Dead wild animals by numbers — Professional Hunters Association stats tell a grim tale

Article supplied by the Conservation Action Trust.

You pay a mere $100 to pull the trigger on an aardvark (an animal most safari goers would not be lucky enough to see). It’s not a particularly stealthy or aggressive animal, but rather meanders around innocently searching for termites; however, killing one is somehow considered a sport worthy of applause.

A dead aardvark makes for interesting interior design and at least six of these animals are now decorative trophies, according to the 2023 professional hunting statistics prepared by the Professional Hunters Association for the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE) and obtained via Promotion of Access to Information Act requests. 

In 2023, 6,052 international visitors  to South Africa shot 34,515 animals. More than half the international visitors hailed from the United States, at 3,783 hunters, while the remainder primarily visited from European countries.



The meek aardwolf (10) and bat-eared fox (10) fetched $100 each to adorn a hunter’s wall – a feat that is neither brave nor athletic. And since trophy hunting is all about rarity and trophy aesthetics, a total of 722 colour variants of springbok ($1,200-$1,700 each) and 459 golden wildebeest ($4,483 each) were killed – species bred specifically for their colour and rarity appeal to hunters, and not their conservation value.

In addition, trophy hunters chose to bag several other puzzling species for entertainment’s sake: 46 African civets; 138 porcupines; six Cape foxes; two meerkats; 27 yellow mongooses; 13 yellow-billed hornbills; four Indian water buffalos; one black mamba; and 94 “unspecified species”.

No trophy hunters chose to dart a rhino (an option available for the photo prop), but 78 white rhinos ($35,000 each) were killed for expensive wall art despite raging poaching numbers in the Kruger National Park and KwaZulu-Natal’s provincial parks. Imagine investing $35,000 per rhino into improving the functioning of Ezemvelo’s fencing, anti-poaching units, and genuine community upliftment?



More than R1-billion was generated from trophy hunting, primarily of indigenous species, which at first glance may appear to be significant revenue for South Africa. But game ranching and trophy hunting primarily occur on private land owned by a small number of wealthy landowners, which is very often surrounded by communities living in poverty.

South Africa’s wildlife legislation is geared for economic development at the cost of considering more progressive ways of approaching the conservation of biodiversity and addressing the core issues affecting poaching and biodiversity loss.

While the new National Biodiversity Economy Strategy is to be lauded for its intentions to protect biodiversity and improve economic benefits for those living in poverty, a closer examination raises concerns that the strategy risks exploiting the natural environment to the benefit of only a privileged few.

The National Biodiversity Economic Strategy further touts the idea that “consumptive use of game from extensive wildlife systems at scale that drive transformation and expanded sustainable conservation compatible land use” will “increase the GDP contribution (through) consumptive use of game from extensive wildlife systems from R4.6-billion (2020) to R27.6-billion by 2036”.

How this will occur remains unclear, as this would be achievable only if more than 16,500 hunters come to South Africa to shoot almost 100,000 animals in 2036 alone. To put this goal in perspective, more than 10,000 lions, 1,300 elephants, 3,000 white rhinos and 30,000 buffalos will need to be killed from 2022 to 2036 to achieve these targets. This would require industrial-scale production of wildlife that is neither ecologically sustainable nor in line with emerging recognition of animal wellbeing.

The scale of hunting in South Africa

To gain a clearer idea of the sheer scale of indigenous species hunted by international clients, data from 2016 to 2023 demonstrates that 260,210 individual animals were shot across an eight-year period. The disturbing variety of species includes the smallest cat species, the black-footed cat (at five animals) to 562 servals to a staggering 2,968 lions. 



 Post Covid-19 hunting figures suggest South Africa has not returned to its hunting glory days. But this does beg the question of why government set lofty hunting targets in the National Biodiversity Economic Strategy (NBES). The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) released a statement questioning whether the NBES has determined if a market exists for the extent of the hunting quotas proposed.

Hunting of captive-bred lions

A total of 521 lions were shot for trophies, and as demonstrated in the graph below, the vast majority (468) were hunts conducted in North West, a province renowned for its captive-bred lion hunts. Given that the Free State has no extensive free-ranging ecosystems, it may be assumed that the further four lions hunted there were captive-bred too. 

Misinformation abounds regarding the legality of captive lion hunts, which have gained euphemisms such as “ranched hunts” to hide the reality that canned or captive hunting is still occurring in some South African provinces, particularly in North West. Regardless of the terminology used, these hunts use captive-bred lions, which are released for a short period (a minimum of 96 hours in North West) in a small, fenced area for an easy and guaranteed kill. 

North West’s hunting appeal is due to its lack of legislation, which permits hunting outfitters and their clients to kill captive-bred lions a short time after release, but also permits the hunting of exotic predators. No formal permits are required to bag a tiger or other exotic species in the province – a landowner’s written permission is considered sufficient, confirmed Blood Lions’ researchers in their 2022 paper.

Fierce opposition to animal wellbeing

The captive predator industry is fighting tooth and nail to ensure its exploits continue, despite Environment Minister Dr Dion George’s stated intentions to close the industry and all its associated activities with lions.

The further inclusion of an “animal wellbeing” clause in the amended National Environmental Management Laws Amendment Act has created enormous backlash from the SA Hunters and Game Conservation Association, which has now taken DFFE to court to have this removed.

Wellbeing is defined in the legislation as “the holistic circumstances and conditions of an animal, which are conducive to its physical, physiological and mental health and quality of life, including the ability to cope with its environment”.

As trophy hunting faces increasing international opprobrium, ethical tourism increases in importance and as both the numbers of animals hunted and international visitors decline, the continued focus of South Africa in supporting trophy hunting remains highly questionable. DM