Guardians or Game? Hunting in Protected Areas

In national parks, the line between preservation and predation blurs—is hunting helping or harming the wild? While some deem hunting to be a cruel, unnecessary, and unethical practice, it remains the “backbone” of wildlife conservation worldwide. Not only does the practice fund large quantities of the park's needs, but it also aids in wildlife management activities (Moore, 2021). But is that worth the lives of these species?

The Positives

In the 21st century, hunting is almost purely recreational. This is why the people who carry out the activity are willing to pay thousands just to be able to hunt in protected parks and areas around the world. Wildlife agencies and conservation systems are heavily dependent on hunters for funding. Money generated from license fees and taxes on guns, ammunition, and equipment provide about 60 percent of the funding for agencies, which manage most of the wildlife park (Rott, 2018). For example, in the US, roads, buildings, utility systems, and other infrastructure and structures in national parks require an estimated $23.3 billion in repairs, according to the National Park Service (NPS) (www.nps.gov, n.d.). This is because of the parks' extensive use and deteriorating infrastructure. The money collected from hunting in these parks goes largely towards the costs of upkeeping the park, such as these. 

Regulated hunting is also one of the most effective tools that wildlife reserves can use to address the overpopulation of species. There are always specific rules in place for which animals can be hunted. These rules are modeled on population growth and set management regulations, which may include season length or harvest quotas, based on field research and harvest data. Following the implementation of these rules, wildlife managers keep an eye on the population, carry out ongoing studies, and modify their management strategies in light of the data they gather.  For instance, wildlife management may extend the season or let hunters kill one or more female deer to decrease the number of fawns produced if a white-tailed deer population is too big. However, if wildlife management wishes to boost the population, they may enact a rule allowing hunters to shoot adult males, enabling all females to give birth to fawns. This is a great way to minimize the impact on the ecosystem (Moore, 2021). 

The Negatives

However, hunting tourism also endangers ecotourism -the most important source of livelihood for many locals- whose representatives complain that the hunters scare the animals into hiding. The tourists are also afraid that they may become inadvertent witnesses to the killing of an animal. While ecotourism is all about a chance to connect with nature on a deeper level and the opportunity to immerse themselves in diverse ecosystems, hunting drives the animals away from humans (FAADA, 2016). This makes ecotourism businesses' jobs considerably harder as they have to seek out the animals instead of just bringing tourists to them. Seeing fewer animals causes tourists to be less inclined to visit the areas of tourism, which negatively affects their economy.

The biggest problem people have with hunting is the removal of animals from ecosystems by humans. Over the last 100 years, human population growth combined with innovations that help humans to locate and catch large numbers of organisms has resulted in dramatic decreases in many species populations worldwide, including many large land mammals (FindAHunt, 2023). If enough individuals are removed from an ecosystem, species can go extinct. Hunting can also indirectly increase the numbers of other species in an ecosystem if by removing a species there is less competition for resources and space among the remaining species in the ecosystem. Therefore hunting can shift entire ecosystems and has to be monitored to stop several species from dying out. 

References:

Moore, A. (2021). How Hunting Contributes to Wildlife Conservation. [online] College of Natural Resources News. Available at: https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2021/02/hunting-wildlife-conservation-explained/.

NPS (n.d.). What Is Deferred Maintenance? - Infrastructure (U.S. National Park Service). [online] Available at: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/infrastructure/deferred-maintenance.htm.

Rott, N. (2018). Decline In Hunters Threatens How U.S. Pays For Conservation. [online] Npr.org. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2018/03/20/593001800/decline-in-hunters-threatens-how-u-s-pays-for-conservation.

Fundacion FAADA. (2016). FAADA | Tourism - Sports hunting and canned hunting. [online] Available at: https://faada.org/entertainment-tourism-sports-hunting-and-canned-hunting.

Findahunt.com. (2023). The Role of Hunting in Eco-Tourism: A Growing Trend. [online] Available at: https://www.findahunt.com/the-role-of-hunting-in-eco-tourism-a-growing-trend.