If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklynn for sale…Deer hunters are after the trophy Bucks. In Ny you can only take bucks unless you get a doe tag. (bow and muzzle loader can take either)
Hunters cull the herds of the biggest bucks who have served their purpose and stop the inbreeding that goes on when the strongest are allowed to live too long.
If the male deer are allowed to live to long the herd get’s weaker when the male deer is daddy grandfather and son. If we really care about keeping the head healthy we allow younger males to bring in new blood.
STODR
229
Shush, facts are not allowed.
Samm
230
Show your work. As I said, in my experience, the vast majority of deer hunters are out to put meat in the freezer, not trophy grade antlers on the wall.
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Samm
231
Correction … Trophy hunters cull the largest bucks. Most meat hunters want a younger more tender deer.
But you are right about inbreeding when the old stag stays around too long and begins breeding with his daughters and granddaughters.
That’s interesting, haven’t heard that argument before. But how does that explain deer thriving for eons before mankind arrived? Thanks for the response to you and Samm, you have both been polite about all this and as I have said, I am not a hunter and don’t understand a lot of this.
I am a fairly good shot, too, which is sort of a shame. But I couldn’t bear to kill an animal in the wild. To each his or her own.
Dozens of different aspects to it. Different strokes for different hunters. It all comes together in the form of managing the creatures occupying our land.
They thrived and crashed and thrived and crashed before us, but now we’re here, and we have land and resources to manage.
There is no waste in nature.
conan
234
Actually there are about 10 times whitetail now then before white man arrived.
Samm
235
Thriving is a relative term. Historically, before mankind arrived and interfered with nature, wildlife populations fluctuated wildly (no pun intended.) The relationship between food and population when not managed can still be seen today in animals like rabbits and small predators. Most of the non-managed animal populations connected by predator/prey relationships go through regular cycles of boom and bust.
Samm
236
Which is way too many. Those areas that are overrun by deer also have virtually no predation except by automobile. What well managed areas have it both more deer (or elk or moose or whatever) and more predators.
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I can vouch for that.
White tail where I live are out of control.
At least once or twice per week, I’m dodging a deer. I drive 20mph slower going home on night shift than I do during the day shift.
I’ve hit three in the past five years. Twice in my old car and once in my new car.
Hell I need to become a hunter. I literally watch deer walk across the field almost every night. I’ve even walked out on my back porch and saw several just standing in my back yard. Multiple nights in a week. I’ve never had an interest in hunting but they are making it almost too tempting.
Plus all the fresh tracks. My backyard isn’t fully grown in yet (where I placed my trailer was recently just woods) and I can see fresh tracks almost every night.
Samm
238
The ironic thing is that in most of those overrun by deer areas, the average person would be aghast if they saw you shoot a deer and they would be even more aghast if predators were reintroduced and one of them ate Fido.
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conan
239
Venison is good protein source. Corn fed deer are much better eating IMO then beef.
Mule deer out here…screw that. Giver me corn fed whitetail any day.
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Wolf hunting is illegal on multiple levels in Pennsylvania:
Man hasn’t been so good at cleaning up messes.
conan
244
LOL…yeah OK. Heavy forest wouldn’t provide the fed necessary to support present day herd.
So much for liberal science.
Samm
245
Did you have a point there?
