Status on Lion hunting in RSA

I am just checking with those who might be more in the loop than i am about this topic. I just read that the decision regarding lion hunting in RSA has been postponed until November, 2010. Is this correct? Anyone have any more information on it?

Hi Tom,

It is correct, the original court case was lost by the Lion Breeders Association, meaning that all Lion must roam for at least 2 years before be hunted.

The Breeders Association are taking the claim to the appeal court and this has been postponed to November 2010. They claim that it cost approx. 6 tons per Lion of meat per year and to breed Lion in captivity for 2 years will lead to bankruptcy...

If the lion hunting is shut down in RSA, will there still be lion hunting available in other parts of Africa like Namibia or Botswana?

Hi mstewart44

I am sure lion hunting will still be open in Namibia.

I am not 100% sure but I think that lion hunting is closed in Botswana currently.

mstewart44..........as Louis pointed out, lion hunting is closed in Botswana.

It is important to note that the topic is specifically related to the hunting of lions that are raised and released to be hunted in areas with high-fence. It has nothing to do with lion hunting in other countries.

When one looks at the overall picture, it is beginning to look like lion permits will be getting a scarce as hens teeth. Wild free roaming lions are currently on quota in parts of Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, CAR and Cameroon. Those are the ones I know of.............and things are further limited by what CITES allows for export quotas on sport trophies from the various countries and then that is further regulated by the USFWS if you are an American hunter. All together it does not add up to a lot of lions available to hunters every year.

The real problem for all countries with lion populations will be keeping the lion from being uplisted by CITES at future meetings. For a while it looked like the African Lion was going to be one of the items on the agenda at the CITES conference in Qatar, March 13-25th of this year, but that has apparently been dropped. It does not however, mean that it will not be front and centre at the next CITES conference and we all have to keep our fingers crossed that current conservation initiatives will address concerns about lion management for the future.

I just got off the phone with a whitetail hunting outfitter in Canada who hunts RSA every year. He told me that he just heard from his RSA PH the lion issue has been put on hold until 2011. While I did not disagree or argue with him, I question his source and information. He indicated this news is only days old. I believe if this were true, someone on this message forun would have made a post.

Anyone care to chime in?

Originally Posted by mstewart44

I just got off the phone with a whitetail hunting outfitter in Canada who hunts RSA every year. He told me that he just heard from his RSA PH the lion issue has been put on hold until 2011. While I did not disagree or argue with him, I question his source and information. He indicated this news is only days old. I believe if this were true, someone on this message forun would have made a post.

Anyone care to chime in?

I am still in the US busy with my marketing but we also got news from back home that we will be able to hunt lion until November 2010 as the court case will then go back to court.
Johann