History of bounty hunting of animals?
May 29, 2019 2:40 AM   Subscribe

Bounty hunting of animals is politically and ecologically important, but casual searching doesn't up anything on the subject in general. Anyone know of a source?
posted by Nancy Lebovitz to Science & Nature (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
You might find more results with the search term "trophy hunting", assuming that is the same thing.
posted by lollusc at 2:42 AM on May 29, 2019


Here's something that has some info on its history in the US. (PDF University of Oregon download)
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 4:37 AM on May 29, 2019 [1 favorite]


Trophy hunting is totally different.
Wikipedia’s most relevant page is at Varmint Hunting.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:59 AM on May 29, 2019 [3 favorites]


Historical Bounties on cobras and rats in European colonies are discussed at Cobra Effect.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:05 AM on May 29, 2019 [1 favorite]


So the Library of Congress does have subject headings "Varmint Hunting", "Predator Hunting" and "Pest Control", which is the usual way bounty hunting is described from a "hunter's" standpoint. However "Varmint Hunting" in WorldCat doesn't really bring up the impacts of the practice, it's more a "how-to". "Bounties" can't be limited just to hunting bounties. My hunch is that people writing about the impacts are more likely to use terms under "Wildlife Management". Here's a list of subject terms you can use to find books and theses. (Look at Variants and Narrower Terms.)
posted by Hypatia at 5:33 AM on May 29, 2019 [1 favorite]


Jon T. Coleman's book "Vicious: Wolves and Men in America" is an excellent book that focuses on wolf bounty hunting in American history. It would help to know a little more about what you're hoping to learn about bounty hunting or what kind of resources would best suit your needs.
posted by Jeanne at 6:34 AM on May 29, 2019


If there is a particular region or type of animal you are interested in, there are a ton of species- and location-specific studies, reports, and articles, including many that are peer reviewed. A useful phrase for searching is "predator management," though of course bounties have been used on non-predator species, and bounties are only one form of lethal wildlife management. (For example, here is a report by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council on predation management (ie, of species that eat salmonids) in the Columbia Basin.)

You may also find interesting the histories of the extirpation or near-extirpation of other species that were hunted for food or fur, such as beavers. Essentially, this kind of mass extirpation is what the bounty hunting programs are trying to emulate, though without the full power of the marketplace.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:21 AM on May 29, 2019


If you're looking for specific instances:

- Nutria bounties in Louisiana.
- Lionfish bounties in Florida (and I think a few other places, Lionfish are super destructive wherever they're not native species.)
- Boar/Feral hog bounties in Texas.
- Deer bounties for deer with Chronic Wasting Disease
- Rabbit and Cat management programs in Austrailia. I don't know how big bounty programs were for those species, but they were massive problems ecologically and economically.

Also, a lot of bounty programs are focused on invasive species. A good tactic might be to look up invasive species and then search for bounty programs related to those.
posted by cirgue at 8:41 AM on May 29, 2019 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thanks everyone for your answers.

I was hoping there would be one good-sized book that does an overview, but apparently no such thing exists.

Finding out that the Library of Congress offers related subjects is really cool, and probably worth knowing for a wide range of research.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 9:16 AM on May 29, 2019


Maine has had off-season open hunts when deer swim to an island and over-populate. Peaks Island, part of Portland, has had a lot of debate on this.
posted by theora55 at 10:33 AM on May 29, 2019


Predator Bounties in Western Canada Cause Animal Suffering and Compromise Wildlife Conservation Efforts [PPMC Free Fulltext]

Has references to;

Bounties (rewards offered for capturing or killing animals) were commonly used throughout Europe from the 17th to 20th Century to control terrestrial predators, e.g., wolves (Canis lupus) [1], red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) [2,3], brown bears (Ursus arctos) [4,5], lynx (Lynx lynx) [6], otters (Lutra lutra) [7], pine martens (Martes martes) [6], and others. Not surprisingly, bounties were implemented in North America since European settlement. Virtually every American state or territory offered bounties at various times from the 1700s to the 1900s [8,9]. Five states still had wolf bounties on the legislative records as late as 1971 [10].
posted by porpoise at 2:13 PM on May 29, 2019


If you want a more personal experience of wolf bounty hunting, you can read about Ernest Thompson Seaton’s experience hunting the wolf, Lobo.
posted by MountainDaisy at 2:35 PM on May 29, 2019


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