HUNTERS ALL
Rex Burress
Everything is hunting for something as the bird and mammal hunting season opens for people during the autumn season. Squirrels and man hunt nuts!
Even though the first thought about the word 'hunt' might be of people hunting with a gun for an animal, all living species are hunting for some specific thing. Most animals are hunting for food, whether carnivore, omnivore, herbivore, and even plants are hunting for water and sunlight. The objective is to use energy to find more energy, most dramatically shown by a bird of prey catching a mouse, or a lion bringing down a deer.
But there's a lot of hunting going on in the insect world, too. Watch a butterfly come out of the chrysalis and hunt for a flower. Hunting for a mate is the major achievement of most species, and it shows most vividly in the pheromone chase of the moths when the males are attracted by the female scent from miles away! It is the eternal quest of all species in bringing the egg and the sperm together. Some insect species never eat in their short life spans, dedicated to that reproduction determination.
The end-of-the-year season is a major hunting time for seekers of wild animals and game birds, as well as other people hunting without a gun. Christmas is a time to give presents and to recognize religious symbols, as gift-hunters swarm through the stores hunting for things to buy. “Getting and spending we lay waste our powers;/Little we see in nature that is ours,” but that's the economic treadmill that even Christmas is caught up in. Watch out for thieves out hunting, too!
Human hunters can be out with, or without, a gun, and there was an earlier passage when zoos were clamoring for Frank Buck and Carl Akeley to “bring'em back alive.” The trends of trophies and zoo accumulations have thankfully slipped out of style on the grand scale. Hunting with a camera is the popular modern version of animal capture that helps extend the salvation of big animals.
The master hunters, though, are the carnivores that prowl through the forests, plunge from the sky, or slip through the sea, all after animal food lower on the pyramid of life. Their needs are defined by prolific creatures that complete the balance of “things eating things.” Thus it is written, life shall sustain life, no matter how injurious it might seem to fellow life and to the compassionate people watching.
See the talons and keen eyes of the redtail hawk connecting with a mouse, or a falcon catching a junco. They are adapted for a particular niche in the environmental scene. The complete picture is a proper habitat to allow the functions of living things to survive. The hawk hunts for the mouse, and the mouse hunts for seeds and a hiding place, just as plants hunt for a place to root and produce the seed. The seed rides the wind or is propelled forth in some style to complete the cycle.
I have been a hunter, not only with a gun on the farm, but I've hunted for rocks, shells, driftwood, mushrooms, photographic opportunities, and any number of aquatic curios or nature castoffs of museum appeal. A rockhound becomes a major example of hunting, scouring rocky places for the elusive 'perfect' gem stone, and feeling the joy of discovery when a keeper is found.
Hunting small animals as a boy rather opened the door to woodsman lore and lured me on to a career as a naturalist. Art, nature writing, and bird watching became the major hunting pursuits in retirement, but it is ever-interesting to watch the wildlife and be amazed at their interactions.
“The dragonfly has an ability to maneuver in the air with superb dexterity. It can put on a burst of speed, stop on a dime, hover, fly backward, and switch directions in a flash. This is a hunting behavior known as hawking.” --Richard Preston
“Meteorite hunting is not for wimps. The best places to look are also the coldest and windiest in the Antarctica.”--Mary Roach