Furry Writers' Guild Forum

A Question Regarding Anthro Characters Hunting For Sport

General Writing Discussion
#1

So I’ve got this scene in mind, and I want to say it might be crucial…might not be, depends on how I’ll end up writing it…where a character is out hunting with his friends and suffers a flashback to his war experiences. As I was hitting on the outline, the thought came to me about how to approach the character (in this case, a fox) going out and hunting per their diet (small mammals, birds, etc) since it is meant to be in a world where there would be characters walking around that are the same species he is hunting for fun. Kind of like in that old Mickey Mouse cartoon Moose Hunters where there might be, in all likelihood, a walking talking moose of the same type Mickey’s going after.

I think I came across one of Kyell’s stories, I forget which one, where he approached the subject of there being non-uplifted or non-sapient creatures that fulfill their usual role in a furry world as they would in our real world, and I’m tempted to go with that explanation with some kind of twist. But I just wanted to know if others had experienced this dilemma, and if so how did you all work around it?

I do have a backup plan in mind regarding fish since that seems like a safe way of creating some kind of leisurely activity without getting tripped up over wondering how it would fit within the furry world.

#2

It’s really going to come down to your world and how it works.

If you want hunting and don’t have sapient avian characters, I can see hunting birds for food could be a thing.

I’ve done a story where, if I remember right, only creatures that aren’t anthro are farm animals. So a cattle drive was a thing. Horses were mounts and not sentient.

But, more importantly: your world, your rules. I’d say figure out what you want them to be and stick with them for the whole story. Next story, you may want to change them up. That could totally be a thing.

#3

You actually solved a problem for a future story that would’ve involved a cattle drive, so I thank you for your response and the idea!

I think something good could come from having the characters hunt birds. Now, to do research on which birds have the loudest flapping wings.

#4

If youre going by wing sound I’m guessing the bird is already in the air when the fox tries to take a shot?

Hitting a bird on the wing is difficult with a gun. With a bow its crazy difficult.

Heres a vid reference if you need it from a guy who has been bow hunting birds for years and years. And these are large birds like geese moving on predictable routes with plenty of time to spot and lead them.

#5

Ah! Much obliged…my naivete in regards to hunting is showing, as I’m only familiar with the bare basics of duck hunting via video games so I had no idea on the difficulty of using either a gun or a bow or taking either shot while in the air.

#6

As TJ said, this is going to depend on the rules for your world. It’s perfectly possible to have a world where only canids (in this case foxes) evolved to a human-like level and everything else is still considered animals. It’s also possible to have two species, either through natural, or artificial evolution, to evolve along two different paths where one becomes more intelligent and more complex than the other. Though both species are similar in terms of genus, the more intelligent one considers itself different ‘enough’ not to concern themselves with the hunting of ‘ferals’. A lot of anthro stories use this example actually.

In my own books, both feral and anthro varieties exist, and it is the complexities of the interactions and hypocrisies through arrogance that create some of the stories’ more dramatic moments. Anything is possible, it just has to make sense in the confines of that world.