Living for Disco

“…anyway, the cheetahs aren’t endangered. The cheetahs are doing fine.”

I put my hand up. After spending 2 days at the Cheetah Conservation Fund, I was somewhat skeptical of this pronouncement, made as it was by a farmer who runs a hunting lodge.

“Erm. Ahem. [I am very good at public speaking – everyone knows this]. You said that you have personally killed about 150 cheetahs, over how long?”

“In the last six years.”

“Right. And your neighbour has killed about 30 or 40 cheetahs recently?”

“That’s right.”

“And you’re just two farmers. And there are farmers all over Namibia killing cheetahs in these numbers.”

“That’s right”.

“And if there are only 3,000 cheetahs left in Namibia, it’s not going to take long for all the farmers to kill them all is it?”

“No. That’s right. The cheetahs are taking a hammering. Which is why I’m trying to get the government to allow trophy hunting of cheetahs….”

Quite how he can stand there and say the cheetahs aren’t endangered is beyond me.

I don’t want to get into detail re my views on trophy hunting. Suffice to say that if someone achieves personal fulfillment by shooting an endangered animal, and returning home in a blaze of glory triumphantly bearing its severed head, or it’s flayed skin, then they should be consigned to the first circle of hell immediately, without trial, and spend eternity being chased across the bush by toothy predators with a penchant for live flesh. The flesh would have to regrow daily, obviously, after the toothy predators have had a good feed. I have given this some thought.

I have to concede, however, that he may have a point. If a farmer kills a cheetah, and gets however many US dollars for it, this will then compensate him for the loss of his game. However, if you get paid that much for cheetah hides, what’s to stop you killing as many as you can and reaping the rewards? When people were being offered compensation for lions kills, they used all kinds of wily ways to lure the lions onto their land, where they then poisoned them, and many scavengers as a consequence (including the endangered Cape Griffon Vulture, of which there are only about 25 in the wild in Namibia). It seems that people will do anything for a bit of cash.

Anyway, Namibia is the stronghold of the world’s cheetah population. It is estimated that there are between 3-4,000 cheetahs left here, of the world’s population of 12,000. Unfortunately, there are a lot of farmers here who don’t give a flying fuck about the cheetahs and their imminent extinction, and are killing them off at a staggering rate. 150 cheetahs in the last six years means 25 every year, just snuffed out by that one farmer. Anthrax is also killing them off, although not quite so effectively, I don’t think. You do the maths.

So, I would say come to Namibia and have a look at these gorgeous animals*, because at this rate, in ten years or so, there won’t be any left. Failing that, go to their website and read about all the fascinating things they’re doing to try and stop the cheetah’s decline – I especially like the Anatolian guarding dogs.

It’s a wonderful world, isn’t it?

*I’m sorry the photo is so blurred. For some inexplicable reason, I turned the autofocus off.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 16th, 2006 at 11:42 am and is filed under Under African Skies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.