Paper short abstract:

"Green hunts" involve non-lethal capture of big game using tranquilizer darts for veterinary, wildlife management, or research purposes. Marketed as unique, ennobling forms of wildlife encounter, they are implicated in South African land enclosures and thus mark a problematic capitalist frontier.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation explores a series of fundamental structural changes within the global trophy hunting industry. Specifically, it analyzes an attempt to situate hunting as a new frontier in the realm of green capitalism. A distinctive hunting market niche in South Africa known as "green hunting" illustrates the case. "Green hunts" (or "darting safaris") involve the non-lethal capture of big game, typically through the use of tranquilizer darts, for veterinary, wildlife management, or research purposes. Trophies acquired through green hunts are recorded and memorialized either photographically, or through use of plaster and fiberglass castings of horns, tusks, and other features. Since these hunts are conducted using non-lethal means, they potentially appeal to new classes of consumers seeking unique encounters with wildlife. At the same time, however, they are often marketed alongside traditional safaris by hunting operators. This begs the question of how to interpret this latest innovation in an increasingly diverse global hunting market.