Editorial

TRY TO IMAGINE our wonderful outdoor world without whitetails. Picture tallgrass prairies inhabited only by bison, pronghorns, and mule deer; picture dank woodlands where only moose and black bears dwell; picture sheep and goats on rocky peaks looking across timbered canyons where elk feed in the twilight gloom. Envision great cats slinking through forest shadows; think of migrating caribou tracking across rolling tundras; imagine hump-shouldered bears splashing after silver fish that dart through icy pools; picture shaggy muskoxen pawing for grasses buried beneath drifting snow while an Arctic wind riffles the beasts' long guard hair.

Imagine all these magnificent scenes of native wildlife but nothing more. Recall, perhaps, your own memorable hunts for mule deer or elk or antelope, caribou or bear or any of the other elusive creatures inhabiting our continent's far-flung outdoor haunts. Remember, too, the armchair big game adventures you've shared vicariously with talented writers and videographers and cinematographers whose inspirational words and striking images have carried you along with them on exciting hunting trips to the four corners of our modern world's wildest regions. Recall. Dream. Remember. Enjoy.

But then try to imagine an outdoor world where any mention of deer evokes only thoughts of skylined muleys, of blacktails ghosting through deep, brush-tangled canyons or browsing along coastal sidehills. Ask yourself: What if there were no dainty Coues deer of our American Southwest? Or any big-racked, snowy-tailed bucks of the multiple Odocoileus virginianus subspecies anywhere else on our continent?

What then would be the big game species of choice for the 436,500 bowhunters in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio? For any hunter living in any state or province where antlered white-tail bucks are the reigning kings of fields and forests?

The answer, to me, is obvious. Without whitetails, I'm convinced, there would be no big game hunting of any kind in our modern world. For you. For me. For anyone, except perhaps a mere handful of individuals with the inclination to cling to our ancestors' hunting heritage, people with the resources to create some semblance of "hunting" behind high fences on private land where animals, like crops, are raised solely for harvest. But do not fool yourself. It just wouldn't be the same. Remove whitetails from the modern big game hunting equation and there certainly wouldn't be 436,500 bowhunters hunting those four midwestern states mentioned above. Or 3-plus million camo-clad bowhunters hunting North America. Neither would there be, quite likely, any public-land bowhunting. Or firearms hunting either.

Think about it. What other big game animal is so adaptable, so widely distributed, so plentiful, so beautiful and graceful, and so infinitely challenging? What other readily attainable big game animal is more treasured as both trophy and table fare? And, equally important, what other wild animal is more commonly watched and widely admired by the vast nonhunting public?

None.

The ubiquitous whitetail is Everyman's deer. The whitetail is, in truth, synonymous with bowhunting -- with all big game hunting on this continent. Does anyone seriously believe that without this continent's 25 million or so whitetails there still would be seasonal hunting opportunities for mule deer and black bear, for elk and mountain sheep? I do not. Compared to the abundant white-tail, all other big game species amount to a mere handful of animals.

Current mule deer populations continue their inexorable decline. And although the numbers of regal elk and fleet pronghorns are increasing all across the West, there are more whitetails in Texas than all the wapiti and antelope in all of North America. Certainly, sheep have made a great comeback from the brink of extinction, but hunting them is pricey, the opportunities limited. And while there is no shortage of caribou, moose, big bears, and other species common in Alaska and much of Canada, hunting these animals often requires more time and money than many hunters have. True, our bear and cougar populations are healthy, but as most readers already know, the practice of shooting bears over bait is under constant attack by both determined hunter-haters and some misguided hunters who wrongly believe that capitulation on this thorny ethical issue will pacify the antis, make them go away. Ditto for hunters using hounds to pursue bears and cougars. Sadly, emotion rather than biology is increasingly dictating how certain wildlife species are to be hunted --if they are to be hunted at all. Public referenda and the ballot box are the antis' latest -- and most effective -- tools in legislating legal hunting practices out of existence.

Facing a new century, none of us can know with unarguable certainty exactly what lies in store for today's embattled hunters, whether hunting itself will or can long survive an increasingly hightech world which has largely lost touch with its rural roots, with its myriad natural treasures. Regardless, one irrefutable fact remains: the whitetail deer is the primary reason for bowhunting's widespread and increasing popularity. In the whitetail lies the greatest hope for a positive future. For all big game hunting. For every hunter.

So, the next time you see a deer bounding off with a good-bye wave of its snowy flag, smile and offer a tip of your camo cap to the magnificent animal most responsible for keeping the passion of big game hunting alive and well in modern America.

COPYRIGHT 1999 PRIMEDIA Special Interest Publications
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group