The ecologist and author has spent 30 years researching the overhunting of lions in Africa and is deeply pessimistic about their future. Here he talks about dishonest hunting operators,the urgent need for global money, why he takes issue with animal groups – and what we’ve learned from CecilCraig Packer likes sticking his shaggy academic head into hazardous places. He’s had death threats, or confronted megalomaniac politicians,been race out of countries and mugged. But the man who has spent 30 years trying to study and save lions came close to real dread last month.
As the worlds media worked themselves into a tizz over the American dentist who paid $50000 to shoot Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe, Packer happened to maintain severe toothache, and which forced him to seek treatment in Minneapolis,where he directs the Lion Research Centre at the university.
Trophy hunting is not inherently damaging to lion populations providing males are mature and cubs safely rearedThe Cecil story tells me that we as a species can only prove empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own) with individual organisms Related: Cecil the lion: case against hunt leader should be thrown out, court told Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com