How is trophy hunting different from other types of hunting?
The most common form of hunting is subsistence hunting (hunting for food). Trophy hunting — also referred to as “sport hunting” under many laws — however, is a niche form of hunting motivated by entertainment and bragging rights. The primary objective for trophy hunters is to kill animals for their bodies or body parts for display as trophies to showcase the hunter’s virility, dominance and hunting prowess.
Hunting trophies can take many forms, such as full-body taxidermy, wall-mounted heads, animal skins as rugs, feet as trashcans, skulls as coffee tables, and teeth, claws, tails and genitalia as trinkets, jewelry and souvenirs, or even Frankenstein-style monstrosities combining different species’ parts.
Trophy hunting occurs both domestically and internationally with a large, global trophy hunting industry motivating trade in trophies of threatened and endangered animals. It is common for trophy hunters to kill animals to compete for prizes and awards and to have their kills memorialized in “record books” kept by trophy hunting industry organizations. Read more: “Trophy Madness Report: Elite Hunters, Animal Trophies and Safari Club International’s Hunting Awards.”
What kinds of animals are trophy hunted and where?
Hundreds of mammal species are trophy hunted, from the small (pigeons, raccoons, squirrels and monkeys) to the large (lions, bears, elephants, giraffe and moose) and so many others in between. The most coveted CITES-listed species include: the American black bear, chacma baboon, Hartmann’s mountain zebra, gray wolf, red lechwe, vervet monkey, black buck, brown bear, and the “African Big Five”: lion, African elephant, leopard, rhino (southern white rhino and black rhino), and African buffalo.
Between 2018 and 2022, almost 63,000 CITES-listed mammal trophies were exported around the world. This is only a fraction of the total number of animals killed for trophies since this only refers to mammal trophies traded internationally under CITES and does not include animals killed for trophies that do not cross international borders. Over 75 countries currently trade internationally in hunting trophies from mammalian species regulated under CITES.
For Americans and Europeans (the top importers in the world), Canada and South Africa are top destinations for trophy hunting, along with Namibia, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Tanzania, Mexico, Zambia, Russia, the U.S. and elsewhere.
Why should the public be concerned about trophy hunting?
Trophy hunting is an inherently cruel form of entertainment that has serious implications for animal welfare, the recovery and protection of imperiled species, and the environment.
Animal welfare
Killing animals for entertainment and to display their dead bodies and body parts for photos and bragging rights is unacceptable. Trophy hunters willfully ignore animal welfare as they prioritize bullet placement over quick or clean kills to protect the look of their trophy, use bait to lure wildlife out of protected areas and dogs to chase animals to exhaustion, and commonly let animals bleed to death instead of taking additional shots to end the animal’s suffering.
The trophy hunting industry celebrates and incentivizes the killing of animals with novelty weapons that are more likely to prolong suffering before death such as bows and arrows, muzzle loaders and handguns by offering them as prizes, promotions and record book categories for competitions.
Trophy hunting also causes significant direct and indirect consequences to conservation efforts —consequences that far outweigh and undermine any trophy hunting revenues that may be applied toward conservation.
Impacts to conservation and species survival
Animal mortalities from trophy hunting have a very different impact on conservation and species’ welfare than natural mortality because trophy hunters typically target healthy, reproductive-age animals. Targeted removal of these animals can skew the age and sex structure of the population and result in unnatural selection pressure on physical, behavioral and life history traits. Killing these animals can also result in the loss of genetic diversity that is critical for survival.
Trophy hunting also has negative impacts on other animals beyond just the animals who are shot. For example, killing the oldest animals can result in the loss of important knowledge and leadership, reducing group survival and reproduction. Removing territorial males can result in additional deaths through disruption of the social structure.
Some of the species most targeted by trophy hunters, such as elephants and hippos, are considered “ecosystem engineers,” meaning that these animals serve key roles in shaping, maintaining and creating healthy habitats for themselves and countless other animals. Targeted removals of these animals — such as through trophy hunting — have the potential for staggering, cascading, detrimental impacts to not only the targeted species’ survival, but to the other animals and humans that rely on those ecosystems.
Finally, trophy hunting can also increase human-wildlife conflict by causing social instability and altering behavioral patterns.
The trophy hunting industry has secured key exemptions in national and international laws that allow them to circumvent important trade restrictions meant to protect species from over-exploitation and continues to seek new ways of preserving this industry at the expense of animals world-wide. It is vital that the public learn the facts around trophy hunting and raise their voices against it.
What about the argument that money from trophy hunting is necessary to support conservation?
The biological, ecological and social damage inflicted on hunted populations by trophy hunters far outweighs and negates the level of conservation funded by the pittance of trophy hunting revenue that may support conservation efforts.
According to studies done by Economists at Large and Good Governance Africa, the amount of money that does make it into conservation programs or to local community households is insignificant.
In many cases, trophy hunting areas are fenced, introducing a whole suite of new problems such as overly managed populations, “surplus” animals which are simply a result of insufficient habitat size, animals unable to engage in natural behaviors due to unnatural conditions, habitat fragmentation, and barriers to migration.
Trophy hunting stakeholders have also argued that trophy hunting areas neighboring protected areas, such as national parks, benefit those species because they provide additional habitat. However, studies have shown that trophy hunting areas neighboring protected areas may act as population sinks, drawing animals out of from protected habitats making them vulnerable to trophy hunting, disrupting social and territorial structures, and disguising unsustainable trophy hunting offtake.
Further, many animals, including the “African Big Five,” are killed in countries (such as Tanzania and Zimbabwe) with widespread corruption according to the Global Organized Crime Index that can hinder any money that may be raised from trophy hunting from benefiting conservation efforts, as hunters claim it does. Learn more.
Do different countries have different laws concerning trophy hunting?
Laws governing trophy hunting and the trade in hunting trophies vary between countries and can vary between levels of restrictions on hunting and the transport, export and/or import of the trophy.
Select countries that prohibit trophy hunting to a significant degree include Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, South Sudan, India, Kenya, Malawi and Singapore.
Select countries that have some level of restrictions on trophy hunting or trade include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, British Columbia in Canada, Finland, France, the Netherlands and the U.S.
What is canned hunting and why is it a problem?
Canned hunting, or captive hunting, is a type of trophy hunting where animals are bred and reared in captivity for a myriad of commercial purposes and then hunted for trophies in enclosed areas.
Canned hunting is often coupled with other forms of exploitation in the captive breeding industry, such as popular tourist attractions like “lion walks” and “cub petting,” as well as the lion bone trade. Learn more about lion exploitation.
Canned hunting distinctly violates notions of “fair chase” prevalent in other types of hunting, with many mainstream hunters in South Africa, the U.S., Europe and elsewhere condemning the practice as unethical.
What is HSI doing to stop trophy hunting?
HSI is working with an international network of experts, advocates and partners to lead the charge within the largest importing and exporting countries to restrict the trade in hunting trophies from highly coveted or at-risk species, such as those listed under CITES Appendices I and II. HSI also works with countries on the international stage to strengthen international trade protections and to close loopholes that exempt hunting trophies from important trade restrictions.
You can help by contacting your political representatives to call for trade bans on hunting trophies from species listed under CITES Appendices I and II, which are currently threatened, or may become threatened, by international trade.