Whether we like it or not males are basically expendible. After you have done the business and fertilised sufficient females, or the same female enough times, then, from a perpetuation of the species perspective, your role on this earth is done. Thus it is that recent research by lion researcher Craig Packer of University of Minnesota has found that allowing unlimited trophy hunting of male lions aged five and older has no impact on lion population sustainability.

The first question that springs to mind is how you tell how old a lion is but this is, apparently, quite easy. The colour of the lions nose darkens with age and if a lion's nose tip is more than 50 percent black, the lion is probably at least 5 years old, the researchers said.

The Green Man is firmly of the opinion that men who find it necessary to go out shooting big things are saying more about their insecurities than their manliness. Never the less he grudgingly acknowledges that managed trophy hunting is probably the most effective way of ensuring the survival of wild lions. This is, in part, because economic benefits to the local communities mean that they protect and support the lions, hunters pay up to $100,000 for a safari. Additionally managed hunting reduces the uncontrolled illegal trophy hunting where hunters often take any lion that they encounter.

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