It is an image of a bygone era: the colonial hunter sitting atop an elephant in the Indian jungle preparing to shoot a tiger or any other large creature that happens to wander into his gun-sights.
But an investigation into the growing trade of trophy hunting reveals that record numbers of wealthy British hunters are paying US$17,000 or more for the privilege of slaughtering big game in Africa, North America and Eastern Europe.
Leopards, cheetahs, elephants, hippos and polar bears are being killed in unprecedented numbers. Many of them are among the most threatened species on the planet, yet there has been a four-fold increase in hunting trophies being imported into the UK since 1998.
ILLUSTRATION: MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
Conservationists and animal rights groups fear that the increase is pushing some species close to extinction.
One reason for the growth in popularity of trophy hunting trips is that they are increasingly easy to arrange over the Internet. A reporter from the London-based Observer newspaper posing as a customer contacted several hunting outfits and was offered the chance to kill lions in Tanzania, elephants in Botswana, cheetahs in Zimbabwe, polar bears in Canada and grizzly bears in Russia.
The largest organizer in the UK is Holland and Holland, the royal gunsmith based in Mayfair, central London, and best known for supplying guns to the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales. It has also supplied shotguns to celebrities such as Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie.
Piers Vaux, director of Holland and Holland's sporting department, offered the reporter a 14-day hunt in Zimbabwe at its "luxurious camps" on the banks of the Zambezi, where he would be able to shoot elephants and cheetahs. The cost would be US$24,250, which included the cost of one elephant trophy at US$10,000.
Vaux assured the reporter that the political turmoil in Zimbabwe was no problem, but did recommend that Botswana was the best place for killing elephants.
"Last year we had the second best area for elephants in the country and this year we are due to be the first," he said. "Botswana is producing the largest elephants in Africa. These statistics point us in the direction of being one of the best areas in the continent for elephants."
Vaux quoted a price of US$47,200 for a two-week hunt in the Okavango delta in Botswana. He confirmed that he was sending more "English" hunters than ever out to Africa and believed it was because people are becoming "more adventurous." He described how once the animals are killed they are sent to a taxidermist in South Africa, where they are first stuffed, mounted and then sent home to Britain.
Hendry Ramsay & Waters, a Scottish operator, told the reporter he could arrange for a lion or leopard hunt to be held in Tanzania for US$17,000.
British operators say they act strictly within the law and take part only in hunts approved by international authorities. They argue that their hunts pose no threat to endangered animal populations and aid the environment by bringing much-needed revenue into impoverished communities.
Yet a recent report by the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University, England, warned that the number of African lions being shot must be radically cut if the species is to survive.
Others also believe that the large amounts of foreign money pouring into trophy hunting leaves the system of licensed kills open to abuse.
According to figures prepared for The Observer by the World Conservation Monitoring Center -- an agency of the United Nations Environment Programme -- 44 potentially endangered animals were killed last year by British hunters and brought back to the UK as trophy heads. In 1998, only 10 suffered this fate.
The latest trophies include 13 leopards, seven grizzly bears, six cheetahs, five polar bears, four hippos as well as three African elephants.
The populations of these animals have fallen dramatically over the decades and they are listed as vulnerable by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Research has shown that removing just a single lion from a population could lead to a drastic fall in numbers. It is estimated that there are only 23,000 lions in Africa, about one-tenth of what some suggest there were in 1980. Similar fears of extinction exist for the leopard population. Figures obtained by The Observer show that, between 2001 and last year, British hunters killed four lions and 23 leopards in such places as South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Despite the pull of Africa, one of the most popular destinations for British hunters is the North-West Territories of Canada, where polar bears can be hunted for about US$25,000 a time. In the past two years, they have killed 15 polar bears and brought their trophies back to the UK. Although there are no British operators offering such trips, the Internet means it is easy to book one by computer. One US outfit, Four Star Hunting, provides the "ultimate global hunting destinations for the discriminating hunter." Its Web site offers the chance for a hunter to kill almost any animal anywhere in the world and bring a trophy home.
One of its consultants, Ron Simmons, offered a polar bear hunt for US$22,500 and said he had a client from England "who hunted polar bears with me last season and took a very good bear." Another operator, Adventure North West, shows on its Web site a collection of polar bears and other species its clients have killed. US operators claim these are regulated hunts which benefit the Inuit community.
Animal rights groups have expressed revulsion at the number of Britons killing vulnerable mammals for sport. Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the UK's League Against Cruel Sports, said: "We find it shocking that it is legal for trophy hunters to be allowed to travel abroad to shoot and import the body parts of rare and endangered species to adorn their boardrooms and country house retreats."
Conservationists are particularly worried about the number of grizzly bears being killed in British Columbia in Canada, where they believe the species is being pushed close to extinction.
Wendy Elliott, a campaigner working for the Environmental Investigation Agency, said: "Concerns have been raised for decades by scientists that the grizzly bear hunt in British Columbia is unsustainable and is pushing the population into a possibly irreversible decline. We are in danger of returning to the policies of the imperial age, with the great white hunter contributing to the decline of some of our planet's most enigmatic species."
Until recently, trophy hunting has mainly been the preserve of wealthy Americans and Germans hoping to follow in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway. But although the rise in the number of British hunters taking part in these trips has surprised some, others link it to the potential ban on foxhunting in the UK.
"It will come as no surprise if foreign trophy hunting becomes the sport of choice for those facing a ban on hunting with hounds and similar pursuits in the UK," Batchelor said.
"Hunters who are rich enough will look for their thrills elsewhere. The only solution is for the EU to ban imports of trophy parts of animals killed for sport."
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