I do admit that it’s sometimes hard for me to see the other side of the argument when it comes to trophy hunting. I’m talking about trophy hunters who claim to be conservationists because a portion of the cost of the hunt goes to preserve huge swaths of land for future generations. My issue is that it’s not future generations of people who love wildlife but rather future generations of people who love blowing the wildlife to bits.

I read two articles this weekend in National Geographic that filled me with both despair and hope.

I want to talk about hope first because sometimes good news assuages the pain of constantly reading about another species on the verge of extinction. The story - which I’m summarizing here - is about the return of the humback whales to the waters around Southern Africa.