American hunters imported over 700 000 hunting trophies into the United States over a recent five-year period. Trophies include skulls, mounts, teeth, skins and whole animals.
According to data from the US Fish and Wildlife Service obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity, from 2016 through 2020 hunting trophies, largely of exotic animals, such as giraffes, rhinos and zebras, were imported to the United States with imports only declining after the onset of the Pandemic.
“The vast volume of hunting trophies pouring into the United States represents a massive exploitation of wildlife during a global extinction crisis,” said Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center.
“Giraffes, rhinos and other imperiled animals are gunned down for trophies, along with animals from wallabies, zebras and porcupines to birds and lizards. The Biden administration should take a hard look at how green-lighting trophy imports contributes to the biodiversity emergency,” Sanerib said in a press release.
READ THE LATEST SIMPLY GREEN MAG HERE
“While most people in the United States were on lockdown, with many living pay check to pay check, elite trophy hunters were still jet-setting around to kill wildlife for skins, skulls, mounts, bones, wings, teeth and feet,” said Sanerib.
According to the Humane Society International (HSI), the U.S. is the largest importer of hunting trophies, bringing in roughly 345 trophies per day. Conservationists hope the eye-opening data will spur the U.S. government to enact stronger conservation measures.
According to HSI, South Africa is listed as the world’s second-largest exporter of hunting trophies (after Canada), with most going to the US, followed by Spain, Russia and Denmark.
Latest hunting quotas for 2022 released by the South African Department of the Environment included 10 critically endangered black rhino, 150 endangered elephants and 10 leopards, listed as vulnerable and with no known population estimates to back the allocation. Most of these trophies will go to American hunters.