A. Species
Scientific name: Panthera leo
Common name(s): Lion, African lion
Global IUCN Red List Threat Status: Vulnerable
B. Location of use
Geographic location(s):
- Zimbabwe
Country/Region: Zimbabwe (national assessment)
C. Scale of assessment
Scale of assessment: National Level
Name/Details of location: Zimbabwe
D. Timescale of use
Start Year: 1974
End Year: 2004
E. Information about the use
How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Type of use: Extractive
Practice of use: Hunting and/or Trapping of live terrestrial and aerial animals
Lethal or non-lethal: Lethal
Does this use involve take/extraction of: The whole entire organism
Purpose(s) of end use: Collection/display and Recreation
Motivation of use: Recreational
Is this use legal or illegal?: Legal under national law
F. Information about the Users
Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people, National external and International external
G. Information about the sustainability of use
Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study: based on this (and related) assessment(s) the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority reduced quotas in 2004 and temporarily suspending hunting for the 2005 and 2006 hunting seasons.
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Quotas have proven unsustainably high, causing not only a reduction in lion numbers, but also a change in population age structure and pride composition.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Socio-economically, sports trophy hunting on hunting safari concessions is an important industry in Zimbabwe (along with photographic / tourist safaris) raising revenue that promotes and enables the conservation of wildlife resources; however, in Zimbabwe, quotas have been too high and this has caused the lion population to deteriorate - and so the rate of use analysed in this study is not sustainable. The study cites substantially reduced quotas in the Zambezi Valley hunting concessions in the 1994/5 season due to over-hunting and poor quality of trophies in previous years. Reduced quotas resulted in a reduction in the ‘catch effort’ in subsequent years and improvements in trophy quality.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Provided that quotas remain too high in Zimbabwe, exceeding the capacity of the lion population, and given the temptation of lucrative economic exploitation, if this industry shrinks or collapse it would severely impact livelihoods and conservancies that depend on sports hunting (unless they can diversify into ecotourism).
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: not recorded
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Disrupts lion society, causing fighting and infanticide. Lions can be injured before they are killed.
Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species
1. Zimbabwe should lower their hunting quotas to levels comparable to other countries. All lions should be placed on an ‘optional’ quota. 2. Range states should permanently cease all trophy hunting of female and subadult lions. 3. Hunting associations in Tanzania and Botswana have already endorsed the 6-yr age-minimum for lion hunting on their concessions. 4. Photographs of the nose, face and mane of all trophies should be taken and at least one second premolar tooth should be extracted to permit evaluation of and improvements in age-estimation techniques. 5. Detailed demographic data should be collected on at least 1-2 representative populations that are subject to trophy hunting to validate the predictions of the simulation models. 6. Range states where lions are trophy hunted should maintain and publish data on lion quotas and trophies, including sex and origin of harvested animals. 7. The authors also strongly endorse South Africa's Panel of Experts recommendation that "in general, the practice of hunting captive-bred animals should be disallowed"
Record source
Information about the record source: grey_lit
Date of publication/issue/production: 2006-01-01T00:00:00+0000
Source Reference(s):
Date of record entry: 2022-12-19