Reader Comments

Post a new comment on this article

Unsubstantiated conclusion

Posted by RCampbell on 24 Jun 2012 at 09:06 GMT

Temporary moratoria on lion hunting could be used to allow recoveries in areas where hunting is implicated in negative lion population trends. Lion populations recover quickly when the pressure of excessive harvests is removed. Consequently, over-hunting is likely to pose little threat to the long term persistence of lions so long as interventions are made to address excessive quotas where they occur.
http://plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0029332#article1.body1.sec4.sec6.p1

This paper is about a financial model of hunting area viability. It contains no insight into lion population dynamics and management. Why these statements are included in the conclusions of the paper are unclear. They seem to be the opinions of the authors, unsubstantiated by the content of this paper.

Competing interests declared: I was commissioned by the African Lion Coalition to review this article and have received payment for my services. The African Lion Coalition consists of several animal protection agencies including the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Humane Society International and Born Free.