http://time.com/4295534/china-...wildlife-endangered/



The Chinese Elite’s New Love of Hunting Has Conservationists Worried

Yang Siqi / Beijing 1:27 AM ET


Experts fear that more havoc could be wreaked on global wildlife populations


Wang Wei’s Beijing office is adorned with decorations that in any other workplace would be unusual, startling even — there’s a taxidermied deer, bighorn sheep and polar bear. But these are the commonplace trophies of Wang’s trade. He makes his living from a new pastime enticing China’s rich: hunting.

Earlier this year, the 54-year-old took a pair of clients from Shanghai to a manor in Spain, where they feasted on an “aristocratic banquet” and shot wild fowl. “I reminded my clients, be aware of your behavior at the table, don’t spread bread crumbs everywhere,” says Wang, who also doubles as an etiquette coach for his hunting charges. A wildlife-management major in college, Wang started off his career protecting pandas but in 2003 opened the first company targeting Chinese who wanted to go overseas to kill animals. He now offers clients hunting excursions in 10 countries, including Iran, Kenya, Mongolia and New Zealand.
Gun ownership is tightly controlled in China, where shooting ranges and legal hunting grounds are also limited. So hunting aficionados among the country’s elite tend to travel abroad to indulge their bloodlust. Two years ago, Jack Ma, the Alibaba tech entrepreneur who is one of China’s richest men, hired a castle near Loch Ness and shot deer with 11 friends, according to local reports.

One of China’s top hunting guides is Scott Lupien, an American who has lived in China for 12 years and grew up hunting rabbits in California. He took his first group of clients abroad, to South Africa, in 2009. Since then, he has guided more than 85 groups of Chinese hunters, with a maximum of six people per trip. The clients range from real estate tycoons and mine owners to factory bosses and pharmaceutical magnates.

What ties them together? “They have to be very wealthy,” says Lupien, who says the cheapest hunt with his 52Safari International Hunting Co. costs nearly $11,000 for two people. Most clients, however, spend more than $15,500 for a nine-day trip to Africa, including airfare. Bringing trophies back to China can also cost tens of thousands of dollars, and entails mountains of paperwork.

Among Lupien’s clients is a property tycoon surnamed Li from the coastal province of Shandong, who first went with the American to Namibia last fall to hunt warthogs, wildebeest and rhino. Earlier this year, they traveled to Canada where Li, who does not want his full name to be used, shot an 80-kg cougar. In a photo on Lupien’s cell phone, the real estate magnate is pictured with the dead feline on his shoulder and a smile on his face. Li likes his American tracker. “The Chinese guides always brought me to the animals in the easiest way,” he says. “I couldn’t enjoy the experience like a hunter.”

Another experienced guide is Kevin Zhang, who emigrated to the U.S. more than 20 years ago. Friends at high-end travel agencies in China send clients to him — like the affluent group of seven who came from the southwestern Chinese metropolis of Chongqing last year to hunt wild boar and bighorn sheep in California. Zhang teaches them basic hunting rules, such as how to avoid injuring others. “Most of them have poor safety awareness,” he says. “One time, a client shot a bear from a tree without noticing that a guide was standing under the tree.”

China’s appetite for wildlife, though, has already decimated endangered-animal populations worldwide, from rhinos and pangolin (sought after because their horns and scales, respectively, are believed to have medicinal properties) to elephants (because of the demand for ivory). Global wildlife monitors are now worried that the burgeoning Chinese interest in hunting could wreak further havoc on vulnerable animal populations.

“Some newly rich people in China may follow the example of rich hunters in developed counties by spending a fortune to purchase elephant-hunting quotas in Africa,” says Zhou Fei, head of the wildlife-trade program at WWF, the international NGO. “The conspicuous display of wealth has had an influence on China’s international reputation, not to mention disrupted international elephant-conservation efforts.”

WWF says it is not opposed to hunting or fishing for legitimate consumption, provided the activities are conducted sustainably and with cultural sensitivity. “However, in many cases,” says Zhou, “especially in the case of elephant-trophy hunting, these conditions are not met.”

In an ideal world, these hunters would evolve to support conservation.
You know, become a bit more like us, and less the rapacious Chinese we have come to expect in Southern Africa.
We need hunters for our sport to survive, and not just Americans. At least an opportunity for irony, here.

Just go to China and look around.... ZERO concern for the environment and wildlife.

Not optimistic that the Chinese will become conservationists!

quote:

Originally posted by Marty:
In an ideal world, these hunters would evolve to support conservation.
You know, become a bit more like us, and less the rapacious Chinese we have come to expect in Southern Africa.
We need hunters for our sport to survive, and not just Americans. At least an opportunity for irony, here.

Indeed and the money would be welcome in conservation.

Hope they can shoot better than they can drive...

A group of seven came to California to hunt Bighorn Sheep?!?!?!!!! They better not have. California's entire non -resident sheep quota is for up to 1 ram tag to go to a non-resident. Even if another bought the Governor's tag, that's only 2 non-resident sheep hunters per year.

Seven? WTF?????

Wish they would open up sheep hunting in China again. If they are not open to outsiders, then we should not be open to them.

A smart young man with the right drive would do well to open a booking company in Hong Kong.

Oh dear. The “conservationists” (who are similar to “environmentalists) are worried. Read “activists”. I used to have respect for the WWF (back in the Prince Bernhard days) and the IUCN, but now they are all firmly in the hands of the animal rightists. OK, China doesn’t have the best track record with its involvement in illegal wildlife trafficking, but this reporter also can’t (or doesn’t want to) distinguish between legal and illegal markets, or pangolins and rhinos wouldn’t have even been brought up in a story about legal safari hunting. A Chinese hunter, and I mean a real, live, genuine ethical fair-chase hunter is just that: a hunter. And when we’re talking a country with billions of people, not millions, perhaps that’s not a market to take lightly.

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
A group of seven came to California to hunt Bighorn Sheep?!?!?!!!! They better not have. California's entire non -resident sheep quota is for up to 1 ram tag to go to a non-resident. Even if another bought the Governor's tag, that's only 2 non-resident sheep hunters per year.

Seven? WTF?????

It also list Kenya as a hunting destination? I guess they could be bird hunting, I doubt either of those statements is correct.

I have had the pleasure of meeting this Scott guy, married to a chinese lady, bit of a wierdo I found!

Agreed. They went hunting in Kenya? Recently? Hmmm no.

I had the misfortune of outfitting these guys in Botswana , they started with what seemed like two elephant hunters then the next year 3 , the same story about a fast growing elite millionaires with a wish to hunt. I won't go into the details but can only say be careful and be alert .