The South African government issued yearly hunting and export licences for dozens of animals on Friday, including ten highly endangered black rhinos and a comparable number of leopards.
It also granted authorization to kill dozens of elephants in accordance with international regulations on the trading of endangered animals, claiming that the elephant population was rising and just 0.3 percent of elephants were hunted each year.
Annual hunting quotas authorised by the government benefit marginalised and underprivileged rural areas where the hunts take place. ‘A total of 10 black rhino may be hunted and 150 elephants’, the forestry and environment ministry announced.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified black rhinos as severely endangered. However, from a record low three decades ago, the number of black rhinos in the wild has more than quadrupled to more than 5,000.
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According to the administration, the rhino quota was set based on population projections that suggest a growing tendency at the moment. Between 2014 and 2017, the poaching of white rhinos reached crisis levels, with a thousand rhinos killed annually on average. Last year, their numbers fell by half, to 451.
The animals are killed for their horns, which are smuggled into Asia and misunderstood to have therapeutic properties. Leopard hunts will be limited to animals aged seven and over, and will only be permitted in areas where large cat populations are stable or rising, as per the South African government. According to the government, hunting is a huge business in South Africa, bringing in roughly 1.4 billion rand ($92 million) in 2019.
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