Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Turning the other cheek
- 2 Carnivore society: hermits and communes
- 3 The quarry of the hunter
- 4 Man the hunted
- 5 Competitors and carriers
- 6 History of a conflict
- 7 What is the use?
- 8 Wolves with human souls: pets
- 9 Carnivores and neighbours: effects on prey
- 10 Crying wolf: anti-predator behaviour
- 11 Carnivores in culture
- 12 The future
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
3 - The quarry of the hunter
Carnivore diet and hunting behaviour
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Turning the other cheek
- 2 Carnivore society: hermits and communes
- 3 The quarry of the hunter
- 4 Man the hunted
- 5 Competitors and carriers
- 6 History of a conflict
- 7 What is the use?
- 8 Wolves with human souls: pets
- 9 Carnivores and neighbours: effects on prey
- 10 Crying wolf: anti-predator behaviour
- 11 Carnivores in culture
- 12 The future
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
Summary
The participation in a stalk, in a long chase, in the battle with a victim and seeing its hairbreadth escape, all this must always have been one of the great excitements that life has to offer, right from the beginning of our existence as a species. We may experience this at first hand, as hunters ourselves, or by proxy in front of the TV. But even those who themselves are not hunters in some way or other, and people who disapprove of hunting as an activity for Homo sapiens, cannot help but be keenly interested in (although perhaps horrified by) the drama of a hunt and its outcome. Carnivores have an unsurpassed expertise as hunters, which is one of the big attractions of the animals for us: they demonstrate the ultimate skill in deciding over the lives of others. The behaviour of a carnivore, the ‘life of the hunter’, is a subject of endless fascination, sometimes even envy.
Part of this allurement may be due to us identifying with either the prey or the hunter. Perhaps we feel instinctively that what we observe of the hunting process may be useful some day, as it would have been in the early stages of human evolution. How do these role models, potential predators on ourselves and competitors, relate to their environment, especially to their potential prey animals?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Hunter and HuntedRelationships between Carnivores and People, pp. 41 - 54Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002