In a conversation last night I was told by a hunter just returning from a 21 day Tanzania safari, that Tanzania scrapped the 6 year old rule.

Who's got the skinny?

Here is the issue.

There are a significant number of lions being held in TZ since the invocation of the 6 year old rule in 2012. These are lions that are clearly NOT 6 years old.

Exporting these lions to the US (actually even the taking) is a violation of the Lacey Act.

TZ is trying to amend the law to be similar to the Niassa Reserve Rules. This law would allow the export of younger lions legally. They are hoping this can be made retro-active to allow the export of the now illegal lions in storage.

So the answer to your question is that they are modifying the rules.

Thanks Lane, but the way I heard it was the law was unenforcible because the science was nota ccurate and they were dumping it. I have no dog in this.

That is probably the spin they are going to put out for sure.

But...it is simply NOT the truth. The aging process has taught them how few and far between 6 & >'s actually are. There are approximately 50-60 lion in storage now that don't even get close to being legal.

Very easy to tell if a dead lion is 5 or greater. And to be honest that was the standard they were stopping exportation on. They were allowing a +/- one year deviation. So that means those unexported lion were 4's or <.

But I assure they are NOT going to drop the post-mortem aging process.

And...if they did...it would virtually guarantee that US hunters would never import another lion...so I would not wish for that.

SBT - Lane's explanation of the hold-up is accurate. Its a problem I don't think was totally expected, or unexpected, depending on who you ask. From day 1 the law has needed to be modified, so if it goes as listed above - it will be good IMO.

My TZ lion from Sept. 2012, along with all the others is still there - hoping to get it soon!

Lane:

I understand all the lions shot last year are in storage, inclusive of those that went 6+

Surely of the 50/60 that were taken there had to be at least a handful that made the grade and if so why have they ALL been blocked ?

The talk about town is that the "new aging rule" will be 4-5 and if you shoot one which is 6+ the outfitter gets an extra lion on quota the following year

As already mentioned in another post:

(a)nobody (PH/outfitter) appears to have been penalized for their under-aged lion trophies;

(b)the ages of the lions in storage have not been notified to the various outfitters.

IMO this would be wrong as all those lions will have numerous photographs (part of the recording exercise) and only when you are officially told that the lion taken against GHP XXXX has been scientifically assessed as being a mature/immature animal of x years will the exercise serve as part of the process in educating PHs in the field assessment of lions.

Hi Fujo,

I am not privy to the reason why the lion aging data was not released publically.

If you know Eric Pasanisi...ask him.

I can only infer that the majority did not meet criteria putting them as 6 or greater. For if they did...I am sure everyone would be shouting it from the roof-tops.