BRYAN CHRISTY: The hunting
held out one place as the gold
standard for trophy hunting,
a place they say
big game hunting is
honest and killing saves lives.
I set my coordinates
for Southern Zimbabwe,
the same country where Cecil was
shot and killed not long ago.
According to a Safari
Club International study,
more than 18,000 hunters
from around the world
spend upwards of $325 million
on hunting in Africa yearly.
These are some of the most
iconic animals on the planet.
So seeing them shot
may be difficult for me
and more difficult is
likely to be hanging
around the actual people who
have chosen to bring tens
of thousands of dollars to
kill animals here and bring
them back as trophies.
I'm not sure how I'm
going to react to that.
And I'm not sure
how I feel about it.
Bubye Valley Conservancy is a
massive privately owned area.
They invited me to observe a
trophy hunt, where I would meet
their team to better
understand conservation
through the eyes of a hunter.
At Bubye Valley, trophy
hunters have a menu
of animals to choose from.
The price for a zebra
or a giraffe hunt
is approximately $8,000.
A cape buffalo
hunt runs $20,000.
A leopard hunt can cost
as much as $28,000,
and a lion hunt costs
$100,000 per cat.
It is because of this money
that outfits like Bubye Valley
claim they pay back into
a conservation system.
What are we looking for?
Came here primarily for cape
buffalo and eland and kudu.
What made you
choose those three?
And then I had just gotten out
of the Marine Corps, just about
33 years old, and
saw "Out of Africa"
and the big cape buffalo
herds that they had,
and I looked at those.
So it's been a long pursuit.
I mean, my god, half my life.
I'm finally here.
There are a lot of
lions in this area.
- OK.
- OK.
So you want to take a leak
or anything like that,
don't go wandering off.
You don't have
to warn me twice.
There's way too many.
We've offered to send 200
lions anywhere in the world.
You know, it's just
anybody who wants them.
That's amazing.
Maybe pay for transport.
We'll give them.
And there are no takers.
BRYAN CHRISTY: But BVC clearly
didn't do all they could
to find a home for the lions.
They gave an interview
for a British newspaper
and sent out a couple of emails.
But I can't conclude their
outreach was exhaustive.
Blondie Leathem, General
Manager of Bubye Valley,
thinks about conservation
in different terms-- land.
How much land do you have?
It's about 3,200
square kilometers.
So it's the size of maybe
Rhode Island in the United
States, a whole state.
Yeah.
That's right.
BRYAN CHRISTY: Before it
was a hunting Conservancy,
Bubye Valley was a cattle
ranch, and wildlife
was denied access to the land.
Ranching nearly pushed the
endemic animal populations
to the brink until
the Conservancy
came in and reintroduced
the native wildlife.
BLONDIE LEATHEM: About 10
years into the Conservancy,
we had enough
animals that we could
take-- the hunting
actually covered
all of the running costs.
Americans looking at this
and saying, you know what?
I'm against hunting.
Why should you be
permitted, in a world
where lions are diminishing,
to continue to hunt lions?
If we didn't hunt lion,
we wouldn't have lion.
You've got 850,000 acres
dedicated to wildlife, one
of the highest lion densities.
It is funded by hunting.
You take away the hunting,
there is no alternative way of
funding an operation this size.
It would have to
revert back to cattle.
Then it will be more
vulnerable for resettlement.
So it's a no-brainer.
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