If the hunting of lions is halted these lions would lose their dollar value to the local people and would
consequently be considered vermin due to their cattle killing and reputations as man-eaters. This would lead the
native people to once again begin poisoning the lions in an effort to defend themselves and their cattle. In
actuality relatively few people are killed by lions each year but it only takes one or two deaths to make the
locals believe they need to protect themselves through this illegal slaughter of lions. On top of this illegal
revenge killing lions are targets for poachers who kill them for their “medicinal” value on the Asian markets.
What the opponents of lion hunting don’t want the public to know is that properly managed sport
hunting does not pose any threat to the sustainability of lion populations in Africa. In fact recent studies have
shown that properly managed hunting may be beneficial to lions as the older males, which hunters are after, are
no longer useful to the pride for breeding purposes. This was discussed by Dr. Karen Whitman from the
University of Minnesota. After gathering data on lion sociology and reproduction she determined that if hunters
only take lions that are at least six years old then there was a slight increase in the population size. It is vital to
the future of lions and lion hunting that this scientific data is made available to the public. Without it there is a
grave chance that the HSUS may win.
Luckily for those of us who love to hunt and especially those of us that love Africa there is a light of
hope. SCI maintains a full time staff in Washington D.C. lobbying on behalf of hunters and wildlife. These men
and women constantly man the frontlines in defense our sport and our heritage. But while SCI is hard at work in
Washington, MCO is on the ground in Africa working to collect the most current data on this magnificent
animal. They have already determined that in Mozambique’s Niassa Reserve alone there are roughly 1,000 lions
at this point in time. That may not sound like much but it is a tremendous number of lions given the size of the
area. MCO employs 30 full time game rangers which make up an anti-poaching effort as well as 10 more
rangers who focus all their efforts on studying lions and educating the locals to ease human animal conflicts.
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