How is trophy hunting different from other types of hunting?
The most common form of hunting in the world is subsistence hunting (hunting for food). Trophy hunting—also referred to as “sport hunting” under many laws—however, is a niche form of hunting motivated by entertainment and bragging rights. The primary objective for trophy hunters is to kill animals for their bodies or body parts for display as trophies to showcase the hunter’s virility, dominance, and hunting prowess. Hunting trophies can take many forms, such as full body taxidermy, wall-mounted heads, animal skins as rugs, feet as trashcans, skulls as coffee tables, and teeth, claws, tails and genitalia as trinkets, jewelry and souvenirs.
Trophy hunting occurs both domestically and internationally with a large, global trophy hunting industry motivating international trade in trophies of threatened and endangered animals. It is common for trophy hunters to kill animals to compete for prizes and awards and to have their kills memorialized in “record books” kept by trophy hunting industry organizations, demonstrating that a core motivation behind trophy hunting is competition. Read more: “Trophy Madness Report: Elite Hunters, Animal Trophies and Safari Club International’s Hunting Awards.”
What kinds of animals are trophy hunted and where?
Hundreds of mammal species are trophy hunted, from the small (pigeons, racoons, squirrels and monkeys) to the large (lions, bears, elephants, giraffe and moose) and so many others in between. The most coveted internationally regulated species include: the American black bear, chacma baboon, Hartmann’s mountain zebra, gray wolf, red lechwe, vervet monkey, black buck, brown bear, and the “African Big Five”: lion, African elephant, leopard, rhino (southern white rhino and black rhino), and African buffalo.
Between 2018 and 2022, almost 63,000 CITES-listed* mammal trophies were exported around the world between over 75 countries — an average of more than 12,500 every year. This is only a fraction of the total number of animals killed for trophies since this number only refers to mammal trophies traded internationally under CITES* and does not include animals killed for trophies that do not cross international borders.
For Americans and Europeans (the top importers in the world), Canada and South Africa are top destinations for trophy hunting, along with Namibia, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Tanzania, Mexico, Zambia, Russia, the U.S. and elsewhere.
Why should the public be concerned about trophy hunting?
Trophy hunting is an inherently cruel form of entertainment that has serious implications for animal welfare, the recovery and protection of imperiled species, and the environment.
Animal welfare
Killing animals for entertainment and to display their dead bodies and body parts for photos and bragging rights is unacceptable. Trophy hunters willfully ignore animal welfare as they prioritize bullet placement over quick or clean kills to protect the look of their trophy, use bait to lure wildlife out of protected areas and dogs to chase animals to exhaustion, and commonly let animals bleed to death instead of taking additional shots to end the animal’s suffering.
The trophy hunting industry celebrates and incentivizes the killing of animals with novelty weapons that are more likely to prolong suffering before death such as bows and arrows, muzzle loaders and handguns by offering them as prizes, promotions and record book categories for competitions.
Many instances of horrific, lengthy suffering after being wounded have been documented, with the most famous example being a Zimbabwe lion known as Cecil who in 2015 was wounded and suffered for about 10 hours before being tracked and finally killed. More recently in 2023, an elephant was wounded in South Africa by a trophy hunter, escaped to a protected area, and was then chased back into a hunting area by a helicopter, suffering through approximately 8 gunshot wounds before finally being killed. These are just two high-profile instances; suffering such as these more publicized instances happen time and again with trophy hunting in many countries.
Impacts to conservation and species survival
Animal deaths from trophy hunting have a very different impact on conservation and species’ welfare than natural deaths because trophy hunters typically target healthy, reproductive-age animals. Targeted removal of these animals can skew the age and sex structure of the population and result in unnatural selection pressure on physical, behavioral and life history traits. Killing these animals can also result in the loss of genetic diversity that is critical for survival.
Trophy hunting also has negative impacts on other animals beyond just the animals who are shot. For example, the oldest animals in social groups are important leaders due to their social and ecological knowledge. These animals are also typically the largest, making them targets for trophy hunters.
