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Campaign Against Canned Hunting (CACH)

Reflections on trophy hunting in Timbavati

3/27/2017

16 Comments

 
Picture
Bryan Havemann, the game Warden at Timbavati Nature Reserve, which is adjacent to Kruger National Park, and a member of the APNR (Association of Private Nature Reserves) justified trophy hunting a super tusker elephant in an article in SA Tourism Update.
For example:
Havemann explained that the hunt would benefit conservation. “When an elephant gets beyond 50 years of age, they don’t have the ability to chew their food properly any longer.” He argued that if it was inevitable that the elephant were to die of natural causes, the money from a hunt would be better used to fuel conservation efforts.

Let us examine the claims a little more closely:
1.       That there are too many elephants, causing ecological damage, and therefore, taking out a tusker aids the environment.
2.       An elephant over the age of 50 is going to die soon from natural causes and so it is better to hunt him and make money for conservation.
3.       Conservation purposes include anti-poaching expenses.

Dealing with the points seriatim:

1.       This argument confuses hunting with culling. When there are too many animals for the available vegetation, then the brutal remedy of culling is the only answer. Whole herds are liquidated. Killing one tusker will not have any effect whatsoever on the breeding of an elephant population. Other males will service the females in oestrus and all that the hunter achieves is to pervert the process of natural selection and select for the smaller tusk gene. Soon, if the hunters have their way, elephants will be born without any tusks at all.

2.       Using the age of the elephant as an excuse to justify the hunting of a tusker is transparently flawed public relations. It has no substance in elephant behaviour or herd dynamics. The landowners and shareholders of Timbavati include some of the richest people in South Africa. The proper way to raise money for reserve expenses is by imposing a levy upon members. Why are some of the richest people in the country so reluctant to put their hands into their deep pockets, and so keen to rather raise money by shooting animals that do not even belong to them.

3.       Who are the real poachers here, if not the Timbavati hunters themselves? These elephants stray in from the adjacent Kruger Park. They belong to the people of South Africa and should not be hunted for private gain on adjacent land. So if a poor black man goes into Kruger Park and hunts the same elephant, he is a wicked poacher. But the rich white man who kills the same animal for fun when it wanders onto Timbavati, is hailed as a conservationist. Since when did money substitute itself for true conservation - which is the preservation of natural functioning ecosystems?

How can any intelligent person confuse hunting with culling and believe that shooting an elephant in the face can possibly be anything other tha environmental terrorism? 

I believe that trophy hunting takes place on all the reserves which are part of the APNR. Timbavati is not the only culprit. If I am wrong, I hope someone reading this will correct me. 

I could never visit any reserve where hunting takes place, because I take responsible tourism far more seriously. Perhaps when a sufficient number of tourists boycott APNR reserves, management will have an epiphany and suddenly find the financial inducement to see the difference between true conservation and sickening brutality.

Chris Mercer.
​Karoo Wildlife Centre.
 

16 Comments
Barbara and Alexander Wayman
3/27/2017 03:39:18 am

Excellent points made Chris and thank you for addressing this highly emotive subject and its downright unacceptability: "ecological terrorism" indeed !
I hope and pray that this 'plan' does go viral and the APNR reserves get hit in the pocket where it hurts the most : through boycotts by international (and national) tourists !
I have one question which unfortunately you did not address: is 50 years really the life expectancy of an elephant and who says that the bull will not mate after a certain age ?

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Virginia Greenwood-Warner
3/27/2017 03:49:57 am

All reserves or sanctuaries or breeding facilities which permit any hunting whatsoever should be named and shamed. Where can we get such a list?

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Mandy Cox
3/27/2017 05:02:31 am

Elephants usually have 26 teeth: the incisors, known as the tusks, 12 deciduous premolars, and 12 molars. Unlike most mammals, which grow baby teeth and then replace them with a single permanent set of adult teeth, elephants are polyphyodonts that have cycles of tooth rotation throughout their lives. The chewing teeth are replaced six times in a typical elephant's lifetime. Teeth are not replaced by new ones emerging from the jaws vertically as in most mammals. Instead, new teeth grow in at the back of the mouth and move forward to push out the old ones. The first chewing tooth on each side of the jaw falls out when the elephant is two to three years old. The second set of chewing teeth falls out when the elephant is four to six years old. The third set is lost at 9–15 years of age, and set four lasts until 18–28 years of age. The fifth set of teeth lasts until the elephant is in its early 40s. The sixth (and usually final) set must last the elephant the rest of its life. Elephant teeth have loop-shaped dental ridges, which are thicker and more diamond-shaped in African elephants.
Shoshani, J. (1998). "Understanding proboscidean evolution: a formidable task". Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 13 (12): 70-71

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Mwana link
3/27/2017 05:38:31 am

Well done again Chris, no more, no less. Nature conservationists in this country have been insulting our intelligence for quite sometime and every time I have brought the question of "how legal is to have trophy hunting" in Timbavati and other adjacent nature reserves to the Kruger National Park with open fences" people assume I am lying or am inventing bunny-hugging stories. Well it's that simple and you have put it with the right words and intelligent manner, so I hope more people in this country and abroad who truly care for the survival of our wildlife read your article and learn that wealthy trophy hunters are far worse than a poor African poachers killing to make a living. Let's keep both out of our wilderness and let our old wise Tuskers roam free until they drop!

