Hunting and poaching played significant roles in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Deer-hunting was an integral part of the culture of the aristocracy and gentry. It afforded not only recreation, but also served as a symbolic substitute for war and rebellion. During this period, the distinction between lawful and unlawful hunting remained unclear, for the Game Laws were obscure and difficult to enforce. Roger B. Manning's meticulously researched study explores symbolic and covert forms of protest, and adds much to our knowledge of the interaction between aristocratic and popular culture in early modern England.
The Hunter's Game reveals that early wildlife conservation was driven not by heroic idealism, but by the interests of recreational hunters and the tourist industry. As American wildlife populations declined at the end of the nineteenth century, elite, urban sportsmen began to lobby for game laws that would restrict the customary hunting practices of immigrants, Indians, and other local hunters.
In 1977 the Kenyan government banned all hunting, whether by sportsmen or Kenyan Africans, in response to the poaching crisis that was then spreading across the African continent. This brought an end to the era of the 'Great White Hunters' in this 'sportsman's paradise'. This book traces the history of hunting during Kenya's colonial era from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Three main themes emerge: first, is the importance of hunting to Kenyan farmers and herders; second is the attempt during European colonization of Kenya to recreate in Africa the practices and values of nineteenth-century European aristocratic hunts, which reinforced an image of African inferiority and subordination; third, is the role of the conservationists, who claimed sovereignty over nature and wildlife, completing the transformation of African hunters into criminal poachers. North America: Ohio U Press; Kenya: EAEP
"You ain't no damn game warden, are ya?" the poacher snarled. I looked him straight in the eye and lied. "Game warden . . . ? I ain't no game warden!" The poacher paused, mulling over my answer, and added quietly, "Then why you askin' so many questions?" Thus begins the story of R. T. Stewart's career as an undercover wildlife law enforcement officer with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife. For nearly two decades, Stewart infiltrated poaching rings throughout Ohio, the Midwest, and beyond. Poachers Were My Prey chronicles his many exciting undercover adventures, detailing the techniques he used in putting poachers behind bars. It also reveals, for the first time, the secrets employed by undercover wildlife officers in catching the bad guys. Poaching--the illegal taking of wild game--goes on every day in the United States and throughout the world. Millions of dollars change hands annually from the illegal sale or trade of antlers, hides, horns, meat, feathers, fur, teeth, claws, gall bladders, and other wild-animal parts. As a result, wildlife populations suffer-- including endangered and threatened species--and legitimate, law-abiding sport hunters get a bad reputation. R. T. Stewart dedi- cated his professional career to stopping such slaughter by actu- ally living with poachers for months or even years. "In essence, being an undercover officer involves living a lie," quips Stewart. "You're always pretending to be someone you're not." Undercover law enforcement is dangerous work and, as a re- sult, extremely stressful. Stewart recalls one particular case during which he realized he was too deeply undercover and came close to forgetting his real identity. Many undercover officers have crossed the line to become the very person they initially swore to stop. In Poachers Were My Prey, readers look over R. T. Stewart's shoulder as he deals with the temptations offered to an undercover officer, including money, sex, and drugs, and watch as he gets the job done and brings the poachers to justice. Poachers Were My Prey will be enjoyed by readers interested in law enforcement, wildlife, preservation, hunting, fishing, and the outdoors.
An intrepid investigation of the criminal world of wildlife trafficking--the poachers, the traders, and the customers--and of those fighting against it Journalist Rachel Nuwer plunges the reader into the underground of global wildlife trafficking, a topic she has been investigating for nearly a decade. Our insatiable demand for animals -- for jewelry, pets, medicine, meat, trophies, and fur -- is driving a worldwide poaching epidemic, threatening the continued existence of countless species. Illegal wildlife trade now ranks among the largest contraband industries in the world, yet compared to drug, arms, or human trafficking, the wildlife crisis has received scant attention and support, leaving it up to passionate individuals fighting on the ground to try to ensure that elephants, tigers, rhinos, and more are still around for future generations. As Reefer Madness (Schlosser) took us into the drug market, or Susan Orlean descended into the swampy obsessions of TheOrchid Thief, Nuwer--an award-winning science journalist with a background in ecology--takes readers on a narrative journey to the front lines of the trade: to killing fields in Africa, traditional medicine black markets in China, and wild meat restaurants in Vietnam. Through exhaustive first-hand reporting that took her to ten countries, Nuwer explores the forces currently driving demand for animals and their parts; the toll that demand is extracting on species across the planet; and the conservationists, rangers, and activists who believe it is not too late to stop the impending extinctions. More than a depressing list of statistics, Poached is the story of the people who believe this is a battle that can be won, that our animals are not beyond salvation.
