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27 Reasons Why Hunting Is Good for the Environment: Is It Good To Practice?

The man has been hunting wild game since the dawn of time. An animal’s carcass provides meat, pelts, bone and other items that hunters used for survival. Modern man doesn’t normally hunt for survival anymore, but some do. There are estimated to be over 15 million hunters in the United States alone. In this article, we offer 27 reasons why hunting is good for the environment.

Here are The 27 Reasons Why Hunting Is Good

Improve Mental Health

Waiting for a game animal to appear can sometimes take hours. There are no cell phones to answer, no document deadlines, and no meetings to prepare for. For that reason, individuals find it can be very therapeutic to sit among the sounds of nature and let the gentle rush wash over them as they develop a deep connection to the land. The more connected they are, the more they will try to save the environment.

Exercise

Hunters often walk for miles off the beaten path to get to a blind or well-hidden spot in the shrub. In addition, they must carry a weapon (usually 10 or more pounds), food, water, and personal gear. Not only does the walk improve their stamina, but the trudging about on uneven ground also lets hunters become aware at the first sign of any problems with the flora or fauna within their area. Without this information, disease and overpopulation could run rampant.

Build Social Skills

For hundreds of years, parents have taken their sons and daughters out into the wilderness to teach them to hunt. While the action can be physically exhausting, it can also create a bonding as few other experiences can. Walking along with family or friends gives individuals teaching moments that are far away from the hubbub of city life. When bonding occurs within the confines of outdoor spaces, that environment becomes important to all participants, and the ecosystem must be protected.

Relax

Many hunters treasure the time they spend in nature during their hunting expeditions. They may complain about the rain, snow, and cold, but when pressed to explain why they make the trip out into the wilds every year, hunters will almost unanimously explain that they love the peace and relaxation the hunt provides. With the intake of all that almost pure air, it would be difficult not to relax in the pristine areas hunters seek. Why wouldn’t they want to protect that environment and help develop more areas just like it?

Eat Healthy Food

Hunting game meat is typically the quest of the hunter, and that means bringing home food that is free of man-made chemicals and antibiotics. That is why wild game meat is considered healthier for consumption than commercially bred meat. For those seeking a lean-meat hunt, protecting the environment becomes an important part of their daily life in order to protect their future hunts and their food source.

Experience Survival

Although it can be difficult for some to understand, there are individuals who push themselves to survive off the land. Their desire is to take responsibility for their own food by hunting the animals they eat. Those individuals do not like the separation found between the grocery store and the table. Peace comes to them when they take down that buck or bear on the land they strive diligently to protect and improve.

Acknowledge Kinship 

Hunters often believe they have a kinship with wildlife. Many even have rituals they perform to honor the life given up by the animal at their feet. This doesn’t make them silly; it reconnects them with our ancestors who performed those same rites long ago. Those hunters don’t leave debris after a hunt, because they respect the land and want to improve it. They also bury the carcass or take it with them instead of polluting the land.

Participate in Life

Hunters wander through trees, scrubs, waterways, and worn paths. They venture into rain, snow, and dangerous winds. They choose to take these adventures because they want to create the next chapter of their life instead of letting someone dictate how they can spend their next hours. Hunters are strong individuals who want to be their own persons and improve their environment while doing so. For them, knowing the pristine area will be there next year is as essential as their next breath.

Control Overpopulation

Maintaining animal population control is a key component in maintaining a well-balanced ecosystem. An example is the elk in North American that became overpopulated and upset the ecosystem by stripping the available vegetation. As the natural grasses disappeared, so did other populations of smaller animals. By removing the excess number of deer, the smaller creatures were able to return and bring nature back into balance.

Cull Invasive Species

Many times throughout history, humans have unknowingly added invasive species of animals into nature. The results are often devastating. Hogs, pythons, and rabbits are all examples of good intentions gone wrong. Without the culling of these dangerous, quickly multiplying predators, the balance of nature would be broken, and many at-risk species would disappear.

