http://bulawayo24.com/index-id...rism-byo-110193.html



Hwange lion killings undermine conservation efforts

by Oscar Nkala
3 hrs ago


Two endangered lionesses were killed after being lured out of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe to a hunting trap set up using meat from a cow they allegedly killed the previous night. One of the two lionesses was reportedly pregnant when she was gunned down.

The shooting took place within 60km of the spot where the iconic lion Cecil was killed by hunter Theo Bronkhorst and his American hunter-client, Dr Walter Palmer on July 1, 2015.

Hwange-based lion researcher Brent Stapelkamp said while the livestock loss was regrettable, it could have been avoided together with its consequences if the farmer had kept his cattle in a protective boma for the night.

Further, he said the council could have opted to save the endangered animals by seeking help from one of the five community-based lion guardian groups, which are trained to use non-lethal means to mitigate conflict between humans and predators.

The lion guardian groups include the Soft Foot Alliance, The Lion Guardians, Mother Africa Trust, Conservation & Wildlife Fund and Panthera. The staff are specially trained to resolve human-lion conflicts in a way that balance the safeguarding of community property and lion conservation interests.

Stapelkamp said by approving the killing of the lions in the absence of proof that they were responsible for the predation incident of the previous night, the Hwange Rural District Council had demonstrated its insensitivity to the plight of Hwange's critically endangered lion population.

He said council attempts to justify the killings by making allegations that they killed four cows, instead of one, were misleading and aimed at creating the impression that the lions exited the park with the intention of hunting down livestock in the communal lands.

"Apparently, an elephant was shot (earlier) as a problem animal a distance from the scene, although meat from the carcass was removed very quickly. Three lions then came out the park to feed on it…

"I hear that the lions then found a heifer that refused to go into its protective boma at night and killed it," Stapelkamp said.

He said the killings should be investigated to find out whether it was legal because the slain lions were not found in the communal lands, but were baited out of the park using a meat trap set up by the professional hunter who killed them.

"A local guide and professional hunter rushed around, and without notifying the Lion Guardians or trying any non-lethal mitigation, sought permission from the council to shoot the lions.

"He was granted permission. The remains of the lion kill was set up (as a bait) and three lions came to feed. Two females were shot and killed and a sub-adult male escaped," Stapelkamp said.

He said the killing undermined the Hwange lion conservation project and was a call for Zimbabwe to wake up to a 'perverse mix of ego and self-interest' that works to reverse the gains of conservation.

Photographic safari operator Sharon Stead expressed her outrage saying for the past eight months, the slain lionesses were mostly resident and very popular with her guests at Ivory and Khulu Lodges.

Stead said the killings happened as she concluded a marketing tour of Germany and the United States, where she used slide images of the slain lionesses to market Hwange as a global photographic safari destination.

"Today, I learned that the very lions I have spoken about and shown on my slide presentations, the same lionesses that have found and made our concession at Ivory Lodge their home for the past 8 months, have been shot and killed," Stead said.

She said it was shocking to learn that the community based lion guardian groups which are trained to advise and provide manpower support for non-lethal mitigations of such human-wildlife conflicts were never called up to handle the predation case in Dete.

Benny Ncube, the area manager of the Communal Areas Management Programme For Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) who authorised the killing. CAMPFIRE is a council sub-department responsible for problem animal control said the public outrage over the lion killings was informed by public ignorance of the council policy for dealing with 'nuisance' predators. He said although council understands the importance of lion conservation, it was more concerned about the protection of community resources.

"As far as I know, those lions were eliminated in a legitimate problem animal control programme. We cannot try scaring away the lions because they are stubborn and it doesn't work. So we just eliminate all nuisance predators whenever they kill livestock," Ncube said.

He said although the Dete lionesses had no known tendency of leaving the park to hunt for livestock in communal areas, he classified them as 'nuisance animals' on account of the farmer's loss of four cattle in one night.

However, Ncube conceded that he never visited the scene but approved the killings based on verbal reports from the farmer and a council-contracted hunter who went to assess the damage.

The killings have raised concerns about cattle ranching in Dete, a town on the northern boundary of Hwange's lion range. Zimbabwean urban bye-laws prohibit pastoralism in urban areas.

Safari operators said at least three large herds of cattle are permanently grazing in Dete, which is completely surrounded by the park and forests which are primarily home to lions and elephants.

Some cattle have been sighted as deep into the Hwange National Park as Nehimba, a previously secluded lion range-land. The presence of cattle has led increased human infiltration by herd-boys who are blamed for setting up snares and hunting with dogs each time they come into the park.

The rangeland also faces human encroachment as illegal fishermen spend days at the Nehimba dam, the only water source and hunting ground for the big cats. Conservationists fear that the unchecked livestock incursions into the park may lead to more disputed shootings in case of predator attacks.

PWMA sources blamed cattle incursions on parks bosses who take bribes from ranchers in return for illegal grazing rights and immunity from prosecution. Efforts to get a comment from Environment, Water and Climate minister Oppah Muchinguri were unsuccessful.

I wonder who the mentioned Professional Hunter was?

Sounds like a cluster.

