A Wild Hunt

[Vaz]

Hey dudes and dudettes.

I'm in need of some help concerning the characters in my novella, who are both hunters. I was wondering has anybody here hunted or know anything about hunting? Especially tracking. Like how would you track a creature not unlike a big cat to its lair? What are the sights, sounds, smells you look out for?

Any input is appreciated.

Cheers

v

 

[RX-79G]

This kind of hunting is extremely rare, and nature photographers actually do it more than hunters.

The problem with large predators is that they generally don't have lairs because they have large territories to cover. And they generally move faster than people can follow on foot, because they don't graze. They will have dens when their young are small, which is when they don't travel as much and lose weight.

If you want to find such an animal, you'd generally look for signs they leave on the circuit of their territory - crushed sleeping spots, scat, buried or hanging prey, scratch marks on trees, etc. Then the hunter will stake out such a place until the cat comes that way again. Very tedious. And not much different than fighting a guerrilla war.

The more expedient way to hunt predators is to tie a prey animal in an open spot as bait and let its distress calls draw in a 'cat'.

It really depends why the cat is being hunted. Predators generally are not food sources, because they are rare and the meat is not tasty. So they are hunted as trophies/bravery demonstration, or they are hunted because they have become a danger to people or livestock - in which case you aren't going to track them as much as sit and protect whatever until the cat comes back.

 

[Abernovo]

How much time do you have? Prepare to be bored.

What are the terrain types? I say types as, even in one small piece of land, you can have mud, sand, grassland (boggy, firm, different heights depending upon species of grass and the local herbivores), rock, water, etc.

How close are you to the target? If it's dangerous, you want to make sure you've got reaction time. Even if you think you have, you may not if it realises you're about. Stay downwind, stay quiet, and 'keep yer heid and yer erse doon' (a quote from my old head keeper).

Does it leave paw prints? Does it disturb the foliage (broken twigs, displaced grass, trampled plants)? On the subject of prints, every living thing with legs, just about, has its own gait: is one paw coming down heavier than the other? This will stop you following the wrong one, or not realising there is more than one. If injured, is there blood; or is there blood from any prey it's captured and is carrying back? Recently saw a ruddy awful cliche of 'we'll go through the water, and they won't be able to track us.' Sure, except they churned the water up in passing, as it was a slow-moving swamp, so providing a This Way sign, which of course the expert trackers missed. *Yawn*

Is the animal in any kind of musk? Does its scat have a particular odour? You can tell freshness by both heat and smell with certain animals. Steaming horse manure = fine (actually find the smell reminds me of growing up); steaming lion dung = the smell may not be from the lion dung. (Once found very fresh brown bear dung and paw prints - made plenty of noise and kept moving, thankfully away from the deer run (a path the deer had trampled down in the woods through habitual use) the bear had been walking along.) Does it eat anything which might give it, or its dung odours? Or does it mark territory, with faeces, urine, musk, scent?

Is it getting ready to mate and calling out to find a very special friend?. Or does it call out, again to express territory? Social or lone as an animal, and a species? Some animals, such as lions, wolves, etc., tend towards great sociability, but some are still loners, whether of their own choosing or through being excluded. Others, such as tigers tend to be more solitary, or form smaller groups, by temperament. Groups can make more social noise. Some individuals make lots of noise on their own. Others are silent, right until they say 'hello, pleased to eat you'. Sorry, the old jokes are not always the best.

Dogs and cats leave scratches. Even some wild cat species use scratching posts.

Sorry. I've answered using more questions than anything, but that's th only way I can answer this without knowing the species. What does the species eat? Where does it live? How does it live? Those questions will determine its impact. Feel free to ask more questions, and PM if you need to.

 

[Coast]

Hey Vaz,

Is it for the piece you put in the crits? If so, I assume we're talking about a medieval / fantasy setting, which probably means bowhunting (?)

If it's something that has a lair - or some sort of territory - they'd look for patterns. Most animals are remarkably predictable in their day to day, it's just a matter of working out what their patterns are. For example, they'll use game trails/paths because it's easier than trudging over rough ground, they'll cross ridges in saddles (lowest point), they'll use fords/shallow spots to cross rivers. So the hunters will focus of these areas, and hope that they spot a footprint, or scratchings, or scrapes or some sort of evidence that the animal was there.

The biggest part of it is putting themselves in the mind of the animal, trying to work out what it would do, where it will be.

If they're hunting with a bow, they'll probably set up a stand or blind in the place where they most expect the animal to appear, and wait.