Preserve Ecosystems

As man expands, the uninhabited spaces available for wild animals slowly disappears. But hunters must purchase licenses and pay special taxes that provide much-needed monies to continually support and rebuild wild animal habitats. This helps maintain the balance of the ever-shrinking ecosystem.

Restrict Hunting 

Because each hunter must purchase a license, the area being hunted is traced, as is the species being tracked within the hunt. Additionally, all hunters do not get animals during their allowed hunting period, but those who do must report which animal they shot, and where. This helps conservationists to track herds and limits hunting in areas seen as unbalanced.

Protect Vehicles and Lives

When a population of any animal gets out of control, the first sign is what some often call “road kill.” These are animals that have been killed by speeding vehicles. As populations grow, the need for food expands, and human roads get into the way of the herd’s food source. Millions of dollars are spent each year to repair vehicles damaged by large and small animals that are hit crossing busy roads. Sometimes those accidents can become fatal. Hunters can help reduce the population sizes and thus keep the animals in secluded habitats. By doing this, they can also protect human life.

Property Being Protected

Sometimes populations grow so rapidly that the animals can do excessive damage to homes, crops, and stored food supplies. This is true of elephants, rabbits, and mice. While hunters don’t search for mice, the money they spend each year does maintain habitats for the predators of both rabbits and mice. The healthy and abundant habitats for elephants are also important to protect both human life and food.

Protect the Land

As populations of animals grow, so do their appetites, and the grasses, flowers, and herbs that allow the increase of birds, insects, and small animals are quickly depleted. As the grasses disappear, the rains can cause severe soil erosion and even landslides. By keeping animals in check, the land’s grasses are allowed to take root and protect the soil.

Flora Protected

Hungry animals can deplete a field of wildflowers within hours. As the wildflowers disappear, so do the bees and butterflies, and with their disappearance comes implications about human survival. In a viscous circle, the smallest of creatures pollinate our food to keep us alive, so hunters work to keep them alive.

Increase Tourism

Hunters often travel far from home to find that special animal. That means they often need somewhere to sleep, food to eat, and entertainment. Small towns near popular rural hunting sites can benefit greatly by the influx of hunting money.

Employment for Services Increase 

Hunters receive information and permission to hunt from state and government agencies that employ park rangers, guides, game wardens, and numerous other specialists who help keep the ecosystem in balance. The agencies also employ analysts, forecasters, and specialists to account for the numbers of animals in various habitats.

Increase Employment for Goods

Hunters need equipment such as bows, guns, tents, blinds, tree stands, fishing poles, and camping gear. Of course, each of these items must be manufactured, which means employment. As each of these employees becomes curious and aware of the natural world, they will understand how it is affected by humans and that it must be protected.

Received Increase Funds 

As previously mentioned, hunters pay taxes. These excise taxes are used for animal surveys, wildlife studies, animal management, habitat rebuilding, and sanctuary development. Last year the tax amounted to hundred of millions in the United States alone.

Support Conservation Groups

Hunters donated another couple hundred million to conservation groups last year in an effort to develop strategies to protect endangered species. Whitetail deer, grouse, pheasants, and ducks are among the many species that have had their numbers depleted. This donation money helps to focus on the health and populations of those depleted animals.

Restore Wetlands and Forests

Hunters have donated enough money in the last decade to restore 45,000 acres of wetlands. They have also helped replant forests, restore grasslands, redevelop watersheds, and purchase property to establish protected environments for wildlife development.

Improve Education

In 2017 officials, paid by hunter’s donations, were able to oversee 200,000 volunteers who focused their time and energy in helping with efforts to protect endangered wildlife. These same officials were able to go to schools, non-profits groups, and religious meetings to educate non-hunters about wildlife conservation and the need for hunting programs.

