As October wanes, two unrelated but often ignored issues have grabbed my own imagination —the proliferation of women hunters and our misunderstanding of bats. NDOW always talks about bats during October, because so many people have wild misconceptions about the species, often equating bats with Halloween. And with hunting season in full swing, I’ve noticed many more women taking active roles and participating in Nevada’s hunting culture.
Although statistics show that the hunting public is still overwhelming male, a full 11 percent of hunters are women, according to census bureau statistics. The numbers are big and growing fast, and the number of American women who spend time hunting spiked 25 percent between 2006 and 2011, the last year numbers were available.
The reasons individual women get into the sport are as varied as the people themselves. With my curiosity piqued, I chatted with a few women, asking questions about what brought them into hunting, and I was surprised just how varied their reasons were.
On the extreme edge are people like Dawn Baugh, a Reno teacher and avid archery hunter. She told me that she has spent her lifetime hunting. She volunteers to help introduce women to the sport, as a volunteer for NDOW’s hunter education program.
“I live for hunting, especially with a bow,” Dawn said. She just came off a hunt where she harvested a “5 by 6” bull elk. Baugh takes great pride in not only hunting and harvesting, but she also cleans, packs out and cooks anything she takes. She has no “male partner” with whom she hunts, but rather she goes with her sister or on her own.
Even though I grew up in rural Nevada, I don’t consider myself an active hunter. It was obvious to me from Dawn’s enthusiastic hunting stories that she would out-hike, out-hunt and outshoot me on her worst day.
On the other side, you have many women hunters who get into the sport because of husbands, significant others or other men in their lives bring them into it. Julia Ketcham, an administrative assistant at NDOW, told me that hunting for her is a way to connect with her family.
“I go with my husband. We go after chukar, quail and mostly go after upland game,” Julia said. She has her own Weatherby 20-gage shotgun, and her trips are always large, family affairs.
However women get into the sport, it is clear to me that hunting is no longer a “guy thing” if it ever was to begin with. Very experienced hunters should welcome the influx of women into the sport. When large, diverse groups of people care about a sport, that sport is healthier for it. Adding spouses and children into any sport, also creates a much bigger chance for family outings and bonding. I for one can’t wait for my daughters to outshoot and outhunt me — in fairness to my weak skills, they are already better than me.
The other issue that grabbed me this month is bats, a species that also takes center stage this time of year. The last week of October, right before Halloween is Bat Week when we in Nevada celebrate these flying mammals. This animal has been unfairly lumped in with ghosts, goblins and those scary night creatures we celebrate this time of year. The reasons are as myriad as they are unfair, starting with misconceptions about bats as “diseased.”
First, I should dispel the fear people have that bats “all have rabies.” It’s estimated that as few as .2 percent of bats in the wild even carry rabies, according to Jason Williams, NDOW biologist in Ely, who has studied these fascinating creatures for about 20 years. Williams even has a master’s degree in ecology with an emphasis on bats.
“Most bats you won’t ever see. It’s when they’re sick that they exhibit unusual behavior, like showing up during the day around town,” Williams said. “In fact, rabies is far more common in raccoons and dogs than in bats.”
Bats provide a great service to humans, eating insects and acting as pollinators for some plants. The agave plant is pollinated exclusively by bats, so if you like Tequila you have to like bats, too. Even though some bats do drink blood, they lick (rather than suck) and those bats live far away in South America. In short, all the fear and misunderstanding of bats keeps us from appreciating this unique and useful mammal.
There is much more information on bats and on classes for would-be women hunters on the website ndow.org via podcast at nevadawild.org.
