Anyone that ever visits a prepper website or has ever heard a prepper conversation has certainly heard that after any TEOTWAWKI societal collapse event that all wild game populations will drop to near zero immediately. While this might be true in a few locations, overall I just don’t think it will happen–at least not over any large area of our country.
While statements on either side of this debate are pure conjecture we can look at some facts that back up the guesses on one side or the other. The first obvious thing we should do is look at the animal/human populations in the United States.
The human population is three hundred twenty seven million. That is a lot of people. So let’s look at wild game populations. These population numbers are estimates from state fish and wildlife departments.
- Deer – 30 million
- Elk – 1 million
- Moose – relatively small numbers outside of Alaska
- Antelope – 1 million
- Bison – about ½ million
- Big Horn sheep & Mountain Goat – small numbers
- Bear – approx. ½ million
So big game populations overall are only roughly one percent of the human population. If we stop here it would appear that post-TEOTWAWKI situation American big game animals would be quickly decimated. But we are not talking about trophy hunters here instead every hunter would be totally concerned only with meat to prevent starvation. In that light I would assume most hunters would go for any meat to stay alive and feed their family. This would include domestic animals especially because they would be much easier to access. So logically we would have to include livestock populations into our equation.
- Cows – 94 million
- Horses – 9 million (yes you can eat horses)
- Goats – 2.5 million
- Sheep – 5 million
- Beefalo & domestic bison – approx. ½ million
Adding these livestock numbers we see adds a whole lot of meat-on-the-hoof that would be available to hunters. But if you are hunting for deer because you are starving I would have to assume you would not turn down smaller game like a fat tasty rabbit. Population numbers of wild rabbits (cottontail and jack rabbits) is unknown but the number is huge. A guesstimate of over one hundred million is very likely.Continue reading“TEOTWAWKI: Thoughts on Wild Game Populations by Pete Thorsen”