As far as sights and sounds, it's as much about making sure the hunter doesn't give themselves away. So they'd be constantly checking the wind to make sure their scent isn't blowing into the area they think the animal will appear - and if your creature is likely to hunt them, they'd be paranoid that it is downwind of them, slowly working it's way towards them! Those winds will change, so in the morning as the air heats it will drift up a ridge, whereas in the afternoon it will fall down to the valley.

If you wanted to hunt more proactively, the best way would probably a posse and hounds, and chase the beast until you corner it, or it decides to fight.

 

[goldhawk]

If they're hunting with a bow, they'll probably set up a stand or blind in the place where they most expect the animal to appear, and wait.

They may use a tree perch, a seat attached high in a tree.

As far as sights and sounds, it's as much about making sure the hunter doesn't give themselves away. So they'd be constantly checking the wind to make sure their scent isn't blowing into the area they think the animal will appear - and if your creature is likely to hunt them, they'd be paranoid that it is downwind of them, slowly working it's way towards them! Those winds will change, so in the morning as the air heats it will drift up a ridge, whereas in the afternoon it will fall down to the valley.

They may coat themselves with a smelly substance to hide their scent.

 

[Coast]

They may use a tree perch, a seat attached high in a tree.

Yes sorry, that's what I meant by stand - a tree stand. Probably the safest place to be when hunting something with sharp teeth!

Vaz, I also just remembered - and I'm on my phone, so it's too hard to link to it - but if you google 'persistence hunting attenborough' there's a very interesting clip from a documentary that shows how tracking is used by the San people.
FAIR WARNING: while it's a BBC documentary, and not graphic, it does show the killing of the animal.

It's a bit tangential to what you're after, but the ideas similar.

 

[RX-79G]

Tree stands aren't always the best plan when you are hunting animals that climb trees - like cats. You can't hit what is climbing the other side of the tree from you.

 

[ErikB]

Hey dudes and dudettes.

I'm in need of some help concerning the characters in my novella, who are both hunters. I was wondering has anybody here hunted or know anything about hunting? Especially tracking. Like how would you track a creature not unlike a big cat to its lair? What are the sights, sounds, smells you look out for?

Any input is appreciated.

Cheers

v

I'm no hunter, but I work as a wildlife tour guide and spend a lot of time researching and photographing animals. Tracking an animal is all about understanding its behavior and environment.

If you were hunting for or tracking any of the five species of tigers out in the wilderness, in addition to staking out water holes that prey species might use in a dry season ( where the predator might also wait to ambush game/prey, it would be helpful to know that if you see scratch marks on a tree and smell a scent that is identical to fresh buttered popcorn like you would get at the movies, that there is a tiger close by. All tiger musk from all five species has this signature.

But other animals are different. You must understand the animal and its habitat and habits.

I track manatees by kayak. I do so many ways. If I spot a manatee "footprint" on the water (a ring made when the tail fluke moves upward from beneath the surface) then I know that the animal (though unseen) is roughly 10 - 12 feet ahead of the ring.

But I also follow grass trails in the estuaries. What we call "chip chop" that only manatees make. As the trail narrows you get closer to the manatees.

Or I look for tattle tales. Other animals that indicate their presence. When manatees feed they rip up sea grasses. At the base of those grasses are shrimp. Which flee when exposed.

So following manatee at times are little 3 - 5 foot long bonnethead sharks. These are the smallest members of the hammerhead shark family and are shrimp specialists.

They often snag fleeing shrimp when manatees feed. And since they are shy and usually solo sharks, if I see four to ten of their little dorsal and caudel fins splashing in a single area I know that manatees are feeding there.

I hope this helps. Cheers!

 

[Vaz]

Thanks for all your knowledgeable responses Chronners!

Yes this is for the piece put up in Critiques, the setting is low fantasy.

The creature itself as I imagine it lives on a pair of Mointains which are joined together and also have a network of caverns and tunnels running through them as you ascend. It feeds primarily on a large species of nesting birds and also a smaller group of predatory cats that inhabit the mountains. The territory itself is mainly rocky/snowy.

Also it is a solitary predator but I like the thinking that it may have some sort of vocalization call.

@Coast thanks, I'll check out that documentary you mentioned.

@Abernovo great info! (And jokes ) I may PM you if I need some further details.

Thanks everyone

v

 

[Brian G Turner]

I have a Ray Mears book and a SAS survival handbook as my go-to research for hunting and life in the wild.

 

[Dan Jones]

I have nothing to add except that, @Abernovo, that is an amazing and fascinating post!