More stories, more action, more foolhardy hunting and fishing poachers! Tom Chapin served as a Minnesota Game Warden for 29 years, a job that was far more perilous and thrilling than most people would ever expect. He was cussed at, chased, shot at, and nearly run over. More Poachers Caught! is the follow-up to Tom’s widely popular first book. It collects 30 new stories from throughout Tom’s career and from a few of Tom’s friends. Dangerous, spontaneous, and sometimes comedic, these true adventures bring readers face to face with the problem of poaching. They are tales of greed, selfishness, and hope. The short stories tell of some of the most memorable poachers who were ever caught by a Northwoods Game Warden—and some who got away. Hunters, anglers, and outdoors enthusiasts of all ages will enjoy this fascinating book.
December, 2014: In the forbidding waters off Antarctica, Captain Hammarstedt of the Bob Barker sets off on a voyage unlike any seen before. Across ten thousand miles of hazardous seas, Hammarstedt's crew will relentlessly pursue the Thunder – an infamous illegal fishing ship – for what will become the longest chase in maritime history. Wanted by Interpol, the Thunder has for years evaded justice: hunting endangered species and accumulating millions in profits. The authors follow this incredible expedition from the beginning. But even as seasoned journalists, they cannot anticipate what the chase will uncover, as the wake of the Thunder leads them on the trail of criminal kingpins, rampant corruption, modern slavery and an international community content to turn a blind eye. Very soon, catching Thunder becomes not only a chase but a pursuit of the truth itself – and a symbolic race to preserve the well-being of our planet. A Scandinavian bestseller, Catching Thunder is a remarkable true story of courage and perseverance, and a wake-up call to act against the destruction of our environments.
Brian Herne's White Hunters: The Golden Age of African Safaris is the story of seventy years of African adventure, danger, and romance. East Africa affects our imagination like few other places: the sight of a charging rhino goes directly to the heart; the limitless landscape of bony highlands, desert, and mountain is, as Isak Dinesen wrote, of "unequalled nobility." White Hunters re-creates the legendary big-game safaris led by Selous and Bell and the daring ventures of early hunters into unexplored territories, and brings to life such romantic figures as Cape-to-Cairo Grogan, who walked 4,000 miles for the love of a woman, and Dinesen's dashing lover, Denys Finch. Witnesses to the richest wildlife spectacle on the earth, these hunters were the first conservationists. Hard-drinking, infatuated with risk, and careless in love, they inspired Hemingway's stories and movies with Clark Gable and Gregory Peck.
This is the classic treatise on hunting, written by Spain's leading philosopher of the 20th century. Reprinted with permission from Scribner, this edition features handsome new illustrations. The author explains the reason why humans hunt, as well as the ethics of hunting.
An account of technology in Africa from an African perspective, examining hunting in Zimbabwe as an example of an innovative mobile workspace. In this book, Clapperton Mavhunga views technology in Africa from an African perspective. Technology in his account is not something always brought in from outside, but is also something that ordinary people understand, make, and practice through their everyday innovations or creativities—including things that few would even consider technological. Technology does not always originate in the laboratory in a Western-style building but also in the society in the forest, in the crop field, and in other places where knowledge is made and turned into practical outcomes. African creativities are found in African mobilities. Mavhunga shows the movement of people as not merely conveyances across space but transient workspaces. Taking indigenous hunting in Zimbabwe as one example, he explores African philosophies of mobilities as spiritually guided and of the forest as a sacred space. Viewing the hunt as guided mobility, Mavhunga considers interesting questions of what constitutes technology under regimes of spirituality. He describes how African hunters extended their knowledge traditions to domesticate the gun, how European colonizers, with no remedy of their own, turned to indigenous hunters for help in combating the deadly tsetse fly, and examines how wildlife conservation regimes have criminalized African hunting rather than enlisting hunters (and their knowledge) as allies in wildlife sustainability. The hunt, Mavhunga writes, is one of many criminalized knowledges and practices to which African people turn in times of economic or political crisis. He argues that these practices need to be decriminalized and examined as technologies of everyday innovation with a view toward constructive engagement, innovating with Africans rather than for them.
