Data from: Assessing the sustainability of African lion trophy hunting, with recommendations for policy

While trophy hunting provides revenue for conservation, it must be carefully managed to avoid negative population impacts, particularly for long-lived species with low natural mortality rates. Trophy hunting has had negative effects on lion populations throughout Africa, and the species serves as an important case study to consider the balance of costs and benefits, and to consider the effectiveness of alternative strategies to conserve exploited species. Age-restricted harvesting is widely recommended to mitigate negative effects of lion hunting, but this recommendation was based on a population model parameterized with data from a well-protected and growing lion population. Here, we used demographic data from lions subject to more typical conditions, including source-sink dynamics between a protected National Park and adjacent hunting areas in Zambia's Luangwa Valley, to develop a stochastic population projection model and evaluate alternative harvest scenarios. Hunting resulted in population declines over a 25-year period for all continuous harvest strategies, with large declines for quotas greater than 1 lion/concession (~0.5 lion/1000 km2) and hunting of males younger than 7 years. A strategy that combined periods of recovery, an age limit of ≥ 7 years and a maximum quota of ~0.5 lions shot per 1000 km2 yielded a risk of extirpation < 10%. Our analysis incorporated the effects of human encroachment, poaching and prey depletion on survival, but assumed that these problems will not increase, which is unlikely. These results suggest conservative management of lion trophy hunting with a combination of regulations. To implement sustainable trophy hunting while maintaining revenue for conservation of hunting areas, our results suggest that hunting fees must increase as a consequence of diminished supply. These findings are broadly applicable to hunted lion populations throughout Africa, and to inform global efforts to conserve exploited carnivore populations.

战利品狩猎（trophy hunting）可为保护工作提供经费，但需加以审慎管控，以避免对种群产生负面影响，尤其是针对自然死亡率较低的长寿物种。全非洲的狮子种群均已受到战利品狩猎的负面影响，该物种也成为了权衡成本与收益、评估保护被开发物种替代策略有效性的重要研究案例。年龄限制型猎捕被广泛推荐用于缓解狮子狩猎的负面影响，但该推荐方案的提出基于以受保护状况良好且种群数量增长的狮子种群数据参数化构建的种群模型。本研究采用处于更典型野外环境中的狮子的种群人口统计学数据——包括赞比亚卢安瓜河谷一处受保护国家公园与邻近狩猎区域之间的源汇动态（source-sink dynamics）——构建了随机种群预测模型，并对不同猎捕方案进行评估。所有持续猎捕策略在25年周期内均导致种群数量下降，当配额超过1头狮子/特许狩猎区（约0.5头狮子/1000平方公里）或猎捕7岁以下雄性狮子时，种群数量会出现大幅下降。结合种群恢复期、年龄限制≥7岁以及最大配额约0.5头狮子/1000平方公里的猎捕方案，其局部灭绝（extirpation）风险低于10%。本研究纳入了人类侵占、偷猎与猎物枯竭对存活率的影响，但假设这些问题不会加剧——而这一假设并不现实。研究结果表明，需通过多法规组合对狮子战利品狩猎实施审慎管控。为在维持狩猎区域保护经费的同时实现可持续战利品狩猎，研究结果提示，由于供给减少，狩猎费用应相应上调。上述研究结果可广泛推广至全非洲受猎捕的狮子种群，也可为全球保护被开发食肉动物种群的工作提供参考。