.........
Finally, I would appreciate a serious discussion on the subject instead of posting insults. The purpose of our work is to develop the hunting industry in Mozambique, so let us be constructive.
.....
I apologize as I intended no insult.
Perhaps it is a language issue.
"Ignorance: lack of knowledge, information, or education."
I shared an observation of two baseless statements and backed it up with the FACTS provided in my earlier post. Thousands of cats are legally and ethically hunted with hounds in many jurisdiction specifically for the opposite reason you are stating that Hounds should not be used; Sex identification being difficult. My conclusion is based on the experience of numerous wildlife departments that base their entire game management of their cats on this selective method of hunting.
.......
As we all know sport hunting is under a major pressure from various "conservation" groups in USA and Europe. ........
My country actually follows CITES agreements and is more interested in SCIENCE than the political sway of self absorbed bureaucrats in the USFWS or FACEBOOK posts by Anti-hunters. We have also had our run in's with those organizations and its politics and in most cases we have won and allowed science to prevail. The ones we have lost have left a lot of the rural people hungry when the hunting industry collapsed.
............ ANAC is introducing new guidelines for hunting lions and leopards, which are being imposed in 2017.............
"Imposed" without consultation or recommendations from the affected parties. This type of zero notice pronouncement by your organization is in line with what Zimbabwe did a few years ago. They arbitrarily raised government "fees" in the middle of the "show season" after foreign hunts had been booked. Leaving the operators to either cover the costs themselves or have cancelled hunts when the fees were passed on to hunters.
It blatantly demonstrates that their is very little understanding or support for the hunting industry in your decision making.
Tanzania has just managed to have a large number of concession "returned". Meaning the concession holders have abandoned them. When they do the accounting at the end of the year they are certain to find the balance sheet lacking. I doubt that was their intended goal.
As only male adult leopards are allowed hunt one could easily understand the problems to determine sex and age of a leopard, especially when practiced during night hours.
Then ban night hunting with dogs. The premise of problems with sex determination with the use of hounds I have already replied to in my earlier post and the assertion is baseless.
There will not be an ageing system for leopard, for the time being due to the obvious problem to make clear distinction between a three and a four years old leopard, although such system has been discussed.
If there were actually a scientific basis for the decision and some basis that you could actually afford to train all involved I would support the notion.
There is a scientific basis of age determination with regard to hunting Lions, as they occur in Prides and males will kill other Males offspring. Leopards however do not raise their young in a community.
Hunting Leopard Males has been shown, in every reputable research article written on the subject, to be sustainable. So, age is irrelevant in hunting Leopards. SEX is important and much easier to determine.
Mozambique is a Portugues speaking country, few operators don´t speak that language which causes problems in the communication and also to understand the national legislation. I would like to recommend all interested in the subject to find out what the current hunting legislation of Mozambique actually says about leopards and dogs.
Please provide the official document or a web link to the document. I have searched various websites in Mocambique prior to hunting in your beautiful country to learn your laws myself. I can access those documents in English on the internet. I look forward to the information.
Personally, I understand that using hound packs for leopard is efficient, when comparing with baiting. But this fact is not an argument to allow hound packs. I can also understand that it is thrilling,
I agree that an argument for efficiency or expedience is not acceptable. It happens to be a benefit of hunting with hounds. SELECTIVITY for AGE and SEX most certainly is. Although there is a rather immense assumption about facts about time expenditure in either style of hunting that is missing here in this discussion.
Since quotas should be set based on science and observation, the success rate in filling that quota by whatever ethical method of hunting should be irrelevant to the authorities. Success is important to hunters, obviously, and plays a huge part in growing the hunting industry in Mocambique.
...... but when the leopard climbs the tree to escape the dogs we have reached the limit of fair chase.
I can honestly make zero sense of this statement. Please help me understand what your view is.
Apart from the already mention news we are also conducting several specific wildlife inventories, just recently a hippo census that showed very positive results. The census will be followed by a NDF report and a hippo management plan, and we expect that trophy hunting of hippo in Mozambique will be allowed again starting from 2018.
This is wonderful news that SCIENCE is going to be the basis of the report to CITES to allow Mocambique to once again obtain and support export Hippo trophies.
I am aware of that these changes will cause problems for some operators being announced very late, but I would like to recommend the safari operators active in Mozambique to communicate with ANAC. The "Annual Hunting Meeting 2017" will be held in Maputo on 4-5 May, I strongly recommend participation of a least one representative from each hunting area.
Does the agency in charge of hunting understand that the hunting industry? Conventions and shows take place long before May in any year and bookings have already taken place, indeed bookings could be made two years in advance. Changing the rules after the sale will do more damage to the credibility of Mocambique's hunting industry than not. It presents as a knee jerk reaction without forethought and planning.
Interestingly I found Management plan that outlines a policy that all stakeholders are to be able to participate in the planning.
http://www.biofund.org.mz/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Plano-Maneio-Chimanimani-Vol2.pdf
"THE SCENARIO OUTLINED BY THE NEW POLITICA DE CONSERVACAO OF MOZAMBIQUE
According to the new Mozambican Política de Conservação (Conservation Policy), approved as a “Resolução Ministerial (n° 63/2009), it is specific task of the new National Administration of Conservation Areas (Administração Nacional das Áreas de Conservação, ANAC) to create a “Conselhos de Gestão de Áreas de Conservação” (CGAC – Management Board of Conservation Areas) in each Conservation Area, in order to ensure the participation of all stakeholders.
According with the specification given by the new policy, the CGAC will be a collegial body that will assure the participation of all stakeholders of each conservation area and that:
- Is responsible for the management of the conservation area;
- Implements the management plan;
- Ensures that the management of the conservation area answers the needs of developing
communities that are legally residing in them;
- Participates with the local and provincial authorities in drafting the strategic
development plans;
- Oversees the implementation of concession contracts with operators aiming at maximizing the area under their responsibility without undermining the goals of conservation in the development of public private and community within the current "
