The boom in wildlife prices that South Africa experienced between 2011 and 2014 – driven mainly by the growth in trophy hunting – is dwindling as an aftershock of one of the country’s worst droughts since records began in 1904.
One of the knock-on effects has been the value of wildlife – the average price of a buffalo bull fell by 71% to ZAR95 704 last year, which is a fraction of the record ZAR2.1 million set in 2013. Prices of golden wildebeest bulls also dropped by 61%, black impala rams by 78% and kudu by 64%.
According to a Moneyweb report, prices are also being affected by the expanded supply of farmed wildlife. After witnessing a rise in prices, many cattle farmers converted to game between 2012 and 2014, temporarily pushing up demand for breeding stock before some were forced to sell during the drought, says Peet van der Merwe, professor of wildlife and tourism at South Africa’s North West University.
