Hunting as old as man himself. However, for most people in the world today, the pursuit of game is no longer a matter of survival, but of pleasure. Hunters range from wealthy specialists who will cross the world in pursuit of big game to local kids, for whom here in the Kingdom, the lizard-hunting season, which is now well under way, is a chance for adventure and fun.

Those who deplore hunting, both in Saudi Arabia and around the world, are dismissed by the hunters as killjoys and sentimentalists. It is rightly pointed out that many of the people who oppose the sport are perfectly happy to eat meat that has been bred to be slaughtered humanely and brought to their kitchens, hygienically packaged and ready to cook. The suspicion has to be that those who reject the tracking and killing of wild animals share a general squeamishness.

However, the arguments of the anti-hunting lobby should not be dismissed out of hand, in the same way that the antis stridently dismiss the claims of hunters for their pastime.

They do have some good points. One is the issue of conservation. As cities expand and farming becomes ever more industrial, the range of habitat open to the wild animals around us becomes increasingly limited. Moreover, the techniques used by hunters to catch their prey continue to improve, to the extent that some purists argue that it is no longer a fair contest between the hunter and the hunted. Real hunters do not always expect to come back with a full game bag. Yet there is a large number of those who take part in the pursuit and catching of animals, who are prepared to use any means to ensure that they catch their prey.

The result is a huge bag of dead prey that is hugely depressing for any sensible person. Thus pictures published recently of pickup truck with so many dead dhab lizards in the back, it was right down on its rear springs, will understandably have caused despair. Mass-slaughter on this level is repugnant, not least because it was inconceivable that such massive pile of many hundreds of lizards could be destined for the pot, especially because the manner in which they had been collected guaranteed that they would not be fit to eat. Moreover, it may well be that the lizards were caught using a method that has become popular in recent years among unscrupulous hunters. They run hoses from their vehicle exhausts and stick them into dhab nesting holes, netting other exits, so as the creatures attempt to flee the poisonous fumes, they are easily trapped. Those dhabs that are poisoned inside are then dug out.

In this case the wild life protection authorities very properly acted and the driver and some of the hunters appear to have been arrested and will be prosecuted. Whatever fines that the court decides to impose are unlikely however to dissuade people from indulging in this carnage. A better option may be education.

The lesson, put simply is that if the wholesale destruction of wildlife in the Kingdom is allowed to continue at the present rate, entire species are likely to disappear or become so rare that they will be impossible to find. For someone walking amongst large areas with dhab holes, this may seem hard to believe. But as has been demonstrated with other animals around the world, the tipping point between apparent abundance and scarcity, leading to the extinction of a species, can arrive suddenly and devastatingly.

Biodiversity is crucial for a healthy and flourishing environment. The disappearance of one animal inevitably has an impact on the food chain, both those other creatures that feed on it and the creatures upon which it feeds. The effect on humans can be no less devastating. Flies, mosquitoes and other insects whose natural predators have been hunted to extinction will breed vigorously, producing a danger to human health, to say nothing to the annoyance and disturbance their considerable presence will cause. Likewise if the numbers of birds of prey and snakes are heavily reduced, rodents will flourish and eat farmers’ crops and invade homes in search of food and nesting places.

Therefore hunters bear a considerable responsibility. They help control the species that they pursue but at the same time they are protecting them. Indeed real hunters often harbor a considerable respect and affection for their quarry. For them slaughter on the scale of that truckload of dhabs is sickening. Therefore they should seek out their less-enlightened fellow hunters, and explain to them, in words they will understand, that hunting is actually about caring for nature, not obliterating it.