" Endangered " Lionesses -- what a load of

This guy took a normal occurrence and turned it into some special news story. Animals and humans clash. Animals loose. DUH!

Good heavens! These clowns never stop do they?

"The iconic lion Cecil".....

Who nobody in Zim had ever heard of until the US news media got the story!

Oscar Nkala does some very good work as an investigative journalist. This is not a good example of it unfortunately. The PAC hunt was legal and above board. If ZPHGA has not posted their summary here, then their own fault if this is the interpretation.

https://www.facebook.com/ZPHGA/posts/1316426601805853



REPORT OF LIONS SHOT IN DETE 3RD MAY 2017
BY RAPHAEL NDLOVU (PH LICENCE No. 253)
REASONS FOR THIS LION PAC ACTION
1. These lions had killed a total of 9 cattle, 16 goats and 1 donkey between the communal lands of Mambabji, Magoli, Jwapi, Dingani and Dete township areas during the last 2 months.
2. When they came into the town of Dete on the night of Monday 1st May 2017 they jumped into two different kraals. In the first kraal there were many cattle and the lions were unsuccessful because the cattle fought back. In the second kraal that belonged to an 83-year-old man they killed a calf and caused the cattle to break out of the kraal. One bull from this herd could not immediately found but later its carcass was located almost 200m away and it too had been killed by these lions.
3. There are 101 children under the age of 12 years who walk from their homes in Magoli communal land to school every day in the town of Dete. Parents of these children were very worried about the safety of their children because they had to walk through the same area where the lions were active. At one point they even had to pass 10m from the place where the lions had killed the calf.
4. In the community there are fresh memories of a 7-year-old boy who was killed by a collared lion that was well known to the lion researchers and whose death the community still believes could have been prevented.
5. For these reasons a PAC Permit to kill the lions (Number WP 10/17) was issued by the CEO of the Hwange Rural District Council.
AFTER THE PERMIT WAS RECEIVED
1. Because the Hwange Rural District Council is the Appropriate Authority for this area there was no need for me to contact or get permission from any other organisation. As a courtesy I did contact the National Park Authority and ZRP to inform them of my intended actions that night.
2. First I phoned National Parks and they told me to personally bring the permit to their offices at Main Camp to be inspected.
3. I then drove to Main Camp with the local CAMPFIRE representative and met the relevant Senior Wildlife Officer who looked at the permit and gave me the go-ahead.
4. After this I went to ZRP Dete where I showed them the permit and informed them of possible shooting that evening.
5. As a licenced Professional Hunter I have 6 Learner Professional Hunters apprenticed under me who I assist to help them get their full licences.
6. After I had received the permit and got the green light from Parks and the Police I was able to invite two of these learners to accompany me for this exercise.
7. I then met a Professional Guide who I have known for 30-years and he asked if he could be present as an observer. He wanted to get first-hand information about lethal as opposed to non-lethal measures to control problem lions for a new non-lethal PAC project he is developing.
SHOOTING
1. The shooting of these 2 lions took place in the early hours of Wednesday 3rd
May 2017 at the carcass of the bull they had killed the previous night (GPS Point 35K485401/7942300).
2. The position of this carcass was approximately 200m from the CMED Workshops and the position of calf they killed was only 10m from the well-used path taken by children from Magoli communal land as they walk to school every day.
3. This is not a wildlife area. It an area well used by local residents of Dete town and the many people who come to Dete from the surrounding communal areas.
4. For the shooting, only myself as the professional hunter and my two learner professional hunters were involved.
5. The professional guide was present as an observer but he did not take part in the shooting.
I would also like to add that I am not only a professional hunter. I am also a fully licenced
professional guide and I started my career in the tourism industry where I guided many
hundreds of local and international tourists over the years.
I love wildlife and as a guide I completely understand the anger and outcry of overseas
conservationists and the non-hunting public who are usually presented with only one side of
the story when a lion is killed.
But as a long-time resident of Dete and a member of the commumity I am also aware of the
anger not only of the many poor farmers who have lost livestock and crops to lions and
elephants but more importantly I know about the loss suffered by this community when one of their own children was killed by a collared lion in 2014.
We understand that this lion was wearing a satellite collar and was well known to lion
researchers who were tracking its hourly movements within the community. The failure of
conservationists and researchers to alert or protect the local people from lions in the past is an important fact that overseas people must not forget.
In another case that happened in the last few years, a cattle-killing lion was darted in exactly
the same area where these two lions were shot. It was darted by the local lion researchers and taken deep into the National Park. It returned within a few days and was re-darted and
relocated even further into the Park for a second time only to return to the same area about a
week later.
For the last 20 years I have acted as a servant of the people whenever I was asked to deal with problem elephants and lions in this area. I have acted without reward and at great personal risk. I have even been mauled and nearly killed by a cattle killing lion while carrying out these duties.
This was not a commercial hunt and I received no financial reward for shooting these lions.
If I had not intervened I can guarantee the local people would eventually take matters into
their own hands and use poison or wire snares to protect themselves from these lions.
For this reason I put my personal feelings about lions aside and once again acted on behalf of the community. In this way I believe my most valuable contribution I can make is to make
sure that these problem animals are killed in the quickest and most humane way possible.
RAPHAEL NDLOVU