Caracal on bird hunt

[300H&H]

this was clearly not shot in the Kruger, and the post is under vermin shooting.
in fact it was taken in the Petrus Steyn area, a well known sheep farming and jaracal invested area.

[BigT]

But hunters arent just about killing...?

[driepootx]

GameFarmer, it is not at all clear of the original post that the caracal was shot on or near a livestock farm or small holding, so it can be deemed a problem animal or pest control or whatever.

Okay as I'm writing this, I see it is posted under Vermin Hunting, so I'll assume it was shot as such. My apologies.

The nearest sheep were only 3 to 400 meters from where it was shot.

Vermin control has taken place on this farm in the past.

[300H&H]

But hunters arent just about killing...?

mostly it is.
remember vermin shooting/control is not hunting.

are we still in the vermin section of this forum?

[FrankH]

But hunters arent just about killing...?

Good thing youre a vegiterian T .........

[300H&H]

driepoot, do you know if the shooter received anything as a thankyou/reward from the farmer?

[Black-ops]

Does it mean that the following argument is correct than:

If all predators (jackals, caracal, cheetah, leopard and lion) are killed/exterminated in the nearby vicinity of all kinds of animal/game farming. Would this mean prices of animals hunted, (farmed for commercial meat) would come down as there will be no loss to predators, plus there will be so much more animals to be seen on game farms more to shoot, over supply.

Is there a balance of some predators is good or is it a case of all must be exterminated no matter what?

Nothing better sitting around a campfire at night listening to jackals call.

[LukeS]

It means that one day our kids will no longer be able to hear a jackal, see a leopard or cheetah when out in the bush.....dont worry though meat will be plentiful and cheap so that makes it worthwhile!

[300H&H]

b-ops your argument seems correct in theory. in practice such a scenario will never exist. at the moment 5000 cases of predation occur per night in s-Africa on commercial game and livestock farms. there are 500 000 breeding pairs of jackal outside the national parks( ie on farms) in the country.

yes there are predators with bad habits such as the caracal and the black backed jackal. then there are the good kind such as the bat eared fox. so you must be very discriminating when you kill predators. for this reason there is no better way than the calling and shooting method. this method allows you to id the predator, and thus allowing you to shoot or pass. the only downside to this is that it is expensive. a friend of mine had to pay a R12 000 to a problem animal controller, for a weeks killing(2010). however he told me he has plenty of impala and springbok lambs this year where he had none last year.

[LukeS]

at the moment 5000 cases of predation occur per night in s-Africa on commercial game and livestock farms. there are 500 000 breeding pairs of jackal outside the national parks( ie on farms) in the country.

Please post a reference for these numbers. I work in Nature conservation and have never seen a decent reference to these numbers you quote. These numbers are all just speculation by farmers.