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. 2011;6(7):e22424.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0022424. Epub 2011 Jul 27.

Cat dilemma: too protected to escape trophy hunting?

Lucille Palazy  1 , Christophe Bonenfant, Jean-Michel Gaillard, Franck Courchamp
Affiliations

Cat dilemma: too protected to escape trophy hunting?

Lucille Palazy et al. PLoS One. 2011.

Abstract

Trophy hunting is one of the most controversial issues in the field of biodiversity conservation. In particular, proponents and opponents debate fiercely over whether it poses a threat to hunted populations. Here, we show that trophy hunting constitutes a greater menace to threatened species than previously realized. Because humans value rarity, targeted species that are threatened are likely to be disproportionately hunted, thereby becoming even more vulnerable, which could eventually push them to extinction. With the ten felid species currently hunted for their trophies, we present evidence that (1) the number of killed individuals increases with time, in several cases exponentially, despite population declines, (2) the price of trophies is strongly dependent on species protection status, (3) changes of protection status coincide with counter-intuitive changes of hunting pressures: protection intensification with augmented hunting effort, and protection relaxation with lower effort. This suggests an over-exploitation of trophy-hunted felids and the necessity of a better quota system coupled with reconsidered protection methods.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Increase of the number of hunts with time for ten felid species (1975–2010; Poisson regression: c2 1 = 31606; p<0.001).
IUCN protection status is shown by points of different colours.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Changes in time of the volume of illegal trade of felid species between 1975 and 2010, as recorded by the CITES Databases.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Positive relationship between the IUCN protection status and the price.
Trophy price has previously been corrected by body mass, in kg, grey dots (Kruskal test: A : H1 = 0.64; p = 0.42), or by trophy size, in SCI index, black dots (B: H1 = 5.72; p = 0.02).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Trend of the number of hunts following an IUCN status change.
Status changes, that can be an increased (A) or a decreased (B) IUCN protection status, show that protection status is directly related to attractiveness and exploitation (marginal significance, A: R2 = 0.87; F2,44 = 2.81; p = 0.070; B: R2 = 0.85; F2,9 = 3.91; p = 0.060). Note that P. pardus experienced several successive status changes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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