The Wild Life
Observations
and Reflections on Africa's Wildlife
VIII
- Lion
While I was at Gras
a lion crossed over into Namibia from Botswana, possibly from Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, or from anywhere in the Kalahari.
Had he headed north or east, he would surely have starved in the desert, slowly and painfully, until he was torn to pieces
by his old enemies, the hyenas. Instead, he came west, into Namibia, willing to risk the proximity of humankind (however sparse)
for the easy prey on their sheep ranches, and he was leaving bits of lamb carcass in his wake. Almost certainly an older male with an increasingly diminished ability to hunt, exiled by his own
sons and cousins, he was now a rogue lion, a classic problem animal, and a danger to every man, woman, child and animal who
crossed his path.
He was,
quite literally, fair game, and I was offered the opportunity to shoot him.
Nature writing is full of stories like this. In the Disney version, the hunter changes his
mind at the very last moment, has a kind of ad hoc, ersatz, spiritual awakening, and works instead to save the lion’s
life. He puts out a call for help and a team of scientists, environmentalists and concerned citizens comes to aid in the rescue.
They gently put the Old King to sleep with a mild anesthetic and transport him to a new home in some faraway place where he
lives out his years in peace and comfort. In time, he becomes a tame, loving member of the family and the subject of a made-for-TV
movie.
Disney loves a fairytale.
I outgrew them long ago and besides that, I prefer wild-lands to Disneyland – they’re better for the planet, and
much better for those who frequent them. “Bambi” and “The Lion King” have about as much to do with
real life and real lions as Walt Disney has to Frederick Courteney Selous. We may each choose our interests, but let us not
kid ourselves about what is real and what is entertainment, or about what is natural and what is artificial; at least those
of us who can still make such distinctions. Many can’t.
In the past, this lion was just a threat. One of the ranchers would have hunted him down and killed him,
that he and his family might once again sleep in peace. That still happens more often than not. It’s hard enough to
make it ranching cattle or sheep or wild game without giving a share to a worn-out (and very dangerous) old lion, however
magnificent his age and experience have made him. About 20 lions are shot each year after leaving Kgalagadi, where the lion
population is healthy, genetically diverse, and would otherwise exceed its carrying capacity anyway.
Now, as the survival of wild places and wild things is
increasingly understood as being substantially dependent upon their economic value; and the wildlife itself is viewed more
and more as a renewable resource; the only rational (and, in fact, holistic) solution is to put a price on it. Wildlife then
becomes not so much a problem as an opportunity and this lion is no longer a liability, he is an asset. More importantly,
we will have begun again to accept the inevitability of death, the value of life, and the cost of both in the true nature
of things. A small beginning to be sure, but a critical and necessary one.
Many in the environmental community shudder at the idea of placing an economic value on any
wildlife, let alone a beast as resplendent as this Old King. Non-profit conservation organizations in particular oppose an
interrelationship between nature and money. Regarding the wildlife (and themselves) as being far above the greedy and grimy
world of hard cash, they nevertheless expend much, if not most, of their efforts in fundraising activities.
Is charitable money raised from the sale of trinkets and
bumperstickers or gifted from the rich and powerful somehow cleaner or more respectable than those blood and sweat stained
dollars harvested from the very lands they will serve? Or is it the other way around?
And isn’t that the central issue in all environmentally sound thinking;
that we must be able to trace our own wealth of creature comforts, however grand or meager they are, and their whole cost,
back to the source, in all cases, ultimately, the earth and the things that grow upon it, – and that the private sector
can, and must – and the non-profits can’t – and see no reason to. In the very long view, if we are ever
to succeed in restoring the health of the environment and our place in it, we must have a culture and an economy that are
as transparently and organically tied to the land as Gras, the springbok … and this old lion.
The
Old King would make his own contribution to preserving the natural cycles of life and death with which he was so familiar.
After a lifetime of thinning out herds of springbok and gemsbok, posing naturally and disdainfully for the few photographic
tourists who make it that deeply into the Kalahari, and just plain enjoying life fully and freely, a noble creature in a spectacular
setting, he would give the last few months of his life to another predator - a trophy hunter. The price paid for his head,
hide and heart would be absorbed by the land and community almost as quickly as the red soil would soak up his blood, and
not a single stuffed animal or bumper-sticker would disgrace his memory. Nor would Disney make a killing.
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