In summary:
1. While the UK does not import as many hunting trophies as other nations, the effects of a proposed import ban is likely to have far-reaching effects.
2. The UK “only” imported a total of 920 hunting trophies of a diversity of species 2009-2018 – compared to Germany which imported 4,706.
3. The trophy species imported differ greatly – German imports were mainly bear species while those of the UK were mostly baboons and other primates.
4. As a percentage, the UK imported more elephant and lion trophies than Germany.
5. A total of 10,590 to 11,460 lion trophies were imported worldwide 2009-2018. The biggest exporter was South Africa (captive bred lions) and the biggest importer was the USA.
6. Changes in trophy import legislation has big effects – lion trophy imports to France dropped 97% after a ban and 90% to the USA after restrictions were implemented.
Will the proposed UK ban on importation of hunting trophies make a difference?
One of the arguments being batted around about the “proposed” UK hunting trophy import ban (at the rate this is going, the UK could well become carbon neutral first) is that the UK is a minor player in the trophy hunting business. So minor that a ban will make little difference overall, and so therefore that little energy should be spent on the issue. Despite it being referred to in the Conservative party manifesto and in the Queen’s Speech in 2019.
The argument that the UK imports relatively few hunting trophies compared to other nations is undoubtedly true. The notion that the ban will have little impact is a separate issue and depends on how much international support the UK will seek to gather to support their stand.
But let’s look at some numbers. These come from the official CITES database, where I looked at all imports into the UK under the “trophy” category using a number of other filters. The data I’ll show comes with the usual caveat that the CITES database is only reliable until 2018, and that the database is riddled with errors that must be evaluated carefully. Shame really, as this database remains the ONLY readily accessible international dataset that can be used to evaluate the impact of trade on wildlife species.
Anyway, here we go. In the ten years 2009-2018, the UK imported a total of 920 hunting trophies from about 75 species – birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. The most “popular” hunting trophy, believe it of not, were various species of baboon (Papio) with a total of about 115 imports. Then came lions (81), followed by elephants (75), caracals (74), lechwe (64), mountain zebras (62), hippos (60), crocodiles (53), vervet monkeys (52), leopards (47) etc. Overall, British hunters seem to like to shoot primates best.
How does that compare to another nation in northern Europe like Germany? Well, Germany during 2009-2018 imported a total of 4,706 hunting trophies from about 80 species. For Germans, the most “popular” trophy was the black bear at 532 (all bears including black, brown and polar came to 943 trophies). Then came baboons (525), mountain zebras (419), leopards (376), hippos (238), lions (235), caracals (222), elephants (208), crocodiles (193), blackbuck (169), wolves (158), cheetahs (135), lechwe (132) etc.
So, not only do Germans hunt more, but their preferences are different – 20% of all German hunting trophies were bears compared to 4% for those of the UK, 3% of all German trophies were cheetahs versus 0.1% for the UK, etc. On the other hand, 5% of German trophies were lions versus 9% for UK, and 4% of German trophies were elephants versus 8% for UK. Baboons were about equally “popular” at 11% for Germany and 12% for UK.
With regard to lions, I looked at the total number of worldwide lion trophy imports by all world countries from 2009-2018. Again, the CITES database outdid itself, listing about 43 lions imported to Brazil under Appendix I during that time and the same 43 imported under Appendix II – double counting. In 2015, Brazil supposedly imported 92 lion trophies as reported by South Africa? Attempting to correct for such obvious mistakes, 109 nations imported about 10,590 lion trophies during those ten years. These are minimum numbers, as many nations export lion trophies either under the “trophy” category or under the “skin-skull” category. The latter accounts for roughly 8% of hunting trophy exports, meaning the total number of lion trophies imported 2009-2018 could have been as high as 11,460.
Staying with the minimum number of 10,590, about 8,048 were exported from South Africa – 99% of which will have been captive bred.
The top ten importers of lion trophies were USA (5,276), Spain (569), France (522), Russia (381), Mexico (319), Canada (306), Hungary (237), Germany (235), Poland (191), and Czechia (160). The UK “only” ranked 19th on the list of lion trophy importing countries.
So, coming back to the original question – would a hunting trophy import ban by the UK, in this case for lions, make any real difference to the big picture?
The answer is yes.
Let me explain by taking a look first at France. You will remember that France ranks third in world nations importing lion trophies, but the data show a big change occurred when France passed a law prohibiting lion trophy hunting imports in November 2015. The data reveals that before that date, France imported an average of about 74 lion trophies per annum. This fell to an average of 2, yes TWO, from 2016-2018. A massive drop. We see a similar picture in the USA. There, the US Fish and Wildlife Service placed lions on their Endangered Species list as a “vulnerable species” in December 2015, requiring, inter alia, that any trophy given an import permit needed to show proof that the killing assisted the conservation of the species. Not only that, but soon afterwards the USFWS determined that captive breeding of lions did not enhance conservation of the species, immediately putting a halt to the import of any “canned lion” trophy. As with France, the data shows that the USA imported an average of 638 lion trophies per annum before the change in lion status, but “only” 62 trophies in 2018. Again a massive drop.
Changes in legislation can make a big difference also in public perception of lion trophy hunting. The USA, France, Netherlands and Australia all have various forms of banning/restricting lion trophy hunting imports. When the UK gets motivated to enact similar legislation, nationals of other lion trophy importing countries could increase pressure on their governments to join this growing membership of countries concerned about the increasingly bleak conservation future of lions.