DarkLion
Rookie
- Apr 7, 2013
- 500
- 53
- 0
- Banned
- #1
Hunting and Habitat Manipulation
From hearing hunters talk about the overpopulations of deer, bears and other "game" animals, one would think they are practically tripping over these megafauna in the American wilderness. However, this is not the case, and both public and private lands are managed in a variety of ways to increase hunting opportunities, regardless of what is natural or necessary.
The most egregious example is probably clearcutting. In an attempt to boost deer populations, state wildlife management agencies, which are run by hunters for hunters and make their money from the sales of hunting licenses, will clearcut the forests on public lands in order to create the edge habitat that is favored by deer. In their literature, they seldom admit that this is the purpose of the clearcutting, and often vaguely claim that it benefits "wildlife" or "game." Many Americans believe we already have too many deer, and would not tolerate attempts to increase the deer population.
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Hunting and the Wildlife Overpopulation Myth
Hunters claim to take the place of other predators in controlling the populations of prey species. There are several problems with this argument:
The populations of prey species do not need to be controlled. As discussed above, deer populations are artificially increased to maximize hunting opportunities. Hunters increase the deer population to create the illusion of deer overpopulation in order to gain public support for hunting.
Hunters do not act like other predators. While other predators target the old, the young, the sick and the weak, hunters target the largest specimens with the biggest tusks, antlers or horns. Instead of culling the weakest members of the species and helping the species to evolve to be stronger, hunters are what Newsweek magazine calls "evolution in reverse" and "survival of the weak and scrawny." Bighorn sheep now have smaller horns compared to thirty years ago, and fewer African and Asian elephants have tusks.
If the deer in a certain area become overpopulated and food is scarce, the lack of food will cause weaker individuals to starve to death and the fawns will absorb more embryos and have fewer offspring.
In addition to artificially increasing wild populations of deer, state wildlife management agencies also breed animals specifically to be hunted. Predators do not breed pheasant and quail so they can be hunted.
Hunters often say that a population of animals is "overabundant," which is not a scientific term, but misleads the public into thinking that the animals are overpopulated. Overpopulation is a scientific concept, and exists when a species exceeds its biological carrying capacity. This deceptive terminology gains public sympathy for hunting and creates an illusion that hunting is desirable or even necessary.
Hunting and the Environment - Are Hunters Environmentalists
I have been saying for years that hunters do not "love" nature, they love a false nature manipulated to serve their means. More human dominance over the natural world to its detriment. I cannot wait to hear the apologists come along and dispute this; should be fun!