Hook and Bullet Conservation Results in More Game

The picture at right is an American bobcat taken in Michigan. We have bobcats all over the U.S., and in surprisingly large numbers -- over 3,000 were shot last year in the little state of Virginia alone (37th largest out of our 50 states), where we also shot over 1,000 black bear last year and have a bounty on coyote (our eastern coyote is quite a bit bigger than the western variety). Depite (or because of it), all game numbers continue to rise due to excellent game management.

Bear, lion and bobcat are often hunted with dogs in the U.S., and increasingly large numbers of coyotes are being hunted with hounds and lurchers.

Black bear numbers are on the increase over much of the U.S., and probably top 500,000, while cougar numbers are skyrocketing in the West, and pushing young male animals further east every year.

Coyote are now found in every state, and wolves are at carrying capacity in Minnesota with rising numbers in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

The return of top-end predors to our forests and mountains is due to hook and bullet conservation -- the marriage of land and habitat protection with regulated hunting based on scientific census of animal populations. Hook and bullet conservation was pioneered by people like George Bird Grinell, Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, William Tecumseh Sherman, and John Lacey -- all founding members of the Boone and Crockett club which remains the official recorder of big game trophy animals and the "keeper of the flame" as far as Fair Chase hunting in America.

Nothing has helped America's wildlife recover and flourish as much as hook and bullet conservation which has given forest a voice, and wildlife a vote.

This post recycled from 2005.
.