Would a Camera Have Saved Cecil the Lion? | Big Think

I was the only Kenyon to start a photographic safari, and I said I will shoot with a camera, not with a gun. I'd rather the click of a camera than a bullet going in, and my pictures would stay with me forever. Of course, when I started that, we were nothing. The big game hunting safaris had made all the money, and of course, in all these things, you got to look at most things; they always go back to money.

Today, look what we've done. Kenya banned hunting completely in 1977, all right? Because photography, really led by myself, was gaining. And so what damage did it do to Kenya? Nothing, all right? So you hear these great conservationists say, "Oh my goodness, if you take it away, these big blocks of land, who's going to police them? They're going to, you know, they'll all be poached." Didn't happen.

Then Botswana has just canceled it. Has it been a problem? Didn't happen because they have a very high level, a high yield, low impact of photographic safari to make this successful and sustainable. The community, the local communities around where the wildlife lives, they have to be rewarded. Big game hunting, everyone always quotes, "Oh we make so much money, you know we got this." Where's the money go? I don't see it going to the local community. It goes to professional hunters, to the government who gives the lease of the land. But what about the people who live there? What do they get? Nothing.

And so what I did with my gorillas in Uganda, you know, we habituated the gorillas. I built Bendy. I got, I persuaded President Mivano to make it into a national park. Today, our gorillas, we've now habituated eight troops. License fees alone come to the local people. Our company alone brings $1 million a year in license fees.

Do you think we've lost any gorillas in 25 years? No. Do you think we lost lots before? Masses were killed, and their babies were transported to zoos. And so you have to reward the community. By the way, that one idea of my Highland gorilla, mountain gorilla, they represent today, in the whole world, half of the gorillas left in the world through my one idea. We have 360 gorillas there, and there are no more than 800 miny gorillas left in the world when I was born.

Make it that simple. There were, say, 20 million elephants alive. Today, there are 500,000 elephants alive. Rhinos, there were 500,000 alive when I was born. We're now down to just 5,000 black rhinos left and 20,000 white rhinos. Elephants are being killed at the rate of one every four minutes. Rhinos are being killed at the rate of one a day.

People actually morally cannot go out killing animals which are going to become extinct, and they will become extinct. The rhino has 10 years maximum at this rate; elephants, 15 years; and the lion too. I mean, we're down to 40,000. And so how can you actually shoot a lion? Let alone, I mean the CES one is appalling because it had a collar around its neck. It was in Hwange National Park, it was lured out, I'm told, by meat.

But it had a collar around its neck, so I can a professional hunter with a scope on his rifle shoot this? It was like shooting a dog. These people should convert all those lands to photography. They should have all the excitement of a high yield, low impact trip. Bring them out, bring them in camps, take them on night drives, take them on walking safaris, but at the final moment, stalk animals. But at the last minute, shoot with a camera. [Music]