Websites & References – Cruelty-free Optics

Most of the information on this website has been taken directly or adapted from three Ethical Consumer reports:

Shooting Wildlife? Who makes your binoculars, cameras and spotting scopes?
A Report by Ethical Consumer Research Association (ECRA), January 2016

Shooting Wildlife II: Who makes your binoculars, spotting scopes and optics?
An updated report by Ethical Consumer Research Association (ECRA), January 2018

Shooting Wildlife III: Who makes your binoculars, spotting scopes and optics?
An updated report by Ethical Consumer Research Association (ECRA), December 2020

Other information may have been sourced independently; a full list of resources and references are available below. All information on this website was correct as of 2020, with the publication of the most recent Ethical Consumer report.

Sports Optics companies reviewed by Ethical Consumer (2016, 2018, 2020)

Attitudes to hunting and sport hunting ethics, by Ethical Consumer

Bateson, P. and Harris, R. (2000) Report of contract 7 on welfare to the Committee of Inquiry into hunting with dogs.

Byrd, E. et al, Perceptions of Hunting and Hunters by U.S. Animals (2017), www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/7/11/83/htm 2017.

Grandy, et al, (2003) The science and sociology of hunting: Shifting practices and perceptions in the United States and Great Britain. Culture & Animals Foundation, viewed 18/9/2015, http://www.cultureandanimals.org/pop1.html.

Loveridge, et al “Does sport hunting benefit conservation.” Key topics in conservation biology 1 (2007): 222.

Vucetich, et al (2017) Evaluating the principles of wildlife conservation: a case study of wolf (Canis lupus) hunting in Michigan, United States, American Society of Mammalogists.

www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/attitudes-hunting-2016.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fox-hunting-poll-reveals-74-6066347.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/29/deluge-farmers-flood-grouse-moor-drain-land.

www.theguardian.com/environment/cecil-the-lion.

What are the impacts of hunting? A review. By Ethical Consumer (2018)

A League Against Cruel Sports (ALACS) submission to Environment Minister, Elliot Morley MP, (2004), The Myth of Trophy Hunting as Conservation: http://www.league.org.uk/~/media/Files/LACS/Reference-material/League-Against-Cruel-Sports-2004-The-Myth-of-Trophy-Hunting-as-Conservation.pdf.

Buckley, Ralf. “Mixed signals from hunting rare wildlife”, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 12.6 (2014): 321-322.

Chapin, M. 2004. A challenge to conservationists, World Watch 17(6): 17-31 www.worldwatch.org/system/files/EP176A.pdf.

Chapron, G., Treves, A., ‘Blood Does Not Buy Goodwill: Allowing Culling Increases Poaching of a Large Carnivore’, (2016) 283:1830 Proceedings of the Royal Society B redwolves.com/wp/wpcontent/uploads/2016/05/wolf_culling.pdf.

Coltman, D. W., O’Donoghue, P., Jorgenson, J. T., & Hogg, J. T. (2003). Undesirable evolutionary consequences of trophy hunting. Nature, 426(6967), 655.

Cooper, et al (2015). Are wildlife recreationists conservationists? Linking hunting, birdwatching, and pro-environmental behavior. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 79(3), 446-457.

Cooper, S. M. “Optimal hunting group size: the need for lions to defend their kills against loss to spotted hyaenas.” African Journal of Ecology 29.2 (1991): 130-136.

Dellinger, M., (2016) “Trophy Hunting Contracts: Unenforceable for Reasons of Public Policy.” Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, Vol 41.

Economists at Large, 2013. The $200 million question: How much does trophy hunting really contribute to African communities? A report for the African Lion Coalition, prepared by Economists at Large, Melbourne, Australia.

Epstein, Y., (2017) Killing Wolves to Save Them? Legal Responses to ‘Tolerance Hunting’ in the European Union and United States, Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/reel.12188/full.

Gordon et al (2004) Review: the management of wild large herbivores to meet economic, conservation and environmental objectives. Journal of Applied Ecology 41.6.

Harris et al (2002) Genetic consequences of hunting: what do we know and what should we do? Wildlife Society Bulletin, 634-643.

Harrison et al (2016) Impacts of hunting on tropical forests in Southeast Asia. Conservation biology.

Hogberg et al (2015) Changes in attitudes toward wolves before and after an inaugural public hunting and trapping season: early evidence from Wisconsin’s wolf range, Environmental Conservation.

Holsman (2000) “Goodwill hunting.” Exploring the role of hunters as ecosystem stewards. Wildlife Soc B 28.4.

Kirby et al (2008) Key conservation issues for migratory land-and waterbird species on the world’s major flyways. Bird Conservation International 18, no. 1.

Leader-Williams, N. (2009) Conservation and Hunting: Friends or Foes?. Recreational Hunting, Conservation and Rural Livelihoods (9).

Leclerc, M., et al (2017) Hunting promotes spatial reorganization and sexually selected infanticide, Science Reports (7).

Lindsey et al (2007) Economic and conservation significance of the trophy hunting industry in sub-Saharan Africa. Biological conservation 134.4: 455-469.

