This question is NOT even remotely a critical one - just want to learn more.
I was listening to the most recent Meat Eater podcast last night and something that I took away from it (if I understood it properly) is that predators (grizz, in particular, as the focus of the cast) don't have a seriously detrimental impact on ungulate population, generally (although, it appears wolves may be the exception, here). I'm paraphrasing and maybe misunderstood...was walking the dog and carrying a heavy pack at the time, so forgive me if I'm wrong.
So my question is essentially "what's the draw to grizzly hunting?" (I've seen a lot of threads lately with people very excited about it)
1. Meat - some people say it's gross. Others say it's taste as good or better than black bear. So if it's not meat, then...?
2. Predator control in an effort to assist ungulate populations - see above. If not that, then...?
3. Pelts - most of us don't wear grizzly skins but I guess several people have rugs. Or have them hung, in some instances. This is something that I would refer to as a "trophy" reason for hunting.
4. It's just cool - shooting a big bear is basically an assertion of dominance over nature. This would also be "trophy" reasoning, to my mind.
5. Revenge - see "The Revenant".
For the people that don't eat the meat, I'm guessing it's mostly #2 with side benefits of 3 & 4, is that right? And then I'm guessing there are several people whose main reasons are either 3 or 4, but figure that #2 justifies that. Is that fair?
I'm also guessing that #5 doesn't apply to many of us.
I'm seriously not judging any of those reasons - It's legal and that's all there is to it. I'm trying to decide if I might hunt black bear this spring, myself. I just want to better understand reasoning for the grizz hunt.
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Originally Posted by Travalanche
