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To Save The Black Rhino, Hunting Club Bids On Killing One

by NPR STAFF

December 29, 2013

Hunters of wild ducks have been extremely important contributors to, and activists for, wetlands preservation in the USA. Does that mean hunting is good for conservation? National Public Radio in the USA covered a story a few days ago that, as a headline cast hunting in a grotesque light, but listening to the participants there was a whole new perspective. Raxa Collective has no plans to add hunting to the list of activities it offers travelers, but we are obliged to participate in the conversation:

Fewer than 5,000 black rhinos are thought to exist in the wild, and in an effort to preserve the species, the Dallas Safari Club is offering a chance to kill one.

The Texas-based hunting organization is auctioning off a permit to hunt a rhinoceros in Nambia. It’s a fundraiser intended to help save the larger population.

The idea may sound counter-intuitive, but Dallas Safari Club executive Ben Carter tells NPR’s Jennifer Ludden that raising the funds to support the species is what many scientists and biologists believe is the best way to grow the population of black rhinos.

“It takes money for these animals to exist. A lot of people don’t recognize that,” Carter says. An endangered species like the black rhino needs a lot of support — land, protection, management, studies. “This is one way to raise a lot of money at one time,” he says. “That can make a huge impact on the future of the species.”

Predictably, the Jan. 11 auction has raised controversy within the environmental community. There’s an online petition, currently just short of 50,000 signatures, calling to stop the auction. Carter and his staff have received a lot of hate mail, including death threats.

Carter says many of those who object are not educated in the role that hunting plays in conservation. A habitat can only sustain a certain population, he says, and any excess can be harvested and used to raise money through selling things like hunting licenses and permits.

The winner of the Dallas Safari Club’s auction will hunt a specially selected rhino. Namibia’s Department of Wildlife looks for a rhino that’s too old to breed — and too aggressive to stay in the herd. When black rhinos get older, Carter says, they remain territorial and sometimes kill younger rhino bulls and calves. He says the department often removes these rhinos for the protection of the population anyway.

Read and listen to the whole story here.