Killing for Conservation Recently, “poaching” has been put in a harsh light. With the killing of Cecil the lion in July, animal rights activists have been fighting to end big-game hunting. Walter Palmer, a Minnesota dentist, came under fire for illegally baiting and killing Cecil. Although done illegally, what Palmer did was technically not poaching. Poaching means "entering, especially into someone else's hunting reserve, to steal animals or to hunt" ("poaching"). Palmer played a common sport called “trophy hunting.” Trophy hunting is the killing of animals for a “trophy” such as a horn or head. While brutally killing endangered animals as a pleasure activity sounds horrible, it is not as bad as it might seem. African safaris are difficult to find in countries with minimal scenic drives and low density of wildlife. However, trophy hunting generates revenue regardless of whether the country is visually attractive or not. This opens up a number of jobs for residents who are forced to find ways other than tourism to earn a living. Trophy hunting can be found not only in countries where tourism is lacking, but also in countries experiencing political instability. For example, in Zimbabwe, where political instability was the cause of a 75% decline in the tourism sector, the trophy hunting sector lost only 12% of revenues. The low decline in revenue leads one to assume that political instability is little obstacle for trophy hunters to generate money in a country that has lost much of its ecotourism business (“Potential”). Conservation efforts by trophy hunters have proven successful. Lion harvest in Tanzania fell by 50 percent between 1996 and 2008, and areas with the largest trophy hunting industry saw the largest declines. In 1977 hunting was banned in Kenya. Instead of increasing the endangered herds as initially hoped, wildlife populations outside the parks have plummeted, declining by at least 60% (“Potential”). Thus, the lack of hunting has actually negatively affected wild populations, demonstrating that trophy hunting is essential for the conservation of endangered big game (Packer et al.