“What the hell is that, anyway?” one man says
to his companion as he squints at shadows through the underbrush. “Beats the
heck out of me,” the other replies. “Just shoot it so we can get a close look and
we’ll figure it out later.”
Sadly, that scene has been
repeated frequently of late as more and more sightings of rare or endangered
creatures around the world are being confirmed by bullets, instead of
binoculars. Our history is all too rife with deliberate extinctions at the hand
of man.
I’m not talking about
legitimate hunting, where the taker respects the animal and plans to eat his or
her kill. It’s the others, like the dentist who killed Cecil the Lion in Kenya,
or Donald Trump’s sons posing holding the tail they just cut off an elephant
they shot.
A while back, in Israel,
several soldiers reported killing a rare leopard. There had been only five
left. The one they shot, an old female, was critical to the species’ survival.
Of course, according to the three heavily armed men, the creature attacked
entirely without provocation, and, even though they undoubtedly hated to do it,
they blasted it with an assault rifle.
In California, efforts to
bring the condor back from the brink of extinction have faltered, partially due
to some of the birds being shot out of the sky.
Some years ago, in Northern
Maine, a man shot a creature that was either a very, very large coyote or a
wolf. Wolves disappeared from the Maine woods long ago, hunted and persecuted
until their species’ only hope for survival lay in a retreat into the stark
wilds of the Canadian North.
If that animal turns out to
be a wolf, it, too, suffered the same fate as its ancestors, caught in the
adrenalin-soaked crosshairs of someone blinded by the prospect of killing some
perceived ancient enemy.
Even the state’s first
Registered Maine Guide, Cornelia “Flyrod” Crosby, had the dubious distinction
of driving a species to extinction. She reportedly shot the last native caribou
in the state.
Granted those were different
times, when bragging about landing 200 trout in a single day was a badge of
honor. You’d like to think that nowadays, we know better.
After well-publicized
sightings in Blue Hill, Warren, and sites Down East, the existence of eastern
cougars, or mountain lions, is pretty well-accepted by those who enjoy the
outdoors in Maine, although fish and game officials remain scientifically
skeptical. I guess we’ll have to wait until someone shoots one.
Considering our apparent
fondness for stuffing and mounting all manner of animals, not even mythical
creatures are safe. Bigfoot immediately comes to mind.
I know there are plenty of
tobacco-chewing, monster-truck-driving “Bubba” types out there just “waitin’ to
git me a crack at one a dem gaud-awful hairy fellahs.”
I can hear that alligator
trapper guy from the TV show, “Swamp People” “Chooot it, Chooot it,” he yells.
Lake Champlain’s reported sea
“monster” Champ remains unidentified despite years of searching. Luckily, the
legislatures of both New York and Vermont have passed laws making it illegal to
harm or kill it. You can laugh, but one abortive plan to prove the existence of
a deep-diving beast in Loch Ness years ago actually involved dropping surplus
depth charges into the peaty deep.
Now, before the letters start
pouring in, let me state that the fact that many of our rare and endangered
creatures are being shot should not be used as an excuse to dump on hunters.
Hunters actually provide more information and confirmed sightings of rare
creatures, due to the amount of time they spend in the woods and their general
knowledge of and respect for nature. Just because some moron picks a gun as his
weapon of choice does not make him or her a hunter. The same individual is probably
just as irresponsible behind the wheel of a car.
Still, it is a pretty sad
commentary on human nature that rare creatures are being killed needlessly.
And, it is an even sadder commentary that we have so little faith in human
nature that we have to pass laws to protect animals we can’t even prove exist.
Maybe it would help if people
took more time to look for and study a creature once its existence is
suspected.
Although coyotes are
plentiful and can be hunted with impunity today, they were once rare in these
parts. I can remember the first time a sighting was confirmed on Mount Desert
Island. The late Dr. Dale Rex Coman, a naturalist and outdoorsman of great
skill, followed the coyote’s tracks in the snow for miles and confirmed the
beast’s existence by scat and hair samples. No gun in sight. History was made
in that respect without bloodshed.
Maybe it would help if
officials could be a little less skeptical the next time someone reports seeing
a rare animal. Maybe a more detailed search could be launched, using video,
still and game cameras instead of guns.
We need to move beyond the
point where we feel the only way to make history is by being the first person
to kill something — or the last.
