What is Trophy Hunting?

What does the phrase trophy hunting mean to you?

When it comes hunting, trophy has long been a standard part of the universal lexicon, but the term has always meant different things to different people.

In recent years the word trophy has been adopted by many non-hunters as a way of making sense of what we do and breaking us down into different groups. A “trophy hunter”, they often say, is one who only hunts for horns or hides or heads on the wall.

But this designation—frequently thrown around by the main stream media and even used as the title of a recent CNN documentary—lacks nuance and understanding.

It fails to take into account the legions of dedicated hunters who value both the meat that their quarry provides and the relics (trophies) of a successful hunt, whether that be a European mounted buck skull, a set of wild turkey spurs or the hide of a black bear.

Long after the meals are carefully prepared and my body is nourished by the very flesh of the animals I pursue, these “trophies” will persist in the halls of my home, and every time I look up at that skull or that skin, I’ll remember details of the hunt and specific traits of the animal that gave its life so that mine could go on.

I’ll look back with fondness on both the intricate and the simple meals that I prepared with it’s exceptional meat and I’ll be grateful, not only for the animal itself but for the wild landscape that sustained it. If that makes me a trophy hunter, then it’s a designation I will wear with pride.