Legal hunting for conservation of highly threatened species: The case of African rhinos

Legal hunting of highly threatened species – and especially the recreational practice of ‘trophy hunting’ – is controversial with selected ethical objections being increasingly voiced. Less attention has been paid to how hunting (even of threatened species) can be useful as a conservation tool, and likely outcomes if this was stopped. As case studies, we examine the regulated legal hunting in South Africa and Namibia of two African rhino species. Counter-intuitively, removing a small number of specific males can enhance population demography and genetic diversity, encourage range expansion, and generate meaningful socio-economic benefits to help fund effective conservation (facilitated by appropriate local institutional arrangements). Legal hunting of these species has been sustainable, as very small proportions of the populations of both species are hunted each year, and numbers of both today are higher in these countries than when controlled recreational hunting began. Terminating this management option and funding source could have negative consequences at a time when rhinos are being increasingly viewed as liabilities and COVID-19 has significantly impacted revenue generation for wildlife areas. Provided that there is appropriate governance and management, conservation of certain highly threatened species can be supported by cautiously selective and limited legal hunting.

A multivariate random forest approach to the cognitive hierarchy: testing for the effects of postmodernization by simultaneously considering recreational hunting and volunteering with animals.

In postmodern societies socioeconomic changes characterizing the last decades shifted value orientations and attitudes towards wildlife, diminishing consumptive uses of wildlife, such as recreational hunting or fishing. However, no study has tested yet whether the same forces of modernization also increased non-consumptive uses of wildlife. We adopted multivariate random forests to model the effect of urbanization, average income and higher education over the conjoint incidence of recreational hunters and people who volunteer with animals at the municipal scale, in Tuscany (Central Italy). We also used time series analysis to see if these effects were supported by long term trends in recreational hunting across different areas. Urbanized areas, characterized by higher proportion of residentswith a higher education, are negatively associated with the incidence of recreational hunters, and positively to the incidence of people volunteering with animals. Cluster analysis identi fied two groups of municipalities, characterized by opposite incidences of hunters and volunteers, by a different magnitude of change in recreational hunting and by a different level of urbanization. Although hunting participation declined steadily over the last 15 years, this decline was greater at urbanized municipalities. These differences are likely to produce conflicts about wildlife management, and we believe regional agencies should adopt preemptive measures to mitigate them, such as improved data sharing and staff training about human dimensions of wildlife. Our findings indicate that the cognitive hierarchy can be a valuable theoretical frame to link socioeconomic dynamics to changes in human-wildlife relationships, even for non-consumptive wildlife uses.

Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) recreational hunting values

Context Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) are a valued game resource that can cause environmental harm, requiring control of tahr populations below policy-prescribed thresholds. Effective game management requires understanding of the benefits to hunters of game resources and how hunter behaviours change in response to changes in hunt attributes, including game-animal densities, hunt duration, presence of other hunters and travel distance. Aims To identify the value of recreational Himalayan tahr hunting and how that value is affected by changes in hunt attributes for different types of hunter, thereby identifying the value of tahr as a recreational resource and opportunities for enhancing recreational hunting experiences. Methods Hunter differences were explored through factor analysis and cluster analysis, which identified three different groups of hunters on the basis of motivations and hunting activity. Preferences for hunt attributes were explored with a choice experiment that used a pivot design around actual travel distances to measure the relative importance of hunt-related attributes. Latent class analysis of choice experiment responses identified three discrete groups of hunters who sought different activity settings. Key results Results showed the high value of recreational tahr hunting for all three groups of tahr hunters. Tahr hunters were uniformly focussed on trophy bull tahr, and reduced probabilities of securing a trophy would diminish recreational hunting effort significantly. Hunting activity was not affected by adult female tahr populations. These results suggest that managing tahr to low densities, but improving trophy potential, can provide concurrent environmental and recreational benefits. Conclusions Changes in hunt attributes, such as trophy potential and presence of other hunters, have significant effects on hunt benefits, site choice and the amount of recreational tahr hunting. Implications The present study identified potential gains from active management of Himalayan tahr and tahr hunters.