This is a hotly debated topic, especially outside of Wildlife Conservation and I know it seems counterintuitive. How could regulated hunting help with conservation of wildlife? Think about that question and see if you can come up with any answers before I continue.

The key word here is REGULATED hunting.

What do I mean by regulated hunting? Regulated hunting basically means that the government or a governing agency is involved and oversees this whole process including how many hunters there are and keeps track of how many animals are being killed. When enough animals have been killed, they will order all hunting to stop and these hunters are to comply. Regulated hunting is different than hunting in general because hunting has no governing body overseeing the process whereas regulated hunting involves a governing process that is involved in the process.

So, how can regulated hunting help with wildlife conservation?

Regulated hunting helps control animal populations. This is vitally important because when one population overgrows it affects other animals in the food chain and in the ecosystem. We obviously don’t want animal populations to overgrow. This can lead to widespread wildlife disease and ultimately take out the entire population, which would be very harmful to the food chain and ecosystem. One reason that certain animal populations overgrow is due to a lack of predators, but sometimes it is not feasible to re-introduce or introduce more predators to keep that overgrowing population in check, so regulated hunting is a great way to maintain that balance.

One reason why keeping animal populations in check is important is because if an animal population overgrows it can lead to an increase in incidents involving people which can sometimes result in death. This is more probable if we’re talking about animals that could cause harm to people like bears and elk. If a bear population overgrows, it is not safe or reasonable for humans to be able to co-exist with a large bear population. Furthermore, it is not safe to have frequent encounters with bears or other animals that could cause harm to humans.

Obviously with hunting you are still killing an animal(s), but sometimes that is needed to maintain the overall health of the ecosystem.

I’m going to end with a video that I encourage you to watch to help further understand some of the benefits of regulated hunting.