North American Bear Hunting
Artifact Links:
https://www.outdoorlife.com/articles/hunting/2015/05/tips-and-tactics-how-hunt-black-bears
Artifact Annotations and Discourse Analysis:
1.)
Hunters deciding which animals to hunt. Depending on animals diet, meat and fat can vary in taste— In Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, black bears grow fat on a diet of berries and fish. Along the spine of the Rockies, they gorge on yarrow roots and elk calves.
Evaluating hunting motivations— If bears are our most opportunistic foragers, we are their most relentless predators. We tend to think the worst of a bear. It’s going to break into our home. It’s going to kill our livestock. It’s going to eat our dog’s food. It’s going to maul our children. Yes, black bears will do all those things, but it’s the rogue specimen that intrudes on our settled world. Most black bears exist on our periphery without causing a spectacle or a problem.
Technicalities of bear hunt (spot and stalk) —
To stalk a bear is to employ every hunting skill you possess. You must play the wind, as black bears have prodigiously sharp noses. You must walk silently, as their triangular ears are keen and stereophonic. You may fool a bear’s myopic sight, but if its other senses detect your approach, you won’t get close to these remarkably adaptable, hardy, and savvy animals.
Initial Discourse Understanding:
In May 2018 I will be headed to Montana with my father where we will be hunting Black Bear. Hunting is practice globally and is as old as mankind itself. The practice can vary from hunting small games such as squirrels and other small varmint, to bear, elk, and other several hundred pound species. Hunting “big game” is a common place practice in the midwestern United States, for example; Montana, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming. Small game hunting takes place consistency throughout all 48 contiguous of the Unites States. There are many methods to procure an animal during a hunt. Some of these methods would be, using a tree stand, using a deer/duck blind, and spot and stalk.
For my discourse I will be focusing specifically on spot and stalk hunts for big game species in the midwestern Unites States. The process begins by traveling to your hunting region by plane, boat, or car/truck. The harsh topography of the midwest makes it nearly impossible to drive into hunting grounds due to waterways, mountains and valleys. Paradoxal to what one might think, taking a seaplane that is capable of landing on water can actually be one of the best ways to get as close as possible to your hunting grounds by landing on small bodies of remote water. Traveling by boat on rivers through areas of dense vegetation or valleys is also another means of getting as close as possible.
Big game hunting trips span anywhere from three to ten days. Which is longer than hunts for smaller game. When packing out (gathering all your gear and traveling with it to your hunting grounds), a hunter must keep in mind all the gear and amenities needed to sustain life. Examples of some of this gear include; rifle or bow, spare bullets or bows, several layers of clean and spare clothing, freeze dried prepared food, tent, sleeping bag, stove kit, emergency satellite phone, maps, binoculars, range finder.
The area in which you are going to be hunting is typically decided in advance, and further more a specific base camp at the center of that hunting region will be established. Choosing a spot to setup camp is a very important decision. Often setting up near water is best as it can offer water for drinking, bathing and cleaning utilities. When deciding where to setup camp it is important to not put yourself in harms way, like in a floodplain, falling rock areas, or an at risk avalanche zone.
Once you have arrived and setup camp, depending on the time of day you will either get ready to settle in for the night or go out and examine the region for the species you are hunting. It is very common for states to bar you from hunting on the same day you travel to and arrive at your location. The law eludes to the idea that if you are flying into a region by plane, or even driving or boating, that you would be able to examine the presence of animals using a motor vehicle witch gives you an unfair advantage. In a similar thinking process, most states make it illegal to hunt from a vehicle, as it provides and unfair advantage. So now that you have setup camp and are ready to survey the land and the animals that occupy it, you will begin the first stage of a spot and stalk hunt called “glassing”. This is the “spot” part of the spot and stalk hunt. “Glassing” is the action of using binoculars or a spotting scope to seek out the animal your’e hunting. Generally speaking, most big game in the U.S can smell better than humans can see (an evolutionary trait that allows to them hunt prey and keep themselves from being hunted. Thus the glassing stage takes place from a long distance, typically from an opposing mountain and or several hundred yards away. When seeking out animals and starting your hunt, it is important to stay downwind. As previously mentioned, these animals have an unbelievably keen sense of smell. If you are upwind, your scent will be carried downwind and the animal will sense your presence within seconds and evacuate the area.
In deciding on which animal you are going to take (kill and harvest), hunters keep several factors in mind. Most tags are given out to hunt for male members of the species. Ecologist believe it is best to harvest males so that females can live the longest life possible and produce as much offspring as possible. Which is why you will often find a male animal in a heard of females (not a bad life if I might say so myself). In addition to not hunting females, it is often considered wrong to hunt an animal in the presence of it’s offspring, as a newborn or immature offspring would have little chance of survival if they lose their parent. More often than not, offspring travel with their mothers, so if you see an animal by itself, more likely than not it is a male. Furthermore, when you have spotted a singular male, hunters will decide depending on the species how mature the animal is. Hunting tags allow a hunter to kill and harvest one animal, so in an entire 12 month season, you are allowed one animal. So, hunters will try to take the largest animal possible. This way, you get the most meat, fat, and pelt as possible. Another reason to take a mature animal is because that animal is getting towards the end of it life, and removing it from the region would provide more resources for younger animals and the species has a better chance of continuing to evolve. Once you have decided on an animal and you are going to move in for the kill, you have entered the “stalk” phase of the hunt.
When a hunter moves to take (kill) the animal there are several practices and methods that are considered necessary to make the action humane and respectful to the animal. The first and foremost of these practices is to only take a shot if it going to be deadly and kill the animal quickly and painlessly as possible, This is done by aiming to shoot the heart and lungs of the animal. On almost all quadrupedal animals these vital organs are located directly behind the front legs. Shooting the animal elsewhere would be inhumane as the animals would die slowly and painfully or the animal does not die at all and continues to live on severally injured. Furthermore, most hunters consider an optimal kill one in which the animal does not know the hunter is in the area. That way the animal is under much less stress and the process is quicker and more humane. Once you have shot the animal, it is considered respectful towards the animal to not approach the animal and allow it to pass and die in a quiet solitary state. In addition, another reason hunters will not approach an animal they recently shot is that the animal may not be dead yet. If a hunter approaches a wounded animal they recently shot, the animal may be a threat to the hunter.