Create Habitats

Hunters provided the government with enough money to purchase and maintain 4 million acres in the United States. Also, 40 million acres have been set aside by private individuals as wildlife habitats. This is about the size of the state of Washington and has allowed for ducks, deer, wild turkeys, and buffalo to come back from the brink of extinction to herds of millions.

Renew Wildlife

State wildlife agencies get approximately 60 percent of their funding from hunter-paid taxes, fees, and licenses. With this money, trees are planted, waters are protected, and dwindling animal populations are renewed.

Control Predators

Bears, wolves, coyotes, and cougars often keep to themselves and exist in their ecosystem. As their populations explode, they can harm humans. Hunters keep predators under control by regulating their food source; therefore, their numbers rarely surge out of control anymore.

Expand Senses

Hunters are not spectators; they are participants in nature. While out there in the wild, they learn how to track, what scat means, how to read the land, and which animals are active when. They learn to observe, listen, and feel. They can tell the difference between the rustling wind and a scurrying rabbit. All this comes by expanding a sense of acuity. As their acuity grows, so does their need to protect the precious area and animals they have grown to love.

What Is Hunting?

Hunting has been defined as the ending of an animal’s life for food or sport. However, many activists include fishing as a form of hunting.

Who Hunts?

Men, women, and children of all ages across the world hunt each year. Currently, there are an estimated 50 million hunters across the planet, with 15 million in the United States alone.

Why Hunting Is Good and Important?

For some, hunting provides food. For others, hunting is a sport. Both are economically important to many people, such as family members, retailers, and governmental agencies. Large amounts of monies are spent each year on camping gear, hunting weapons, survival food, and outdoor clothing to provide the hunter with what they need for their trek. Hunters also provide a great deal of money to state and government agencies in the form of taxes and fees, which puts in place an amazing amount of environmental protections.

Preserves Forests and Wild Areas

Hunting also preserves forests and wild areas. High densities of any animal can destroy the ecosystem and can have a huge environmental impact for many years after. If forest trees are destroyed by deer, for example, runoff of soil could result in decades of damage to farmlands just below the forested areas. As the trees die off, the carbon dioxide would grow and expand, and the seed trees would be unable to grow in the barren soil because of the now hot and unfriendly environment. Hunters can control the deer densities and keep carbon dioxide out of the environment.

Furthermore, the more individual hunts, the closer they become to the land. They become the first to see recovery, disease, or pollution. They are also the first to report these signs to specialized agencies that can take the necessary steps to bring the land back or protect the beginning of recovery.

Do Animals Become Extinct Because of Hunters?

While some people vilify hunters, most hunters follow a strict code of ethics and rules that allow them to continue to enjoy their desired recreation. Hunters are often blamed for the extinction of various animal species, but the truth is that most of the extinct creatures died off after environmental changes occurred. Hunters had nothing to do with their demise.

How Do Hunters Impact the Environment?

Modern hunters recognize that protections for land and animals are one of the few ways to help maintain a balance and keep nature preserved. They understand that the money they donate and provide in licensing fees is vital to the maintenance of wetlands, deserts, forests, and rainforests across the globe. Most hunters are staunch environmentalists because protecting their favorite playground will let them enjoy their favorite recreational activity as well.

As hunters become more aware of habitat destruction and urban sprawl, they are also growing closer to, and often joining with, the public environmental activists and ecosystem green leaders. Hunters love their wild environments and strive to protect and improve the land.

Reasons Why Hunting Is Good

When humans take care of themselves, they also take care of the environment around them. Hunting can offer individuals the chance to improve themselves, take care of their surroundings, and improve the economy. Each of these factors is intertwined with one another to provide humanity with a positive reason to promote hunting as environmentally necessary and sound. Hunting is good for the environment for the above reasons.

Conclusion

In today’s electronic lifestyle, there is often a disdain for hunters and the sport of hunting. A few people even vilify the hunter and want to force their own personal beliefs and feelings about hunting on others. It is important to be dispassionate when discussing hunting and its benefits. Without the money gleaned from hunters, many delicate ecosystems would be at the mercy of encroachment by man, poachers, or other environmental disturbances.

