Shooting pheasants for sport: What does the death of Cecil tell us?

Abstract

People hunt and kill animals for sport in many parts of the world. This raises many issues, some of which were brought to the fore when a lion Panthera leo, nicknamed Cecil, was killed by a trophy hunter in Zimbabwe in 2015. Cecil's death led to an unprecedented public reaction in Europe and the USA, and a debate in which opponents and supporters of sport hunting advanced different types of argument based on, inter alia, conservation, animal welfare and economics. The reaction to the Cecil event provides a perspective for scrutinizing sport hunting more widely. In this article we explore parallels between lion trophy hunting in Africa (which can involve either wild or captive‐bred lions) and shooting of common pheasant Phasianus colchicus, a sport which is largely sustained in the UK by the annual release of over 40 million captive‐bred birds. These two forms of sport hunting share common themes that are likely to be influential for the future of sport hunting more widely. These include the extent to which sport hunting maintains land for wildlife, and the impacts of intensification (e.g. the extent to which quarry are reared and released). Concern for the welfare of quarry animals is a dominant theme in debates about hunting. These themes are likely to be relevant for the conservation of many species hunted for sport. Increasing distaste for the killing of animals for sport in many countries may lead to the end of some types of sport hunting, with implications for both habitat and wildlife conservation. It would be both prudent and appropriate for conservationists to increase the urgency with which they seek alternative methods for preventing loss of biodiverse land to other uses. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Simulated poaching affects global connectivity and efficiency in social networks of African savanna elephants - an exemplar of how human disturbance impacts group-living species

“…For example, in black-tailed prairie dogs, juveniles exhibited poor establishment at new sites if translocated without the most mature network members (Shier, 2006). Besides conservation efforts, our work may also inform wildlife management approaches focused on prescribed culls or trophy hunting (Feber et al, 2020). These approaches continue being used as alleged conservation income generators or means of population control.…”

“…Having access to information about the proportion and type of missing group members may 1) offer basic but meaningful insights about why some poached elephant populations take exceptionally long to recover from member loss (116), while others recover much quicker(117) and 2) help reason about the fate of recovering populations. Our ideas may also be transferable to management of other group-living, keystone species (118)(119)(120)(121)(122). For instance, applied without consideration for social interactions, trophy hunting of pride lions may intensify infanticide by immigrant males (23,28,120) and displace distressed females to hunt in fringe habitats exacerbating conflict with humans (121,123).…”

“…Our ideas may also be transferable to management of other group-living, keystone species (118)(119)(120)(121)(122). For instance, applied without consideration for social interactions, trophy hunting of pride lions may intensify infanticide by immigrant males (23,28,120) and displace distressed females to hunt in fringe habitats exacerbating conflict with humans (121,123). Prior to making decisions about lethal management or translocations of 'problem' individuals, wildlife managers may be well served by simulating relevant disturbance on focal populations, quantifying social network effects and adjusting management decisions for better outcomes (39,124).…”

Simulated poaching affects global connectivity and efficiency in social networks of African savanna elephants—An exemplar of how human disturbance impacts group-living species

“…Our ideas may also be transferable to management of other group-living, keystone species if baseline understanding of their reactions to the disturbance of interest is available [121][122][123][124][125]. For instance, applied without consideration for social interactions, trophy hunting of pride lions may intensify infanticide by immigrant males [23,28,123] and displace distressed females to hunt in fringe habitats exacerbating conflict with humans [124,126].…”

“…Our ideas may also be transferable to management of other group-living, keystone species if baseline understanding of their reactions to the disturbance of interest is available [121][122][123][124][125]. For instance, applied without consideration for social interactions, trophy hunting of pride lions may intensify infanticide by immigrant males [23,28,123] and displace distressed females to hunt in fringe habitats exacerbating conflict with humans [124,126]. Prior to making decisions about lethal management or translocations of 'problem' individuals, wildlife managers may be well served by simulating relevant disturbance on focal populations, quantifying social network effects and adjusting management decisions for better outcomes [41,127].…”