Some Unknown And Interesting Facts About Hunting

As we all know, hunting was the main source of obtaining food in the ancient days when agriculture was yet to be discovered. Hunters used to roam in the wild day in and day out in search of food before they learnt to grow their own food and settled in places where they could grow farms.

In the wake of the above, following are some of the interesting facts related to hunting that many people might not know.

Duck Hunting | Wikimedia Commons

• Statistics prove that regulated hunting actually helps some animal kinds to survive and grow their population.
• In some places like North America, hunters kill animals with the sole purpose of eating their meat and they do not see this as a sport.
• In some countries, hunting certain species of animals is looked upon as a tradition. For example, in the United Kingdom, hunting foxes is an age old tradition. People belonging to the upper class have been considering this as a royal sport for years now.
• Another popular and longer format of hunting is known as Safari. In this type of hunting, a hunter travels for several days or even weeks, in an attempt to pursue big game hunting.
• In some parts of the world, hunting is pursued as a hobby. The hunters often preserve the heads and the other valuable parts of the game as trophies and are sometimes mounted on the walls as showpieces.
• Some places do not allow the use of lead bullets for hunting, because if they miss the target, and land on earth, they can cause pollution.
• Some animal species are on the verge of extinction as they are being hunted illegally only for some parts of their body. These body parts have a great value in the market. Some of the animals that have become vulnerable for such illegal hunting are elephants (for their tusks), American bison (for hides), certain type of deer (for their skin), bears (for gallbladders), tigers (for their skin and nails), white rhinos (for their horns which have a great market value) and in some places, people hunt stags (for their heads, which are often mounted as trophies on walls).

• According to recent statistics, the number of people hunting in America has drastically reduced. According to the stats from US Fish & Wildlife Services, only 5% of Americans call themselves hunters compared to the 9% in 2001 and 15% in 1996.
• According to a survey conducted by Responsive Management Inc., today, the public support for hunting has increased by 5% and is standing at 78% compared to 73% in the year 1995.
• Hunters have been paying billions of dollars in taxes to the government since the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act was passed in 1937.
• Anglers and boat fishers have spent over $3.6 billion in only one year (1952) in the form of taxes.
• People that pursue fishing as a hobby spend approximately % $41.5 billion a year on it. This kind of amount can have a tremendous impact on a country’s economy.
• According to a research, more than $1 billion is being spent on bait every year by anglers.
• An average of $8 million is being contributed by sportsmen and women each day to preserve wildlife.
• According to a survey, hunters, on an average spend $2,500 on hunting every year.
• Teenage girls today are pursuing hunting as a serious sport and thus serving as a catalyst to the hunter market.
• Use of spotting scopes in hunting have increased manifold in recent years.
• Research reveals that today 72% more women are using firearms for hunting compared to 5 years ago.
• Each hunter in America spends an average of 21 days in hunting. That makes it 282 million hunting days per year (all hunters combined) in America.
• Total number of Americans that either hunt or fish is approximately 38 million.
• More than 60,000 jobs in the US are supported by the hunter’s and angler’s market.
• Most of the fish and wildlife conservation programs are being funded by the revenue generated through license sales and excise taxes.
• There are more Americans that hunt compared to those who play baseball.
• Today, compared to growth in sales of other sporting gear, growth in the sales of hunting gear is much faster in America.
• More than 1 billion shotshells are being bought by Americans every year.
• Since 1993, sales of non-resident licenses, tags, stamps and sales of permits have increased by 41.2%.
• As per recent statistics the top three selling sports gear in America are exercise equipment, golf gear followed by hunting gear.

Even today, hunting remains to be the main source of acquiring food for certain groups of people living in forests and remote parts of the world, but for others, it has now become a sport. While many people believe that hunting helps a lot in controlling the wildlife population, there are other groups which believe that hunting is the main cause behind the extinction of rare species. Irrespective of what various groups have to think, ‘regulated hunting’ remains to be legal in most parts of the world.

Author Bio

Eric John is the founder of LifeUnderSky.com. This blog focuses on hunting/shooting/survival. As in his experienced, He will guide you through the Do’s and Don’ts of the hunting world and transform you into a better hunter. Whether you are an experienced hunting or an absolute beginner, you will find a gem!