Teenage Big Game Hunter...

Some turkey majesty.

Much color.


Very shine.


So wow.

very nice ocellated turkeys Romy.

this is a common misconception. first many large predators have recovered nicely or where never endangered, but because they are covered by the CITES treaty people think they are. additionally because threatened and endangered status is give based on total population density within HISTORIC range, which includes large tracts of agricultural land and suburbs that didn't exist 50 years ago, a species may be listed as endangered when in fact their numbers are too high for existing range. so in reality the animals' populations need to be controlled. on the original topic, it is my understanding that the lion she shot was a nuisance lion that needed removed.

the problem arises when a person "moral compass" is based SOLELY on their feeling and not on logic and necessity and without flexibility. logically and emotionally, when a guy climbs a clock tower in Austin with a scoped rifle and starts shooting random people, that's wrong. but using logic, necessity and flexibility, put the same guy on a mountain top in Afghanistan shooting Taliban leaders and he is a hero. however some people are so adamant in their FEELINGS against killing people that they consider both equally bad, regardless of the lives saved by the second killing. this is the moral stance of most PETAphiles in regards to hunting.
you know how sometimes you have to kill one siamese twin in order to save the other, well that is wildlife management in a nut shell. animals don't take plan b, they can't put on condoms and they absolutely will NOT stop making babies, so in order to "intelligently" support a total hands off approach a person has to be willing to endorse the morality of allowing animals to suffer through disease outbreaks, malnutrition and slow starvation followed by near total loss of wildlife populations when they crash.
the problem with PETAphiles is that despite more than a century of observed effects, they refuse to accept the reality of their feelings and accept the logic of necessity and flexibility.

now lets look at this logically.
i can spend scarce tax dollars to pay a half dozen local guys to kill hundreds of animals each every year to maintain a balance with the carrying capacity of the land based on area and rainfall, AND to pay low salaries to game wardens to guard the unculled wildlife. and because the hunters doing the cull are not supported by infrastructure some of the meat will go bad before people can get to it to recover.
OTH i can have the govt charge THOUSANDS of people hundreds to thousands of dollars for the privilege of culling the excess wildlife. AND those half dozen guys can make a living as guides or professional hunters being paid an additional hundreds to thousands of dollars. And these non local hunters WILL buy local trinkets and junk for souvenirs to take home to the family. and all of this incoming cash will support the creation of infrastructure to bring OTHER business to the area. and if the hunter wants some of the meat i can have the govt require him to buy it from the village that "owns" the meatonce it is shot. so in this case we have wealth being transferred from a wealthier country and it's citizens to a larger cross section of the local citizens.
so using LOGIC, which method of management is going to provide the largest number of people with a net benefit?

Some day I hope the price drops below $4,000 for a sexed pair. That on top of the CITES permits is a wallet killer. While I'm cool with hunting, it does get me to see dudes posing with all kinds of dead ones they legally hunted in central america but I can't own live ones without a bajillion legal hoops.

Ah bureaucracy.

That's what I thought I had read too. But couldn't find it again, and that's why she said she had to stalk him, she was told specifically which lion she could hunt.

I think I read that he was also trying to kill cubs when he had the chance. People are always like "killing animals to save them... you're an idiot"... well if you use your BRAIN just a little bit. 5 lion cubs vs one male lion. 5 dead lion cubs or 1 dead male lion? hmmmm can you do the math? lol

I believe that it's human populations in and around historic animal habitats that need to be controlled ... not the poor animals who were there first.

in theory that sounds great but exactly HOW do you propose to do that without doing something truly horrific? and keep in mind the BULK of the land people use is for agriculture.

crazy idea, but what if you worked out a deal with a hunting preserve? they buy the stock and you raise and breed it so they can stock the preserve.

That's an idea! I don't think you can legally hunt them in the US, but maybe their status has changed. It seems like the biggest legal hurdle/expense is transporting them across state lines.

Which is totally weird because you can buy a captive bred indigo snake which are protected under cites and it only costs $100 for the permit to take them across state lines, and you only need to get a permit once to be able to bring more home in the future.

that's because we don't have large commercial snake meat farms that could be financially wiped out by a sick indigo snake crossing boundaries.

if you can legally bring back the birds for mounting, then you can probably legally hunt stocked birds.

The blue indigo snake is a protected species here and I believe that you need a permit to hunt rattlesnake also Herr I believe because they were almost wiped out by hunters.

thats why most of the round ups are now catch & release. they bring them in & milk them for the venom before putting them back.

I thought it was ironic considering this thread, but today I caught this Thresher Shark.

I was very excited and happy about it. He fought HARD, but I brought him in anyway. I was really thrilled with catching and bringing him in. Ultimately I decided to release him, much to the disappointment of the people I was boating with. They are apparently the tastiest of the sharks, and also the hardest to catch.

My reasons for releasing it isn't anything noble, I just like sharks and it's such a rare catch that just the experience was enough to make me happy. It is swimming freely now.

I don't particularly care that other people keep them and eat them, it's just not for me.



Pic taken on my cell phone so quality is poor.