>>150308> hunting non-invasive predators is terrible for the ecosystem most of the time because most> non-invasive predators have already been hunted to a fraction of their original numbers.They've been _poached_ to a fraction of their original numbers, not by hunters but by peasants
looking to scrape up a couple of extra dollars.
The virtual extinction of big game animals in most of Africa is directly tied to the banning of hunting
(because it was "racist"...) in the post-WWII colonial break up of the continent;
No hunters = no money = nobody to protect the environment = dirt poor peasants kill everything
in sight and sell it to the Chinese for aphrodisiacs.
I read somewhere that for the average deer hunter in the U.S., a pound of venison ends up
costing more then a pound of Kobe beef, after all the gas, beer, licensees, ect. are added up
and most of that money is spent locally, encouraging the locals to maintain the wilderness
areas that provide them with a living.
The reason Teddy Roosevelt could hunt leopards whenever he wanted, was because him
and others hunters _payed_ to do so, insuring that there would be leopards (and all kinda
other critters) to hunt.
