I'm Not A Trophy

        We are in the midst of a mass extinction. Wildlife numbers are plummeting everywhere, with grave risks to the biosphere. Yet, wild animals are still being hunted all over the world. That makes no sense. It's high time to take a closer look at these practices.

        Some hunters claim that they contribute positively to conservation by managing the numbers of certain animals. They claim that their license fees pay for that conservation. That is not true.

        Managing wildlife populations can be complicated, although the basics are simple. In a healthy ecosystem, nature keeps animal populations in check. It has done so for hundreds of millions of years with spectacular success. By contrast, humans have completely messed up the natural world in a few hundred years.

        The numbers of all wild animals depend first and foremost on the carrying capacity of their habitats, mainly the availability of food and water, which determine how many animals can live there.

        If the number of animals is less than the maximum, they thrive and multiply until there are too many. Then, the weaker animals die or don't breed, and the number of animals goes down again.

        Predators play a vital role in this process by selecting the sick, the weak, and the old. But, having done that, those predators find it harder to catch the remaining prey animals because they deal with fitter individuals. Hence, their numbers also decrease, keeping the whole system balanced, with some annual fluctuations.

        Things become complicated if this balance is disturbed and there appear to be too many animals of a particular species. This may have many causes. To understand the problem, it must be studied by professionals with expert knowledge of ecology, wildlife, habitats, and ecosystems.

        Recreational hunters don't have that knowledge. It does not interest them either. They have been around for thousands of years, yet they have contributed little to our knowledge and understanding of the natural world. They want to hunt.

        Even if the recreational hunter could be properly educated, he is still heavily biased in favor of shooting. Therefore, he will not look for alternatives that make him redundant, even if they are better for the environment.

        Unlike natural predators, the recreational hunter does not select weak, sick, old animals but good-looking ones, often (though not always) the fittest. This reduces populations' overall fitness, while removing high-ranking animals can seriously harm existing social structures.

        And this is where psychology can begin to shed some light on what motivates people to hunt.

        It has been suggested that Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and (non-clinical) Psychopathy are all involved, the so-called "dark triad" of personality characteristics.

        Narcissists have an inflated sense of self and crave positive attention. To maintain this inflated level of self-esteem, they must engage in strategies to preserve and develop their self-image, like posing with a coyote they've just killed. Like carefully managed social media, Machiavellians often manipulate social situations for their own ends.

        We can no longer afford to turn a deaf ear to the future. If we do not act now, the future will be silent except for the guile-laden, war-ravaging, profit-mongering voice of a young species called Homo sapiens, which took the life force for granted and conducted itself in a manner that led to extinction now upon us. For far too long, men thought they were superior to women. For far too long, whites thought they were superior to people of color. For far too long, humans have thought they were superior to animals. For far too long, humans considered themselves the crowning achievement of life on Earth. If life persists with even the semblance of the species Earth once had by century's end, it will be a miracle. If we don't, the world's hunters will have plenty to answer for because of their ethos; their conduct is part of the warrior behavior that puts a bullet in a coyote's brain because it can. We are very close to the point where nature no longer uses us. We are unraveling the life force.

        Our species used to kill to survive because we did not have a choice. Today, we must choose life before it withers before the tremendous cosmos of what this Earth once encompassed. Unfortunately, the world's animals, the backbone of existence, have been treated like expendable resources and garbage for far too long. The cave dwellers of 50,000 years ago had far more respect for life. As a result, animal populations are collapsing, and our civilization will, too.

        We have to change as a species before it's too late.