Comments on: The first crane and the last crane https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/ Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:02:21 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505297 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:02:21 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505297 peter, don’t be so defensive. I’m all for hunting. If you read all the words in the post, like the ones just before and after and stuff, you’ll see that I was annoyed as a teenager that hunting drove me out of my favorite forests during certain times of the year. Hunters take over the woods during hunting season, skii resorts rip down giant swaths of trees and replace them with snow bunnies.

I don’t subscribe at all to the idea that it is ok for hunters to get annoyed at everyone else but they must always be given a pass. They are smelly, loud, orange troglodytes who think they own the woods. And some of my best friends are hunters. I’m pretty sure there’s one in my bathroom at the moment.

]]> By: Jesse https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505296 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:21:46 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505296 @peter– I think he was speaking of the noise of the guns and other secondary effects.

Other than that, while I have no particular problem with hunting per se I am one of those who remembers all too well the species that didn’t survive hunting. Sea cows, for instance, and whales. Passenger pigeons. And some that were and are endangered as a result. I understand there is a difference between modern sport hunting and resource-extraction hunting, and that habitat loss and such play a role. But I’d say the record of sport hunters on species is a bit of a mixed bag.

Part of the problem is that the criteria for a human hunter are different from that of a predator. As a human deer hunter I want a 12-point buck. As a wolf pack hunting deer (or any other herding herbivore) I am not going for the trophy animal but the one I can catch. Big difference. This creates very different pressures on the animals.

]]> By: Iain https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505295 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:09:37 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505295 Hi, I love the sound of the Cranes as they arrive back in northern Sweden each late Spring/Summer to breed. And ditto, the return leg South in Fall. Always a great sight to see them wheeling around, or tottering around in the garden up there! I was in France many years ago, sitting on the terrace with a glass of wine when, ‘Bam’, and a beautiful, innocuous song thrush landed dead, splattered and splintered at my feet. No time for that kind of callous hunting at all. Hunting when needed for the belly is one thing, hunting for the pleasure of killing delightful wildlife is quite another.

]]> By: peter https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505294 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:59:25 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505294 “So I didn’t see myself doing it any more than I saw myself engaging in the other activity that ruined the wild mountains near where I grew up (downhill skiing).”

I wasn’t aware that hunting kills trees or destabilizes hillsides. Must be something I am doing wrong when out tracking moose or deer.
It is usually the hunters who have an interest not to have their hunting areas destroyed by resource extraction or industrial development.

]]> By: Jim Thomerson https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505293 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:05:28 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505293 Disclaimer–I have never hunted ducks. The duck’s best friend carries a shotgun. The only natural bottom land along the Illinois River is duck hunting club land. Part of it is unhunted duck refuge, because supplying such means more ducks to hunt. Federal and state wildlife refuges are paid for from hunting licenses, duck stamps, etc. Ducks unlimited looks out for ducks.

The point is that if an animal legal for sport hunting, its kill gets regulated, it is managed to do well, and a group of hunters who want it available to hunt are its friends. They are concerned that it has habitat, that it is not over hunted, or decimated in some other way.

Looking at duck hunting regulations, it is clear that a legal hunter has to be very good at duck identification because the laws say so many of those, and so many of these, and none of them.

]]> By: Russell https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505292 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:52:32 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505292 Nice post. I feel much the same way about hunting. When I’m in the field, there’s more I want to observe and enjoy than hunting would allow. Despite some tries when young, I never acquired the thrill of the hunt.

But I do enjoy shooting.

]]> By: AK https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505291 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:29:44 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/18/the-first-crane-and-the-last-c/#comment-505291 I don’t see why people shouldn’t be allowed to hunt cranes… as long as they use bow and (unpoisoned) arrow.

If you want to shoot something, install a 1PShooter game on your PC.

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