HuntingHunting is the practice of pursuing living animals for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law. The species hunted are referred to as 'game' and are usually mammals and migratory or non-migratory gamebirds.
Hunting can also involve the elimination of vermin as a means of pest control.
The pursuit, capture and release, or capture for food of fish is called fishing, which is commonly categorized as a form of hunting.
Trapping is usually considered a separate activity. It describes the hunting of animals to obtain their furs which are then used for clothes and other articles or sold/bartered.
Early hunting was necessary as a means of survival. Animal domestication became widespread after the development of agriculture and primitive farming. Hunted animals were used for their protein, bones (tools), furs, feathers, rawhides, and sinew (tendons). It became as psychologically important as culturally important as deities and gods were assigned as hunting figures. People began hunting with the help of domestic animals sch as dogs, birds of prey, and the ferret.
Venery: Animal-aided hunting such as scent hound hunting (fox hunting).
Coursing: Animal-aided sight hound hunting.
Falconry
Ferreting: Animal-aided hole hunting (rabbits, rodents)
(This is my pet ferret, Sergeant Pepper)
Trophy hunting is the selective seeking of wild game. It may also include the controversial hunting of captive or semi-captive animals expressly bred and raised under controlled or semi-controlled conditions so as to attain trophy characteristics (canned hunts). The head or pelt of animals are hung as signs of prowess.
In Nordic countries, hunting for trophies was- and still is- frowned upon.
Animal cruelty & issues of morality (hunting of rare or endangered animals)
*****
While being home over the break, I have been talking to my dad about his hunting days in Alaska both before and after my birth. He went through the storage in our basement and pulled out both an old goat pelt and a moose hide. I was excited to hear that he told me I could keep the goat pelt (which amazingly has the bullet hold preserved)! The moose hide on the other hand is HUGE. Not only is it heavy, but its size is comparable to that of a large area rug.
I was told several hunting stories that I have to admit sound like they would be loads of fun: flying float planes out into the wilds of Alaska for week long hunting trips in search of moose, goats, caribou, bears, ptarmigan, grouse, foxes, etc. My dad also asked me if I wanted to go hunting sometime. My immediate response was "no"- more like "NO!" It was a mindless response, almost rehearsed. The more I think about it, the more I think I might enjoy it. I wouldn't specifically enjoy killing an animal, but communing with nature and living something that has been used as a means of survival and tradition since the beginning of human kind seems special. It's the perversion of hunting that has ruined its name and the close-mindedness and ignorance of our society that gives many a revulsion to the word "hunt." Hollywood and the media haven't helped either.
NOTE: This is not a photograph of my father
