One subject that never escapes me is speculation on the reasons why anyone such as myself likes to hunt. Many urban folks have a simplistic view of the sport and can’t understand how anyone can shoot an animal for enjoyment. These folks imagine that hunters sneak around the mountains looking for animals which, once found are shot. This is largely true but is surely an over simplification.

Much has been written about the meaning of hunting both for the hunter and for the animal being hunted. Perhaps the most important premise to consider is that anyone who kills an animal has become involved in an essential natural processes…that of the struggle between life and death. The hunter predator relationship is one of the most important in the natural world even though one partner dies.

This relationship drives natural selection and the evolution of the species. It also a critical element in the on-going survival of ecosystems which all need a balance between the hunter and the hunted. In modern society we can easily divorce ourselves from all contact with the natural world. Therefore in our city world we can sanitise our lives and divorce ourselves from any exposure to the life and death of wild animals. 

This is what I might think about while I look out into the darkness along the roadside and hope I won’t see the wind shaking the vegetation.