To be honest, there is so much twaddle written on this subject by so many people that should and often do know better that I normally ignore most of it but the recent press release by Professor Peet van der Merwe of the Potchefstroom Campus of North-West University begs just too many questions. Based on a mere 493 responses to questionnaires produced by him where, so I am told, a number of the questions posed were objected to on the grounds they were ambiguous, he makes a number of mind-boggling statements set out in inverted commas below:
- “No other term has dominated the hunting industry in the last couple of years as much as ‘colour variant hunting’.”
Not unless you exclude ‘canned hunting’ but then, in my humble opinion, these phrases are two sides of the same coin. There is definitely no hunting or conservation involved in canned killing and seldom in killing a domesticated, intensively bred, unnatural colour variant, usually brought up in a small enclosure and no more capable of feeding itself, breeding naturally or escaping its predators than the man in the moon. - “The majority of respondents (81%) from the hunters’ survey from which the report was formulated indicated they never hunted colour variants, while 19% said they have … in 2015.” The colour variants that have been hunted most by local hunters are white Blesbok (92%), black Impala (75%), golden Oryx (75%), golden blue Wildebeest (75%) and black Springbok (62%).”
The professor believes there are 200 000 local hunters as opposed to the 300 000 estimated by Free State University. Nevertheless, using his numbers, if the survey were remotely representative of the country as a whole, it would mean that at least 57 000 colour variants were shot in 2015. Seeing that there are less than 500 intensive breeders in the country based on the recent Endangered Wildlife Trust survey, which we will get to later, that means over 1 100 colour variants per breeder. Really? Are you serious?In the recent Consolidated Draft Report of the National Dialogue Workshop on Selective and Intensive Breeding of Colour Variants dated 25 February 2016, the Wildlife Ranching Association of South Africa advised that, in 2012, the number of the top ten colour variants in the whole country amounted to 5 668 animals in total.
I asked the professor if 75% of the 19% of local hunters participating in the survey had shot black impala, golden oryx and golden wildebeest as he claimed, how many in total were shot and where? Despite promising to do so by Monday last week, the professor failed to do so.
I am not saying that one or two accounts might not have slipped by unnoticed but, to date, I have not read a single account in any of the major, local hunting magazines of anyone hunting a black impala, golden oryx or golden wildebeest, let alone some of the other intensively bred and most definitely genetically manipulated, unnatural colour variants. I would assume that the breeders offering these animals – I do not use the word ‘game’ to describe them – would be very interested in seeing these stories published, not only to promote their offerings but to convince those Doubting Thomases out there like me that they were not engaged in a pyramid scheme without end-users.
- “They are much more open to hunting these animals than previously thought.”
I asked the professor on what he based this statement because, when I last looked, every major hunting association in the world was opposed to the killing of intensively bred and domesticated wildlife for the purpose of creating exaggerated horn lengths and unnatural colour variants, including the Boone & Crockett Club in America, CIC – The International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation in Europe, the Nordic Safari Club in Scandinavia, SA Hunters and Game Conservation Association in South Africa, with nearly 40 000 members the largest body of its kind in Africa, and the Namibian Professional Hunters Association. In addition, neither of the two major international record books will allow the entry of these colour variants in their books. I did not receive an answer to this question either. - “It is estimated that there are 200 000 local hunters, meaning 40- plus hunters had hunted colour variants in 2015.”
I asked the professor to explain this statement as it did not make sense to me. I mean, what is ‘40- plus hunters’? As I pointed out, the claim that local hunters shot 57 000 colour variants last year was, quite simply, unadulterated rubbish. To give the reader some perspective of the scale of the issue here, all the overseas hunters who visited South Africa in 2014, some 7 400 in total, together shot some 45 000 head of game, virtually none of which were colour variants.I put it to the professor that his survey and the conclusions drawn from it were not worth the paper they were printed but have not had a response from him. - “The majority of hunters agree that there is a future for colour variant hunting.”
See my comments under paragraph 2 above. - “Colour variants occur naturally in the veld and are not genetically altered.”
