It was an enlightening show, if it was completely unbiased. It seemed to me as though it was unbiased, however someone else might be able to verify the information.

One of the best shows about the subject I have seen. An unbiased report on the decline of the African lion.

The "moral" of the story was basically, If it pays - it stays.

They did not condemn trophy hunting, in fact they made an argument that trophy hunting is one of the ways to conserve the lion.

This is a monumental break through. A show like Nature that actually presents trophy hunting as a viable conservation tool.

It didn't hurt that the representative for the trophy hunting point of view was Simon Evans. He came across as compassionate and knowledgeable.

I loved the one conservationist who basically said, "We can't be coming to Africa with our sentimental view of wildlife and tell the Africans to protect the wildlife because it is beautiful. Not when their livestock is being eaten and they are being killed by the beautiful wildlife."

Even an ardent conservationist like Jonathan Scott, said that he doesn't like hunting, but he was willing to be convinced that trophy hunting is a way to help save the lion. If you ever get a chance to watch his show, Big Cat Diary, I would recommend you do so.

Regards,

Terry

I was impressed with the show as well. It is nice when a Liberal finds "the middle ground!"

While I am fully ready for a Cape Buff hunt, Kudu, or other similar plains game hunt, personally I would never shoot one of the great cats unless I was forced into a corner. I just personally believe that they are too special to harvest just for a trophy.

I'll try to check out Big Cat Diary.

I enjoyed it too. It was a bit left-leaning, but then you must cater to your audience. There was a bit of 'most people cannot fathom the killing of an animal for sport', but I feel overall it was a huge step in a positive direction. Good on PBS.

I caught the last half of this show last night and I too was impressed with the acceptance of sport hunting by those interviewed in the program. I would like to see the whole show again. They seemed impressed with the the photo safari lodge that charges $240/day. No mention of the $300 to $1,500 per day paid by sport hunters. Although they did point out what the average lion hunter spends for a safari.

I missed the show, but I am sure it will be rebroadcast, and I am eager to see it.

We each decide for ourselves what game we wish to hunt and why, but the lion is so representative of wild Africa, and the hunting of the lion is so steeped in African tradition, that to go there and not attempt to take one, I think is to miss a large part of the experience. Only old lions should be harvested, so does it really make any difference if the lion dies from hunger or disease brought about by old age or if he dies from the hunter's bullet? Probably both the hunter and the lion benefit from the latter.

Now that Dr. Packer has conducted that study which says 5-6 year old lions can be hunted without affecting the productivity of the local lion popultion, then trophy hunting can add a lot of money to the conservation effort - without having any impact on the overall lion population.

Regards,

Terry

Looks like it will be on PBS again at 2:00 am Sunday central time. I need to record it if I can.

Edited:

Well, our local affiliate seems to be running Nova: Hunt for the Supertwister in that slot. Maybe next time.