Antlers and hide patterns aren't just for show. Each and every living thing in the wilderness is fighting to survive. Everything from the oldest bull elk to the youngest, tiniest flower is fighting an uphill battle of survival. While there are no words to truly express the beauty of the wilderness, one must understand that the wilderness is only beautiful because adversity makes it so.
When you look closely at the unpolished antlers or horns of wild animals, you will see that they're full of scars, scratches, breaks, and other imperfections. The sole purpose of those antlers and horns is to help the bearer defend himself. If you spend enough time in the wilderness, especially during the rutting season, you will hear sudden loud cracks echoing between the mountains and valleys. Those sounds typically belong to two bucks or bulls battling it out. But if you hear those cracks above your head, you’re probably dead. Cougars and black bears love hanging out in trees!
The rut turns brother against brother, father against son, as they battle to the death for breeding rights. I've personally witnessed some intense rutting battles between pronghorn antelope bucks. The horns on pronghorn antelope are actually made out of hair that is just really thick and strong. Their horns are made of the same stuff as our fingernails. When their heads collide, you don't hear the same cracks and snaps as you'll hear when two deer or elk go at each other. Instead, you'll only see the event.
Pronghorn almost never make any noise, and personally, I haven't heard them call or squeak or anything. However, seeing them battling it out is unforgettable despite there being almost no noise involved. There is no mercy in the fight. They will only stop when one runs away or dies. Sometimes, their horns lock up, they get stuck, and they both die, usually by starving to death, but sometimes predators will move in on the helpless bucks and finish the fight for them. This happens more often with deer and elk, but it isn’t unheard of among pronghorn.
Every pair of antlers has been involved in a rutting fight at least once in their history, and thus have a story. Even though deer, elk, and pronghorn all shed their antlers every year, they use those antlers throughout the year to survive. The older the animal, the bigger their antlers are, and the more rutting fights they get into.
As a buck or a bull ages, he becomes more and more dominant. Even when he can no longer breed his does, he still protects his herd with his life. Often times, these bucks and bulls become problem animals, because they kill and chase away any and every younger bull and buck that tries to breed with one of his does. In fact, this behavior can be seriously detrimental to the health and population of an entire species, if left unchecked. The oldest bulls get to be so big that not even bears, cougars, or packs of wolves can take them down. Only old age, disease, and the cold can take them down, which could take years, because those beasts are built to survive the harshest climates imaginable.
Oftentimes, the survival of a species falls on the shoulders of us. As hunters and huntresses, we are the ultimate gate keepers of the wilderness, and we determine what gets to live and what has to die, in order to make sure the ecosystem as a whole survives. We rely on the ecosystems around us just as much as any wild animal. If the ecosystem dies, so do we.
Thankfully, the vast majority of hunters love the wilderness and wildlife, and want to see them survive for eternity. Hunters work closely with wildlife biologists to determine how many animals should be hunted that season, and if there are any problem animals that should be prioritized. From there, hunters apply for tags and enter a lottery. Whether or not hunters get a tag depends on what, where, and when they apply. If a hunter doesn’t successfully draw a tag the first time, they’ll get a preference point, which basically means they get to be entered into the lottery twice instead of just once. They’ll get another preference point each time they fail to draw a tag, until their name is finally drawn for a tag.
Wild animals technically belong to the public, so a tag represents an animal a hunter has purchased to hunt. Once their name is drawn, the hunter still has to pay for the tag. Some tags are as cheap as $5, and others are as expensive as $600,000, depending on the species, sex, and region of the animal the hunter is hunting. These tags don’t usually single out a single specific animal, but rather specifies a region, species, sex, and season of an animal. For instance, if a tag says “Pronghorn, Doe, Rifle, Unit 9, Season Dates: 10/6 - 10/13”, that means the tag is for a pronghorn doe, using a rifle, in region (unit) 9, and the season is a week long. There are other things that go on the tag, such as the hunter’s basic personal information, signature, license fees, and hunt code. Hunting seasons are split up into smaller, more specific seasons. For instance, a four week hunting season will allow bow hunters only the first week, rifle hunters only the second week, and then the next two weeks will allow both bow and rifle hunters.
Hunting seasons often depend on the region and number of animals running around. Wildlife biologists only permit so many tags, as to not stress or wipe out a population. Sometimes, if the wildlife is pretty scarce, a season will only last a weekend, if it’s allowed at all. However, sometimes there are so many animals running around, that wildlife biologists open up the season to all year round without any tags, until the number of animals in a specific region is reasonable for the wilderness to take care of.
This close relationship between hunters and wildlife biologists ensure that the wilderness remains alive and thriving. Without hunters, wildlife and wilderness often suffer, and animals become a danger to themselves and others. And, as strange as it sounds, hunters prevent animal species from going extinct, because they fund huge game reserves which breed endangered species, many of which are released back into the wild. Sure, these game reserves still offer year-round hunts for wealthy hunters, but these game reserves have raised enough money and bred enough animals thanks to those hunters, to release plenty of endangered animals back into the wild. Thanks to these high-fenced hunting grounds, many species of wildlife have been reintroduced to their native lands, and even taken off the endangered list.
Hunting is pretty amazing for wildlife and wilderness, and that should be recognized and praised rather than ignored and stomped on. Hunting is so much more than just killing animals. Basically, one animal dies, so tens or even hundreds more can live. It’s a weird concept to understand, but it’s the truth.
