Man who studied Cecil the lion for 9 years talks impact

[klr]

Only one of a zillion news stories about this ...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — When Cecil the lion's carcass was finally found after he was lured out of a Zimbabwe wildlife reserve to be killed by an American hunter, it was a headless, skinless skeleton the vultures had been picking at for about a week.

Conservationists decided the most natural thing was to leave the bones where they were for hyenas to finish off, said Brent Stapelkamp, a lion researcher and part of a team that had tracked and studied Cecil for nine years.

Stapelkamp darted Cecil and put his last GPS collar on in October. He was probably the last person to get up close before Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer used a bow and a gun to kill the now-famous lion with the bushy black mane, its head and skin eventually cut off as trophies. Stapelkamp had first alerted authorities that something might be wrong after Cecil's GPS collar stopped sending a signal.

The killing of the big cat in early July has unleashed global outrage, sending Palmer into hiding back home in suburban Minneapolis, leading to the arrest of the local hunter he employed, and prompting Zimbabwe's environment minister to say the southern African country would seek Palmer's extradition to face charges.

Stapelkamp shares the anger, not just because of the demise of Cecil. Also because, he said, it's not the first time a lion has been killed illegally around Hwange National Park in northwestern Zimbabwe, a reserve known for its rich wildlife. About a dozen lions in the region were killed illegally in recent years, Stapelkamp said, and no one was caught.

"I think this was just the final straw," Stapelkamp told The Associated Press in a phone interview from the Hwange reserve. "Everyone locally just thought, no ways, we're not letting anyone get away with this anymore."

Cecil had an intriguing story, making him a celebrity in Hwange. He arrived as a kind of lion refugee, alone and wandering after being displaced from another territory. Cecil befriended another male lion, Jericho, and together they grew and watched over two prides, one with three lionesses and seven cubs and another with three lionesses.

The satellite collar on Jericho has been sending normal signals, indicating the lion is alive and moving around, Stapelkamp said.

But Cecil's killing will have an impact on the area, explained Stapelkamp, a field researcher for an Oxford University study on lions.

Jericho may not be able to hold their territory alone and could be chased away by rival lions. Unprotected, the lionesses and cubs would then be under threat and also move away or be killed. Safari operators who invested millions of dollars in the area would lose one of their biggest attractions for tourists.

...

continued: http://news.yahoo.com/man-studied-cecil ... NlYwNzcg--

[Seth]

People don't give a fuck about the actual people in Africa nearly as much as one fucking lion among thousands.

He paid a lot of money, which purportedly goes directly to conservation efforts, to kill a single lion. He placed his trust in his licensed professional guide and has no culpability for any criminal acts performed by the guide or his associates in luring (without the dentist's knowledge) the lion out of the refuge.

He acted within the law during a lawful hunt approved by the government of Zimbabwe.

People need to learn the difference between species conservation and saving every individual fuzzy creature. They are two entirely different things.

Of course, what the fuck he was doing giving Mugbawe a fucking dime is another thing. That's what he ought to be excoriated for.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Getting your rocks off killing a creature that you view as a more successful predator than your penis is fucking stupid!

[Seth]

Getting your rocks off killing a creature that you view as a more successful predator than your penis is fucking stupid!

You try it with a bow sometime, then you can talk about it.

Hunting is a perfectly ordinary and evolutionarily-approved pastime.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Getting your rocks off killing a creature that you view as a more successful predator than your penis is fucking stupid!

You try it with a bow sometime, then you can talk about it.

Hunting is a perfectly ordinary and evolutionarily-approved pastime.

I have never felt the urge to tie a bow around my cock. Would yo like to talk about this obsession of yours?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Hunting is a necessity where food is scarce and likely to remain that way otherwise. In environs with a local branch of Walmart, it is nothing more than a display of pathetic machismo.

Killing an endangered species that is not, and never can be, a danger to you and yours, is simply gratuitous murder.

[Seth]

Hunting is a necessity where food is scarce and likely to remain that way otherwise. In environs with a local branch of Walmart, it is nothing more than a display of pathetic machismo.

