Abstract
Anthropomorphism – assigning human characteristics to nonhuman entities – plays an important role in trophy hunting, because the animals that are hunted for trophies are generally some of the most anthropomorphised animals with prominent and often highly anthropomorphized representation in movies. Deer are Bambis, lions are Simbas, elephants are Dumbos, etc. We argue that anthropomorphism is an important reason that trophy hunting is so disdained.
We introduce this subject in 7.1 by way of an examination of a giraffe called Marius, who was killed in Copenhagen Zoo in 2014. We use Marius to introduce a discussion of what makes some animals anthropomorphised and loved while others are hated. The various features of animals that research has shown elicit human empathy are covered and the strategies of zoos in using those features for their benefit are explored. We also consider what makes some stories about animals more likely to go viral than others, such as animal names.
We discuss what this all means and how it matters in a trophy hunting context in 7.2 and demonstrate that trophy hunted animals have many of the relevant features.
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Notes
- 1.
A parallel can be drawn here to the tension between photo tourism and hunting tourism. Photo tourism operators have a financial interest in anthropomorphizing animals and creating personal narratives about individuals. Stories about the famous lion Cecil are more engaging to the average safari tourist than stories about nameless populations of lions. Anthropomorphism is how many people relate to animals and try to understand them. Hunting tourism operators, on the other hand, have an interest in deemphasizing individuals and avoiding names. Trophy hunters want to shoot a nice lion specimen; they do not want to shoot one that they know has a name. Doing so would take away the wildness (or the pretence of wildness) of the hunt.
- 2.
Exceptions are occasionally made in Copenhagen Zoo for animals with very long lifespans such as elephants. These are never given human names, however, but names related to their geographical background (Maach 2014).
- 3.
The lesson learned, we suppose, should be that zookeepers even internally ought to only refer to the animals by numbers. It is however common for people who work with animals professionally or in science to name them informally, while referring to them by numbers officially. See e.g. Benson 2016 for historical examples. Cecil was also generally referred to as Cecil and not as MAGM1.
- 4.
The writings of the hunter Frederick Courtney Selous provide ample evidence as to why this attitude is a western attitude. The elephants Selous shot for ivory were avidly consumed by his hunting party (especially the fat, heart, and trunk meat) and his writings contain several references to shooting rhino primarily to feed his camp.
- 5.
What the American public might feel even less comfortable knowing is that apart from roadside zoos, other common recipients of large surplus mammals from zoos are hunting ranches (Scully 2002: 64). So instead of being used for educational purposes and fed to lions as Marius did, an American zoo giraffe may end up getting shot behind a fence in Texas.
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Bichel, N., Hart, A. (2023). Anthropomorphism and “Viralability”. In: Trophy Hunting. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9976-5_7
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