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Chris Mercer link
3/27/2017 06:43:58 am

Thanks so much for your comments, and Mandy for educating us on ele dentistry! Loved your lioness photo Mwana so I had to use it.

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Mandy Cox
3/27/2017 08:30:14 am

I have seen ellies without tusks, in Botswana, Chris, and its an unsettling experience. Only years later did I get the scientific explanation of how it occurs, from Johan Marais (Saving the Survivors), in the course of the ellie workshop he regularly runs at Tembe Elephant Park, Zululand. The tusks are at their most magnificent as the bull reaches sexual maturity, at around 40 years of age. This, of course, is when they are most prized by trophy hunters. Uniquely the genes which determine the tusk size of the offspring are dependent on the biological age of the progenitor. Hence my fascination with ellie dentistry! Clearly Bryan Havemann is either a stranger to the truth, or he needs to go back to school. Either way Timbavati is no longer on my bucket list.

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Gwen Merrick
3/27/2017 10:14:24 am

What a handsome young lioness - puts everything else in the shade! Enjoyed the essay as usual.

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Mwana
3/27/2017 10:32:51 am

You're most welcome Chris, that Lioness is not mine, she belongs to all of us who respects her freedom!

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alexia abnett link
3/28/2017 12:50:45 am

The adult elephant experiences similar adult human illnesses which are attributed to age. The elephant can suffer from cardiovascular problems, as well as suffering from the age-related arthritis. Despite these age-related illnesses, the elephant can live a long natural life if it is not poached or culled. The average life span of an elephant is about 70 years. During their long lives the female herds will continue to nurture their young, while the male herds roam great distances in search of female herds. They continue to be active reproductively up to approximately fifty years old. Their life span, is limited to the fact that once their last tooth wears out they will essentially starve to death. It is possible for an elephant to live seventy years or more. Who has examined this elephant, to be able to come to the conclusion that he needs to be hunted? Where is the evidence that he is unproductive? That his teeth have worn down? Great article Chris, and thank you for saying it like it is.

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Corry Gow
3/28/2017 01:53:27 am

When did God take a break & leave the APNR in charge deciding the fate of the animals who have wandered through a property & stayed cos they felt safe ??? People with nothing to do with their money & time should volunteer to go to Sudan & Somalia & donate & feed the starving children & their parents not worrying whether a Tusker is "too" old to carry on living & "we'll make a quick profit out of it" ... You're a disgrace, & apart from playing high & mighty because you have the "wherewithal" get out there & do something useful for humanity. What did animals do before you arrived !!!

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Eric anemoli
3/28/2017 07:27:04 am

I m not à spécialist i read every thing to try to understand
My purpose is Wildlife préservation
Everything must be taken into considération
Hunters might be wrong about Trophy and tuskers but
It sounds like they help some How in thé raise of animals stock
Giving Animals à value to locals
All in all what the point to prétend to protect Wildlife without taking into consi dératisation human overpopulation
I cannot understand why no environnmentAlist or animal protectionist Want to face this réality
Overpopulation Will destroy Everything wild on earth
Thanks for reading

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Chris Mercer
3/28/2017 07:59:55 am

Quite agree Eric about human overpopulation. see our blog post on this issue: http://www.cannedlion.org/blog/cites-and-other-dangerous-illusions

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Pauline obrien link
3/28/2017 05:33:14 pm

Ban trophy hunting

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Cathy Thompson link
3/29/2017 09:04:15 am

Hunting to me is like poaching, there is no "sport or talent"in it. I will now always think of reserves as hunting grounds. I call the people who kill animals unhumans because they have no hearts, no brains.!!

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riccardo
3/30/2017 02:58:58 am

I took a look at their website. They promote their value, even anti poaching efforts. Ridiculous. I do think the best way to cope with this attitude is to force the Kruger Park to fence their perimeter. Is that possible in your opinion ?

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Robert Cooksley link
9/15/2018 12:51:10 pm

Visited timbivati last year without knowing about the hunting, very sad, all visitors should be made aware that the animals they have happy memories and photos of could be shot dead by some wealthy hunter the next day, that would undoubtedly damage the bookings and hopefully stop the hunting. As far as hunting for money or poaching argument, the poor animal is going to die so I doubt it cares.

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