Recognize Your Target

You can sympathize with the 21-year-old man who mistook a llama for a deer a few days ago in Montana.

After all, deer and some llamas are similar in color. Under certain conditions, particularly in poor light, a llama might resemble a doe deer. Furthermore, the llama had been hanging out with some doe deer. A major difference between the two animals, a difference an informed person knows, is the way they hold their heads. Deer have relatively short necks and they hold their heads only slightly above their bodies. Llamas, on the other hand, have long necks and, like giraffes, hold their necks almost perpendicular to the ground.

After the eager hunter walked up to the llama he had killed, he still thought he had shot a deer. That indicated he didn’t get “buck fever,” an affliction suffered by some excitable hunters. He really didn’t know the difference between a deer and a llama, something that even a third-grader knows.

He didn’t realize he had shot a llama until a meat processor gave him the bad news.

So you also can understand why the neophyte hunter was so embarrassed that he pleaded with the game warden not to reveal his name. The warden was a good guy. He didn’t give the press the man’s name.

The hapless llama joined a long list of wild and domestic animals - and even men - that shooters have mistaken for game.

Hunters have shot black bears for grizzlies, moose for elk, elk for deer, horses and cows for elk, chukars for pheasants, swans for Canada geese, hen pheasants for roosters and, of course, men for deer, elk and bears. The list goes on.

Hunters mistake the animals they’re hunting for other wild and domestic animals more often than is reported. Many who go after deer, elk, goats, sheep and moose and shoot the wrong animals walk away when they see that they’ve made a mistake.

Sometimes you might wonder why fish and wildlife departments don’t require first-time hunters to pass a wildlife identification test.

Why do some hunters kill their hunting buddies and why do some shoot birds and animals they hadn’t intended to target?

A few, like the man who shot the llama, are just plain ignorant. No person should hunt unless he or she can identify the intended quarry.

Some just don’t make sure that the man or animal they see is what they’re after. The Idaho man who shot his buddy recently didn’t make sure of his target.

Many get what veteran hunters call “buck fever.” They see what they want to see. It’s possible that the man who shot his buddy got buck fever.

Hunters who get buck fever sometimes do the oddest things.

Several years ago while I was hunting deer with a friend in Stevens County three or four whitetail deer jumped out of dense cover just ahead of us. At the time we could have shot either a buck or a doe. I was behind my friend, so I didn’t lift my rifle.

The deer stopped about 75 yards from us and looked back. My friend, who had a bolt-action rifle, pumped four or five shells out of his gun without firing a shot. Then he ran toward the deer, apparently thinking he had shot one of them.

A few minutes later he came back to where I was standing. He said he had been looking for a dead deer. No, I told him, you didn’t kill a deer. You didn’t fire a shot. I pointed to the shells he had ejected from his rifle and told him what he had done. He sheepishly picked up the shells.

Some hunters, when they see what they want to see regardless of the animal or person they’re looking at, fire their guns, only to realize too late that they’ve shot something or someone they hadn’t intended to shoot.

That’s the scary thing about hunting, walking, fishing or picture taking in the woods during hunting seasons. There are a few hunters out there who get buck fever or who can’t tell the difference between a deer or elk.

One of my fly fishing friends knows that his chances of becoming a target of a mixed-up hunter are one in a million, but his fishing season ends when hunting seasons start.

He’s not alone. Many recreationists won’t go into the woods during hunting seasons.

Fish and wildlife departments frequently emphasize in news releases that hunting is a safe sport, that all but a tiny minority of hunters make mistakes. But it’s the tiny minority that get the headlines and create the impression among non-hunters that many hunters are careless and a threat to people and livestock.

Unfortunately for serious, careful hunters, there are some license buyers who shouldn’t hunt. They’re the hunters who mistake people, livestock and game birds and animals for their quarry.

Identifying them before they pull their triggers is extremely difficult, if not impossible.