Face Up or Step Out!

This magnificent Bongo provided much-needed protein to the five Baka trackers’ families and a lifetime of memories to this proud hunter. 

By Ricardo Leone

Attention all hunters, PHs, guides, outfitters, and magazine editors – STOP posting and publishing photos with the hunter’s face blurred or blacked out! Basic logic says that if you are trying to hide, you must be guilty. If you are guilty, then the rest of us hunters are guilty by association. I am a proud hunter, and I personally reject the notion that I am guilty of anything. In fact, I am a proud conservationist who takes great pride in knowing the money I pay for my hunts pays for conservation.

In the US, where I live, hunters and anglers pay 75% of all conservation. Smart federal legislation like the Pittman Robertson Act, the Dingell-Johnson Act, the Federal and State hunting and waterfowl stamps, and license fees collect billions of dollars each year exclusively for conservation. This funding, combined with science-based methodologies for quota leads to optimal wildlife management.

In Africa, our dollars also support smart conservation. We all know what happens when hunting is closed and conservation dollars stop flowing. I recall back in 2012, when I hunted in the Lower Lupande, a world-renowned Game Management Area in Zambia’s South Luangwa Valley. The animals were plentiful, hunting helped provide jobs and protein to the local villages, and poaching was well controlled. In 2013, new elections led to hunting being closed for three years. I returned to the same hunting concession in 2016 when hunting reopened. The concession was almost unrecognizable. What struck me most was the elephants that were truly spooked by any human sightings. It was clear that most game was terrorized for the three years when the outfitters were sent home and no longer responsible for the safekeeping of the land. I retuned again in 2019, and the concession felt more normalized. Keeping hunting open matters – most of all to the wildlife.

I totally understand why some people would not want their picture in the public domain. There was a time when I worked for a public company when I would not share my picture in articles. Now that I am retired, I proudly share my picture. If you do not want people to see your picture, then step out of the picture. By blurring or blacking out your face, you are demonizing all hunters. If you want to preserve your hunting rights, then find a way to stand proud either in front of the camera or behind it. There are enough antis out there, and you are helping their cause by looking guilty. Either stand proud with your face up or step out of the picture – period.