Pinecone wrote:I’m not a hunter, but have had some interesting conversations with some outfitters. They truly are stewards of the resource in their territories. They can often chose which animals their clients see and have an opportunity to shoot at. What their clients are mostly interested in is the oldest males in the gene pool. They have the sought after trophy heads. These animals are frequently near the end of their natural lives. In many cases it is likely they wouldn’t get through another winter. Others of the species do go on.
Humans are a part of the eco-system. We don’t simply observe it through a glass partition. Our species has thrived, and put other species under pressure. There is an equilibrium that we are aware of. If we don’t respect it, Mother Nature will smack us back. It’s OK to hunt. The resource is renewable.
Locals can sometimes get upset at the outfitters, but the locals are hunting primarily for food and may not be as selective in what animal they choose for the freezer. Purely for food, younger is often better, and gender doesn’t matter. Not as good for the health of the wildlife population.
That is Indeed the image painted which contains a fair measure of truth, and exactly as I described it to outsiders from the industry. Most of my colleagues, and myself fully believed it for the longest time as well. There are problems and bias in that description, admittedly. Our territory is 2,100 square miles of fully intact wilderness with no roads, and needs no management whatsoever. In fact, humans just get in the way here, like most of the true wildness.
This isn’t a greeny conversion of thought you’re listening to, just frank observation and biology; I personally will continue to hunt just not as a business any more. This said, hunting can be a renewable industry, though it is definitely extractive like all human industries. The amount we extracted locally was certainly sustainable in current times spread over that 1.3 million acres to be clear, my qualms with running an outfitting operation for a living are what I would characterize as a discomfort with some of the motivations you encounter.
Then, one of the biggest problems we’re starting to find with the trophy hunt model (take the biggest mature males) is the assumption they’re near the end of those lives, or surplus to the gene pool is beginning to become understood to be misleading. In fact, the largest, most mature males are some of the most important individuals to the gene pool and health of the population and they need to stay around for their full lifespans for the benefit of the population. They have a roll honed over millennia. There’s a reason they breed the most, they have the best genes, and those need to be spread, and there’s a lot of other work they do we fail to appreciate- that can be rough.
Big male brown bears, the most dominant of them can live thirty years, and be massive for twenty of those years. When your client from Texas encounters a nine foot bruiser with you who has a decade left of being King of the river, do you think most of us in outfitting will steer him away from his prize he’s paid a fortune to take? I got tired of seeing them fall, I’ll admit, to be full of styrofoam in some dusty room in Texas. I’m much happier watching the King of the river strut through his territory and make eye contact with you now.
The assumption we as outfitters are more knowledgeable or virtuous than other people in the backcountry, I really appreciate that benefit of the doubt, and understand the economic roll hunting can hold in keeping spaces wild such as in Africa, I spent time in hunting operations in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa. However in truly intact wilderness like here, I’m best to just get out of the way and share the experience of an intact wilderness. Intact, unmolested wilderness is a rapidly shrinking resource, and honestly my true passion. I love the wild spaces, and the wildlife. Sharing just that, is honestly a dream come true, and here at least hunting isn’t required to keep it wild. I understand that’s different in other areas of the world, and have no interest in telling other outfitters or hunters they’re wrong. I definitely have a clear picture of what makes sense here, however.
The old product, and the new, cheers and enjoying this conversation!
