Thesis written in connection with the elective course Ecology / Wildlife

by veterinary student Rita Brendryen

6th semester, English course

2003

About hunting and wildlife

The popularity of wildlife and hunting is increasing in Norway.

People are more and more concerning about their lifestyle next to that they have more spare time and holidays today than few years ago. Another factor is that people in general have more money to spend to increase the quality in their lives by spending some more time in the nature, by doing their hobbies or maybe realizing a dream they have had for a longer time; to be a hunter.. A trend seen in Norway is that some people get fed up of living in the big cities and the hustle and bustle. Instead, they move to live in the countryside and smaller places, maybe even buying a farm. Many of them wish to take part in whatever the “natives” are doing, very often hunting and fishing.

More and more women are taking the licence for hunting in Norway and it is not anymore a “requirement” to have a hunter as a member of the family to go hunting themselves.

Going hunting gives an excellent experience of nature, gives the exciting feeling of being a “predator” and fill up the deep freezer with a lot of delicious pieces of meat for the winter storage!

Those factors tells us that the number of people going hunting in Norway is increasing gradually. My question in this thesis will be as follows:

“How can the nature cope with the fact that more wild animals will be killed?”

It is a matter of fact that we and the nature not will make it easier for the wild animals to propagate in the future. More houses are built, large areas of forests will be depleted in order to provide woods for buildings and paper. Some new areas for pastures and cropping will be made, pollution... The decreasing area of untouched nature will make the competition in feeding, mating and survival harder amongst the wild animals. There are however strict rules made by the Government of how the nature should be handled and taken care of. The use of motor vehicles (snow scooters, motorbikes, forestry machines etc) in the nature are highly restricted, sometimes in special times of the year often connected with periods when the wild animals are especially vulnerable. Farmers and owners of forests are not allowed to take unlimited amounts of timber out from the forests, esp. in areas of certain heights above the sea level. Roads, buildings and parts of buildings cannot be made without special permissions, and so on. People are instead encouraged to do attempts and efforts hat will help the wild animals to survive and propagate, often in form of financial and economic subsidies or contributions granted by the Government. It is easy to understand that taking care of wildlife not is a directly profitable business for those who perform it!

Some of those efforts I want to discuss here. ( Some are already mentioned above!).

Some of he most popular species of wild animals in Norway are: The elk, the reindeer, the roe-deer, the deer / hart / stag, the hare and the large birds, like the grouse in the mountain areas and the black grouse and the zool (capercailzie / wood grouse). It is important to mention that those animals are mainly hunted for the meat. Many other species like foxes, martens, beaver, minks, stoats ( in winter coat called ermine) etc. are hunted for their skin or for necessary assesses of the populations.

Also larger predators like the bear, the wolf, the lynx, the eagle and the glutton or the wolverine are hunted, but this is even more restricted and only when the Government gives special permissions for it. This is a huge problematic question by itself in Norway, where the owners of domestic animals are involved, especially the sheep owners.

Most of all the species can only be hunted in certain times of the year depending of their breeding season. The hunting of the largest animals starts at the end of August and last till the end of October, earlier for reindeer and later for elk, with some overlapping in the middle of the period. This is when the mating period has started. The hunting period of hare starts in the beginning of October and lasts until the end of February, only abrupt of some “red” days, like Christmas Day and first of January.

All the hunters have to pay a certain amount of money to go hunting depending if they own the area by themselves or if the State owns it. First of all they have to pay a hunting fee on about 300 Norwegian kroner (crowns) which is about 10000 HUF. Then, after the animal is shot, the control weighing of the carcass is done and the hunters pay around 70 NOK per kilo meat, around 2100 HUF. Everybody, except the wealthiest ones off course, agree that hunting is expensive but it is absolutely worth it due to nice experiences and the social arrangement around it. The hunting is absolutely necessary for regulations of the populations.

Reindeer are usually hunted singly, but for the elk hunting they are usually hunting in groups, or teams which are shearing the outcome. The prizes will ensure that the populations have a safe future because some of the money will be used for different attempts in advantage for the animals.

