Favourite Big Game Animal

[Born Hunter 17,622]

To give the question of carrying capacity a fair, if necessarily vague, answer, I would personally estimate that the upper carrying capacity of lions on the Bubye Valley Conservancy would be around 500 animals—assuming that they are allowed to be hunted and therefore generate the revenue to offset the cost of their predation.

Remember, lion numbers can get out of hand. And if there was no predation, then thousands upon thousands of zebra and wildebeest and impala would need to be culled to prevent them from over grazing the habitat, leading to soil erosion, starvation, and disease.

The ecosystem is a very complex machine and whether anyone likes it or not, humans have intervened with cities, roads, dams, pumped water, fences, and livestock. The only way to mitigate that intervention is by further, more focused, and carefully considered intervention, for the sake of the entire ecosystem.

It is important to bear in mind that the wildlife here, and in the majority of other wildlife areas in Africa (hunting areas exceed the total area conserved by Africa’s national parks by more than 20 percent), does not exist as our, or anyone else’s, luxury.

The Bubye Valley Conservancy is a privately owned wildlife area, or to put it another way, it is a business. The fact that it is a well-run business is the reason why it is one of the greatest conservation successes in Africa, converting from cattle to wildlife in 1994 (only 22 years ago) and now hosting Zimbabwe’s largest contiguous lion population at one of the highest densities in Africa, as well as the third largest black rhino population in the world (after Kruger and Etosha).

This is only possible because it is a business, and is self-sufficient in generating the funds to maintain fences, roads, pay staff, manage the wildlife, pump water, and support the surrounding communities—all extremely necessary factors involved in keeping wildlife alive in Africa.

Dr. Byron du Preez, a Bubye Valley Conservancy project leader and member of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), in the Department of Zoology at Oxford University.

https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2016/02/25/culling-to-conserve-a-hard-truth-for-lion-conservation/

 

Edited September 6, 2018 by Born Hunter

[Aussie Whip 3,822]

17 minutes ago, Born Hunter said:

"intellectual idiot"  I'll refrain from throwing insults back at you seeing as you struggle with basic f***ing English and punctuation.

You are utterly wrong and all emotional about it. Managing a species with hunting is not a threat to them and is in fact protecting them from decline in those areas. Read a book ffs or a link I put up wih the views of actual independent conservationists explaining the situation.

Hunting reserves and conservancies are protecting wildlife habitat. More wildlife habitat than even the national parks protect! They are NOT responsible for population decline because the 2-3 killed a day fund the conservation of an equal and greater amount! Revenue from limited harvesting (2-3 /day) fund the fight against poaching and agricultural encroachment in those areas. This is an demonstrable fact! But I'm the idiot. 

Prove I'm wrong if you can. Present the evidence that supports your abusive rambling. Claiming it's 'common sense' doesn't cut it when I can and have shown examples of you being wrong. Counter them with your own examples and studies.

Oh and 'big eight' isn't just African mega fauna, it's a new term that includes wale, shark and wild dog. Pretty sure you mean the big five seeing as no c**t is walking around Africa shooting f***ing wales. 

You want to check your own spelling before picking on others snob, its whales not wales you dumb cnt.

[Born Hunter 17,622]

1 minute ago, Aussie Whip said:

You want to check your own spelling before picking on others snob, its whales not wales you dumb cnt.

I didn't start picking on others and spelling one word in probably hundreds wrong is a long shot from the shite you and bird manage to produce.

[Aussie Whip 3,822]

1 minute ago, Born Hunter said:

I didn't start picking on others and spelling one word in probably hundreds wrong is a long shot from the shite you and bird manage to produce.

And your English haha

[Born Hunter 17,622]

5 minutes ago, Aussie Whip said:

You want to check your own spelling before picking on others snob, its whales not wales you dumb cnt.

That really is a f***ing brilliant example of confirmation bias. Bird calls me an idiot in a f***ing terrible abuse of the English language. I respond by pointing out his lack of intellectual high ground but you think I'm the f***ing snob. 

[Savanna 112]

19 hours ago, bird said:

yeh , and you shooting  the legally  2-3 day  quoted  below  by our  intellectual  idiot   B/H  below ,  they got no chance  of every recovering , thats them and the other big 8 .  there all in decline  , and you still want to shoot them  what sad pricks you are. The best thing can happen is all the big 8 become  extinct   so nothing poach,  and nothing to shoot legal . it got the biggest crime rate in the world S/A    , shoot them  black feckers  over there if you want to kill something  lol

You see bird, if they get hunted, they have a value, and then people ( community, hunters ) get funding to protect them with anti poaching units...once you stop hunting them, the funds for anti poaching goes away, and then there is no one that see to it that the poaching stops. Yes you will never be able to stop poaching, but you can atleast bring the number of poached animals down. And you probably dont give a damn about what I am writing here, but we as hunting outfitters only get a certain qouta every year. So in areas where there is alot of elephant or what ever animal, you get to shoot more, and the area where there is less, you shoot less, or nothing. It is not like we shoot everything that walks. So if we carry on hunting, the animals will always have a value, and then there will always be a reason to protect them. 

