| In the very first days of hunting, the risk was immense to the hunter. Consider that humans used primitive tools such as rocks and stones to overpower animals. Unlike present times, they had to get very close to the prospective prey. Sometimes, they used their bare hands to put an animal down and this meant putting their lives in danger. In fact, the hunter could even become the prey, especially when it became to strong animals, like wild boar. This is why people soon learnt to hunt in packs or groups.
The hunter also had to have a good understanding of the prey and of its habits. It was no short of a learning experience. Some anthropologists say that hunting even helped the evolution of language because the group of hunters had to communicate well to perform each other’s task successfully. All in all, hunters began to develop a sort of respect for their prey, through hunting experience.
Hunters rely on dogs to track down the intended prey. A dog can sniff the trail of a fox from far away. This helps the hunter to stick to a particular area and not wander off aimlessly. Dogs are also trained to fetch killed animals.
Although some hunters today exist for the purpose of recreation, it doesn’t make any difference to the prey. As far as it’s concerned, it’s fighting for its life. So you can say that hunting is a cruel sport. It does have a lot of opponents and critics. Then again, most hunters actually have a deep love for nature and wildlife. Killing animals is not the foremost thought in mind.
Hunters don’t usually spend all their time or resources on going after prey. They spend about 200 million person-days for hunting annually. Some extend that time for trekking, photographing wildlife and training hunting dogs.
Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega said that “I do not hunt in order to kill, I kill in order to have hunted.” That is the sentiment shared by most hunters. To them, hunting is invigorating the spirit, getting fresh energy and relieving stress. Maybe this has something to do with man’s line of evolution.
Hunting renews the traditional role of man as predator as well as instilling thoughts of sportsmanship. Hunting can never be compared to modern sports such as football or tennis. But some of us don’t realize or are ignorant to the fact that hunting does have defined rules and codes of conduct. The hunter must respect the physical boundaries- such as conservatories and nature parks and also respect basic rules of sportsmanship as understood in the civilized world. |
