Last Of The Tasmanian Devils?


I grew up a hunter. One of my fondest memories was learning to shoot a .410 with my Dad and then quail and dove hunting in the Brush Country of South Texas. One of the cardinal rules of hunting was, as my father always said, "never kill something you're not going to eat." I once shot a crow for the hell of it. My punishment was a healthy serving of real crow that evening. I can say I have literally eaten crow. (It's not so good. And the lesson was learned.)

I've hunted deer a few times in life as well, but as I grew older, sitting in a blind above a sendero waiting for a deer to show up and eat the corn below didn't quite seem sporting.

My father and I traveled to a lot of wild places in the US when I was younger, too. One of the joys was seeing the local wildlife. (At the time it was boring, but now I am grateful.) Somewhere along the line I developed a sense of conservation and appreciation for wildlife in its native setting. So I don't hunt now. If I had to, I could, but it seems pointless. I prefer to watch nature in all its glory. And that's what makes stories like this all the more heartbreaking.

I have seen a badger, ferocious but cute critters that they are. And I saw a mongoose in India. But I doubt I'll ever see a Tasmanian Devil in the wild.

Sometimes I think that if more people grew up hunting they might well appreciate nature's bounty even more. I know this may sound odd, but there is a strange communion between the hunted and the hunter at the time of death. I don't know why this is, but I was always grateful for the animal's sacrifice and the food it provided. It seems that appreciation is lost on we moderns. More is the pity.


Sean Paul Kelley November 16, 2009 - 12:09pm
( categories: Endangered Species )

For the most part, hunters and fishermen i've known are also the most committed conservationists i've known too. People who get out and actually use--that is, interact with--nature value it...not necessarily more, but certainly differently.

One of Michael Pollan's books ends up being a treatise on environmentalism from the point of view of a gardener. (A fine read, sorry, can't remember the name) It's much the same situation. The serious--as in trying to accomplish something--interaction with the natural world has the ability to shift perspectives.

Trying to make nature into some sort of wild museum is almost as dangerous as pillaging it wantonly; both stem from a misguided belief that we humans are somehow outside of nature.

And, yes, that's a heartbreaking story.

Lex November 16, 2009 - 1:04pm

Since we have exterminated deer's natural predators that has become our job. When folks talk of "animal rights" I proclaim "plant's rights" referring to the dwindling native plant species due to over-population by deer in our urban forest preserves. I also propose a knife-hunting deer season here in Chicago. We have plenty of long distance runners that could run down a deer.

After I killed a ratte-snake I experienced great sadness over the ease of the "kill". I was walking with some friend's kids near their house. We came upon a rattler by a trail. I asked what their parents did and they said kill it with a hoe. While I kept an eye on the snake the fetched a hoe. It turned out to have but a three foot handle and would have placed me too close to use it against the snake. Instead I grabbed a five pound rock and lobbed it onto the coiled snake. The parents were mad at me for ruining a good snake skin.

Me, I have regretted killing that snake ever since. It was just too easy.

Jeff Wegerson November 16, 2009 - 2:44pm

with you. I once killed a black-tailed rattler on Enchanted Rock. It was very close and I had two large, curious dogs with me. The dogs were both very well trained and would have remained on a sit-stay regardless of the snake. It was me that freaked...I did not command the dogs correctly and ended up with a dead, and fairly rare snake. 99% of the time, the snake only wants to get away. Give it an out, and it will take it. I have been in the outdoors here in Texas all my life and I can count my dangerous snake encounters on two hands...only two snake casualties.

______________________________________________________
Distrust anyone who wants to teach you something.

OldLakeRat November 16, 2009 - 6:16pm

A girlfriend of mine owns a cottage on an island nearby. One year she had an infestation of rattle snakes inside the walls. She‘s afraid of them, unlike her mother who killed them all. After each kill, her mother would come outside holding a snake up high like a trophy and exclaim: “I killed another one”. And some of those snakes were pregnant too.


