Australia to legalise Crocodile hunting

You can do this in South Africa, with a permit, but it tends to be ON the Limpopo when there's no water flowing. Makes for interesting "follow up" when the Croc is chasing you.

Stan
 
I believe the idea is to raise funds for conservation efforts, not give trophy hunters a good deal. At the end of the day, if and it is a big if, they can find enough hunters to pay £15,000 per animal and if that money is used in genuine and effective conservation work then it's all good in my book.

However, £15,000 is a headline rate suggested by the media from what I can see. That might just be the press hyping things up, the cost may be lower or even more.
 
It won't be a problem getting the trophy fee, I imagine the demand will still outweigh the supply at the suggested price.

There are several collateral benefits to trophy hunting of crocodiles, it will help reduce the conflict between those who share the range with them who currently view them as pests, not as a valuable asset. More money will be available for the monitoring & the management, & due to better stakeholder engagement I expect that the data will be far more accurate & rigorous. It's a good opportunity for our indigenous folk. Its an opportunity to provide a sustainable industry, which IMO can only be better if traditional owners are involved, many "mobs" & individuals have the crocodile as their totem animal & don't have an anthropocentric view to their own or the crocodiles position in the environment. It will be a big shift in the paradigm towards indigenous species down here if we can get it past the federal government, hopefully we can start to move from "protectionist" conservation to a "wise use" model, like the IUCN suggested back in 94. Better late than never.

Sharkey
 
coward ! Tarzan just used a knife !
HaHa! but Mick Dundee used a .303 (allegedly)! ;)


15 grand!! Are they high?!? Yeah salt water are bigger than Nile crocs but roughly 3 times the price for a trophy animal. Ridiculous.
Supply and demand - supply of saltwater crocs is considerably smaller... and £15k is small beer compared to some of the species on the international hunter's list, e.g. elephant, rhino, markhor, some of the ibex and sheep, a big (big) stag in Europe, etc... If you are prepared to fly all that way to hunt buffalo, banteng and maybe sambar, do a few big game fishing trips, plus a side trip for Rusa in New Caledonia for example, then I'm sure there will be plenty who will take up this chance while they are there in Australia.

After all, for the people who like to tick of lists and pay a fortune in doing so, the number of huntable species worldwide is declining through political pressure and habitat loss... Given the political games played out over saltwater crocs, I can't see the opportunity being open indefinitely, despite the sustainable resource use arguments in favour.
 
It won't be a problem getting the trophy fee, I imagine the demand will still outweigh the supply at the suggested price.

There are several collateral benefits to trophy hunting of crocodiles, it will help reduce the conflict between those who share the range with them who currently view them as pests, not as a valuable asset. More money will be available for the monitoring & the management, & due to better stakeholder engagement I expect that the data will be far more accurate & rigorous. It's a good opportunity for our indigenous folk. Its an opportunity to provide a sustainable industry, which IMO can only be better if traditional owners are involved, many "mobs" & individuals have the crocodile as their totem animal & don't have an anthropocentric view to their own or the crocodiles position in the environment. It will be a big shift in the paradigm towards indigenous species down here if we can get it past the federal government, hopefully we can start to move from "protectionist" conservation to a "wise use" model, like the IUCN suggested back in 94. Better late than never.

Sharkey

I agree but personally think that the licence, fee & choice of animal should be solely an Aboriginal decision, not sure how this will pan out though.
 
I would rather spend the 15k on a good African Safari. But I am sure there will be people who want to pay that trophy price for a Croc.
 
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