I have hunted since I was very young, it is a deep and important part of my culture. I have hunted with both gun and bow/arrow. I now pass this tradition on to my son.

Hunting is something that I feel is very hard to understand by those who did not grow up with it. It is sometimes called a 'sport' but it is nothing like basketball, hockey, football, etc. Calling it a 'sport' is, I feel, disrepectful to the animals we pursue and the traditions we carry on.

Are their disrepectful hunters out there? Yes, there are. These are the ones you read in the news. But that is a tiny percentage that taints us all. There are far more hunters who are active in the conservation of wildlife than there are these slobs. But how often to read about the professional hunters who join together to save a species (such as the white rhino) from poachers? This happens time and time again across the world with nobody talking about them across Facebook, Twitter, etc.

But where I am from, most of us don't have such high, lofty goals as species preservation. We are lucky that we have very little poaching and most of our animals are doing quite well. What we feel when we hunt, or more personally what I feel, is that deep tradition that my grandfathers and father tought me.The first time a child is accepted with the older generations.

When we hunt, we participate in nature. We don't only nature watch from the sidelines, we are part of the natural process of preditor and prey. We are wet, cold, tired and 99% of the time come back without any game. But even the trips that are 'unsuccessful' connects us to the land and the animals that are part of it.

Well said Jon, another important point. There have been a number of examples where areas of the US have banned hunting to protect deer only then to see the deer become over populated, prone to disease and then starve. 

@liz: Does my son appreciate this tradition? Not very much today, but he is a teenager so everything we adults say or do is uncool :-) I was the same at his age. But I see how he connects with nature when we go, so I feel the important traditions are taking hold.

'stile' is a misspelled word, it should be 'style'.

Many people in Canada (similar to the USA) enjoy hunting, but they usually hunt for animals that they will eat, e.g., deer, wild birds, etc

If they eat the animals they kill, I think that is OK.

But if they kill an animal and they don't eat the animal, then I do not think that they should do that, e.g., some people who travel to Africa to kill wild animals, such as lions, tigers, etc.

Good discussion...

Either by humans or predators, it is important to keep wild animal populations in balance for their own good and for the good of their environment. For example, Yellowstone National Park in the United States brought wolves back to the park area after being killed off before. The wolves hunted and killed the deer population back into normal numbers, they changed the behavior of the deer (because there were now wolves, the deer could no longer walk freely around, they had to be careful). The deer could no longer graze in such huge numbers so close to the water source, so the banks of the river improved and became stronger. Small animal numbers improved, the trees improved, the entire environment improved.

Killing is a very important part of nature. When the predators are gone from an area, it is still important that it happens to keep nature in balance. I do not know if every hunter feels that way, or if every hunter hunts for those reasons, but it is the most important part of hunting.

I don't like the idea of hunting for entertainment, but in America that is not the most common reason people hunt. People hunt for food and for conservation. When America was being formed many of the top predators were killed off to keep people safe. Without predators to keep nature in balance other animal populations can grow out of control very quickly. With no wolves to hunt deer for example, hunters here play a huge role in maintaining proper numbers. If there were too many deer they would all starve from a lack of food.