a fatal celebrity

If the objective of every tourist who goes on a safari in Africa is to see, or better still, to photograph the "Big Five", in this case the trophy is judged by the quality of the photo, but there is no not always been so.

In the 19th century, the “Big Five” designated the 5 most difficult african animal species to kill by a white hunter; to bring the trophy (skin, ivory, stuffed head or whole animal, etc.) back to Europe or the USA. In 1935, Ernest Hemingway immortalized these hunts in The Green Hills of Africa and The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

For 70 years, until 1930, each year up to 100,000 elephants were slaughtered; populations of rhinos, lions, buffaloes and leopards are decimated; in danger of extinction.

From 1930 national parks where hunting is prohibited are created by the States, but the decline of these five species (and others) continues. It was not until 1973 that an international moratorium prohibited the hunting of the “Big Five”.

Very quickly, hunting was then replaced by poaching. The "Big Five" continue to be decimated on a large scale.

Often associated with local corruption, poaching is today the main threat to the future of many animal species in Africa.

For example, in 2018, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated that the highly profitable ivory trade killed more than 300,000 elephants over the past decade in Africa, driving down their numbers. 415,000 to 111,000.

So-called “sport” hunting is still practiced in private reserves. The right to kill a rhino can reach over $50,000.