[botswanapredatorforum] Re: [botswanapredatorforum]: Report on Setata Fence
- From: tony reumerman <tonyinthebush@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: botswanapredatorforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:12:40 -0800 (PST)
Hi Christiaan
Good chatting to you yesterday
To clarify my comment on the forum:
I made the statement that the satus of the present lion population has been
"negelected"
To clarify.
At present, there are a lot of discussions and arguments going back and
forth, but nowhere, especially in the public forum are current large mammal
populations published or presented.
Before anything can be effectively conserved, whether it be a piece of land, a
species or an ecosystem, it needs to be quantified. At the meeting to review
current legislation pertaining to the Conservation on the 17th of December last
year, I brought up this point and no one could tell the delegates how may lions
are in this country!, not even a thumb suck! The same applied to Lechwe and
Impala!!
What is the present population?, what is the distribution of these animals?
and especially what are the trends of each group or pride and the population as
a whole?
Until we have spot on figures from a credible source or sources, I believe
that only then will we be able to prioritise our discussions and actions
pertaining to the confronation with livestock farmers and the integrity of the
species.
Cheers
Tony
tau <tau@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
v\:* {behavior:url (#default#vml);} v\:* { BEHAVIOR: url
(#default#vml) } Dear Pete
I agree with what you are saying about hunting: I would also think that if a
hunter and his client sees a big male, and he has only 1 lion on quota, he is
going to take the best one he gets whether it is a pride male or not. Now,
taking 1 male out of a pride can possibly cause the coalition to be vulnerable
for a take-over, and this is a problem if your population is already disrupted,
like in your area.
The DWNP lion hunt guidelines states one may not shoot a male that is with a
pride, which is interpreted that if the male is physically seen with a pride,
he may not be shot. I agree that it is impossible to know if a male seen alone
is a pride male or not, besides, if he is not a pride male now, he can always
still become one later. I, personally, feel that hunters should know their area
and their lion population well enough to recognise at least the pride males
that have small cubs or that are newly settled with a pride. All concession
holders are supposed to do monitoring in their areas according to the
management plans.
Just for interest, I received an email from Dr. Andy Loveridge at WILDCru,
Oxford, and who works in Hwange National Park: We still have a lion hunting
ban around Hwange- and the population is recovering nicely, after being hard
hit by hunting 1999-2004. We will probably reintroduce quotas in 2009 and
hopefully also a rigorous monitoring effort.
Kind regards
Hanlie
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.20.8/1288 - Release Date: 2/19/2008 8:47
PM
Other related posts:
