I’d like to give you an update on new information on Mandebvu, the last male lion of the Bumi Hills Wildlife Area that was reportedly short recently by a trophy hunter. You can read the background to this story from my previous post.
ALERT has been contacted this week by Dr Karyl Whitman. Formerly of the Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior at the University of Minnesota, she is the author or co-author of several papers on trophy hunting and age based systems including: A Hunter’s Guide to Aging Lions in Eastern & Southern Africa (Safari Press, 2007), Sustainable trophy hunting of African lions (Nature, 2004), The effect of sport hunting on the social organization of the African lion (Pro. Sym. On lions & leopards as game ranch animals, Onderstepoort 1997) and Safari Hunting of Lions: A review of policies, practices, and industry concerns (ALWG, 2002), amongst others.
Dr Whitman had been provided with an image of the ‘trophy’ lion by a third party and requested ALERT to provide images of Mandebvu to make a comparison and assess age.
From this assessment Dr Whitman has confirmed that there is a high likelihood that the lion in images provided by Bumi Hills Lodge of the male lion known as Mandebvu matches that of the image of the trophy hunted lion through a comparison of whisker spots on the left side of the animals muzzle only, the only side visible in the “trophy photo”. Further, she has estimated the age of the lion from photographic evidence alone at around 4 ½ to 5 ½ years of age.
Commenting on whether the shooting of a male lion of the age she has estimated this lion to be is sound practice in the trophy hunting of lions she said “Trophy hunting is only sustainable when off-take is restricted to mature males. This gives males the best chance of successfully raising a litter of cubs before they are killed. Therefore, it is best practice that if there is any doubt as to the maturity of a lion, that the hunter should abstain from shooting any lion that does not clearly meet the 6 yr old age standard now being implemented in Tanzania”
According to Bumi Hills staff Mandebvu successfully mated with at least two of the female pride that frequent Bumi with one female reported to have one cub, whilst another has three. Whether other females within the pride conceived is not yet clear.
The fact that a lion of the estimated age of Mandebvu was able to take over a pride strongly suggests an absence of prime adult males in the region. Whilst Zimbabwe might not practice age based trophy hunting of male lions, all scientific evidence suggests that shooting younger males can have devastating negative impacts on lion populations.
In this case, Mandebvu’s cubs may be in a better position than most in terms of their survival chances as it seems unlikely, given the history of this pride, that there are other male lions in the area that might enter the territory and likely resulting in the infanticide of his cubs.
ALERT has reason to have serious concerns about the procedures and practices engaged in this particular hunt and we will keep you abreast of new information as it is confirmed through ongoing investigations.
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