Big-game hunting

Big-game hunting is the hunting of large game animals for meat, commercially valuable by-products (such as horns, furs, tusks, bones, body fat/oil, or special organs and contents), trophy/taxidermy, or simply just for recreation (“sporting”). The term is often associated with the hunting of Africa’s “Big Five” games (lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and rhinoceros), and with tigers and rhinoceroses on the Indian subcontinent. Many other species of big game are hunted including kudu, antelope, and hartebeest. Whale, moose, elk, caribou, bison, mule deer, brown bear and white-tailed deer are the largest game hunted in North America, where most big-game hunting is conducted today.
Big-game hunting is conducted in every continent except Antarctica, where the ecosystems provide habitats capable of supporting megafauna. In Africa, lion, Cape buffalo, elephant, giraffe and other large game animals are hunted, mainly for trophies. In North America, animals such as whale, bear, wolf, walrus, caribou, moose, elk, alligator, boar, sheep and bison are hunted. In South America, deer, cougar, feral pig, feral water buffalo, capybara and other species are hunted. In Europe, bear, sheep, boar, goats, elk (moose), bison, deer, and other species are hunted. In Asia, several species of deer, bear, sheep and other species are hunted. In Australia, kangaroos and several introduced species of deer (mainly red and sambar deer) and wild boar are hunted.