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I usually take the NEW SCIENTIST with a grain or two of salt, but this passage was interesting:

Even the animal-welfare groups that seek to protect lions from trophy hunters may be unintentionally placing them at risk. Sport hunting is banned in Kenya, which has allowed lions to fare better there than in most other parts of Africa, but the prohibition could also contribute to their eventual demise.

"Under current policy, there is no way for rural people to benefit from wildlife," says Frank. "They get essentially no income from tourism, and the only other potential source of wildlife income – carefully regulated, high-paying trophy hunting – is prevented by the financial influence of American and British animal-rights lobbies."

Research by the University of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History and KWS suggests that on average each lion eats livestock worth around $270 a year. "On the other hand, given the size of Kenya's tourist industry and the central importance of lions to tourist satisfaction, each of Kenya's 2000 surviving lions may be worth upwards of $17,000 per year in tourist revenues," says Bruce Patterson, curator of mammals at the museum.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17648-kenyas-lions-could-vanish-within-10-years.html

Edited by Story (23/08/09 08:01 AM)

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