[Savanna 112]

19 hours ago, Born Hunter said:

"intellectual idiot"  I'll refrain from throwing insults back at you seeing as you struggle with basic f***ing English and punctuation.

You are utterly wrong and all emotional about it. Managing a species with hunting is not a threat to them and is in fact protecting them from decline in those areas. Read a book ffs or a link I put up wih the views of actual independent conservationists explaining the situation.

Hunting reserves and conservancies are protecting wildlife habitat. More wildlife habitat than even the national parks protect! They are NOT responsible for population decline because the 2-3 killed a day fund the conservation of an equal and greater amount! Revenue from limited harvesting (2-3 /day) fund the fight against poaching and agricultural encroachment in those areas. This is an demonstrable fact! But I'm the idiot. 

Prove I'm wrong if you can. Present the evidence that supports your abusive rambling. Claiming it's 'common sense' doesn't cut it when I can and have shown examples of you being wrong. Counter them with your own examples and studies.

Oh and 'big eight' isn't just African mega fauna, it's a new term that includes wale, shark and wild dog. Pretty sure you mean the big five seeing as no c**t is walking around Africa shooting f***ing wales. 

The biggest problem we have is, we are trying to use facts against opinion, and we wil never get through to the tiny brain cell of the anti hunter, because they can not grasp the concept of conservation, because they are to emotional. If they are just willing to look at all the facts and see what is really going on, maybe they will realise that we ( hunters ) are helping save these animals. But they will never admit it, because they are to proud, to delusional and to emotional to say that "YOU WERE RIGHT"

[bird 9,587]

4 hours ago, Savanna said:

You see bird, if they get hunted, they have a value, and then people ( community, hunters ) get funding to protect them with anti poaching units...once you stop hunting them, the funds for anti poaching goes away, and then there is no one that see to it that the poaching stops. Yes you will never be able to stop poaching, but you can atleast bring the number of poached animals down. And you probably dont give a damn about what I am writing here, but we as hunting outfitters only get a certain qouta every year. So in areas where there is alot of elephant or what ever animal, you get to shoot more, and the area where there is less, you shoot less, or nothing. It is not like we shoot everything that walks. So if we carry on hunting, the animals will always have a value, and then there will always be a reason to protect them. 

ok mate , fair point   anything stop   the poaching  of these animals , they need all the help they can get . ive a mate who on a tiger project  goes all over the world trying to save these big cats, its a very hard, dangerous  job  he away hell of a lot from home/mrs    got lot of respect for him , he earns he bloody money deff .  we spoke many a time when he home with few cans , and both agree , he knows ive worked lurchers , i give him few rabbits when he wants few , that  it not so much the killing of any animal. Its when numbers are very very  low in most cases  like with the big 8 , thats what most people are against , not like other species  of animals   that are in safe numbers  in other country s  .!!

[THE STIFFMEISTER 14,553]

On 25/08/2017 at 08:49, Born Hunter said:

 

I'll second that. Honestly couldn't think of a better career/life than being a PH/guide in either Africa or N.America.

 

More pictures please Savanna!

Yeah more pics mate !! 

 

In another lifetime I’d have liked to have been in the Rli before being a ph in Africa. 

In reality I’m sat on a couch in Suffolk with two kids that are nocturnal and i can’t find the sky remote. 

Answers on a postcard please 

[Welsh_red 4,303]

28 minutes ago, THE STIFFMEISTER said:

Yeah more pics mate !! 

 

In another lifetime I’d have liked to have been in the Rli before being a ph in Africa. 

In reality I’m sat on a couch in Suffolk with two kids that are nocturnal and i can’t find the sky remote. 

Answers on a postcard please 

Same , in skulking upstairs waiting for X factor to finish so I can go back down 

[ChrisJones 7,973]

3 hours ago, THE STIFFMEISTER said:

Yeah more pics mate !! 

 

In another lifetime I’d have liked to have been in the Rli before being a ph in Africa. 

In reality I’m sat on a couch in Suffolk with two kids that are nocturnal and i can’t find the sky remote. 

Answers on a postcard please 

 

3 hours ago, Welsh_red said:

Same , in skulking upstairs waiting for X factor to finish so I can go back down 

[THE STIFFMEISTER 14,553]

Looks awful chris 

[ChrisJones 7,973]

14 minutes ago, THE STIFFMEISTER said:

Looks awful chris 

The traffic is murder.

[Born Hunter 17,622]

“f**k walking back down”

 

[mackem 23,690]

1 hour ago, Born Hunter said:

“f**k walking back down”

 

THATS the way to do it