“Before “taking” one animal, you should give a lot to all the animals, and
first of all, to preserve and to feed them”
Sergey Kulakov
A “True” game warden
The way we hunt
“ Where is a hunt, there is
a way”
“Real” truth
On this page we’ll try to tell
about the hunts we go on, us and our friends. In general, we spend the
season according to the common schedule, like everybody else.
In the spring, in March-April, we always bring some grain (corn, oat, barley) to
the feeding grounds for wild boars.
It’s extremely necessary to feed
especially pregnant dams at this period. A thick lay of snow (in our region
up to 2.5 meters) and ice crust (up to 20 cm) create great difficulties for
an animal to find some food. Hunger leads to the decrease of the number of animals
in the sounder, their inability to defend against enemies (wolves, stray
dogs, bears who woke up early, wolverines, and poachers) and even to the
dissolution of the embryos in dams. During this period it’s necessary to
assure simple calm for elks, unfortunately, today even in the winter the
furthest parts of the forest are full of “tourists” on snowmobiles and off-roaders
which doesn’t allow the animals to rest even if they are tens of kilometers
away from roads. If the people don’t get the drift that a cow elk is
pregnant and needs silence, calm, salt, defense against a wolf, an
insomniac bear, and other “evil spirits”, there will be only cutovers left
in the forest in about 20 years. We think that visits to forests from March
1st to the end of July (when do the mushrooms start?) by loafing
people must be prohibited (except
for game wardens and forest guards). And the prohibition to visit the State
nature sanctuaries which should be a breeding and calm area, must last the
whole year. The topic on State nature sanctuaries and conservation areas is
special and scandalous, We’ll turn
to it later. The task of preserving the elk and wild boar newborn youngs and especially bird courting grounds is
extremely important in April-May. I find it very strange that today the
hunt for wood grouse and black-cocks on courting grounds still exists.
Though it’s also strange that they aren’t
still listed in the Red Book. But it’s a special topic for discussion.
At the end of April – beginning of May we are looking forward
to the opening of the Spring hunting season. A “monstrous” in size team of
about 40 people traditionally gathers for the opening itself.
We open the hunting season
in two stages and in two regions, first in the Volosovsky region (like the
village of Krasniy Luch)
or Luzhsky region, then one week later in the Vyborgsky region (like the settlement of Pervomayskoe). In the first case the passes are available right on
site, but in the second one you have to obtain them in advance. A “calm” hunting without a noisy
company is also possible. We take dogs with us (even if they
frown at that), because we have to search for wounded animals, bring the
prey from water, and flush game, etc. Laikas are perfect at this. The opening is a real “mess” on the week-ends and on weekdays my friend,
the game warden, and I go to the State natural sanctuary
daily to protect our bird-call for the geese and ducks from “enemies”. I get
up at around 4-5 a.m., take a thermos bottle and sandwiches, a gun, my “elder”
son, my dog, and go to the field. By the time when birds come, I’m already “lying
in wait in the concealed position”, my son is with me, my dog is in the
car. These are unforgettable days, when you can just sit among geese and
observe them (and the game warden, by the way, I’ll tell these stories on
occasion). Imagine a sight, in raising sun rays you eat an elk hamburger with
tea, and a hundred of geese turn just before your face, fly 5-10 meters above
your head making noise and “honking” and “lower the legs and ailerons” and land
just around the game warden who is sitting right in the middle of the
field. Our cars parked in the clear view don’t allow the poachers to shoot
the birds (right from their cars on a noisy and very busy highway). Usually,
1.5-2.5 hours later the flock takes off and flies to another place, and we go
to work without being late (by 10 a.m.). At the same time there is an opportunity to practice shooting and kill some stray dogs, foxes or crows.
While hunting for the wood grouse it’s very important not to drive away or shoot all the birds on the courting ground, careful handling of the birds allows to hunt for many years, without any damage. Our
experience shows that the number of the birds is only increasing these last
years.
And again, I don’t understand why in our country as well as abroad they don’t speak about the fact that the waterfowl has almost disappear from the face of the Earth (hunters have nothing to do with
this, that’s because
of the bird flu). It’s clear about
Africa where birds come by thousands for wintering, it’s
impossible to count them, but what about our country? I remember
very well the autumn of 1988 when in
Novgorod region at the edges of the fields there
were hundreds of dead black-cocks, and in the spring of the same year on
the Kola Peninsula tundra white partridges were gathering by the
thousands...., then they disappeared, as well as arctic foxes, polar
wolves, and... everything has gone for about 10 years, even hares!
In the autumn everybody
is looking forward for the opening of hunting season. We have
been bringing salt, protecting lands, going
mushrooming for more than three months. But before the autumn hunting
season starts, it’ll be very good to go for a good fishing to the Kola
Peninsula, for example!
And, of course, to catch a couple of “tails”
(with caviar) per person...
Who will say that Russia isn’t our home, after that?! There are still wild
places in our country!
Dedicated to the memory of the best friend of mine, Vasiliy Iosifovich Vakhnyuk!
Vasiliy departed very early... too early... hard
military service in the Russian Navy, a difficult life during the period of
Stagnation and Perestroika, poor pension, hard work for the good of the
family from dusk to dawn, an unbearable pain of tragic loss of the young son (21 years
old), the friend’s heart broke down... Cherished memory!
But life goes on ... while
the legs still carry you!
And a new autumn season starts ....
bear, wild boar, elk. Along with them a raccoon, a badger, a
marten, a squirrel, a black-cock, wood grouses, partridges, one 82 kg werewolf
(I’ll write about that separately), etc.
Bear.
Wild boar.
Elk.
Badger.
Raccoon.
Marten.