Killing an endangered species that is not, and never can be, a danger to you and yours, is simply gratuitous murder.

Hunting is the behavior of all predator species, particularly apex predator species (which doesn't include bunny-hugging sheeple by the way, who are prey). Lions are not an endangered species but they are apex predators. Humans are higher on the food chain than lions. And the government of Zimbabwe sets the permit quotas for lion hunts and issues permits, which this hunter had, based on the government's assessment of species diversity and ecological balance necessary in circumstances where humans and animals live in close proximity. This lion was past his breeding prime and would have likely been killed by other, younger, stronger lions in the near future. By permitting hunting the government is doing nothing that would not happen anyway.

As I said, bunny-hugging PETA types are simply too stupid to understand the process of wildlife management for species conservation, which does not require that every individual animal survive or that any particular animal do so. They only see the particular warm fuzzy creature, which in this case, would happily kill and eat every bunny-hugging PETA lunatic that might try to live like a lion does for more than a day so that they might understand something about nature.

It was a lion. A relatively old lion. The only reason anybody gives a fuck is because it happened to be a radio collared lion under study, which is how it became known to have died. Had it been any other lion, nobody would have given a fuck about it just as nobody gives a fuck about the African human beings that have to live with, and occasionally get eaten by lions, who benefit from the hunting tourism income tens of thousands of times more than they do from bunny-hugging PETA sheeple passing through in a Land Rover who don't spend a fucking dime while doing so.

As to the carcass, it's most likely that all the edible portions were butchered out and given to local residents to eat with the remains being picked over by the scavengers, which is the usual practice of big-game hunters. They kill a water buffalo or a Kudu for the head and cape and the locals get a fine feast of top-quality protein. Everybody wins, including the water buffalo herds, which if not managed would overpopulate the habitat. As for elephants, the only elephants legally killed in Africa are killed by big-game hunters who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to kill problem elephants that the government is going to kill anyway because they are harming human crops and populations. So, the big-game hunter can either pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, which go towards conserving OTHER elephants (non-problem ones) and give the locals a huge supply of much-needed elephant meat or the government can get nothing for killing the elephant itself.

Which makes more sense, conservationally-speaking?

Best to leave wildlife conservation to the wildlife conservation professionals, not to internet pundits or PETA fuckwits.

[Blind groper]

Bow hunting is wrong, just as hand gun hunting is wrong, since both leave wounded animals more often than not.

In this case, the diabolical dentist shot the lion with an arrow that left it wounded and in pain.

In addition, the asshole lured the lion from a safe wildlife refuge into open territory before shooting it, which is clearly against the law, and leaves him liable to extradition and prosecution.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

When I post a sentence, and Seth replies with an essay, I win.

[cronus]

A lion by any other name, if it had been called Darth Vader on account of its darkened main would the world be in such uproar? I'd suggest giving a wild animal a name in the first place is a mistake - it won't stop munching on you if you called it Cecil or Sweat Pea or anything. If it didn't want to be shot it should have smartened up and got itself a gun of its own. Or a bow and arrow, how hard is it for a lion called Cecil to think it all through?

[cronus]

A lion by any other name, if it had been called Darth Vader on account of its darkened main would the world be in such uproar? I'd suggest giving a wild animal a name in the first place is a mistake - it won't stop munching on you if you called it Cecil or Sweat Pea or anything. If it didn't want to be shot it should have smartened up and got itself a gun of its own. Or a bow and arrow, how hard is it for a lion called Cecil to think it all through?

[Seth]

Bow hunting is wrong, just as hand gun hunting is wrong, since both leave wounded animals more often than not.

Both are far more "humane" than Mother Nature's methods. Most animals die violent painful deaths, it's how evolution works. You're iterating the naturalist fallacy by trying to assign moral value to the manner in which a living organism dies. One kind of death is no better and no worse than another. Besides, the Masai routinely kill lions with spears.

In this case, the diabolical dentist shot the lion with an arrow that left it wounded and in pain.

