HUNTING THE PANDEMICS

    Bow hunting deer is the second season I've participated in during the Covid-19 pandemic in America. The first opportunity that I had to get in the woods was turkey season during the month of May. Remember May? George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer on May 25th as I was creeping up on gobbling birds in White Sulphur Springs. The U.S., sick with the Corona Virus, tried to come to grips with racial injustice and a white police state urged on by an increasingly fascist administration in Washington during turkey season 2020. The turkeys didn't care. The turkeys knew nothing of the virus, police violence, racism or crackpot Q-Anon theories. The bird that came very close to replacing the eagle perched on top of flag poles across the U.S., knew only of that camo-clad man crawling through the woods, trying to put them in the pot. Their world view was laser focused on survival and getting laid. We'd do well taking their example to heart. All but one local turkey survived May 2020; not from my lack of trying to kill my limit.

    Hunting is primal, simple and usually undertaken alone. In the time of Covid, outdoor activities took on new significance as the weather warmed in the Spring. Sporting goods stores did a bang up business on walking sticks and kayaks. If you lived in the country the Covid lockdown wasn't so bad. Get out in the sunshine. Breathe that fresh air! The woods were safe, human virus free. Masks were required, but only to hide shiny skin and white beards from sharp turkey eyeballs, not mitigate virus particles. A dewy field at the crack of dawn was a welcome respite from the oppressive fear of catching the Covid- EVERYWHERE! 

   The turkeys so far are healthy. But diseases of another variety stalk the deer population. Brought on by climate change, CWD (chronic wasting disease) and EHD (epizootic hemorrhagic disease) are two diseases that are having devastating effects on the deer herd in America. Locally CWD has not been an issue. The same cannot be said for the EHD virus. Over 400 rotting corpses of whitetail deer were reported in and around the aptly named Purgatory Swamp near Goshen, NY this summer; a short drive from my front door. Unusually warm storm systems blowing out of the southern states carried the virus vectors north in large swarms of insects. Transmitted by the tiny midge (no-see-ums) an infected northern whitetail deer, not immune to the bite of the southern midge, will usually die within 24- 36 hours. Humans are not alone in susceptibility to these aggressive pathogens lurking about these days. And, like in the Corona virus, a close connection remains between the animal and human kingdoms.  There is presently no vaccine for any of these diseases, animal or human.

    Here in the higher elevations the deer herd at present remains unaffected by EHD. But that's not to say this will always be the case. Tomorrow temps are suppose to rise into the 70's. This is not unheard of in mid-October, but these warm spells are happening more and more frequently. Without midge killing hard frosts the weedy species of all plant and animal varieties thrive, spreading Lyme and a dystopian cornucopia of other illnesses across species populations, at times spreading to humans. Covid-19 is only the latest to jump species. 

It's a sick world out there.