http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/honeybee-cell-varma/
Excerpt from Press Conference
Held at the Grand Palace of the Royal Family of Apini
Mark Seintine – Famous Trophy Hunter
Elle Latrille – Apinian Forest & Wildlife Ministry Official

Latrille
Thank you everyone for your interest. I have some brief facts on the hunt, then Mark will say a few words. We’ll then leave some time for questions. Mark set out with a team of 7, including himself, a bush guide, two porters, a Ministry official tasked with identifying an acceptable mark, a journalist and lastly one of his closest friends. They were in the bush for 5 days before making a successful kill. The mark was a worker bee, so female, estimated at about 91 kilograms, or 200 pounds. She was probably about forty years old, so she would have been at least three years past her pollinator days. Mark?

Seintine
First, I want to say I did not set out on this hunt to make any kind of global statement. I’m a hunter because my father was one. So was his, and so on back through time as far as anyone in my family knows. I follow every local hunting law to the letter. I thought this would be an experience and a noteworthy trophy for my lodge. For the last –

Journalist 1
Mr Seintine, are you saying you only hunt to put a severed head on your wall as a way to prove to your buddies that you’re better hung than they are?

Latrille
Leave it to the extremists to break the rules not two minutes into the proceedings.

Seintine
He’s just trying to win some points with his people, Elle. Sir, I don’t need to measure my reproductive equipment against anyone else’s as I believe you are implying. I’ve got a hot wife who’s got a set of legs like you read about and a law degree from Emory. I do just fine. Unless, of course, you meant if I do it to prove the walls in my lodge are better hung, in which case I don’t need to prove anything. Y’all can come over to see just how much better hung it is. (laughter from the audience)

Latrille
Anything else to add, Mark?

Seintine
Just this – the bee won’t be hung up in there for at least a month. She’s being studied first by some of Elle’s cronies at the Royal Apinian University down the street, then shipped to bee experts from Baylor University in the great state of Texas before I even see her again. I realize this thing blew up in a way I didn’t expect, but this is as scientific a hunt as anyone could hope for. Remember that when you start asking your opaque, leading questions.

Latrille
Sally?

Journalist 2 (Sally)
Mr Seintine, you spent a great deal of money to earn the permit for this hunt. Did you do any research into where that money goes?

Seintine
I did. Elle can correct me, but I believe half of it goes to the University’s standing study on the Great Bees, and the other half is split between eco-tourism funds for the country’s tourism ministry and payment to the officials and porters who helped me prep for and participated in the hunt.

Sally
There are reports that at least 10% of the fee went to the King to be used for ads against parliament’s opposition party which is on record as being strongly against this type of hunting. What do you say to those reports?

Seintine
It doesn’t sound true, but just in case, let’s turn His Highness upside down and give him a few good shakes. (Laughter)

Latrille
The money is entirely accounted for. There will be a release from the Ministry in the next 48 hours with details on the hunt, the finances and the plans for the University’s study with her body before it’s shipped to America. Emeka?

Journalist 3 (Emeka)
You’ve both mentioned the scientific nature of this hunt. Can you please elaborate?

Latrille
Scientists at the Royal University will study her body to examine how the Great Bees age, how her body composition, food intake, wing power and a variety of other things differ from adolescents and young adults.

Seintine
There’s a practical element to it. Obviously you’re all here because Great Bees are pretty rare nowadays. Historically, the big drones and workers can damage younger, healthier bees as they outgrow the size of their hive-den. Lost in all the hullaboo about how bloodthirsty and godless I am is the simple fact that the Apinian Ministry allows hunts like this. They give out permits. And there’s a very basic reason – the big workers outlive their usefulness as pollinators after they grow to a certain size, and they get cranky and can injure, maim or kill younger, healthier bees.
Journalist 4 (Pierre)
Sir, some wildlife experts have argued against that logic. They say any kind of killing of endangered animals is unjustified. What’s your response to them?

Seintine
Back in Texas, when I was growing up, there was a park near my house. At some point, whatever predators that had lived there had moved on, so the park was overrun with deer. They were eating everything in sight, these deer, and putting the whole food chain at risk from top to bottom. So the county hires a dozen sharpshooters, ex-marines and so forth, to bring in some high-powered rifles and cull the herd. As you’d expect, the allegedly pro-wildlife groups went ballistic. The dumb ones said all killing is wrong, completely ignoring the fact that the deer were doing harm to every living thing in that park. The smart ones understood the herd needing culling, but they argued that sharpshooters taking a few hundred head shots was inhumane. “Let’s ignore the fact that the meat will go to poor communities in town and the city nearby because its meat produced the wrong way,” they said. “If you have to kill the deer, it should be natural. Let’s loose some natural predators to calm everything down.” And I’m not kidding you, these guys demanded the county let loose four dozen coyotes into the park. Not one of them thought to ask what might happen when the coyotes ate all the deer. Maybe then they’d want to bring in hawks to kill all the coyotes. Then gorillas to kill all the hawks.

Emeka
Then wouldn’t there just be a gorilla problem in the park?

Seintine
Right? Or maybe the plan was to wait for winter to come and let all the gorillas freeze to death. (Laughter). Who’s next?