Hi Everyone,
Buff, weldone on your lion hunt. I hope everyone realises what an accomplishment this really was!
I found this a very interesting thread. I live in England now; but am from South Africa. I used to be a ranger and have also researched game farming intensively, as it is my dream to own a ranch big enough to hold the Big5. I have never bow hunted before, not for the lack of wanting to do so, but it's illegal to do so in the UK.
I would like to add my 2cents worth into this topic, as I feel people need to look at this from both sides of the fence, and hopefully my OPINION will reflect this.
First off, I think lion hunting should be allowed. If there was no lion hunting, then lions would be shot out in africa, except in National reserves, as private owners want something that brings in money. Lions would just eat the plains game, and reduce income, thus they would be deemed pests and shot. Lions are already in serious danger of dying out very quickly in Africa, as populations are so spread out with fences between them, that inbreeding is a serious problem, with imune systems being less able to fight off diseases. (HluHluwe Umfolozi +-100,000a, is an example, the lions are being born with allsorts of deformaties and dying of diseases that normally wouldn't effect lions). How you get around this, is swopping lions between reserves, and culling the sick/old ones, bringing in revenue. Which brings me back to just above with farmers killing lions as pests. Now if they had an incentive to keep lions, then they could swop them out and keep the populations healthy and the genes more diverse.
However, 5000a is about 2500hec (we work in hectares out there) and stocking a ranch with animals is all about LSU's (Large Stocking Units). Each species (HERBIVORE) is given a LSU (Zebra 0.5LSU dont quote me) and you can stock your farm according to its LSU capacity. So 100LSU stocking capacity means you can have say 200 zebras. From there they (Nature Conservation) see how many LSU's a carnivore would eat in a year, with a few more calculations and tell you if you can stock lions or cheetahs (I left leopards out, as they don't respect boundry fences). Now a farm in the Kalahari of say a certain size will have a lower LSU than a farm in Mpumulanga of the same size, due to rainfall and vegetation type. So working out whether a farm is big enough for a type of animal is more than how big the parimeter fence is and whether you can walk around it in a day or not. I am pretty certain that this farm that Buff hunted on would not pass Nature Conservations standards in size to keep lions free roaming (got total roam of the farm) on a permanent basis. This however wouldn't stop the outfitter from buying a lion a few weeks before the hunt, and letting it roam over the farm. This is what I suspect happened. It is not illegal to do this in South Africa, but soon will be. Where the lion came from, is a different question. I have visited a Lion breeding farm, where lions are sold off for hunting or to europe/asia/america as pets in private zoo collections. However, this lioness could've been acquired from a huge reserve where she was sold off due to age ect...
The nature of lions is such, that when you walk up to them they will not run like antelope do. I have got pretty close (10-15m) to lions without knowing that they were there. They then gave me a warning, and as a last resort ran. 9 out 10 times a lion wont attack until it is injured or seriously threatened! When they are shot, they normally head for the nearest thicket and lie up, as lions seldom run very far, 150-200m max, even when they are hunting prey, as they are very large and expend loads of energy doing so. So whether this was a 500a, 5000a or 50000a ranch, the lion would act in the same way.
So not to take away from Buff his accomplishment of standing 'toe-toe' with a lion and sorry Buff if this post seems to do so. This lion wasn't chained up and could've charged at any point in time. Lions cover a gap of 100 yards in about 3 1/2 seconds, so 40 yards barely gives enough time to even think of a shot!
Was this a canned lion hunt? You decide! Would the lion be bought specifically for a hunt? Yes! All lions shot in South Africa on a private outfitters ranch would be bought for the hunt! South Africa is pretty fenced in place and lions don't roam around free anymore! Leopards are a different story though.......
Thanks Pete