Misinformation About Trophy Hunting Threatens Conservation

Key Points:

• The first is the idea that trophy hunting is driving species to extinction. Decades of published, scientific research and field experience show this is demonstrably false. There is not, as far as we can tell, a single species where trophy hunting is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List as a key threat driving it to extinction.
• Humane Society International, an organization that campaigns against trophy hunting, listed the top 20 species imported by American trophy hunters, far from hunting driving those species to extinction, nine of the 20 are increasing in numbers and 6 are stable. 18 are ranked as ‘Least Concern’ by the IUCN, with the other two ‘Near Threatened’: so none are threatened species.
• None of the 20 have trophy hunting documented as a threat to their populations. 
• Trophy hunting differs from poaching as much as shopping differs from shoplifting.