Oh please! I would have thought that someone as interested as the professor in the subject would have read Game & Hunt, the intensive breeders’ magazine, with over one hundred full colour pages of adverts extolling the virtues of dozens of different colour variants, including some 20 different springbok colour variations, most of which were most definitely genetically manipulated. - “The hunting of colour variants by local hunters are (sic) price-dependent. If correctly priced, they will hunt colour variants.”
Seeing as most of these colour variants are too valuable to be allowed to roam the veld and are usually kept in small, electrically fenced paddocks for veterinary, feeding, breeding and protection purposes, it is difficult to see where hunting comes in for starters. Of course, if the price is reduced to that of normal game then people may cull them in these enclosures for the meat but most knowledgeable cullers would be concerned that the meat might contain anti-biotics or growth hormones, the absence of which is a major contributory factor supporting why most people like to eat venison.I really do not want to be rude to Professor van der Merwe or attack his promotion of colour variants as I have been told that a number of intensive game breeders, in the Eastern Cape in particular, are clients of his but to make the broad statements that he has, based on survey of a mere 493 people out of 200 000 to 300 000 hunters – less than a quarter of one per cent – is to beg the questions I have asked and, in my humble opinion, the statements made based on this ‘survey’ are at best irresponsible and at worst not worthy of any scientist and academic in a position such as his.
Peter, You have hit the nail on the head. Thank you for a great article.
Jimmy van Rooyen
Rustenburg
Thanks for your compliment, Jimmy. Much appreciated.
Hi Peter,
I agree fully that the breeding of colour variants is not conducive to Nature Conservation, and is completely based on fictional monetary incentive.
What bothers and somewhat baffles me is the fact that you have 3 colour variant Springbuck in your own trophy collection.
Personally I couldn’t care less, but this was pointed out to me, the other day whilst I was defending your previous article on the subject.
Would you like to clarify?
Thank you for your comment, Duane. Glad to see people are visiting my website and enjoying the taxidermied mounts. Yes, I have mounted examples of black, white and copper springbok all shot many, many years ago and long before wildlife began to be domesticated and genetically modified to produce unnatural colour variants.
The black springbok is not a colour variant by the way. Research has shown that it is a different species that existed thousands of years ago when the Karoo was probably an inland sea, as this would account for its longer hooves to better enable it to walk in the sodden conditions, much like those of lechwe. It also has more teeth apart from the obvious colour differences and, of course, its behavior is also different to the normal springbok. When stressed, our South African springbok coalesce into bigger and bigger herds whereas the black springbok bombshells out into a series of individuals where conditions allow this. Looking at my photos, I would judge that I shot the one and only one I did, over 30 years ago on a neighbouring farm to Bankfontein in the Karoo.
The white springbok in my collection, one of two I shot that day, was hunted 36 years ago on a property outside of Steynsberg. The farmer said that his grandfather told him that two white rams remained behind after the trekbokke had passed through the property. He chased them across the river to a distant sheep camp that had some common springbok in it and, over the years, the original two rams mated with them and produced more and more white animals. It was also immediately apparent that their offspring varied from almost pure white to almost pure common springbok in colour. I had to choose carefully to secure a white one and even then the brown side stripe was still just visible. The farm was not game fenced but encompassed by the normal sheep fencing found throughout the Karoo.
I am not exactly sure when I shot the copper springbok near Middelburg in the Karoo but I would guess it was over 20 years ago. I do remember however that the farmer told me that copper springbok occurred naturally in the Copperton district, a fact repeated by the MD of Camdeboo Meat Processors in Graaff Reinet who culled springbok for export throughout the country. I believed them but the breeding of colour variants did not register on the radar screen at this stage and, to be honest, I thought nothing of it. Today I might be more careful in my enquiries.
Of course, since those days game ranchers have created land for these different and, to my mind, naturally occurring springbok to grow in number and I have never had a problem with this. Maroela springbok etc., are another matter entirely but I remain open to persuasion that black, white and copper springbok should be classified with all the other domesticated, genetically modified, unnatural freaks that have been produced in the last ten years or so and avoided by fair chase hunters.”
