“Most information on trophy hunting in Africa is contained in unpublished grey literature.”

Most information on African trophy hunting occurs in unpublished grey literature, and discussion of hunting in the popular media is sometimes emotive.

However, with the exception of the lion bone trade, published information on these practices to evaluate their importance to lion conservation are fragmented, frequently anecdotal and/or in ‘grey’ literature sources.

This polarisation seems to be exacerbated by a lack of reliable data on the impact of trophy hunting on wildlife species, given that most information on African trophy hunting occurs in unpublished grey literature (Lindsey et al., 2007c), and framing of trophy hunting issues in the mass media and social media platforms seem to be emotive and lacks parity (Gandiwa et al., 2014; Sorensen, 2015).

Determining the effects of international trophy hunting on species—with regard to either killing animals or conserving them through hunting revenue—can be challenging for several reasons, namely due to lack of data, according to scientists. … Many scientific studies on trophy hunting's effects on wildlife populations contain disclaimers of insufficient data to measure the effect of hunting on a species.

Most scientific articles, reports, and written documents on trophy hunting issues in Zimbabwe are either old or outdated for a fluid and dynamic landscape of wildlife conservation. … Considering the lack of studies on trophy International Journal of Biodiversity hunting in Zimbabwe, it is difficult to ascertain the current state of private hunting areas after the land reform and distribution.

The persistence of large African herbivores in trophy hunting areas is still unclear because of a lack of data from long-term wildlife monitoring outside national parks.

Despite these observations, there are few studies reporting on the decline of trophy size in hunting destinations in southern Africa, e.g., Zambia [54], northwest Zimbabwe [55], and South Africa [56, 57].

A lot of literature exists on trophy hunting worldwide. However, it is pertinent to point out from the onset that, in as much as there are a lot of peer reviewed articles on the topic, there is also a significant amount of gray literature on the subject matter as alluded to earlier on.

In this study, we compile information on various ecological and socioeconomic characteristics of trophy hunting of mammals for countries across Asia by reviewing published and unpublished literature, analysing trade data, and obtaining contributions from in-country contacts. … Our literature search and refinement process yielded a total of 73 pieces of published and unpublished literature related to trophy hunting in Asia between 1998 and 2020.

Although research into the diversity of African views on trophy hunting is limited [5,7,14], people living in several rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa perceive community-led trophy hunting to be an acceptable component of wildlife management and an important source of economic benefits [24,29,37–39].

This polarisationseems tobe exacerbatedby a lack of reliable data on the impact of trophy hunting on wildlife species, given thatmost information on African trophy hunting occursin unpublished grey literature (Lindseyet al., 2007c),and framing of trophy hunting issues in the mass mediaand social media platforms seem to be emotive andlacks parity (Gandiwaet al., 2014; Sorensen, 2015).

Although the debate attracts considerable media attention, there is still limited literature on the relationship of trophy hunting and conservation, especially in South African context.

Despite its extended history and crucial academic impact, research on trophy hunting or recreational hunting tourism has been partial. The fact that the subject matter encompasses multiple disciplines, such as wildlife biology, tourism studies, conservation and sustainability science and rural economics, makes it difficult to understand the scope of contributions and academic advances. … This exclusion criterion ensured that the focus remained on peer-reviewed, original research contributions, thereby enhancing the academic rigour and comparability of the dataset for bibliometric analysis. Book chapters, conference proceedings, letters and notes often lack the same level of peer review or represent preliminary findings, and their inclusion could skew the analysis of established academic trends and impactful research.

Data was extracted from two different sources for the year 2018. These sources were trade data reported under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and its Trade Database on the export of trophy items from South Africa, which is compared with the South African Professional Hunting statistics (SAPHs) containing trophy kills information for each species and the country of origin of the hunter.

Internet sources, published cases and grey literature, books and official reports were first examined between April 2018 and May 2019.

Most scientific articles, reports, and written documents on trophy hunting issues in Zimbabwe are either old or outdated for a fluid and dynamic landscape of wildlife conservation.

Most information on African trophy hunting occurs in unpublished grey literature, and discussion of hunting in the popular media is sometimes emotive and unbalanced.

This article employs a documentary review approach by reviewing and analyzing published articles, unpublished research, government and non-government organizations reports, books, online resources, newspaper clippings, articles, websites, documentaries, local and international policies, and social media where 46 library and online resources, and 34 newspapers clippings were reviewed.

Unfortunately, little credible research had been done to understand the global trophy industry’s extent and impact.