GILGIT – As trophy hunting season continues in the country’s northernmost territory, a US citizen has hunted down the first Markhor of the current year.
The permit to hunt the wild goat, which is listed on the IUCN Red List as near threatened, was sold for about Rs20 million.
Reports in local media quoting Wild Life officials said the very first shooting of the year of Markhor was done by an American citizen named Michael Joseph. The hunted goat was around 9-year-old and was 43 inches tall.
Local communities are receiving more financial benefits in return for facilitating the legal hunt of the four-legged animal found in the mountains of Pakistan and neighboring mountainous regions.
The trophy hunting programme starts every year in November and ends in April. Foreign and local hunters hunt the trophies in GB conservation areas after getting licenses. The income accrued from the permit fee is used for the collective development by the village conservation committees.
Another video of outlawed bear-baiting emerged online amid calls to protect Pakistan’s wildlife
The hunting programme started back in the 1980s and is carried out under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wildlife.
Meanwhile, the number of endangered species decreased over the last two years and the National Park is home to around 2,000 animals amid the ban of hunting without permits.
