Purpose

This paper explores the life cycle of a captive bred lion in South Africa, focusing on the distinction between captive bred and wild individuals. Lions are bred in captive breeding facilities across the country to provide cubs and teenagers for ecotourism, and following this, hunting “trophies.” A distinction is made between the “wild” and “captive” lion, a categorization that I argue legitimizes violent and unethical treatment toward those bred specifically to be cuddled and killed. This analysis explores how the lion is remade or modified from wild to commodity and the repercussions this has had throughout the wildlife security assemblage.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on ethnographic research carried out in South Africa during 2016 that involved conducting informal and semi-structured interviews with activists, breeders, wildlife security personnel and conservationists drawing out the interspecies relations that influenced the encounters between humans and wildlife.

Findings

Dominant conservation narratives continue to understand and interpret wildlife solely as a commodity or profitable resource, which has led to the normalization of unethical and cruel practices that implicate wildlife in their own security and sustenance through their role in ecotourism, hunting and more recently, the lion bone trade. Captive bred lions are treated as products that undergo a series of translations through which they are exposed to violence and exploitation operationalized through practices linked to conservation and ecotourism.

Originality/value

Through posthuman thinking, this paper contributes to debates on the interspecies dimensions of politics through challenging the dominant assumptions that govern conservation and the interspecies encounter.

中文翻译：

---

拥抱，杀死，保存：南非野生动植物安全组织中对非洲狮子的后人类分析

目的

本文探讨了南非圈养狮子的生命周期，着眼于圈养品种与野生个体之间的区别。狮子在全国各地的圈养繁殖场饲养，为幼崽和青少年提供生态旅游，并在此之后猎取“奖杯”。在“野生”和“圈养”狮子之间有区别，我认为这种分类将暴力和不道德对待合法化，专门针对那些被抚养和杀害的狮子。该分析探讨了如何将狮子从野生动物改造或改造为商品，以及狮子在整个野生动植物安全活动中所产生的影响。

设计/方法/方法

该论文基于2016年在南非进行的人种学研究，涉及对活动家，育种者，野生动植物安全人员和保护主义者进行非正式和半结构化访谈，以得出影响人类与野生动植物相遇的种间关系。

发现

占主导地位的保护叙事继续将野生生物仅仅理解为商品或可获利的资源，并将其解释为不道德和残酷的做法，这使野生动植物通过其在生态旅游，狩猎以及最近在狮子中的作用而牵涉到自身的安全和寄托。骨贸易。圈养狮子被视作经过一系列翻译的产品，通过暴露于暴力和剥削之下，这些狮子通过与保护和生态旅游有关的实践进行操作。

创意/价值

通过后人类的思考，本文通过挑战支配保护和种间遭遇的主要假设，为政治种间维度的辩论做出了贡献。