Tolerating prostitution is tolerating abuse and torture of women and children.

adrena November 16, 2009 - 7:35pm

I would nuke the suckers. My space? No poisonous snakes. Their space? Give them the chance to retreat...

______________________________________________________
Distrust anyone who wants to teach you something.

OldLakeRat November 16, 2009 - 7:50pm

How long would that take? Remember this is Canada. The snakes must have been hibernating in the walls during winter. My girlfriend goes back to the cottage at the beginning of April when a wood stove provides sufficient heat. There's no way she would be willing to share her sanctuary with a bunch of slithering snakes. She's lucky to have a mother who's not afraid of those reptiles. However, this was only a one time plague - the snakes haven't been back since her cottage has been properly insulated.


Tolerating prostitution is tolerating abuse and torture of women and children.

adrena November 16, 2009 - 9:39pm

the walls, floors, crawl-spaces, chicken coops, etc. to be "my space". Nuked with prejudice. "Their space" would be the woods...natural habitat away from humans'(or chiggens) domicile.

____________________________________________________
Distrust anyone who wants to teach you something.

OldLakeRat November 17, 2009 - 10:43am

the knife and running thing...kind of laughable. I wouldn't want to tangle with a couple of the big bucks up at our lake place. Those horns can do some damage. Urban bow-hunting...I could support that.

_____________________________________________________
Distrust anyone who wants to teach you something.

OldLakeRat November 16, 2009 - 6:20pm

we just aim for the "urban" (does 20,000 count as the big shitty?) deer with a truck. Rule is that if you hit it you can keep it...and the insurance will fix the vehicle. Not pretty, and most people don't actually do it, but i know some who do.

Lex November 16, 2009 - 6:28pm

to agree with Lex on the point of hunting and conservation. Gone are the days of "shooting your limit", common in the 60's and 70's here in Texas. My family are meat hunters. Like SP's dad, we teach, and were taught, only to kill what we will eat. Granted, there are some mitigating circumstances when we will pop a coyote...but we don't go looking for a kill. I have friends that hunt hogs with dog packs for a price per head...and then just leave the carcasses for buzzards, et. al. To me that is quite a waste. I understand why this practice is common (eh, Don?) but again, I think it's terribly wasteful. We also hunt and trap hogs, but we eat them. There is an imbalance in the ecosystem that is addressed by hunting...hunters are for the most part are providing a valuable service.

_____________________________________________________
Distrust anyone who wants to teach you something.

OldLakeRat November 16, 2009 - 6:51pm

something we'd damned well better take seriously. I have fished since I was about five years old, scared to death as I waded at the edge of a dropoff in one of the big rivers in upstate New York at the bottom of a 300-foot gorge with my Dad. He was nuts to have me doing that then, but since I didn't drown I'm glad he did it. Now I spin fish and fly fish wherever there is clean water, fresh or salt. I always intend to bring home food, whether it turns out that way or not, and when I kill a fish I know I'm killing a being and I express thanks for its feeding me. Nothing fancy or sanctimonious. It's just the reality. Knowing what it feels like to kill is, I think, the very least a flesh-eating person can do, and to me it's a sickness for a society to create the habit of eating dead creatures while shielding people from any experience of the killing. I know some catch-and-release fishermen and women who regard catching-to-eat as inhuman, and I respect the conservation ethic that makes this necessary in some places due to our mistreatment of nature. But to me personally, making fish suffer purely for your own pleasure, when you intend simply to throw them back, is barbaric. I just don't get it. Hunters, I guess, have the advantage of choosing which animals to shoot, while even if I'm stalking a certain fish that I can see, I can't control my sometimes catching a young fish that I need to put back. So it's not a tidy or clean affair, and I admit that. But I do think flesh-eaters' being separated from the reality of animals' deaths is bad. For everyone.

Bruce A Jacobs November 17, 2009 - 2:51am

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