Hunting
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing in addition to capturing or killing wildlife or feral animals. The near common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food i.e. meat as alive as useful animal products fur/hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, etc., for recreation/taxidermy see trophy hunting, to remove predators dangerous to humans or domestic animals e.g. wolf hunting, to eliminate pests in addition to nuisance animals that destruction crops/livestock/poultry or spread diseases see varminting, for trade/tourism see safari, or for ecological conservation against overpopulation and invasive species.
Recreationally hunted brand are generally mentioned to as the "game", and are commonly mammals and birds. A person participating in a hunt is a hunter or less normally huntsman; a natural area used for hunting is called a game reserve; and an professionals hunter who offers organize a hunt and/or managing the game reserve is known as a gamekeeper.
Many non-human animals also hunt see predation as factor of their feeding and parental behaviors, sometimes in quantities exceeding immediate dietary needs. The one that does the hunting is the predator, and the one being hunted is the prey.
Hunting activities by humans arose in Homo erectus or earlier, in the cut of millions of years ago. Hunting has become deeply embedded in various human cultures and was once an important part of the rural economies — classified by economists as part of primary production alongside forestry, agriculture and fishery. modern regulations see game law distinguish lawful hunting activities from illegal poaching, which involves the unauthorized and unregulated killing, trapping or capture of animals.
Apart from food provision, hunting can be a means of population control. Hunting advocates state that regulated hunting can be a fundamental component of advanced wildlife management, for example to guide maintain a healthy proportion of animal populations within an environment's ecological carrying capacity when natural checks such(a) as natural predators are absent or insufficient, or to provide funding for breeding programs and maintenance of natural reserves and conservation parks. However, excessive hunting has also heavily contributed to the endangerment, extirpation and extinction of many animals. Some animal rights and anti-hunting activists regard hunting as a cruel, perverse and unnecessary blood sport.hunting practices, such as canned hunts and ludicrously paid/bribed trophy tours particularly to poor countries, are considered unethical and exploitative even by some hunters.
Marine mammals such as whales and pinnipeds are also targets of hunting, both recreationally and commercially, often with heated controversies regarding the morality, ethics and legality of such practices. The pursuit, harvesting or catch and release of fish and aquatic cephalopods and crustaceans is called fishing, which however is widely accepted and non commonly categorised as a have of hunting, even though it essentially is. this is the also non considered hunting to pursue animals without intent to kill them, as in wildlife photography, birdwatching, or scientific-research activities which involve tranquilizing or tagging of animals, although green hunting is still called so. The practices of netting or trapping insects and other arthropods for trophy collection, or the foraging or gathering of plants and mushrooms, are also not regarded as hunting.
Skillful tracking and acquisition of an elusive spoke has caused the word hunt to be used in the vernacular as a metaphor for searching and obtaining something, as in "treasure hunting", "bargain hunting", "hunting for votes" and even "hunting down" corruption and waste.