May 2022

Most people outside Africa probably don’t associate trophy hunting with conservation. In fact, certain publicized incidents of trophy hunting have caused something of a global moral panic. The same often goes for the culling of animal populations to manage their numbers, and the trade in ivory, even ivory harvested from elephants that die naturally. In today’s discussion we get into these perceptions, and my guest explains why they may be misguided.

Lochran Traill is a lecturer at the University of Leeds. He is a conservation biologist and, having grown up in Zimbabwe, specializes in African ecology and conservation. Among the many topics he has researched and published on in top journals, is the afore-mentioned trophy hunting. Our discussion focuses on, but is not limited to, his most recent paper, on divergent views on trophy hunting in Africa, especially between people in Africa, and people outside the continent.

Links to resources:

• Divergent views on trophy hunting in Africa, and what this may mean for research and policy - A 2021 paper that Lochran's group published in Conservation Letters

• Campfire Association - A famous and long-lived community conservation initiative in Zimbabwe

• Cecil the Lion incident - Wikipedia entry about the hunting of a Lion in Hwange National Park

• Predicting the evolutionary consequences of trophy hunting on a quantitative trait - a 2018 article in The Journal of Wildlife Management by Lochran and colleagues