In 2015, Cecil the Lion, a lion who was famously being studied by the University of Oxford in Zimbabwe, was killed by a hunter in South Africa. The death of the famous lion sparked global outrage on the issue of hunting and if hunting needs to be banned altogether. However, this outcry was just an outburst of emotion, when the real question for the sake of the animals should have been: does hunting actually help the animals? In other words, does hunting animals help protect the natural habitat of the very animals being hunted and keep many species from going extinct? It is important to first establish the types of hunting. In Africa, there is fair chase trophy hunting, where a tourist is aided by a local hunter in the area who will help the tourist track and kill the trophy animal, usually a lion, which can then be taxidermied and sent back to the foreign hunter and home country. However, there is another type of hunti
ng called canned hunting, in which there is a small range on which the chosen animal is put and the foreign hunter can then hunt the animal. This form of hunting is generally frowned upon by every party as it has unsportsmanlike conditions granted to the lions or other animals that are the prey. For example, in canned hunting, the prey may be raised in contact with humans, and this contact makes the prey fear the human hunters less when the time comes for the hunt. The supporters of hunting for conservation believe the hunting industry produces money that not only is used to keep the prey of hunters from going extinct, but some of this revenue goes towards conservation efforts to help preserve the natural habitat from human development. However, the critics of the idea that the hunting of animals helps conservation believe that there is not enough evidence that supports the claim that hunting aids conservation efforts.