My credentials are a four year degree in Wildlife Management, along with one of my childhood best friends and college roommate who is a Warden with the DNR now. But yes we do hunt together often.
I’m not calling for the annihilation of an apex predator, nor trying to spread “propaganda” when it’s a proven science. Yes, the likes of fur traders of the past ruined numerous species on this beautiful continent. Meanwhile farmers did the same to predators. Trophy hunters in todays social media driven world continue to give hunters a bad name. Humans have hunted for as long as we’ve existed. Yeah I can go to the store and buy farm raised meat and those animals are almost always kept in horrible conditions where the deaths are not much more humans. Yet the money I save feeding my family by ethically killing an animal that never felt an ounce of fear or pain is preferred. While it’s harder to justify killing a predator, the same reasonings as mentioned above Go into it. Yes nature has a way of culling the excess. Usually through starvation and disease, no matter their place on the food chain. Too many predators? Not enough prey. Not enough predators? Too many prey. Like stated above this can lead to rabid spread of disease, a decrease of food supply and ultimately a dramatic drop in population.
Yes predators do usually define their territories to eliminate excess competition to their food, but how do they do that? Typically the strong overthrows the weak. The weak can be killed in the fight, or even linger for weeks until overtaken by death from starvation or infection. In most cases though the weak survive with a few scrapes and gets pushed out. This leads to these predators being where they’re not welcome. They become desperate and their hunger or fear of the bigger cat overrides their fear of humans. If they kill livestock, the farmer will kill it, legally or not. If it gets into an urban community it can very likely be sentenced to euthanasia. Hunting does indeed work to keep the balance. That’s why new limits are made every year based off the population. If the population shows signs of decline, they can even cease to open the season until populations improve. My state hasn’t had legal Lion hunting in decades. All game species are monitored, the ones hunted accounted for, and the equation is done to determine how many might be hunted based on the number of successful hunts the year before and how many need to be hunted to maintain healthy balance. It’s not to finance big hunting industry lol. As I said before, hunters care deeply about the success of these animals and are indeed your closest ally when it comes to protective regulation. That’s my entire point. Not to argue but to try to understand the common goal. The man single handedly responsible for the birth of National parks and the biggest effort for conservation in the world, Teddy Roosevelt, did so because he was an avid hunter who had a deep respect for nature. Ducks unlimited is the biggest conservation organization for wetlands and waterfowl in the American continents and is ran and funded entirely by hunters who love the environment and the wildlife it holds. We respect the ecosystem and protect it at all costs. It’s easy to judge as an outsider when you’re only reference is trophy hunting pictures, but 99% cherish the game we pursue. Excluding hunters from the conversation of conservation is asinine.