alt Hacker NewsThis article just explained the behaviour I’ve been seeing in my grandfather. He has dementia and used to hunt wild boar (very common in central Italy), but he knew the local wildlife well. Since developing dementia, for obvious reasons, he unfortunately hasn’t been the same. But a group of doves has nested on the gazebo on his terrace, and every year they come back (either them or their offspring). He watches them all day, giving them food and water and following every stage of their growth. It’s beautiful to see nature indirectly helping humans who, let’s be honest, at least in his case, hadn’t done much good for nature.
I know this is absolutely not the point, but I wanted to touch on the "hunting = bad for nature" idea.
All animals die, and dying from a clean rifle shot is preferable to 99.9% of the ways animals will die in the wild.
Regulations like bag limits and license lotteries prevent over-hunting, and in many situations (like the wild boars in Italy) hunting is an ecologically positive activity, as it reduces populations that would otherwise explode and destroy its own ecosystem.