HOMO INSAPIENS: HUNTING IN THE XXI CENTURY

By Salvatore Scimino

August 23, 2012

Source: ZME Science

Three separate hunters go hunting at different places in the world. Each has had a training of at least 20 years to fine tune the skills under the guidance of masters of the ancient survival techniques in their own tribes.

The hunting ground is under the shade. Thank God for that! It´s too tough to be under the hot burning sun!

Each sits patiently or sometimes grudgingly waiting for the passing prey. The hunter knows that sooner or later he will get his hands on something to fill up his belly with, for the prey also seek the shade.

Their method of catching prey is called "chain hunting". It consists in snatching the prey from the hands of another hunter who in turn took it away from another hunter and this one at the same time stole it from another hunter and so forth. 

This prey is very unusual. It does not have a particular shape, in some cases the prey has to be extracted from the passerby hunter´s head as if it were a ghost. 

Even their masters foretold them at the hunting school that this type of prey may be as weird as any spirit from the realm of the dead.

The hardest part the trainees went through at school was having to endure the long hours of learning how to control the stress of waiting for such a slippery and illusive prey, especially for the impatient ones. 

Some students graduated without ever having mastered this technique. In the real world this proves to be too much for them and many a time when stalking they lose control under the shade and mess up the whole hunting day.