[johng]

I'm not a hunter, never have. But, these big game hunts are actually good for conservation. They hunt only animals that NEED to be culled and they pay big bucks to do so which go towards keeping the animals alive and protected.

Big game hunts fund so much conservation.... so, if you truly and really care about trying to save rare species and such in Africa and other places -- these help fund those things.

[DLA]

If that’s true, and I sincerely hope you are right, that changes my perspective—so, thank you. Is there a good resource to learn more on that you’d recommend?

[bradleyy]

Not a direct example, although I know there are some (I just don't trust my personal knowledge on African hunts) from the US:

The Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 was lobbied for by hunters to self-tax (excise taxes) and reversed a long decline of wildlife in North America. The taxes raised $1.3 billion in 2025 alone, dedicated to state wildlife conservation and public access projects.

This is one pillar, there's a fishing one, duck stamps, etc.: hunters pay their own way for conservation (well, much of the P-R money is gun/ammo sales from non-hunters, but hey).

[yawpitch]

In all of history no animal has ever needed to be culled, except in the minds of those who want to kill for fun or profit (or, usually, both).

[johng]

I should add that I grew up in New Mexico near Holloman AFB. They imported Ibex animals there long ago and you can draw a license to hunt them. They don't grant many per year so they are very rare to pull... but there are Ibex hunts every year. They do it to keep the population at a level to support long term stability. Since they have no natural predators they would get out of control. The hunting fees go to conservation in New Mexico. You can read a bit more about it here: https://wildlife.dgf.nm.gov/department-reduces-number-of-per...

These are considered exotic hunts. As I said, I'm not a hunter. I don't have it in me.... I guess I could do it in a survival situation but I can understand that sometimes the hunts can be beneficial long term.

Hope this helps make it a bit more understandable and palatable for some.

[johng]

Well, one of the best examples is the case of a male Lion in Africa. Old, large, but too old to have offspring but still too large to be taken over by a younger male Lion. They allowed it to be hunted so that a younger male could take over the pride and create offspring which was better for the pride. There are other examples.

I can't find the story on it but I read it a long time ago.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/trophy-hu...

[yawpitch]

So, in other words, they rationalized their playing god in order to justify their profit-seeking.

Unnatural selection, AKA eugenics, doesn’t usually work out well in the long run.

[casey2]

Cue the lengthy rationalizations by wanton bloodthirsty murders