Lindsey et al (2007) Trophy hunting and conservation in Africa: problems and one potential solution. Conservation biology, 21(3), 880-883.

Lopez et al (2017) The impact of hunting on tropical mammal and bird populations. Science 356:180–183

Lute, M., & Shahzeen, A., (2017) Public preferences for species conservation: choosing between lethal control, habitat protection and no action. Environmental Conservation 44.2 : 139-147.

Maiorano, L. et al (2015) Modelling the distribution of Apennine brown bears during hyperphagia to reduce the impact of wild boar hunting. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 61:2, 241-253.

McComb et al (2001) Matriarchs as repositories of social knowledge in African elephants. Science, 292(5516).

Milner et al (2007) Demographic side effects of selective hunting in ungulates and carnivores. Conservation Biology 21.1: 36-47.

Muposhi et al (2016) Trophy Hunting and Sustainability: Temporal Dynamics in Trophy Quality and Harvesting Patterns of Wild Herbivores in a Tropical Semi-Arid Savanna Ecosystem, PLoS, 11(10).

Muposhi et al (2017) Ecological, physiological, genetic trade-offs and socio-economic implications of trophy hunting as a conservation tool: a narrative review. JAPS, Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences 27, no. 1: 1-14.

Noyes et al (1996) Effects of bull age on conception dates and pregnancy rates of cow elk. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 508-517.

Oldfield et al (2003) Field sports and conservation in the United Kingdom. Nature, 423(6939), 531-533.

Ordiz et al (2012) Do bears know they are being hunted? Biological Conservation, 152, 21-28.

Pusey, A. E., & Packer, C. (1994) Infanticide in lions: consequences and counterstrategies. Infanticide and parental care, 277-299.

Ripple et al (2016) Bushmeat hunting and extinction risk to the world’s animals, Royal Society Open Science, 3 (10).

Slotow et al (2000) Older bull elephants control young males. Nature, 408(6811), 425-426.

Smith et al (2003) Governance and the loss of biodiversity. Nature, 426(6962), 67-70.

Solberg et al (2002) Biased adult sex ratio can affect fecundity in primiparous moose Alces alces. Wildlife Biology.

Swenson et al Infanticide caused by hunting of male bears, Nature 386: 450-451.

Whitman et al (2004) Sustainable trophy hunting of African lions. Nature, 428, 697 p.175-178.

Wielgusa & Bunnell (2000) Possible negative effects of adult male mortality on female grizzly bear reproduction. Biological Conservation.

Yasuda, A. (2012) Is sport hunting a breakthrough wildlife conservation strategy for Africa?. A case study of northern Cameroon. Field Actions Science Reports. The Journal of Field Actions (6).

Additional sources

BirdLife International, The Killing Crisis
https://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/news/killing-crisis

BirdLife International, The Killing report
https://www.birdlife.org/sites/default/files/attachments/01-28_low.pdf

Bird Hunting in Malta, the Annual Slaughter, Responsible Travel https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/malta/travel-guide/malta-bird-hunting

BirdLife Malta Hunting
https://birdlifemalta.org/information/hunting/

BirdLife Malta Wildlife Crime https://birdlifemalta.org/conservation/wildlife-crime/

Bicknell et al, Impacts of non-native gamebird release in the UK: a review RSPB Research Report Number 40 (2010) http://robyorke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/gamebird-release.pdf

Murgatroyd, M., Redpath, S.M., Murphy, S.G. et al Patterns of satellite tagged hen harrier disappearances suggest widespread illegal killing on British grouse moors. Nat Commun 10, 1094 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09044-w

National Wildlife Crime Unit https://www.nwcu.police.uk/how-do-we-prioritise/priorities/raptor-persecution/

Raptor Persecution UK https://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/

The Birdcrime Report, RSPB https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/wildlife-and-the-law/wild-bird-crime/the-birdcrime-report/

Terminology

In line with Ethical Consumer (2020), this website uses the following definitions:

SPORT HUNTING: hunting undertaken for leisure, irrelevant of whether the animal is eaten. Trophy, driven, and ‘big-game’ hunts are all considered to be forms of sport hunting in this report.

TROPHY: when an animal is hunted and the whole animal or part of the animal is kept and usually displayed, irrelevant of whether the rest of the animal was eaten. Animals hunted as trophies are usually the biggest in body size or the most ornate, meaning that they are often male. For this report, trophy animals are considered to be those which had large antlers, horns, ivory tusks, or which were ornate in another way (e.g. male lion with large mane, or an animal with an unusual coloured skin or coat). Traditional examples of trophy animals include: elk, whitetail deer, bighorn
sheep, caribou, moose, black bear, mountain lion, roebuck, buffalo, bears, male lions, elephants and rhinoceros.

DRIVEN HUNT: ‘game’ animals (such as boar, red deer and a range of birds), are encouraged to move towards stationary hunters by an organised team of ‘beaters’ and dogs.

‘BIG GAME’ HUNTING: the hunting of large animals for a range of purposes, including for meat, a ‘trophy’, sport and other animal by-products such as horns and antlers. ‘Big game’ animals include elephant, buffalo, lion, rhinoceros, kudu, antelope, moose, elk, whitetail deer and bear.