Create Wildlife Sanctuaries

Hunters provide the means to create wildlife sanctuaries, to conduct research, and to bring endangered species back to life. The next time a trophy photo comes across your phone, tablet, or laptop, try to remember that without legal hunters putting money into your ecosystem, some wildlife you know and love might become extinct.

Hunters are good for the environment. They protect the lands they love by providing the money necessary to shelter, rebuild, and improve the precious acres. If anyone ever asks you why hunting is good for the environment, you now have answers to give them.

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Interesting Ways to Know How Long Do Wild Turkeys Live?

Being a favored food of the Native Americans for as early as the 1500’s, wild turkeys are one of the games that hunters sought after the most. Wild turkeys symbolize abundance and is often served as the main course representing successful harvest in the North America. As turkey hunters, it is important that we know some facts about our game. It does not only give us advantage in hunting but it also ignites our interest on our prey. In this article, I will discuss some fascinating facts about wild turkeys and provide information on how long do wild turkeys live.

Some Facts about Wild Turkeys

History

The wild turkey, Meleagris gallopovo, is one of the two species of turkeys which is a permanent resident of Pennsylvania’s woods and mountains and is native only to North America. This species was nearly eradicated in the 1900’s because of excessive hunting and destruction of their woodland habitat, however, their population has been revived when people reintroduce the species to areas wherein the woodlands are recovering.

Appearance

Adult wild turkeys range from around 36-44 inches in length from the tip of the beak to the tip of the tail. They have featherless blue heads, long necks, fan-shaped tails, and strong and long legs. Compared to males, female wild turkeys are smaller and their feather color is duller. Male wild turkeys’ throats have red wattles and their breasts have dark tufts which are often absent in females. Males also have spurs while females usually have none.

Food

Wild turkeys are omnivorous animals which eat a wide variety of foods. Majority of their diet is vegetable and they are ready to sample many different plants that they can eat. Their type of food also depends on the season where availability of plants and other food sources varies. Examples of foods that they eat are acorns, hickory nuts or beech nuts, seeds and grain, berries, wild grapes, crabapples and other small fruits, small reptiles, fleshy plant parts, plant foliage, grass and tender young leaves or shoots, large insects, and snails, slugs and worms. Wild turkeys also have the habit of gritting sand and small gravel to help them with their digestion.

Habitat

HabitatTypically, you can see wild turkeys foraging on open forest floors, however, you can also find them in grasslands and swamps. Habitat requirements for turkeys are the presence of trees which become their source of food, provide them a place to rest and take cover, and serve as their roost sight during the night. Grasslands are also important as these also become adults and poults source of food and are a good place to forage for insects. Wild turkeys’ habitat must also have moisture since it affects their reproduction and survival directly and indirectly. However, the answer on how long do wild turkeys live depends upon many factors.

Behavior

Wild turkeys spend most of their days foraging. Poults spend around 90 percent of their time feeding. They feed mostly on insects which are better sources of protein than plants. Juveniles and adults, on the other hand, eat a wide variety of food including soft and hard plants, grasses, and insects. Usually, wild turkeys get around by walking, however, when they are threatened, females tend to fly while males tend to run. When courting, males strut, lower their wings, fan their tails, and make non-vocal hums and chump sounds. When the female lays the eggs, the male leaves it to the female to care for the youngs and form a flock. Males breed with multiple mates and form an all-male flock outside the breeding season. At the age of around 2-4 days old, young turkeys begin to dust, preen, and sun their feathers. This is their way to keep their feathers in good condition. At 14-28 days old, poults begin to roost in trees. This is part of wild turkeys’ behavior that helps them avoid predators.

How Long Do Wild Turkeys Live?

A wild turkey has an average life expectancy of around three years, however, some turkeys live much longer and reach 13 or even 15 years. Actually determining how long do wild turkeys live will depend on a lot of factors. Let us look at them one by one.

