Following an unexpected decision to allow trophy hunters to visit and hunt the iconic population in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park, the lives of hundreds of wild hippos are now in danger.
According to the Born Free Foundation, a group that has been trying to halt the cull, camps are already being built up in readiness for the hunt, which would focus on the hippo families that live in the Luangwa River.
The hunt is supposedly designed to control the hippo population, but Born Free says this reasoning is at odds with what the government’s own studies have shown about how the hippos populate.
“History is repeating itself,” Will Travers, president of Born Free, said in a statement provided to The Dodo. “Once again, the Zambian authorities have failed to provide any scientific evidence showing an overpopulation of hippos in the Luangwa River, or to make public any data that, at least in their mind, could justify a cull.”
Another cull, which was proposed in 2016, was stopped after the public spoke out against it.
The hippos are currently in danger once more. If this new hunt isn’t halted, up to 250 hippos might be slaughtered every year for the following five years.
Umlilo Safaris, a safari hunting business in South Africa, has already begun advertising the hunting trip to Zambia, where trophy hunters may kill five hippos for $14,000.
Travers said, “Published scientific data, done by the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) itself, clearly demonstrates that earlier hippo culls in the Luangwa River did not appreciably influence population size and density. Simply put, culling has failed to reduce the hippo population in Luangwa, putting aside for the moment the grave moral and ethical issues raised by the death of thousands of hippos.
Hippos face challenges from illegal hippo hunting as well as the rising demand for hippo ivory. Hippos are thought to be vulnerable to going extinct due to habitat degradation and poaching. According to Born Free, almost 100,000 pounds of hippo ivory was smuggled into Hong Kong in the ten years before to 2016, where it was carved and sold, and thousands of hippo teeth were shipped to the European Union during same time.
Some nations assert that trophy hunting generates income for their faltering economy, yet the money rarely reaches the people who really need it.
“Born Free is asking national and international wildlife conservation groups, concerned citizens, and those with a strong affinity for hippos, to join us in calling on the President of Zambia, His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu, to personally intervene and call a permanent halt to this damaging and distressing plan, with immediate effect,” Travers continued.
0 Comments