The Marco Polo that enables life

Hunting season has come to the Great Plains of America

I have often said that one of the most inspirational times in the Great Plains of America is the fall of the year when hunter orange is on display everywhere. I know that deer are moving more and the ability to wear one on your grill is greatly magnified but still it is a display of man seeking nourishment in nature. Or is it? My buddy Hank Vogler of White Pine County, NV just added another trophy to his wall this week. It only took one shot from 680 yards to bag a Marco Polo bighorn sheep in Tajikistan, a country in central Asia. I did say it was a trophy and Hank doesn’t apologize for that which causes me to expand on that topic. 

Hank has successfully hunted the Grand Slam of sheep on the North American continent and now takes this beauty in Asia. The sheep will be sent back to the states and mounted to hang in his house. For the record, his hunting party of six did dress and consume the nearly 350 lb. sheep, which is important. 

Every person who comes to Hank’s house will have a discussion about the animals he has mounted on the wall. The absolute best measure of discussing the importance of the species is to have a display that enables an educational conversation about ecosystems, life cycles and consumptive use. Here is the part that few outside of Rural America seem to understand: Everything lives, everything dies and death with a purpose gives full meaning to life. This ram, in all his glory, would have undoubtedly mated with dozens of female sheep and propagated his genetics for future generations. But at some point, he will die and this death was swift, not by the gnashing teeth of a predator. 

I found it interesting to look back into the history and culture of hunting by humans. Many sources sight examples of early men hunting as scavengers and eating what was left behind by a predator instead of actually hunting. In some cases, that would have been the bugs or larvae that beat them to the carcass so the humans got what was left. Fast forward to today and we have some that want us to go back to that avenue of food consumption and others who simply want to cast a negative light on hunting as a whole because they consider it a “luxury” and not a necessity. While I disagree, let’s look at the real challenges.

Dating back to nobility, the land barons controlled access to hunting lands. Throughout the course of human history, it appears to me that the rulers of countries limited access to the citizens’ ability to hunt for food. What better way to control the people? 

If you gain all of your historical perspective from Hollywood, you might believe that hunting has always been an option of man, be they American Indian or Pioneer, to simply saddle up their horse, run down a bison or a deer, and kill it with one shot. I have been to two museums in the Great Plains where it is well documented that, instead of that method, the Plains Indians would chase a herd of bison off of a cliff to a woman standing at the bottom waiting to finish off the crippled animals. You see, we as humans will always take the path of least resistance when it comes to securing the essentials of life. Animals do that as well; feed a horse in a pen and they will walk in the pen every time no matter how many times you have used feed to catch them.

Honestly, I do not spend much time hunting myself. I would, I could and I most certainly will with where we are headed. With that said, the culture of mankind has been shaped by the folks who are willing and able to go into nature and understand it to the point of being able to retrieve a supply of food and fiber that is essential for mankind to go forward. Proving once again that we are a vital part of the cycle of life.