Hunting
Hunting is the pursuit and killing of wild animals, commonly for food, materials, or population control.
Tracking (hunting): The interpretation of signs such as footprints, broken vegetation, and scat to locate or follow animals. Tracks and other signs let hunters infer an animal’s route, identity, and recency of passage.
Subsistence hunting: Hunting primarily undertaken to provide food and other necessities for a person or community. It shows how hunting can directly sustain households rather than serve mainly as recreation.
Paleolithic: The prehistoric period characterized by stone tools, beginning roughly 3.3 million years ago and ending with the spread of agriculture. Most human history unfolded in foraging societies where hunting formed part of subsistence.
Overhunting: The removal of animals through hunting faster than populations can replace them. Excessive harvest has contributed to severe declines and extinctions of hunted species.
Fishing: The capture of fish and other aquatic animals for food, recreation, or commerce. Fishing pursues aquatic animals, while hunting generally targets terrestrial or aerial wildlife.
Hunting with dogs: The use of trained dogs to locate, flush, pursue, or retrieve game animals. Dogs extend hunters’ ability to find and pursue prey across varied terrain.
Bushmeat: Meat from wild animals hunted for human consumption, especially in tropical regions. Wild game can be a major food source while also creating conservation and public-health challenges.
Clovis culture: An early North American archaeological culture known for distinctive stone tools dating to about 13,000 years ago. Clovis sites preserve evidence of hunting technologies and interactions with large animals.
Passenger pigeon: An extinct North American pigeon once numbering in the billions, driven to extinction by intense exploitation and other pressures. Its collapse is a stark example of how commercial hunting can overwhelm an abundant species.
Animal husbandry: The breeding, care, and management of domesticated animals for human purposes. Hunting takes animals from wild populations rather than raising them under human control.