The need of man at all times is to communicate with wildlife, in which the inner world is filled with a sense of calm, silence and harmony. Happy is he who has the love for the world around him and his protection combined in the main work with the vocation and meaning of all life.
Huntsman and forester - the first defenders of forestry
The protection of the plant world and the care of our smaller brothers are professionally handled by forestry workers: the ranger and forester. The similarity of these professions consists in servicing one territory with the only difference being that the huntsman is responsible for the animal world, the forester monitors the forest, controlling the felling of trees. The work of huntsmen is not particularly difficult - it seems so at first glance.
Often these are former hunters who know firsthand all the intricacies of communicating with wild animals. Special education for working in forestry is, of course, considered the preferred factor, but not as important as the existing skills.
Huntsman as a profession
The huntsman, whose native home is actually a forest, has the following responsibilities:
- control over the hunting grounds entrusted to him and the events taking place on them;
- ensuring the safety of animals listed in the Red Book;
- maintaining the number of fishing individuals;
- shooting of sick and aggressive specimens in order to eliminate the possible danger to the local habitat;
- Artificial regulation of excessive reproduction, causing crowding and hunger in the wild. For this, in addition to good knowledge of all types of animals, the huntsman has to show mathematical abilities to account for forest inhabitants. According to special formulas, he year-round makes an approximate calculation of individuals of each species. This is required to control the natural balance and the validity of the number of issued licenses for the extraction of one or another type of animal.
Daily painstaking work
The huntsman is a man who knows neither weekends nor holidays, whose work takes up most of the time: from early morning to late evening.
To increase the number of animals, the huntsman holds a number of biotechnological events. This is the installation of feeders and top dressing, for birds - the equipment of pebbles with small pebbles (required for digesting heavy food in the winter), as well as sand tanks in which birds are swimming to get rid of parasites.
Seasonality of work performed by the huntsman
The winter season, threatening with severe cold and deep snow, is hard on not only a person, but also an animal. The horse ranger during this period tries to provide wild animals with additional food, distributing, and sometimes carrying heavy sacks of feed (grain and root crops) on his own shoulders. Moreover, this difficult work sometimes has to be done daily, until the end of the snow drifts; because in difficult times wild animals can rely solely on human compassion and help.
It would seem that the period of frost and cold should be compensated by carefree and restful summer days. This is actually not the case.
The hot months under the scorching rays of the sun and the endless bites of mosquitoes are the peak of the preparations for the winter: this is the repair and updating of feeders and feeding grounds, as well as the preparation of feed and salt licks. The latter are reserves of table salt, usually arranged in stumps and troughs of fallen trees, in places where animals pass to a watering place. Salt, which improves metabolism in the body and increases its vitality, contributes to the optimal assimilation of rough winter food, leads to an increase in the fertility of females and the normal development of young animals. Salt also kills the increased acidity, which is formed from the consumption of ungulate needles, and in the summer, when inhaled, relieves the animals from
gadfly larvae and other forest flies.
Hunting organization
The autumn period brings concerns associated with the opening of the hunting season and its completion. The huntsman is a person who coordinates work with teams of hunters and has excellent organizational skills aimed at the success of the enterprise and the safety of guests, namely the organization of a productive hunt and comfortable overnight. Being the owner of the forest, the huntsman thoroughly possesses invaluable experience and knowledge about the behavior of the beast, its lying and whereabouts at the required moment. He can also almost accurately determine where elk or deer graze, and where the herd of wild boar is located.
Therefore, hunting, always rich in prey, evokes positive emotions among guests and an irresistible desire to return to these places more than once. An integral part of the safari is the evening tales around the campfire, truthful and not very, being an invariable tradition and uniting completely different people.
Hunters, both novice and experienced, always adhere to 3 unspoken rules:
- Respect the animal that is being hunted. Do not shoot at females and process even the smallest piece of meat obtained.
- Observe safety precautions.
- Weak attitude to weapons, in no case do not direct them to other participants in such an exciting process.
Anti-poaching
A sense of personal responsibility, morality and morality is always inherent in a normal hunter, which does not allow ruthlessly destroy animals for the sake of money gain. This can not be said about poaching, the fight against which, both in the forest and on the river, is the most dangerous part of the work that the huntsman performs.
This is an illegal shooting of animals, killing fish with explosives and electrolytes, generating a current of several thousand volts, which leads to the extermination of representatives of the fauna and has been an inexhaustible problem for many years. The huntsman often goes around the reserve territory on weekends: it is on these days that the poachers are likely to visit the forest. When meeting with the poacher, the huntsman’s rights are allowed to check the documents of the latter and draw up a protocol fixing the criminal violation. Despite the tightening of control over the activities of poachers, the latter manage to be proactive using modern baits and special electronic devices. When detained, poachers behave differently. Some calmly react to the fact of detection red-handed, realizing the severity of what is happening and recognizing their own guilt. Others begin to threaten and quarrel; in this case, the huntsman can threaten with official weapons.
Poaching - global and unpunished
The possibility of earning pushes on poaching: badger fat is very highly valued on the market, which provokes the merciless destruction of badgers. The high cost of hunting licenses, as well as their limited number for certain types of animals, are also motivating factors for illegal activities.
The impunity of poachers, whose representatives are often “the mighty of this world,” makes a forest defender sometimes defenseless before them. The minimum fine, which reaches a ridiculous, in comparison with the carcass of a dead animal, only instills a sense of complete impunity in the fauna destroyer. The huntsman is, first of all, the defender of our smaller brothers, characterized by helplessness against the terrible power of weapons.
Social Responsibilities
In addition to the main activity, the huntsman's duties include working with the local population: this is an explanation of the rules of hunting and new laws, meetings with schoolchildren in order to educate the correct standards of behavior in the forest and conducting study and educational tours. This instills in the children a love of nature and a desire to learn the profession of a huntsman, whose work for the most part rests on great enthusiasm: after all, who will protect nature, besides ourselves?
Low salaries in the forest industry, poor material and technical base are just the usual obstacles that impede painstaking work. The work of the huntsman is a great pleasure from communicating with nature and living with her side by side, which brings incomparable happiness and encourages a person to complete dedication and great love to all living things.