Why Hunt? Part 2 (of 3) — The Human Predator
by Don H. Meredith © 1997
(first published in the October 1997 Edmonton Sports Scene
and subsequently as a complete article in the 1998 Alberta Guide to Hunting Regulations)
The following statement may not sit well with some people, but I believe it to be true. Whether eating hamburgers at your local fast food restaurant, having eggs and bacon for breakfast, or munching on a lean venison steak, you are a predator — an animal that lives by killing and eating other animals. Sure, you don't participate in the actual killing of a steer or hog, but you share in the product of that killing. The people who kill our domestic animals in slaughter houses are merely agents of our society, acting on our behalf. Because we choose to eat meat, we share in the responsibility for killing those animals. We are predators.
Even if you're a vegetarian, chances are you share this predacious responsibility. If you wear leather belts or shoes, fertilize your garden with bone meal, feed your dog, cat or tropical fish, or use certain medicines or cosmetic preparations, you are a predator. Animals died by the hands of people to provide these products.
Consider the produce we buy in the supermarket and place on our tables. Hunting helps bring many of those products to market cheaply. Many deer and elk hunting seasons and bag limits are set to reduce damage to crops, whether they be alfalfa, soy beans, or strawberries and wine grapes. For example, in Alberta this year, additional hunting licences have been placed on sale to help reduce the damage deer and elk have been causing to crops. Without hunting, the prices for our produce would be greater. Indeed, without recreational hunting, governments would be forced to control these wildlife populations by other means — again, acting as an agent for us all.
Humans have been predators for a long time — as evidenced by the skin scraping and meat cutting tools found at anthropological sites around the world. Our teeth and digestive organs are those of an animal that readily eats both meat and vegetation — much like bears.
Predation is also a source of our intelligence. An animal that grazes solely on plants doesn't have to solve the complex problems that predators must solve to obtain food. Plants are stationary, they don't run on your approach. You just have to know where they are in the right season. On the other hand, a predator must understand something of the behavior of its prey — where it will be, how it will react. It also must make complicated decisions in a hurry as circumstances change during the hunt.
Think of the wild animals we judge to be the most intelligent — for example: coyotes, wolves, cougars, bears. Most are predators. Now think of the popular pets we've judged to be intelligent — dogs and cats. We consider them intelligent because they can solve relatively complex problems and indeed judge and relate to our own behavior. This intelligence was not acquired by accident. It evolved with a predatory lifestyle.
Our intelligence developed in a similar way. When our ancestors decided to exploit wild animals for food, their perspective on the world changed. They had to learn more about and understand other animals, to further understand the nuances of their environment, and to understand how that environment could be changed to aid the hunt and their community.
That understanding has caused us to be the most successful species on the planet. It has also given us an arrogance that we can solve any problem, even while ignoring the environment and our relationships with it.
As a hunter, I have chosen not to ignore these fundamental relationships. By hunting, I acknowledge them, and seek to understand them better. That is why I contribute both time and money to wildlife conservation. I know in my heart why we cannot afford to lose these connections with the natural world.