10 August 2006Clifford Coonan
Visitors to China will be allowed to hunt an array of weird and wonderful wild animals, including endangered species, if they secure a hunting licence in an auction at the weekend.
Would-be hunters can bid to stalk their prey in the Shaanxi, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia and Xinjiang provinces in western China.
The only predator on the list is a wolf, and a licence to hunt man's oldest enemy is expected to sell for around £105. However, hunting a rare yak could cost £21,000.
"Some animals are from the first and second category of national wildlife protection, but with the strict limitations in place, the hunting could not destroy wild animal populations," a forestry official said.
A guide will ensure that no breeding females are killed, and the emphasis will be on hunting older prey. Gun laws in China mean only foreigners can bid for the licences.
Hunting is a popular pastime in China, where people will eat the animals they kill or sometimes use them in Chinese medicine. It is strictly controlled, leading to difficulties in areas such as the south-western Yunnan province, where people say wild elephants rampage over their crops and even kill, but locals are forbidden from hunting them.
The rules are particularly strict when it comes to rare species such as the country's national symbol, the giant panda. There are just 1,500 pandas left, most of them in nature reserves in south-western China. Anyone killing one faces jail.
The State Forestry Administration has imposed strict limits on the species and quantity of wildlife to be hunted and the hunting area. The licences will be auctioned on Sunday in Chengdu, capital of the south-western province of Sichuan.
"The auction will help the administration ascertain the market price of wildlife resources, and the legalisation of hunting licences will help curb illegal hunts," said the official.
But forestry officials and wildlife conservationists said that hunting did not mean widescale slaughter and the focus of the auction was on conserving rare species. In many parts of Tibet and Qinghai, nomads have disarmed illegal hunters. Last month, security officials and delegates to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Faunamet in Beijing and revealed that global illicit wildlife trade was now worth more than £6bn a year, making it the world's third-biggest source of criminal earnings after drugs and illegal arms trading.
Price list
Wolf £105
Wild yak £21,000
Argali (wild sheep) £5,000
Blue sheep £1,300
Red deer £3,140
