quote:

Fact is, quotas are the CONTROL, a control that we and the "experienced" scientific community are actually AGAINST! If everyone in the industry is, was and would have been shooting ONLY older/mature lions, the need for quotas would be un-necessary. A fact that we the LCTF and the entire scientific community agree on. So I ask you, who really is in favor of "controlling the hunter"?

quote:

Female population size was highly sensitive to any quota
taking >2 males/year when the harvest included lions
as young as 3 years old (Fig. 1a). Irrespective of quota
size, harvesting males at least 5 years old had a negligible
effect on population viability. Placing age restrictions on
lions shot increased the total number of males harvested
after 30 years and increased the number of 5- and 6- year
old trophies in the population by protecting young males
(Fig. 1b & c).
Harvesting older males did not reduce the population’s
capacity to maintain a viable breeding population even
when the populationwas initially depleted by an environmental
perturbation, whereas shooting younger males significantly
affected the outcome. Female population size
after 30 years of harvesting differed very little between a
population that was initially at equilibrium and one that
was recovering from a perturbation event (Fig. 1a & 2).
Restricting the harvest to older age classes permitted
the initially depleted populations to recover to levels comparable
to stable populations within 15–25 years. Growth
in female population sizewas resilient to harvesting when
annual quota size was both moderate (4 males; Fig. 3)
and high (8 males; Fig. 4). Although unhunted, recovering
populations maintained a larger number of females
through time in comparison with recovering hunted populations,
they grewin a similar trajectory when only males
≥5 or ≥6 yearswere targeted. Quota sizewas only important
when immature males (≤4 years)were taken. Extinction
occurred at least once per 100 runs when quota size
exceeded more than two ≥3 or ≥4 year old males each
year; whereas extinction never occurred when hunting
was restricted to males ≥5 or ≥6 years old.......
If trophy hunting is to serve as a conservation tool
for lion populations outside protected areas, the industry
needs to adopt an age minimum to ensure a sustainable
offtake and to address the needs of the people most likely
to be affected by living in close proximity to lions. The
results from our model demonstrate that lion populations
are resilient to sport hunting of mature males and that environmental
stochasticity does not affect the predictions
of the model. An age-restricted offtake provides an easyto-
implement alternative to quotas despite some inherent
error in its application.

quote:

originally posted by Bwanamich:
if you set a strict quota, it will probably be 2-3 lions max. If an area actually contains 8 lions then you are not fully maximizing the resource potential. You could/should be offering 8 lion hunts, generating more revenue for conservation and more benefit to communities, etc, etc.


So every >6 yo lion seen and not hunted is a lost opportunity.

quote:

originally posted by 505 Gibbs:
Are you stating that every lion that is 6+ should be hunted and harvested if possible?

quote:

originally posted by Bwanamich:
I thought you could read?
Go on, tell me why not.............

quote:

originally posted by Aaron Neilson:
Brad - Careful again with the wording! Not that every 6 yr old SHOULD/MUST be hunted. However, once one understands the science behind it, one will also understand that 6 yr old plus lions can be hunted without negative impact to the lion dynamics in a given area.

A fact lost on some PH/outfitters, that could have worked towards the elimination of quotas for lion, along time ago. If outfitters WOULD self-regulate themselves to only shooting > 6yr olds, a lion quota would be irrelevant and un-necessary.

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:

quote:

I thought you could read?
Go on, tell me why not.............

why not what? I am not telling you anthing, I am asking you a question, please answer.