographs, except that their mindset is completely different.
On a photographic safari, photos are taken to showcase the strength and beauty of wild animals in their natural environment. On a hunting safari, people take pictures to show off their courage and their skills with a lethal weapon.
You can probably guess that I am not a big fan of hunting. This is true, but my feelings are mixed partly because I enjoy the taste of venison, so let me share some of my thoughts on this fully loaded issue.
In South Africa, hunting is not permitted in the country’s 19 national parks, but the entity that manages these reserves, SANParks, does practise culling when the population of a particular species becomes too high. Each reserve has a specific carrying capacity of animals that it can accommodate sustainably. Parks issue contracts, and a commercial enterprise receives an order to shoot so many of this animal and so many of that animal. We will have a more in-depth discussion on this topic in a future Real Safari Newsletter.
In order to understand hunters, it is useful to find out what drives them. At one level they can be roughly divided into two groups: those who kill for the meat, and those who hunt for trophies. There is some overlap between the two but this division gives us something to work with.
South Africans who hunt generally do so for the meat. Venison is great when it is prepared with due care. It is supposed to be healthier than beef because it is has very little fat, but it sometimes tastes ‘gamey’. We also love biltong – dried strips of spiced meat - often used as snack food while watching sports on TV.
In some communities, hunting is also seen as a rite of passage, where teenagers, or young adults will shoot a warthog to demonstrate their tracking and shooting abilities. South Africans that hunt usually do so for meat rather than trophies.
As hunting is not allowed on the national reserves, when people want to bag a kudu or an impala to make biltong they have to find a private reserve or a game farm that allows it – at a price of course.
Trophy hunting
The real money is in big game hunting. This is when hunters, usually from overseas, make arrangements with a local safari company operating on one of many private reserves. In such a case, clients often agree on a destination and a price to kill a trophy animal before leaving home.
Trophy hunting is a lucrative business for safari companies because clients can afford to pay in dollars or Euros. They have to pay a separate fee for each animal they intend to shoot; they pay to have the trophy stuffed or mounted; and they relax in luxurious chalets eating exotic foods washed down with the finest Cape wines.
Hunting used be thought of as a highly specialised skill. Only the brave could face down ferocious beasts in a more or less equal fight where the hunter could lose. It was a supremely macho pursuit. That is not true anymore. Shooting a wild animal today is the product of a contract between two parties – more or less the same as buying toothpaste.
You come to an agreement with a professional hunter that will allow you to shoot a warthog, a kudu or even an elephant. The client is big money for the professional hunter, so he makes absolutely sure that you kill what you pay for – and he makes equally sure that there is zero risk to his client. It’s just not good for business if your client gets trampled, and besides, he can’t pay if he’s dead.
There are of course, many different ways of hunting an antelope depending on what was agreed to. A tracker might lead a professional hunter and his client on foot for many hours. They struggle under the hot sun to avoid thorn bushes as the tracker follows hoof prints in the soft sand. When at last a springbok is within range, the professional guides his client to slowly take up his position, hold the weapon firmly and aim carefully before pulling the trigger.
There are of course other scenarios. A completely different type of expedition might go something like this: a professional hunter and his client agree that they will shoot a kudu (a large antelope with corkscrew-like horns). They have helpers to build a camouflaged hide a few metres from a salt-lick or a feeding trough where they know a kudu will surely go. Sometimes the salt-lick and hide will be built in a relatively small enclosure so the trophy animal cannot wander off.
They whisper to each other for dramatic effect and take aim from the hide – and wait. Eventually the targeted antelope walks along plumb into the middle of the client’s sights. He squeezes the trigger. The kudu jumps with fright and either drops dead immediately or the professional hunter finishes it off with a coup de grâce.
Whoever actually killed the animal, the professional hunter warmly congratulates his client for his amazing bravery and marksmanship. They take photos and then the hunter’s assistants measure the dead kudu’s horns.
Can the canned hunting
If the kudu hunt seems somewhat problematic, wait till you read about the lions.
Lion cubs are devastatingly cute. They make squeaky little sounds and thrive playing with (human) children and with each other. Parents pay to have their children pet lion cubs and take photos of them cuddling. It’s another revenue stream.
The owner of the wild animal farm received the cubs when their mother was shot and it seemed such a waste just to leave the cubs in the bush where they would surely be devoured by hyenas.
As the cubs get older, they have to be kept behind a fence because they have grown quickly and could scratch, or even nip, young children. Bigger kids, or maybe only teenagers, can still play with them for a few months but eventually they are just too rambunctious and dangerous. The line between fun rough-housing and practising their killing techniques has become fuzzy.
Visitors can still come to admire the sub-adult lions, but can no longer touch them. They are caged or behind a double fence. If children want to pet cubs, it’s OK because a new litter has just come in and they are just waiting to be held.
When lions are about four to five years old, males already have impressive manes. Those raised in captivity are especially handsome because they lack the scratches and scars they would acquire in the rough and tumble of bringing down a buffalo or fighting off a pack of hyenas. They take on a regal appearance and clichés like the ‘king of the jungle’ come to mind. There are few sights as captivating as a fully grown male lion surveying his kingdom with unmatched dignity.
Not only is he soon to be robbed of his dignity but also of his life.
Bait is put out right in front the client and his professional hunter. The hungry lion, kept in a small enclosure for his whole life, has never learnt to fear humans and he goes straight for the bait. It is the last thing he ever does as the client pulls the trigger and kills lion.
This is known as canned hunting. No one is sure how many farms practise this cruel kind of slaughter, but the Campaign Against Canned Hunting estimates that there are at least 300 farms in South Africa where this occurs.
Government is currently considering a document that would put an end to lion farming, captive lion hunting, cub-petting and the commercial farming of rhinos. Cabinet has already endorsed the 582-page report calling for an end to these disgraceful practices and now it awaits endorsement from Parliament.
While the goal of putting an end to the commercial farming of wild animals is a positive feature of the report, its rationale is disappointing. It cites one of the main reasons for putting an end to wild animal farming as “The negative effect on South Africa’s reputation” which “ is real and too often ignored[i]”.
It recognises that the conservation value of predator breeding is zero and its economic value is minimal, but it seems that the main concern of the authors is the damage that canned hunting does to the country’s reputation.
It does not address the cruelty of keeping wild animals in cages, nor does it consider the brutality of leading a lion up to the barrel of a high powered rifle just so that it can be slaughtered by a wealthy narcissist.
I brought up this issue because it is topical, and it is in direct opposition to the ethos of those who strive to protect our country’s wildlife. For more information on this issue, please click on the links below.
In next week’s Real Safari Newsletter we will deal with a much less controversial issue and discuss among other things, what kind of photographic equipment you should have for your self-drive safari.
ENDS/ssl
Useful links:
Campaign Against Canned Hunting - http://www.cannedlion.org/
Colloquium on Captive lion breeding for hunting in South Africa: Harming or promoting the conservation image of the country - https://conservationaction.co.za/resources/reports/11384-2/
Lion Aid - https://lionaid.org/
[i] High-level Panel Report – For submission to the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries. December 2020 - Page 102 of 582