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That is a very legitimate question Mike. I guess my first question to you would be, "Why not?" Does their rarity make it objectionable? Do you not perceive the species as a "sporting" target? I am not at all being defensive but am just genuinely curious and will address possible issues below.

Economically my rationale was and is that if a species pays for itself... then it will persist. I am sure you understand the theory Mike but, for those who perhaps have not given it as much thought, I think the below applies. Particularly in Namibia, if Cheetah (and Leopard for that matter) do not represent a revenue source, then ranchers have a very VERY real and immediate financial incentive to shoot them all in protection of game or cattle that actually DO represent a revenue source. My understanding is that a single adult Cheetah will consume about one Springbok per week. This particular species will not scavenge (or respond to bait, incidentally) but will instead constantly kill fresh game even if it is their own kill that is getting a bit old. Those Springbok (which are probably the lowest cost prey by the way....imagine if the Cheetah were feasting on your Sable calves!) represent over $20,000 per year in theoretically lost revenue to a hunting operation.

Given the above, shooting the occasional Cheetah (or Leopard or Rhino) puts money in people's pockets and offsets the cost of having them around. It might not TOTALLY offset the cost (and I don't think it does even with Leopard in most places) but it at least makes a rancher think twice about shooting them all in one go. As an example, after I had shot the above pictured cat, the tracker and I saw another running in the road a couple days later. The PH just smiled at me, backed off the vehicle accelerator, and said "We won't bother him because I have some Spaniards coming in two weeks". He didn't even want that particular cat stressed much less shot and we had already seen seven Cheetah in the last 8 days so his Spaniards were probably fine either way. I think that obvious behavioral impact represents the power of potential profit.

In my opinion, if enough people hunted Cheetah (and if the USFWS allowed US import) then the price of the species in trophy fee and daily rate terms might increase quite substantially and PERHAPS come to completely (or at least substantially) offset the cost of having them on a property. So, regardless of anything else, I feel that hunting Cheetah contributes to the demand for them and acts as positive pressure on their price....thus aiding conservation.

All the economics aside, hunting Cheetah with a predator call was fun as hell and plenty sporting to my mind. I saw it as something close to Black Bear or Mountain Lion hunting in the US but with a much more alert quarry. As for their rarity, I have happily hunted even rarer species (one that is now increasing in numbers btw) within the confines of a well-defined management plan. I am very proud to continue doing so for all of the above discussed reasons.

Edited by JohnTheGreek (24/07/12 11:28 PM)