For hunting of elk and reindeer the hunters have to pass a shooting test prior to each hunting period. For the hunting of the smaller animals and birds it is only necessary to have the general hunting course done once, then pay the fee and a “passport” for hunting in a certain area, The prize vary depending on if you are hunting with a hunting dog or not and the size of the area, all from 10000 HUF to 60000HUF.

There are quota systems used to ensure that not unlimited animals will be taken out from the population. Those quotas are based on how many animals were shot

last year and observations made during the whole year. This ensure a large, healthy and strong population that are suitable for the amount of nature existing. The quota will be distributed amongst the hunters that applied for hunting approximately half a year before the hunting starts. Not all the appliers can expect to receive a permission simply because there are more hunters than animals available and the inhabitants of the local council have the priority.

There are some few but sometimes very important things mainly farmers are doing so that higher numbers of animals will survive. A good example on that is feeding of the roe-deers during the winter which can be hard and tough for those small animals especially if it is a long winter with a lot of snow. It might be very difficult to find food. The roe-deer can eat a lot of things, like potatoes, carrots, some grains and other residues. The most common foodstuff used is silage and hay. The feed must be of good quality, no moulds and no contamination of plastics and other foreign bodies. The roe-deers can be sensitive for such factors. The doe goes pregnant the whole cold season but only in the last few weeks the fetus start to grow and it is important that the dam has gained some storage of fat and other nutrients on her body. The worst thing one can ever do is to start feeding before Christmas but suddenly stop the supplementation in February or the early spring. The roe-deers will be used to come and for a period forget how to find food by themselves and a terrible death may follow.

It is important that the access to the food must be made as easy and safe as possible for the animals. No dangerous gates and barbed wired fences that might hurt the animals should exist. The feed should be placed either on the ground or on special- made fodder automates, not too close to the peoples residence. The feeding place should not be further away from the forest than the animal easily can run and hide if they feel threatened. Some people have a great pleasure of sitting by the window watching the animals out in the fields. Obviously the animals will not be as shy as the animals that are not fed by humans, but this might protect them from predators like the wolves.

The predators are a huge problem not only for the sheep farmers but also a huge threat for the wild vegetarian animals. It is an increasing problem because some of the predators have not been hunted at for generations because there has been totally preservation the last decades. The predators natural instinct of the danger of human beings are decreasing besides that there are larger numbers of them.

An other huge threat for the wild animals, especially the elk, is the traffic by vehicles and trains. There are huge areas of more or less untouched nature in Norway, where the roads necessarily have to go. Road signs with the elk on them do not help too much, besides those are very interesting souvenir objects for the tourists...

The animals will jump so suddenly into the road from the forests that it is almost impossible to stop the car in time, especially if it is dark and the road is icy and the vehicle is a heavy truck. The collision results in terrible damages to people and cars and huge losses in the animal populations.

Not to speak about the cruelty of the situations where the elk is hurt but manage to escape into the forest with a broken leg or with severe damage to vital organs of the body. The best is when a veterinarian or an other person are able to arrive in time to put the animal to death. Some parts of the carcass might be useful as food, but anyway, this is not the way we want to regulate our stocks of game!

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Well, this is the forth page so I better have to stop writing now, otherwise this will be too long and boring to read. The reader will probably understand that it is possible to discuss such things for ages and that I have many other interesting things I could mention. I think I have covered some of the most important aspects of what was my question to discuss.

As a kind of a conclusion I can say that the nature not anymore are able to cope to big changes all by itself. For a long time the human beings have taken the control over the nature, then it is also in our responsibility to keep the nature in balance as best as we can. To use our knowledge about the nature the best way to ensure the correct management so that future generations can be happy about a healthy planet with many healthy populations of animals and a great variability and diversity! We have to understand everything about animals and how they fits into ecological systems and all the connections between animals and the environment, and the connections between the animals and animals - us included!

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The sources are taken from my agronomist education I obtained at the Agricultural Highschool the years from 1993 to 1996 in Alvdal, Norway.

Budapest, May 7, 2003

Rita Brendryen