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Can we continue to justify it?

africageographic.com 2 days ago

In South Africa, almost 400 captive wildlife facilities exist across the country. Keeping animals in captivity has increasingly been acknowledged as exploitative and profit-driven despite claims by those in the industry about its educational and conservation value. Stephanie Klarmann, Blood Lions campaign coordinator takes a closer look.

This photo series critically examines life behind bars and asks the question: are we actually comfortable with exploiting captive wildlife for profit and entertainment?

As a burgeoning industry, it solely exists to feed an insatiable demand for entertainment, live wildlife trade, hunting trophies, and big-cat body parts. According to Blood Lions research* conducted between 2017 and 2020:

  • Captivity permits were issued for at least 5,508 lions, 496 cheetahs, 198 leopards, 382 tigers, and a staggering 804 other wild cats.
  • Over this same period, at least 1,707 hunting permits were issued for 1,572 captive lion hunts in addition to cheetah and leopard hunts.
  • The data gathered regarding CITES permits show that 6,380 export permits were issued for 1,366 lions and 294 other captive wild cat species. This included 456 lion skeletons and live exports for 188 lions and 76 other cat species.
Africa Geographic Travel

The commercial captive wildlife industry is big business. But the commercial captive-predator industry is fighting harder than ever to stay alive, and it has turned into a voracious sector built on exploitation.

More than ever, we need to scrutinise the greenwashing claims of environmental education, community upliftment, and conservation benefits made by those most invested in keeping wild animals captive.

We also need to ask ourselves how comfortable we are in allowing the exploitation to continue. Public advocacy can help inform policy decision-makers to prioritise animal well-being and genuine wild conservation.

Urgent action is required to prevent further exploitation of captive wildlife by closing down the commercial captive predator industry.

Unfortunately, commercial captive wildlife facilities do not provide valuable lessons about wildlife species and their conservation needs. They teach us about dominating the natural world and caging it for entertainment. Is this a lesson worthy of passing on to children?

Still more worrying, facilities hurt genuine conservation efforts. The resources and finances that go into visitor fees for predator parks, environmental management inspectorates, steep volunteer fees, and criminal enforcement could all be directed into the genuine conservation of land and species in the wild and functioning ecosystems. The entry fees for many commercial captive facilities exceed the entrance to our richly biodiverse Kruger National Park. Furthermore, the legal commercial captive industry further contributes to a dark, illegal industry in which live and dead animals enter black markets.

Following Minister Barbara Creecy’s promise in 2021 to take steps towards closing the commercial captive lion industry, a Ministerial Task Team was appointed in December 2022 to spearhead a phase-out process. The task team included a panel of wildlife and welfare experts to devise voluntary phase-out options for captive breeders, owners, and traders. In March 2024, we finally saw the release of this extensive report.

Whilst reaching this point is certainly a small victory, the government still has to make significant progress in implementing this phase-out process. Organisations like Blood Lions strongly advocate that the first port of call needs to be a moratorium on all commercial captive breeding to halt the industry’s ever-growing growth before it continues to grow beyond control.

* The animals in this photo series are commercial commodities in the larger captive lifecycle. The images were taken at popular tourist facilities, some even claiming to be sanctuaries. These animals will remain within small enclosures for the entirety of their lives. They may be sold on, used for breeding, or killed in a captive hunt or for body parts. None of these outcomes are favourable for them.

captive wildlife
Black-footed cats desperately gather at the fence of their enclosure. They were skittish and showed distress behaviours. Usually solitary in the wild and able to roam 4 to 16km in search of food, these cats were grouped together in a small enclosure of only several square metres
captive wildlife
The Eurasian lynx inhabits the temperate and boreal forests extending across Europe and Central Asia. Here he inhabits a more desolate space, looking out onto a caracal enclosure even smaller than his own
captive wildlife
Leopard territories often exceed 10 square kilometres in the wild. This leopard continued to pace up and down an enclosure fence of only about 8 metres in length. She stood directly opposite a tiger enclosure. Such close proximity between big cats in the wild would cause stress and conflict. In captivity, the constant forced contact is immensely stressful
captive wildlife
Stereotypic behaviours like pacing are common in captive animals
Pacing behaviour is a clear indication of stress and boredom
captive wildlife
A male lion (on the right) has a severe case of sarcoptic mange, a serious skin condition caused by mites burrowing under the skin. The lion’s stressful and unhygienic living conditions, coupled with a poor diet of chicken carcasses, have likely caused this contagious disease, which is extremely itchy and painful. The park manager, however, misrepresented the lion’s illness, calling it a ‘lesser maned lion’. It was clear no treatment had been provided
captive wildlife
A tiny enclosure of no more than 20 square metres holds three leopards, including a black leopard
captive wildlife
The three leopards took turns trying to force their paws and heads through a small hole in the fence
captive wildlife
Usually solitary in the wild, three leopards in such a confined space suffer high stress levels
captive wildlife
An overweight lioness paces her enclosure. Although she is a proud animal in the wild, this lioness is alone. Untreated mange has started to appear on her nose
caged tiger
A tiger cub seeks out its mother, pacing and intermittently calling to try and get her attention – but she’s kept separate so she can be raised by hand
The tiger cub sits at attention as it hears its mother calling back only metres away

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