User:Nom Chompsky/sandbox
Drafting Article: Trophy Hunting[edit]
African Trophy Hunting[edit]
The practice of trophy hunting supersedes that of ranch or farm hunting, but game ranches helped to legitimize trophy hunting as a facet of the tourism industry in Africa. The first game ranches in Africa were established in the 1960s, and the concept quickly grew in proliferation.[1] Statistics from 2000 illustrate that there were approximately 7000 game farms and reservations operating within South Africa, established on about 16 million hectares of land in the country.[2] Game ranches attract wealthy tourists interested in hunting, as well as foreign investors on a large scale.[1]
Game Auctions[edit]
Game auctions help provide game farms and reserves with their wildlife. These facilities are important in terms of tourism in Africa, one of the continent's largest economic sectors, accounting for almost 5% of South Africa's GDP, for example.[3][2] South Africa in particular is the main tourist destination on the continent, and as a result, hosts a large number of game auctions, farms, and reservations. Game auctions serve as competitive markets that allow farm and reservation owners to bid on and purchase animals for their facilities. Animals purchased at auctions for these purposes are commonly bought directly as game, or are then bred to supply facilities. Animals used for breeding are generally females, which cost more on average than males due to the increased breeding prospects they present.[2] In addition to sex, other factors that contribute to the prices of animals on auction include the demand for particular species (based on their overall rarity) and the costs of maintaining them. [2][3] Animals that receive increased interest from poachers, such as rhinos or elephants due to their ivory horns and tusks, present additional risks to game farm operations, and do not typically sell well at auction. However other herbivores, specifically ungulate species, tend to fetch exponentially higher sums than carnivores.[3] Prices for these animals can reach into the hundreds of thousands in South African rands, equivalent to tens of thousands of American dollars.[3]
Conservation[edit]
In Africa[edit]
Effects of Trophy Hunting on Animal Populations[edit]
While locals may hunt certain species for sport or as pests, particularly carnivorous species such as leopards, these animals, as well as lions and cougars, are known to exhibit infanticidal tendencies which can be exacerbated by the removal of adult males from their populations.[4] Males are hunted more frequently than females in order to minimize impacts to species reproduction. However, the removal of these males still degrades the networks and groups these species create in order to survive and provide for offspring.[4] [also impacts overall gene pool diversity by focusing on particularly desired elements of an animal, elephants hunted for ivory are already showing that females are losing tusks in African populations] Hunting regulations and laws proposing constant proportions or thresholds of community members for these species have been proposed in African nations such as Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, but are exceptionally difficult to enforce due to the logistics of tracking carnivore populations.[4]
Controversy[edit]
Arguments[edit]
Proponents of game and trophy hunting claim that the economic benefits presented by the practice are essential to nations in which ecotourism is not as viable or popular.[5] Additionally, locals in more rural areas of Africa express that there is tension between human communities and certain species that pose dangers to them and their livestock. Members of these communities rely on current hunting regulations that allow them to retaliate or preempt against the threats these species can pose.[4] Programs such as CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources) in Zimbabwe have been implemented to allow landowners to benefit from the presence of wildlife on their land by marketing it to individuals such as safari owners or game ranch owners, framing wildlife as a renewable resource.[6] Aside from the economic boon presented by the program, CAMPFIRE has also served to mitigate illegal poaching or hunting in certain areas, as well as helping farmers more easily access essential resources that they sometimes have to compete with animal communities for.[6]
Trophy hunting has received a large amount of popular attention internationally as a result of incidents such as the death of Cecil the Lion, garnering a widely negative perception of the practice in many sectors of the general populace.[7] Attention has been drawn both popularly and academically to the ethics of trophy hunting and trophy hunting facilities. Generally speaking, ethical arguments against trophy or sport hunting practices frame them as exploitative and abusive against animals[7]. Evidence has been found illustrating that wild game hunting can also impact the reproductive and social processes of animal species, as well as increase aggression between species members, ultimately impacting the stability of different wildlife communities.[8]
Peer Review - Geshan
The way you organized your article is flawless. It is easy to navigate through and your writing is direct and straight to the point. You explain your points well, but it would help to showcase and provide more examples. Like in the first section you could provide examples of game ranches and the roles they played. The other thing you could do is try to implement more sources which could end up giving you more content. Just make sure it stays within the framework of what you are trying to convey. Overall I really liked this. One other thing you could add are pictures.
Dr. Shaffer comments:
Well organized and good information in clear language. The African trophy hunting section in the current Trophy Hunting article is not so long or detailed. You should think about how to incorporate the existing published info into your article, as the original author will likely get tetchy if you delete their work. :) You might also want to address the additional cultural/ethical controversy posed by those opposed to trophy hunting outside Africa - aka Cecil the Lion that was killed by a US dentist or the photos posted to Twitter/Instagram of people trophy hunting giraffe, rhino, etc. that people get upset over.
