Tag: hunting

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Radio National Bush Telegraph: More hunting on the cards?

Victorian Agriculture Minister, Peter Walsh, claims hunting is the state’s second biggest tourism money earner and he wants spend nearly $18 million to lure more hunters from interstate and overseas.

While I’m not against the idea of hunting per se, I’m concerned about justifying hunting as a conservation tool.

Shooting fast-breeding feral animals such as rabbits and foxes is unlikely to have much impact on overall numbers — they reproduce far too quickly.

The evidence for successful ‘conservation hunting’ is fairly weak.

Transcript available via the ABC website.

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Media

ABC Radio: Hunting industry’s environmental value questioned

As state Minister for Agriculture, Peter Walsh, unveils new plans to market Victoria as a game hunter’s mecca, the debate about so-called ‘conservation hunting’ continues.

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The environmental benefits of hunting are often overstated. Photo credit: AFP, Patrick Pleul

Many conservation biologists, including myself, generally see trophy-hunting as a potential option for generating income for conservation.

But, the environmental benefits of hunting are often overstated. Hunting, in many areas, can actually have counter-productive effects. And focussing on bounty schemes and body counts just doesn’t work.

Read more or listen online

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Media Research

Catalyst: conservation hunting (video)

Can recreational hunters control feral animals? Is there a role for so-called “conservation hunters”? And is their claim backed by science?

What about the introduction of native predators, such as dingos, or companion animals such as alpacas?

These questions are explored by Anja Taylor on the ABC’s popular science program, Catalyst.

The video and a transcipt is available from the Catalyst archive.