Factors that affect the life span of wild turkeys

Environment

The environment plays a major role in the life span of turkeys as this is where the food, shelter, and cover for wild turkeys will depend. A change in habitat, in species diversity, species balance, forest age-class and many others may contribute to wild turkeys’ life span due to change in food, shelter, and cover conditions. Unforeseen diseases and increase in predation shortens wild turkeys’ life span.

Weather

Weather has a great effect on wild turkeys’ survival, thus, it is also a determining factor on how long do wild turkeys live. If there is a good weather all year round, the survival rate of wild turkeys is high, however, if there are more extreme whether events, there will be a low rate of their survival, thus, resulting to their shorter life span.

People

Wild turkeys who are exposed to hunting will obviously have shorter life span than those who are not. If, for instance, a person tries to domesticate a wild turkey, the turkey’s life span will largely depend on how this person can manage to raise it successfully.

Gender

Female turkeys have shorter life span than male turkeys. In their natural habitat, turkey hens live for about two to three years in average while gobblers live for about six to seven years.

How to determine the age of a gobbler

A very well-known way to determine a gobbler’s age is by looking at its spurs. According to the Conservation Department index, if your gobbler’s spur is ½” inch and has a rounded tip, it is one year old and is called a jake; if it is between 1/2 and 7/8 inches long and straight, with a blunt tip, it is two years old; if it is between 1 and 1 1/2 inches long, slightly curved, with a pointed tip, it is three years old, and if it is more than 1 1/2 inches long, more curved, and sharp at the tips, it is four years old at the least.

Conclusion

Wild turkeys are very interesting game animals that it was even suggested by Benjamin Franklin to be their national bird. Being a good source of delicious and nutritious food, the Native Americans hunted them and even became a steady food source for them in the past. Today, turkey hunting became an exciting sport which is enjoyed by many hunters. Knowing more about wild turkeys makes hunting them more fun and interesting and one good information to have is how long do wild turkeys live. I hope this article answer that question well and help you gain some fascinating background on wild turkeys.

Did you like this article? If so, please a comment below and share this with your friends. Thank you for reading!

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The Best 5 Early Season Squirrel Tips

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How to Eat a Snake Safely and Correctly

In some cultures, snakes are hunted and caught for their meat. For most people, snake meat is a delicacy and is something that is not eaten regularly. In some cases, snakes are eaten in emergency situations for sustenance and survival. If you are an avid snake hunter and want to try getting a taste of their meat, let’s talk about edible snakes first and if they are safe to eat.

Some snakes are safe to eat while others are not. Before you try eating a snake or catching one for food, make sure that you identify its species and determine that it is not a poisonous snake. Needless to say, eating a poisonous snake can be detrimental to one’s health.

So, how do you know if a snake is safe to eat?

Which Snakes are Safe to Eat

It’s pretty obvious that venomous snakes are risky to eat. You can identify if a snake is venomous or not if you know the appearance and skin pattern of the most common venomous snakes. However, the most dangerous venomous snakes are unlikely to be recommended as edible snakes.

The four venomous snakes are as follows: coral snake, cottonmouth snake, copperhead snake, and the rattlesnake. These species of snakes are highly venomous and their venom can easily kill a human adult with a single bite. For reference, here is a list of the top 10 most venomous snakes in the world.

Identifying a venomous snake can be difficult for those who are not very familiar with snake species. Thus, if you want to hunt for a particular species of non-venomous snake, make sure that you know what it looks like or you might end up encountering a dangerous snake.

Some sources say that cooking a venomous snake can inactivate the remaining venom in their bodies, but let’s not risk it, shall we? Especially if you are not an expert on snakes and snake venom.

On the other hand, if you happen to find a dead snake lying around, it is not recommended that you eat it especially if you don’t know the cause of death. Because in some cases, snakes can die from eating poisonous animals like rodents or frogs. If you eat a contaminated snake, the toxins may transfer to you and cause detrimental health effects.

