Reply #57: A note on "trophy" hunting. While I agree that the obsession to get [View All]

[SteveM]

big horns has little effect on population control (except indirectly by the funds paid being plowed back into well-managed lands, public and private), there is little to be concerned about as to the detrimental effects on population control of deer. John Wootters in Hunting Trophy Deer, Winchester Press, 1977, points out that large antlered deer are few in number and have already spread their seed promiscuously during their lives. Consequently, they have become genetically spent and cannot re-produce any longer. They DO continue to consume a large portion of their habitat to the detriment of other deer and wildlife.

In fact, shooting smaller, younger "non-trophy" bucks, he points out, is far more detrimental since these deer have no chance to add to the "pool." He advocates trophy hunting, doe hunting (the best hunting strategy to stem overpopulation)and the killing of "spike" bucks, since research shows the latter to be of inferior genetic make-up.

As for me, I've never had a chance at a "trophy." But I have shot numerous does and a spike or two. Also, I have taken an Axis, an exotic from India that now roams the Nueces River Valley of Texas and elsewhere in the Hill Country. The meat of this animals contains .01% fat, making it "legally" fat-free.