Honestly, I do genuinely find it very ironic that River is so affected by this when you can freely shoot a billion young animals in the most unethical ways possible and you aren't penalised for it in any way lol. But, as you said, there are plenty of legal ways to hunt some of the animals there. Bald eagles are illegal everywhere, but elephants and white rhinos are fair game in many African countries, though at very high prices. Southern white rhinoceri live in countries with a very big hunting industries and are doing by far the best, with the IUCN listing them as "near threatened". Polar bears are very tricky though since very few tags are allocated to non-native hunters and it's only in Canada, but most of those tags end up not being filled (hunting in the Arctic is shockingly very hard). The way you explained it is very much correct, though "trophy" specifically means old individuals (usually males, but females are included too depending on the species). Honestly though, I feel like the rich western poacher stereotype is very overplayed, especially considering that in reality most poachers are poor guys with guns trying to make a quick buck. But this generally plays into the western perception of Africans as practically lacking in agency (good or bad).
Honestly, I do genuinely find it very ironic that River is so affected by this when you can freely shoot a billion young animals in the most unethical ways possible and you aren't penalised for it in any way lol. But, as you said, there are plenty of legal ways to hunt some of the animals there. Bald eagles are illegal everywhere, but elephants and white rhinos are fair game in many African countries, though at very high prices. Southern white rhinoceri live in countries with a very big hunting industries and are doing by far the best, with the IUCN listing them as "near threatened". Polar bears are very tricky though since very few tags are allocated to non-native hunters and it's only in Canada, but most of those tags end up not being filled (hunting in the Arctic is shockingly very hard). The way you explained it is very much correct, though "trophy" specifically means old individuals (usually males, but females are included too depending on the species).
Honestly though, I feel like the rich western poacher stereotype is very overplayed, especially considering that in reality most poachers are poor guys with guns trying to make a quick buck. But this generally plays into the western perception of Africans as practically lacking in agency (good or bad).