How to Become a Skilled Jungle Hunter - Part 2

My father also taught me the skills of hunting in the forest. Hunting was vital to us for thereby our families could eat. One thing I quickly learned was that a jungle hunter does not follow the beaten paths, since animals avoid these. So we had to learn how to make our way through undergrowth, getting scratched by thorns and leaves, all the while trying to avoid mosquitoes, ants, bees and snakes.

Since trailing an animal can take more than a day, I learned how to find safe places to sleep, and how to start fires to cook food. I needed to know which plants, fruits and berries were safe to eat, and when birds' nests would have eggs in them. I found out, too, how to get drinking water from rattan vines and other plants. Yes, understanding the jungle could mean the difference between a full and an empty stomach, even between life and death!

Why do native hunters not get lost in the jungle? Because we are taught the art of reading wind direction, and of using the sun and stars to locate direction.

The senses need to be developed, too. Keen eyesight is essential to distinguish prey from clumps of vegetation. Hearing is also vital, so we could detect animals moving about. Why, I could even smell when there were monkeys, pigs, birds, bats or snakes in the neighborhood!

Hunting-and Being Hunted

Sometimes hunting would be a community effort. The whole village would spread out in a large circle, and gradually close in on a sort of corral that had been built, beating the bush, driving the wild pigs and deer toward it. Once the prey was inside, the village chieftain divided the spoils according to the size of the family.

Another way of hunting deer was to burn a small area of forest and wait. Deer love to lick the ashes of burnt wood, so at sundown they would come for a taste. A light would attract them to the hunter.

My father taught me to be skilled at imitating animal calls. So just as we would imitate the sounds of fish, we also would hide near a fruit tree and make the calls of various birds. When they came flying to the call, we would shoot them with our bow and arrow, which is no easy feat.

To catch wild chickens, we would put a tame cock in a corral camouflaged with twigs and leaves. The hunter imitated the crow of a cock, and our tame rooster would answer. His answer would be taken as a challenge to the nearby wild cocks, who would come running, looking for a fight. Once inside the corral, they were ours.

At times, the hunter had to be careful. We were not the only jungle residents looking for dinner. For example, sometimes we would hear a crowing sound, just like a wild cock. But in fact it would be a black snake trying to lure the cock for his meal. And he did not take kindly to humans interfering with his hunting.

Still Hunting and Fishing

It has been many years since I left the jungle. But there are still tribesmen living in the jungle, using some of the old skills and traditions.

Having been a hunter, I have a high appreciation of the skills involved. But for nearly 30 years now, I have been happy applying myself to another kind of 'hunting and fishing.'