It is also not recommended to get yourself into a situation where a snake bite poses a high risk. If you really want to eat a snake, there are some restaurants that offer this delicacy. On the other hand, you can also find someone who sells snake meat so you don’t have to catch it for your own.

How to Eat a Snake Safely and Correctly

So, you find or catch your non-venomous or non-poisonous snake. What do you do now? If you happen to capture a snake for your own, you need to clean it thoroughly and learn the proper way to cook it so that you don’t pose any health risk to yourself. Here is a slight overview of what you can do to eat an edible snake.

Step One: Prepare your snake

Preparing your snake means that you have to clean it, skin it, and gut it before cooking. Just like other edible reptiles like alligators and frogs, preparing the snake for cooking can be a bit more tedious that when using regular store-bought meat. But that’s the fun of it! You will really feel like a survivalist while preparing your snake.

The first thing you need to do is cut the snake’s head off preferably with the best tactical knife or hunting knife you have. Cutting the head off is necessary sometimes because the snake can still pose a bite threat due to reflexes post-mortem.

Next, find the anal opening of the snake. This is where you will make your first cut. With a pair of scissors or sharp knife, cut through the snake’s anal vent and work your way upwards until you reach the neck. Be careful while cutting because you would want to save your snake skin for later.

After you’ve cut the snake vertically, you would notice that there is connective tissue that attaches the snake’s skin to its muscles. If you have experience skinning a fox or rabbit, then this part should be easily. But if not, practice makes perfect.

Carefully cut away the connective tissue until the snake skin separates from the muscle or until you can easily peel away the skin. Then, the next step is peeling the snake skin off of the body. Take hold of the snake’s body and use your other hand to carefully separate the skin from the muscle.

The next step in preparing your snake meat is to remove the guts. You can easily do this but cutting along the snake’s stomach and removing the tube that contains its innards. Easy-peasy, just like gutting a fish. Make sure you don’t puncture the innards so that you avoid getting the gross goo/snake bile all over the place.

Give your snake meat a good wash-down and then clean up the area you used for preparing the snake.

Now, you’re left with your precious snake meat! It’s time to get cooking!

Step Two: Cook your snake

There are a few recipes available on the net for snake meat, but the most common ones are frying and grilling. If you’re out in the wilderness with not much choice for cooking options, you can grill the snake over a fire. Just make sure that you’ve cleaned the snake thoroughly.

Another snake cooking method we recommend is to fry it up like chicken fillets or gator meat. You can do this by simply cutting the snake meat into thin slices, seasoning it as desired, dredging with bread crumbs, and then frying in deep oil. Snake meat can go well with cornbread, rice, pasta, or veggies.

Step Three: Save the snake skin

Of course, you cannot let the snake skin go to waste. After cutting it off from the meat, you can trim the excess tissue of, rinse it, and then save it as a trophy or use it for other creative purposes. You can also sell snake skin online!

What Are the Qualities of Snake Meat?

Like frog meat, people who have tried eating snakes say that snake meat tastes like chicken or fish. Thus, you can season snake meat the same way you would season chicken or fish.

On the other hand, when we’re talking about nutritional quality of the snake meat, you can find it a great source of lean protein. It has lower fat content and calories than regular red meat, but it has a high protein content that can serve as fuel for the body and for repairing of tissues.

In the case of using snake meat to survive in the wild, it will definitely keep you going due to its nutritional content. You can also grill, bake, or sautee snake meat instead of deep frying to keep the calories on the down low.

Conclusion

Snake meat can be delicious and nutritious to eat both as a delicacy or emergency food item. If you plan on eating snakes, make sure that it is one of the edible snakes and it is safe for human consumption. Now that we’ve answered the question on edible snakes: is it safe to eat? You can try acquiring one of your own and trying it out.

Do you have any questions regarding this topic? If so, feel free to leave them in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

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A Comprehensive Guide on Hunting Season

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History of Hunting in USA and Where It Stands Today?