Is it intelligence, awareness, instinct or just plain survival? Sometimes I wonder if game animals have access to our hunting season dates or just know when to come out. I like to consider myself a seasoned hunter but there are times when I go several weeks without harvesting.
This past fall I had an amazing waterfowl season but did not harvest a single grouse and now the season is closed as of January 15th, 2013. Two weekends ago, I went snowshoe hare hunting and saw tons of tracks but not one hare, yet on the same hunting grounds; I saw three grouse within twenty meters of me.
When I am out hunting at the farm and we notice the wild turkeys roaming the far hills to the west and I point out a large male. My friend says yes, “He is about five years old”; I can tell you, I have a tremendous amount of respect for that turkey. This means that he has survived at least four hunting seasons, predation, disease, competition, the elements, motor vehicles and everything which Mother Nature throws at him.
I will continue my lifelong quest to learn as much as I can about the game animals that we hunt and I hope I will live and share many more beautiful hunts but there is one thing which is certain and that is life will continue its course long after I am gone and nature will have its way.
There are secrets hidden deep within nature which we will never uncover, I know a hunter who has been going to the same hunting grounds for several years now and he knows of a majestic buck who roams this territory yet they are unable to harvest him. He only comes out at night, when hunters have long gone and during the day he is like a ghost in the woods.
There is one thing I have learned about hunting crows and pigeons, and that is they are able to identify my habits and who I am because as soon as I show up at the farm they fly away. The only way I can harvest one is if I break my routine and arrive earlier or later, disrupt my hunting pattern. Instead of preparing my hunting kit and heading out right away for the hunt, I walk around the farm and pretend to do farming activities, walk toward the cattle and sit by the fence and talk. This usually allows them to relax and behave like they normally do when I am not around.
We like to consider ourselves the most intelligent life form on earth, and yet we cannot speak with animals which may allow them to challenge this notion, but who is to say they don’t think the same. Do they know?
Canadian Small Game Hunter's Blog 