Removing territorial males can result in additional deaths through disruption of the social structure. For example, when a dominant male lion is killed, the females and cubs in his territory are vulnerable to a pride takeover from another male, in which case the new male will kill the cubs of the previous lion (called infanticide). As dominant males are removed by trophy hunting, these territory turnovers become more frequent, rates of infanticide increase, and the social structure becomes less stable.
Some of the species most targeted by trophy hunters, such as elephants and hippos, are considered “ecosystem engineers,” meaning that these animals serve key roles in shaping, maintaining and creating healthy habitats for themselves and countless other animals. Targeted removals of these animals—such as through trophy hunting—have the potential for staggering, cascading, detrimental impacts to not only the targeted species’ survival, but to the other animals and humans that rely on those ecosystems.
Trophy hunting can also increase human-wildlife conflict by causing social instability and altering behavioral patterns. Targeted killing of reproductive-aged males often leads to social disruption, where young, inexperienced animals’ aggression is left unchecked when the older animals are killed, such as with African elephants. Further, scientists hypothesize that when governments allow liberalized killing, this de-values those species in the eyes of the public which can result in lower tolerance and increased poaching.
The trophy hunting industry has secured key exemptions in national and international laws that allow them to circumvent important trade restrictions meant to protect species from over-exploitation and continues to seek new ways of preserving this industry at the expense of animals world-wide. It is vital that the public learn the facts around trophy hunting and raise their voices against it.
Trophy hunting is a dying industry of the past. It has provided very little benefits so far, and those benefits will continue to diminish. It is not a sustainable, long-term option for the future of wildlife conservation. Therefore, we must invest in alternatives that provide greater support for conservation and more equitable outcomes for communities. Learn more.
Do different countries have different laws concerning trophy hunting?
Yes. Laws governing trophy hunting and the trade in hunting trophies vary between countries and can vary between levels of restrictions on hunting and the transport, export and/or import of the trophy.
For example, the following countries prohibit trophy hunting to a significant degree: Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, India, Kenya, Malawi, Singapore and South Sudan. The following countries have some level of restrictions on trophy hunting or trade: Argentina; Australia; Belgium; British Columbia, Canada; Finland; France; Netherlands and the United States.
What is canned hunting and why is it a problem?
Canned hunting, or captive hunting, is a type of trophy hunting where animals are bred and reared in captivity for a myriad of commercial purposes and then hunted for trophies in enclosed areas. This occurs most prominently in South Africa with lions, but captive hunting operations also have a significant presence in the United States—mostly in Texas—where breeders import exotic animals for breeding and canned hunting. In South Africa, government reports estimate that there may be as many as 7,800 lions in captive facilities. According to a recent report by HSI, over half of the African lion trophies imported into the U.S. between 2014 and 2018 were from captive-bred lions.
Canned hunting is often coupled with other forms of exploitation in the captive breeding industry, such as popular tourist attractions like “lion walks” and “cub petting” as well as the lion bone trade. Learn more about lion exploitation.
Canned hunting distinctly violates notions of “fair chase” prevalent in other types of hunting, with many mainstream hunters in South Africa, the U.S., Europe and elsewhere condemning the practice as unethical.
After lengthy campaigning by HSI and partners, in 2016 the U.S. stopped authorizing import permits for hunting trophies from captive bred lions as such imports are not justified under conservation benefit requirements. In 2021, the Cabinet of South Africa (its most senior executive branch in the government) endorsed a Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment report calling for an end to lion farming, captive lion hunting, cub-petting, and the trade in captive lion parts.
What is HSI doing to stop trophy hunting?
HSI is working with an international network of experts, advocates and partners to lead the charge within the largest importing and exporting countries to restrict the trade in hunting trophies from highly coveted or at-risk species, such as those listed under CITES Appendices I and II. HSI also works with countries on the international stage to strengthen international trade protections and to close loopholes that exempt hunting trophies from important trade restrictions.
You can help by contacting your political representatives to call for trade bans on hunting trophies from species listed under CITES Appendices I and II, which are currently threatened, or may become threatened, by international trade.