Cliff
Hi Peter
Thanks for the mail , yes you are 100% correct in your statements
I have had 3 black impala , 1 golden gemsbok and 1 Golden wildebeest to be mounted in the last 5 years and all of them were killed during capture and not hunted , all these breeders claim that they are doing all of this breeding for the local hunting of these species
If no hunting organisation accept the entry of these species where does it go to in the end , who is the end user
What they have done with this is to get nature conservation to try and get a impala registered as a TOPS species just for the fact that everyone takes normal females and throws a black or a saddle back ram with them in order to try and make big money , I mean really a impala a TOPS specie?
And all of this only because of this intensive breeding of colour variants
If you have a big name in the game Farming circles you get R900 000 for a 27 odd inch impala on auction, if you are a plain old thabazimbie farmer and you happen to have a ram of that size on your property and that gets put into the market you are offered R30 000 if you very very lucky . How does that work?
I personally think that all of this is doing more bad to our industries than any good and who knows where this will end ?
All of the best luck with your hunting this year will keep an eye out in the magazines for your success stories
Kind regards
Cliff
Thank you for your interesting response, Cliff. Of course it is taxidermists like yourself that are always at the forefront of trends in the hunting community and your comments reflect those that I have been hearing from the other major taxidermists as well.
Paul Phelan
To my mind the colour variants and the ridiculous prices for buffalo etc are nothing but a pyramid scheme to enrich a few .
This whole show is damaging the hunting industry in RSA.
Regards ,
Paul
Thanks, Paul. Yes, it will be interesting to see the statistics for 2015 when the DEA eventually gets round to releasing them but, if I were a betting man, I would lay odds that the numbers of overseas hunters will have fallen further than the already low numbers of some 7 400 for 2014, which is less than half of the 16 394 overseas hunters in 2007. And judging by the anecdotal evidence gleaned at the American hunting conventions in 2016, I would be surprised if these numbers were lowered yet again in 2016.
The Scientific Authority warned the DEA in 2010 that the breeding of colour variants should be “discouraged” but the government has done nothing for six years and, in the interim, a handful of canned lion breeders and intensive breeders of unnatural colour variants has been allowed to decimate this country’s reputation as a hunting destination and thereby reduced the numbers of overseas hunters coming to visit South Africa. This has had and continues to have a dramatically negative affect on the revenue of extensive game ranchers, outfitters and professional hunters and, by definition, on conservation as a whole.
Hi Peter. You seem to talk with authority, knowledge and commonsense on the subject of color variants. I would like to make some comments and ask for your opinion on the subject.
White Blesbuck seems to with us for very long and started without real in-breeding or small enclosures. I have seen large herds of “normal” Blesbuck on very big properties and still the white ones seems to pop up in these big herd (over 1000 animals). Is this not a natural occurrence?
The Black Impala were seen many years ago in the Marken area of South Africa and if man did not interfere (one farmer use to send the kids on their weekends of from boarding school to shoot out the “black things” between the impala herds) would these black Impala number not increased as a natural occurrence?
When is it becoming canned animals? Is it the size of the property, when an animal cannot fend for itself (how), cannot find its own food (food supplements in dry times)?
Thanks for you’re never ending fight against wrong doings in the hunting industry and the anti hunters. Hope hunting in South Africa will stay magic and sustainable.
Regards
Sakkie Marais
Thank you for your interesting comments, Sakkie. Rowland Ward has never provided a separate category for white blesbok or white and black springbok and I have always agreed with this approach although I have hunted all these animals myself in my earlier days and before I understood how damaging they would become for the hunting and conservation communities in our country. I have some sympathy, however, with SCI approach which, although it will not create new categories for the intensively bred new colour variants, has, as they term it, ‘grandfathered’ in white blesbok and white and black springbok on the basis they were not intensively bred originally and they will remain in these record books.
