A new generation of hunters, widely followed on social media, is refreshing the image of hunting, countering speculation about its slow decline.
In France, many young hunters are busy communicating about hunting in all its forms. The latest post is in which Alice Tonnelier, a hunting instructor, teaches aspiring hunters about the hunting license exam.
Some of them are girls who claim to have been born and raised in the city and see hunting as a way to reconnect with nature; hunting, they say, means walking in the forest, watching the morning sun rise, learning about animal species, and cooking the huntable ones.
They're two sisters, and they talk a lot about hunting, even though they say we won't put it on our resumes because it's like labeling it as a political ideology. This is unfortunately because some people see hunting as a destructive activity, while for them, it's anything but: an art to be lived.
Instructor Tonnelier explains that half of the hunting license candidates who attend the courses run by the Interdepartmental Federation of Hunters of Ile-de-France have never participated in a hunting day and are unfamiliar with it. The strange thing is that these candidates don't get into hunting because, perhaps, their father was a hunter in the past. They do it for their own personal journey. And to this end, the Federation is developing partnerships with student associations to offer reduced introductory courses for the hunting license.
In France, the number of applicants for hunting licenses increased by 10% between 2019 and 2021, when 36.791 aspiring hunters took the exams. In some areas of France, applicants sometimes have to wait on waiting lists. All this is happening in France at a time when the hunting population is aging somewhat, with the majority being over 55.
Obviously this new blood is viewed by the Federation in a very positive light.
Willy Schraen, National President of the Federation of Transalpine Hunters, proudly stated that in 2021, for the first time, almost no hunters were lost, while in previous years there had been a significant loss of practitioners.
The President enthusiastically recalls that many aspiring hunters have urban origins and that over 20% of aspiring hunters are female. Everyone enjoys sharing their passion on Facebook and other social media.
