The government plans to use microchipping and special enforcement agents to stamp out ”canned” lion hunting — but there are concerns about the ability of provincial officials to curtail this industry.
If regulations published on Friday become law, all large predators kept
in captivity — lions, cheetahs, hyenas, leopards and wild dogs —
will have to be microchipped and recorded in a database managed by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.
The regulations ban hunting of these predators in captivity, hunting at night, using drugs to tranquillise target animals and luring animals by using sound, scent or bait. They stipulate that dogs may not be used and that hunting must be done on foot.
The rules do allow hunting of wild predators and ”managed wild” animals. The latter are defined as free-ranging, though their food supply may need to be supplemented; and they have to be given six months after being introduced to an area before they can be hunted.
The regulations, now open for public comment, outlaw the kind of ”canned” lion hunting that caused international outrage when it was exposed in the late 1990s. Tourism outfits and conservationists have been pushing for the government to ban the industry.
”We are introducing various compliance and inspection regimes, as well as making it easier for people to apply them,” said Chippy Olver, the department’s director general.
The regulations were published on the eve of Olver’s departure from the department, after he announced his resignation this week.
Olver says the ”canned” hunting regulations replace draft ”norms and standards on the sustainable use of large predators” that have been haphazardly applied by provincial conservation authorities since September 2002. Several provinces have continued issuing permits for ”canned” breeding facilities in the face of a voluntary national moratorium imposed by the department in 1997.
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk requested a report from the department last year outlining the extent and scale of the industry, but Olver says information from the provinces has not been forthcoming.
A lack of capacity in provincial departments was demonstrated after the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species last October approved an application by the South African government for a quota to hunt 150 leopards.
Olver says the quota had been put on hold because it was based on incorrect information about the number of leopards in South Africa. Limpopo, for instance, based its information on a count carried out in 1975.
A team led by the Endangered Wildlife Trust has been charged with assessing leopard numbers in the country.
The new regulations relating to the breeding and hunting of large predators come into effect from July 1, ”to give the industry time to get its act together”, Olver said.