I have read research showing that black springbok may have been around for thousands of years from the time when the Karoo was an inland sea, which may explain their longer hooves, dentition – they have more teeth – and behaviour particularly when threatened. When I came across white springbok for the first time near Hoymeyr, I learned how they had appeared naturally on the property after the trekbokke had moved through. Two rams stayed and bred naturally with the remaining free roaming common springbok and, over time, a small herd developed. Unfortunately, my understanding of the origins of black impala differ widely from your account and I am under the impression that some professor or other deliberately manipulated the genetics of these animals until he managed to create a completely black impala, the first one of which I saw at the first SCI Convention I attended, so it is a comparatively new ‘invention’.
I would pose your question about canned animals the other way around and ask, “When is a hunt a hunt?” I believe the answer is a very straight forward one. We hunters believe in the fair chase of free range game on a sustainable basis in their natural habitat where they are capable of feeding themselves, procreating naturally and evading their predators of which the hunter is but one. In determining whether these conditions are met, a hunter should always err on the side of conservatism.
Lastly, thank you for your kind words. My point of departure on these matter is a simple one. I am passionate about wildlife and wildlife habitat – my wife says obsessive – and therefore support whatever conserves them and oppose whatever does not. With that as a plumb line, most of what I believe, say and write is easy to understand. While it is not the reason why I hunt, I believe that sustainable, legal and ethical hunting is the foundation upon which conservation in our country and, such as it is in the rest of Africa, has been built. Therefore, I support whatever promotes this kind of hunting and oppose whatever does not.
In a previous life as a corporate lawyer, I was taught that, after logic had excluded all else, what remained had to be the truth. On this basis, the steady decline in overseas hunters visiting the country – down to 7 400 in 2014 from its peak of 16 400 in 2007 – at the same time as the numbers of hunters visiting Namibia has climbed – from about 6 300 to over 23 000 – at the same time as there has been a concomitant increase in canned killing and intensive breeding and domestication of wildlife to produce exaggerated horn lengths and unnatural colour variants (which has been opposed by all the major hunting bodies in North America, Europe and our own country), has led me to believe the drop in visiting hunter numbers here is as a result of these selfsame canned killing and intensive breeding practices.
If I am correct that hunting is the foundation of conservation, then this dramatic reduction in hunters, who spend at least R134 800 per visit – compared to the average tourist who arrives in this country by air who spends less than ten per cent of this amount per visit – will have a profoundly negative effect on the long term conservation of our wildlife and wildlife habitats while all it does is benefit the bank balances of less than 500 intensive breeders.
Surely we cannot stand idly by and just let this continue?
Peter,
It seems to me that the African public needs to be reminded again and again what South Africa and Namibia have in Game Ranching success stories. Published in local newspapers, on billboards and whatever it takes to get into the minds of everybody how far reaching and how all encompassing this program has brought back Southern Africa to re-population of game species (both game and non-game species) producing not only countless jobs there and abroad, but by bringing in tourist that wish to know more of the people, culture, flora and fauna.
There will always be people that will try to destroy the fine works that have been accomplished by others that have looked forward and have created something of value. I suppose it makes them look important?
I am so very proud of your Conservation Success…but so very troubled that our U.S. President O’Bama has become like your Professor Peet van der Merwe of the Potchefstroom Campus. The spreading of a lies…without understanding the true facts!
We are at War with these forces of evil…and this fight is not just for a few!
Thanks, Norm. I could not agree with you more.
Right on the money again, Peter.
Thanks, Willem.
Peter,
YOu are spot on. I have not and will not hunt “color variants”. If a South Africa operator offers these animals, I will not hunt with that outfit. To be clear, this is not about hunting but about decorations and “mommy, see what I can with funny genetics” by the operators. It is wrong and serves no good for the hunting industry or our reputation in the real world.
I have switched a lot of my hunting to Namibia for this reason.
Hope those that need to hear this – HEAR this!!!
Ross
Thanks, Ross. Your reaction is symptomatic of why overseas hunting numbers have fallen so dramatically in South Africa while there has been a corresponding rise in Namibia to over 23 000 hunters last year.
Great article ! Color variants and the breeding of them is like a pyramid scheme. A house of cards just waiting to implode.
Thanks, Jon. I think the implosion is beginning to happen as we speak as auction prices on the whole have fallen quite substantially for most species across the board compared to a year ago. Gravity is beginning to take over!