Critter News

OCTOBER 16, 2009

Several pieces express Twain’s contempt for the idea of hunting for sport, including a memorable passage from a sequel to Huckleberry Finn in which Huck shoots a bird and feels immediate remorse and shame (“Huck Shoots a Bird”). Interesting. The book also contains writings by Twain against vivisection.

Animal Cruelty 100

Animal Cruelty Cruelty Vivisection Animal 100

4 The Love Of Animals

DECEMBER 6, 2010

An entire lion pride battles a large buffalo to down the beast. Leopards creep from the bushes to hunt and retreat into the trees before falling prey to larger killers. Yes, you read that right, this has been 30 years in the making, and you don’t want to miss it! A blood feud erupts when scavenging hyenas move in on the kill.

Cats 100

Cats Leopards Lions Botswana 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2015

Well-travelled birders will recognise Cattle Egrets following the steps of hippo or African Buffalo , and Black-crowned Night Herons , but more African species occur in the form of the massive Goliath Heron , the smaller Squacco Heron , and the highly distinctive Black Egret , famous for creating a canopy with its wings to hunt small fish.

Botswana 162

Botswana Lesotho Elephants Bald Eagle 162

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 14, 2012

After breeding they also disperse over the rainforests and savannas of West and Central Africa, where they hunt for aerial insects. The most accessible site is Samburu/Buffalo Springs in Kenya, but the bulk of its range is in remote and dangerous zones of south-eastern Ethiopia and Somalia.

Africa 266

Africa Gabon Uganda South Africa 266

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2015

These vast and rugged lands of savanna, hills, gorges and rivers still protect some of Ethiopia’s largest extant herds of typical African savanna game, including African Elephant, African Buffalo, Giraffe, Lion, Leopard, African Wild Dog and numerous species of grazers. Yellow-billed Stork.

Ethiopia 255

Ethiopia Sudan Leopards Cattle 255

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2013

My post last week where I defended game hunting as a conservation tool has, unaccountably, encountered a certain amount of push back. Who would have thought that a post defending hunting game in general would have not been universally acclaimed? I will address two of them in the new year, namely, “Is hunting moral at all?”

Tigers 210

Tigers Hunting Game Iraq 210

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

The Big Five–Lion, Leopard, African Buffalo, African Elephant and Rhinoceros–were historically the main mammal attraction of Kruger. Thankfully, as the authors note, this focus on animals to hunt has given way to visitors’ fascination with a range of creatures.).

Rhinos 252

Rhinos Animal Mammals White Rhinos 252

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

The answer should be obvious to anyone familiar with wildfowl hunting in the US and the film Jerry McGuire – money. If you want to have the “thrill” of shooting a wild lion (not a canned hunt), well, you’re going to need a lot of land to sustain those lions. Managing areas for hunting does exactly that.

Lions 218

Lions Killing Hunting Hunters 218

10,000 Birds

JULY 28, 2022

Logging roads have opened up vast areas to commercial hunting, leading to industrial-scale poaching and a more than 60 per cent drop in the region’s Forest Elephant population in less than a decade. Mammals include Western Lowland Gorilla, Forest Elephant and Forest Buffalo, and eleven diurnal primates.

Central African Republic 317

Central African Republic Congo Gabon Gorillas 317

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2019

John James Audubon first heard the sparrow in July, 1944, on a buffalo hunt in North Dakota. Baird’s Sparrows are true prairie birds, and their population is declining as their grassland habitat is cultivated for agriculture. It has always been a difficult bird to find, even when abundant.

2018 200

2018 Michigan North Dakota New Jersey 200

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

Hunting: You may have noticed that the Written Species Accounts include a section on hunting. I am a city girl and until I became a birder my contact with hunting was limited to occasionally seeing dead deer on the tops of cars in upstate New York. So–not a fan of hunting. I was really taken aback when I saw this.

Ducks 160

Ducks Geese North America Hunters 160