Culture In African Wildlife

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Cultured animals
One of the many definitions of “culture” according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is: “the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behaviour that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations”.
However, behavioural biologists have long known that this definition of culture also exists among animals – and that cultural [...]

Commercial Poaching Gets Inventive

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The curse for Africa’s wildlife
On June 8th, an article was published in the South African newspaper “Mercury” detailing a few new aspects to rhino poaching. The reporter used the headline “It is Big Time Crime with Easy Money”, and mentions armed raids on taxidermist’s premises to run off with rhino horns, and similar raids on [...]

Expectation vs Reality

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Some time ago, I received a Japanese film team in my lion research camp in Botswana, one of many film teams over the years. But this team still stands out for me, let me set the scene.
They arrived in force, and their long-running show was based on a formula where they took famous Japanese celebrities [...]

Zebras, Domestication and Germ Warfare

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Why we love zebras (now)
As tourists to Africa, one of the animals high on our list of “must-see” is the zebra. We are fascinated by these stripy horse relatives, and a zebra design has persisted for many years from “zebra crossings” to many fashion items (Dolce & Gabbana, Diane von Furstenberg, Oscar de la Renta, [...]

Whose Wildlife Is It Anyway?

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African wildlife and the west
There are many types of tourism in the world, and wildlife tourism to Africa is high on the list of most-favoured ways to go on vacation. Whether viewing by vehicle, by boat, by helicopter or plane, on foot, on horse- or elephant-back, and even on bicycle, millions of us per year [...]

The Man-Eaters Of Tsavo

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Who are the two most famous lions in the world?
You might say Elsa (Born Free) as one of them, and she most certainly is a legendary lion. However, probably the two most famous lions in the world are Ghost and Darkness. Well, that’s what they were called in the 2006 Hollywood and Oscar winning movie [...]

Eco Tourism And The Wide Span Of Contradiction

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Once upon a time not so long ago, five people came together to decide how to help each other. This is not uncommon, but the five decided that while they were going to help each other, and maybe some other friends as well, they would make it look to us as if they were actually [...]

Canned Lion VS Wild Lion Hunting (Part II)

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This is my second post on this subject, please read the first one if you are just joining this discussion.
As a recap – “canned” lion hunting (defined as a “hunter” shooting a trophy lion from a captive bred source) is a big industry in South Africa. The breeders provide the animals, they are put in [...]

Bones Of Content

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In China, the way to pronounce Chardonnay seems to be Char-bone-nay
We are beginning to see some worrying trends in the illegal trade of animal parts – and this time it is not just about rhino horns, elephant tusks, bear gall bladders, and shark’s fins – it is about lion bones. Yes, you read that right, [...]

Tourism: Benefit Or Burden?

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You will perhaps remember that movie “The Beach” with Leonardo DiCaprio – a tale of an undiscovered beach paradise in Thailand that a few wanted to keep for themselves? Outsiders not welcome? It all went wrong in the end, but the message of the film is interesting and relevant.
So hence my question – is tourism [...]

Medieval Lions and The Bestiaries

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15th Century illustration
Lions have long and undeniably been a part of world culture and heritage. Here, I confer an aspect of the rich and varied involvement of lions in European Medieval symbolism and literature.
In Europe, Bestiaries, or descriptions of the characteristics of animals in illustrated volumes, became popular in the Middle Ages – especially around [...]

World Heritage Sites and World Heritage Species

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The idea in this article came about after readers of this blog started to comment and contacting each other. It shows the power and opportunities of online communication!
World Heritage sites

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has a program to conserve sites of exceptional cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of [...]

Canned Hunting VS Hunting Of Wild Lions

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The concept of “canned hunting” of animals like lions has recently
come under a microscope dialed to the optical level of “extensive
scrutiny”.

Canned Hunting
In a nutshell, the concept of “canned hunting” of lions means that the
“trophy” shot by the hunter has been raised through a captive breeding
program. There are many of these in South Africa, for example, [...]