A bioeconomic model of trophy hunting

Abstract

During the last few decades wildlife trophy hunting has increasingly replaced traditional meat hunting. The economics of trophy hunting is analyzed with the Scandinavian moose ( Alces alces) serving as an example. A four-stage model (calf, yearlings, adult female and adult male) is formulated. The calves, yearlings, and females are hunted for meat, while the males are hunted for trophies and where the demand for trophy hunting depends on price and quality. We find that trophy hunting boosts the male population and yields a high ratio of males to females. The main reason for this result is that we consider a management scheme with well defined property rights and not of the ‘open-access’ type, and where the key mechanism is the quality demand effect in trophy hunting. In an extended model where ecological theory of animal adoption to hunting is assumed to influence the biology through fertility we still find that trophy hunting boosts the male stock.