The last time a white lion roamed free and wild on South Africa’s plains, Nelson Mandela was still a prisoner and the apartheid regime was at the height of its power.
Now the rare white lions are back. But this time they face the guns of wealthy American and German hunters ready to pay big money to shoot them. Captive-bred white lions are being sold for 10 times as much as their tawny brethren — and a lot more than that for the unfortunate beasts that find their way into the booming hunting industry.
The last pride of white lions in the wild was discovered near the Kruger Park in the mid-Seventies. Fears that they would be stolen or hunted to extinction led to their being given to the Pretoria Zoo in the hope that they would be able to reproduce in peace. But since 1994, zoos and wildlife parks can no longer rely on state subsidies and must generate much of their own income. This led to Johannesburg Zoo, which had acquired some white lion cubs from its sister zoo, loaning out to a breeder those males with the recessive gene required to father white cubs, on the understanding that it would receive half the profits from the sale of the cubs.
Suddenly, white lions began to be advertised on internet hunting sites for around £100,000 (R1,3m). There are now 52 white lions in the country at four breeding sites.
Ian Melaff, chief executive of the White Lion Breeders’ Association, said three white cubs were born last week at his park on the outskirts of Johannesburg. He claims he is breeding white lions to preserve them and would never sell to hunters. But he cannot vouch for the other lion breeding sites.
Rae Baur, a Johannesburg city councillor, said: ‘There are rich people in the US who will pay anything to shoot something that is rare. There is a sickness in the soul of the hunting industry. These cubs are hand-reared. They follow you around like a big dog. And next thing they get a bullet between the eyes.’
South Africa is second only to the US as the hunting capital of the world. And in big game, such as elephant, lion and rhino, it is probably dominant. Hunting is competitive and some breeders will do anything to get an edge. It is trophy hunters, mostly Americans and Europeans, who will pay the big money that makes hunting such a lucrative business and it is to tempt them that exotic animals are being bred. The SPCA reports that pure white and pure black springbok are being sold by some breeders. And a blesbok and a bontebok have been crossed to produce bigger horns, much prized by trophy hunters. The pure white or black animals sell for three times as much as the normal ones.
Wouter van Hoven, professor of wildlife management at the University of Pretoria, attributes a more worthy motive to hunters who pay over the odds for exotic species. ‘They do want to shoot something unusual but particularly if it seems to have a genetic defect. They think they are eliminating a freak.’
Van Hoven believes a few unscrupulous breeders are giving hunting a bad name. ‘I’m in favour of humane hunting,’ he said.
‘It is the single largest contributor to conservation in this country. There are now 9 000 game ranches — and more wildlife than there has been for 200 years. And if farmers can’t make money from game, they will turn to a monoculture like cattle or sheep, which is not good for the environment.’
Despite the size of the industry, hunting is a clandestine business and largely in white hands. Hunts are sold over the internet or abroad and are conducted on remote farms in secrecy.
Permits are only required if the hunt is on a farm not enclosed by a fence. Otherwise farmers can shoot what they like, as long as the animal is not on the endangered list. What most upsets activists are the ‘canned’ hunts where lions are released on to a property too small to give them any chance of evading hunters. And that, they fear, is the fate of some of the white lions. – Guardian Unlimited Â