I first started playing Mighty Nimrod some 63 years ago, at age eight and with my grandfather's .22 rifle. I think it's fair to claim some knowledge of the subject.
I spent many years in farming and ranching, from plowing behind a horse and then at age 11 graduating to my grandfather's "new" tractor. I've cowboyed cows out of mesquite brush when they didn't want to leave.
I've watched all manner of animals throughout the cycles of the years. I've had wild animals as pets, including raccoons and deer.
My home "yard" is regularly visited by numerous dove and quail. This attracts foxes and coyotes. I also have a variety of chipmunk and of squirrel which visit my porch on a regular basis. Ravens and hawks are common visitors. I see collared peccary, bobcats and deer in my lower lands along the creek, and there is the occasional pass-through by "Cigar Mountain Mama", our local cougar--and, sometimes, "Handsome Stranger", who helps create more cougars.
My engineering career progressed (regressed?) into the world of environmental engineering, with intensive "brain-picking" of wildlife biologists as well as others with much education in environmental biology and geology.
I like to believe that my opinions, my commentaries are based more upon first-hand knowledge than they are upon other people's opinions.
There are numerous threads here and at
http://thefiringline.com about the ethical issues of how to hunt, so I won't repeat them here. Simplest put, the issue is that of the quickest possible clean kill in fair chase conditions.
I'll stick with deer, since that's the primary thrust of mammal-hunting in the 48 states.
The whitetail deer population grows in geometric fashion. The old 1-2-4-8-16-ohmigod! deal. A healthy doe has a doe fawn and a buck fawn every year for some six seasons. A doe fawn can be bred at 1.5 years. The math for the fecundity and offspring of a single doe is left as an exercise for the student.
The hunter and the gardener are the only "do it yourselfers" in the entire arena of food. Everybody else hires somebody to do their scut work. While I grant the utility of this division of labor, for many it is merely moral cowardice at getting dirty hands. Recall Katie Couric and the lobster...
The hunter is not particularly concerned over the fate of one individual animal. He is concerned over the health of the species--and, if knowledgeable, the land. He is necessary to the health of the deer herd, or it will increase beyond the carrying capacity of the land--which is no different from any other form of ranching. When any herbivore becomes too numerous for the good of any habitat, the land suffers greatly. The herbivore also suffers, via smaller stature and disease.
Emotionally, there is the satisfaction of continuing an activity begun thousands of generations before me. It is a tie to the history of
homo sapiens. There is the satisfaction of learning a primitive skill and being good at it. There is the self-esteem and pride engendered by meeting a challenge and succeeding--and these can only be earned, never given.
But until somebody can accurately relate to me the details of "A Day In The Life Of Bambi", I'm not much interested in their opinions about hunting. They don't know enough to matter. Opinions are free. Knowledge ain't.
, Art
