Alex Smith’s words of “hunting to feel connected to the nature,” got me thinking for a while: What is the role of hunting in the ecosystem? What kinds of impact can it have on animal populations? – Can hunting be “justified” as conservation? Some say hunting is a critical wildlife management tool, some argue it is just a euphemism for killing for fun.

Regardless of its righteousness, I believe that the subject of hunting is important because exploring what “hunting” is, allows us an important opportunity to think about what we are living upon every day.

When I asked myself “can hunting be a conservation?” I was not sure. First of all, conservation is defined as the act of preserving, guarding, and protecting biodiversity, the environment, and natural resources. According to (Nelson, 2021), hunting does not fit the definition when only talking about a single animal, but it gets important in a broader sense of hunting particular species or protecting the vast diversity of organisms in the area. As we have read in one of the articles on hunting, it acts as a funding resource for state wildlife agencies’ conservation funds. For instance, about 59% of funding, $3.3 billion, came from hunting and fishing-related activities (Rott, 2018). Furthermore, hunting does a great job in controlling prey species such as deer and elk, preventing them from having population explosions due to reduced predators. This allows to balance the populations across the ecosystem and impede over-grazing, for example. In fact, the Nature Conservancy considers the overabundance of deer in the eastern US to be the greatest threat to the forests – even more than climate change (Nelson, 2021)!

However, what’s interesting is that the major reason why the predator populations have been declining (that leads to an increase in herbivore populations) is again, because of hunting – quite contradictory. Moreover, (In Defence of Animals, n.d.) argues that because state wildlife agencies are funded by hunters, their programs are in place to manipulate habitats and artificially bolster “game” populations while ignoring “non-game” species. This will then lead to unbalanced ecosystems by favoring some species for “conservation,” and ecological disruption as well as skewed population dynamics.

Although it may not always be the case, we should still note that the conservation efforts are currently facing the dilemma of having to encourage hunting for sake of keeping the agencies funded. And to combat such a situation, another funding system that is not too hunting-dependent should be installed so that we can practice “real conservation” by a support from people beyond hunters. Furthermore, I think that, as conservation enthusiasts, it is very crucial to learn about hunting in thinking about the future of conservation and coexisting of humans and wildlife. It is also important to learn about where and how the meat reaches our tables to rethink our relationship with wildlife and nature.

If anyone’s interested, I have found a video on YouTube that contains scenes of hunting down and dissecting a deer (see below) – although it’s in Japanese! But the video will certainly make you think about what hunting is, and what we are living upon today.

Works Cited

“In Defence of Animals.” Hunting – the murderous business. n.d. https://www.idausa.org/campaign/wild-animals-and-habitats/hunting/

Nelson, Rob. “Untamed Science.” 15 August 2021. https://untamedscience.com/blog/hunting-and-conservation/

Rott, Nathan. “National Public Radio.” 20 March 2018. https://www.npr.org/2018/03/20/593001800/decline-in-hunters-threatens-how-u-s-pays-for-conservation

Wagner, Greg. “Nebraskaland.” 30 August 2021. http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2021/08/why-hunting-is-so-important/