References[edit]
- ^ a b Cloete, P. C.; Taljaard, P. R.; Grové, B. (2007-04). "A comparative economic case study of switching from cattle farming to game ranching in the Northern Cape Province". South African Journal of Wildlife Research. 37 (1): 71–78. doi:10.3957/0379-4369-37.1.71. ISSN 0379-4369.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c d Van der Merwe, P.; Saayman, M.; Krugell, W. (2004-12-19). "Factors that determine the price of game". Koedoe. 47 (2). doi:10.4102/koedoe.v47i2.86. ISSN 2071-0771.
- ^ a b c d Dalerum, Fredrik; Miranda, Maria (2016-02-25). "Game auction prices are not related to biodiversity contributions of southern African ungulates and large carnivores". Scientific Reports. 6 (1). doi:10.1038/srep21922. ISSN 2045-2322.
- ^ a b c d Packer, Craig; Kosmala, Margaret; Cooley, Hilary S.; Brink, Henry; Pintea, Lilian; Garshelis, David; Purchase, Gianetta; Strauss, Megan; Swanson, Alexandra (2009-06-17). "Sport Hunting, Predator Control and Conservation of Large Carnivores". PLoS ONE. 4 (6): e5941. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005941. ISSN 1932-6203.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ Lindsey, P. A.; Alexander, R.; Frank, L. G.; Mathieson, A.; Romanach, S. S. (2006-08). "Potential of trophy hunting to create incentives for wildlife conservation in Africa where alternative wildlife-based land uses may not be viable". Animal Conservation. 9 (3): 283–291. doi:10.1111/j.1469-1795.2006.00034.x. ISSN 1367-9430.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Alexander, Jocelyn; McGregor, JoAnn (2000-06). "Wildlife and Politics: CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe". Development and Change. 31 (3): 605–627. doi:10.1111/1467-7660.00169. ISSN 0012-155X.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Batavia, Chelsea; Nelson, Michael Paul; Darimont, Chris T.; Paquet, Paul C.; Ripple, William J.; Wallach, Arian D. (2018-05-09). "The elephant (head) in the room: A critical look at trophy hunting". Conservation Letters. 12 (1): e12565. doi:10.1111/conl.12565. ISSN 1755-263X.
- ^ Davidson, Zeke; Valeix, Marion; Loveridge, Andrew J.; Madzikanda, Hillary; Macdonald, David W. (2011-01). "Socio-spatial behaviour of an African lion population following perturbation by sport hunting". Biological Conservation. 144 (1): 114–121. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2010.08.005. ISSN 0006-3207.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
 | This is a user sandbox of Nom Chompsky. You can use it for testing or practicing edits. This is not the sandbox where you should draft your assigned article for a dashboard.wikiedu.org course. To find the right sandbox for your assignment, visit your Dashboard course page and follow the Sandbox Draft link for your assigned article in the My Articles section. |
Article Evaluation
The article I have chosen to evaluate is about African elephants. The page offers neutral and factual information with an abundance of citations (including links to sources), also following the general rule of thumb of adding at least one citation per paragraph contributed to the article. Additionally, a vast majority of the citations used in the article are from books, journals, and other peer reviewed sources. Some sources consist of op-eds or newspaper articles from publishers such as The New York Times and The Guardian, but these sources are used sparsely and only contribute factual, supporting information to verify or enrich parts of the article. The article also offers much in terms of the behavior, habitat, and general biology of the animal, but also provides a sizable section on conservation and poaching. Each section of the article also has an abundance of wiki-links (properly implemented and functional when tested) to help direct readers to even more pertinent information about human interaction with the animal, as well as historical and geographical context pertinent to African elephants and their present status.
Much of the article's brief talk page is dedicated to discussing the addition of more information regarding the interactions between African elephants and humans, with multiple users adding additional links to other wiki pages, as well as other sources, over time as well. While African elephants are classified as a "Level 5 Vital Article" subject, the article presented is rated as "C-Class," indicating that there is still a substantial amount of information that could be added and worked on. However, the article is also part of two different WikiProjects: Mammals and Africa. The article has been worked on consistently since its creation in 2006, and receives constant, substantial revisions.
Adding to an article:
African elephants (under the behavior section)
While females are the most active members of African elephant societies, both male and female elephants are capable of distinguishing between hundreds of different low frequency infrasonic calls to communicate with and identify each other.
References[edit]
The sandbox is well organized, which is good overall. The sections are titled well and that helps frame the information each section contains. I think you could provide more detailed information connecting the research articles to your overall purpose, further embellishing both the sandbox and references.