First and Last

 “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.