I had to watch this video for my Environmental Economics class and found it to be incredibly relevant to our class as well. In short, there are ranches in Texas that breed various species of large exotic animals that are endangered or extinct in their native homes (usually somewhere in Africa). However, the ranchers aren’t doing this just out of altruism. They make a profit by allowing hunters to come to their ranch and hunt these animals. The price tag is steep, but many people will pay it to be able to hunt such rare species.
The ranchers, and even a conservation expert, argue that unless there is a profit motive to keep these species alive and well, they will go extinct. When you look at the numbers, this method actually seems to have worked. However, this method raises enormous moral dilemmas that have caused many a lawsuit against these ranchers.
I’m curious to hear what you guys think about this program.
Wow. Crazy conservation project; incredible to think these animals are threatened in Africa and are thriving in Texas. On one side the numbers of these threatened species are on the rise because of this, and in conservation biology we have just recently been learning about how scientists are constantly working to breed threatened species back to acceptable numbers. However, the fact that threatened species have to be killed in the process of this revival is such a moral dilemma. In an ideal world I would want these Texas ranch owners to raise these numbers without needing a profit from hunting to sustain it/promote the conservation cause, and then I would want them to transport them back to their native lands to try and get the populations thriving back in Africa. I am curious to hear what others have to say about this conservation method as well. Fascinating find Shawn!