Lions Hunted to Save Rhinos in South African Circle of Life

[Omaha Steve]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/lions-hunted-save-rhinos-south-112208236.html

By Kevin Crowley and Tshepiso Mokhema
1 hour ago

When U.S. television host Melissa Bachman posted a photo on Facebook Inc. (FB) of herself smiling and holding a rifle above the head of a lion she had shot, the response was instant.

Users of the social network vilified Bachman, 30, who also killed a Nyala antelope last year on a trip to South Africa, as "evil," a "low-life" and a "disgusting excuse for a human being."

The hunting trip was part of South Africa's game-ranching industry, which is worth 12 billion rand ($1.1 billion) a year and growing at 10 percent annually, according to Barclays Africa Group Ltd. (BGA)

The industry is also responsible for boosting the country's large mammal population, a measure that excludes animals such as rodents, to 24 million, the most since the 19th century, and up from 575,000 in the early 1960s, Wouter van Hoven, an emeritus professor at the University of Pretoria, said in an interview last month. By contrast animal numbers in Kenya, which bans hunting, have plunged.

FULL story at link.