That was hardly his intention. His intention, as is the intention of any hunter, is to kill the animal quickly, for several reasons including the utter pain in the ass (not to mention the inherent danger) of tracking a wounded lion through the bush for two days. Cecil could have taken his revenge any time he wanted by turning on the hunters and killing them. He was far better equipped and much more experienced at doing so than the bow hunter.

In addition, the asshole lured the lion from a safe wildlife refuge into open territory before shooting it, which is clearly against the law, and leaves him liable to extradition and prosecution.

Depends on which "asshole" you're talking about. As far as anyone knows the client had absolutely no idea that the lion had been baited, nor that it was collared, which was only discovered after it was killed. As for the assholes who did bait the lion out of the reserve, if it was against the law to do so, then they will face those charges, and should. However, baiting big cats is routine practice in Africa. You may not like it, but then again you know jack and shit about big-game hunting of any kind, much less dangerous game.

As for the hunter, he followed the rules and the law, had a permit, and placed his trust in his government-mandated professional hunting guide, which is a requirement for hunting in most places in Africa. If the guide screwed up, then the guide should pay the piper. The hunter did as he was told and took a lion he had no reason to believe he was not permitted to take.

[JimC]

Getting your rocks off killing a creature that you view as a more successful predator than your penis is fucking stupid!

You try it with a bow sometime, then you can talk about it.

Hunting is a perfectly ordinary and evolutionarily-approved pastime.

Hunting something to eat is one thing. As a carnivore myself, I'm not going to say it's wrong, as long as an effort is made to make it a quick, clean kill, whether by bow, gun or other means.

Hunting for trophy purposes is simply sick.

[Seth]

Getting your rocks off killing a creature that you view as a more successful predator than your penis is fucking stupid!

You try it with a bow sometime, then you can talk about it.

Hunting is a perfectly ordinary and evolutionarily-approved pastime.

Hunting something to eat is one thing. As a carnivore myself, I'm not going to say it's wrong, as long as an effort is made to make it a quick, clean kill, whether by bow, gun or other means.

Hunting for trophy purposes is simply sick.

Why? Animals live, animals die. Every single one of them. Killing an animal to make a trophy mount is as valid a reason to kill an animal as any other reason. Masai warriors wear the pelts of big cats they personally kill, so what's different about this hunter wanting to mount the trophy? Why don't you go kill a lion with a bow (or even try to) and then tell us you don't feel the rush of facing down a predator easily capable of ripping you limb from limb before you can blink twice. Of course any hunter would want a trophy of that accomplishment, because it's quite an accomplishment.

Moreover, spending tens of thousands of dollars for permission to do so, which benefits the other wildlife and the local residents removes any possible taint from the activity. If it weren't beneficial the authorities wouldn't permit it, and yet they do. Indeed they actively support the big-game hunting industry in Zimbabwe and South Africa because they have plenty of game and not so much money.

Now perhaps killing the last living member of a species for a trophy mount might be a bit insensitive, but even then the animal's going to die eventually and the species will be extinct, so why not take and preserve the beast as a stuffed display. Museums do it all the time and you don't seem to object.

Anthropomorphizing animals by trying to imbue them with some sacred aspect that makes it okay for other animals to kill them (sometimes for sport) but not for humans is utterly irrational thinking.

Besides, as I told you, it's quite rare that the meat goes to waste. It's almost always donated to local inhabitants who are happy to have it. Just because they didn't kill it doesn't mean it's not being consumed in your silly ethically-appropriate manner. For that matter, even if it's left to rot just think of all the other species of animals that will feed and benefit from the remains, from jackals and hyenas to buzzards to beetles.

You see, it's a circle of life. The death of one creature brings life to others. Karma is satisfied, nature moves on, the world keeps on turning.

So hakuna matata y'all.

[Blind groper]

Seth

Argue all you like.

Using bait to lure the animal off the reserves was against Zimbabwe law. As such, the authorities there have the legal provision to seek extradition and prosecute the killer.