Digital hunting is a great way to exercise your hunting instincts on all types of animals.

A waning afternoon sun was settling in the southwestern sky as I crept through tangled alder and river willow, trying hard to step silently on dry twigs and leaves that crackled underfoot like popcorn. Avoiding quick movements that might startle tattletale birds and squirrels into sounding an alarm, I eased onto one knee and lightly ran my fingertips around the edges of a deep hoof print. The impression was sharp-edged and fresh, and the plant fibers that had torn under the tremendous weight were wet – crushed underfoot no more than an hour before. My prey, an adult bull moose, had to be very close!

Game laws prohibited hunting moose in the Upper Peninsula, but I craved the experience of tracking down this largest, most potentially dangerous, member of the deer family. So near my target, my senses were humming at a high frequency. I was acutely aware of every sound, sight and odor as my trigger finger caressed the shutter button of the digital camera that hung from my neck.

While groups may debate philosophical points, the truth is that anyone seeking to observe wild animals is a hunter, whether individuals prefer to be called bird-watchers, naturalists, or photographers. That we all have an instinct to outwit prey is reflected in pastimes from video games, chess and football to reality TV. Like all predators, humans derive pleasure from hunting, and seasoned sport hunters admit that pulling a trigger is the anticlimax of a successful hunt; the greatest thrills come from the hunt itself.

The same knowledge and skills that make a bow or gun hunter consistently successful at finding game are needed for wildlife photography. If you can scout, track, and stalk wild animals within camera range, you can do the same with a weapon. And if you can maintain the calm needed to take a focused, centered photo of an animal, you’ll doubtless do well at dealing with that jittery condition called “buck fever.”

In fact, hunting with a camera has several advantages over weapons. First, there is no closed season for photography; any species can be hunted any month of the year. Protected and nongame animals can be legally captured with a camera, and even endangered species are fair game.

Camera hunting also provides a great testing ground for new gear. Turkey hunters can practice their calls during the off-season, in an environment free of hunting pressure. Coyote hunters can try out a new rabbit call well in advance of opening day. Scent-dampening clothing and products are sometimes best evaluated during the off-season, when game species are likely to act naturally. Sex scents cannot be accurately judged outside of mating season, but food and attractant scents can be tested at any time of year, and there is no better way to see how well various camouflage patterns work.

Shooting Gear
Point-and-shoot film cameras are pocket-size and fast to shoot, but preset shutter speeds, exposure and focal settings limit their usefulness for taking snapshots.

Single Lens Reflex (SLR) film cameras offer a broad range of user-controlled adjustments that allow users to capture fast-moving animals in low light at long or short ranges, but SLRs are expensive, heavy, and difficult to learn. A common frustration with film-type cameras is that you can’t know how clear that one-in-a-million shot will turn out until later, after the film is developed.

Despite lingering arguments over which takes a better photo, digital pictures are replacing film as the standard for magazines and newspapers, and their quality is better than good. Camera hunters can capture images of animals, but also their tracks and signs, which makes the digital camera an excellent new tool for pre-hunt scouting. Photos can be downloaded to a computer, then enlarged and enhanced for closer scrutiny, or viewed on a television, without the inconvenience of waiting for a developer to process them.

You don’t need to hock a family heirloom to get a good hunting camera, either. Basic 2.0 megapixel (mp) point-and-shoot models can be had for as little as $60, with prices rising as quality increases. Probably most ideal for the camera hunter, in terms of quality versus price, are fixed-lens models, like Kodak’s 4.0 mp EasyShare C310 ($95), with flash, USB download cable, download software, and enough resolution to print photos up to 20×30 inches without losing clarity. A nice step up is Pentax’s Optio W20, a waterproof pocket model with 3x optical zoom and 7.0 megapixels of resolution for about $250.

Most digital cameras have an on-board memory that holds about a dozen photos, but wafer-like memory cards can expand that storage capability to hundreds of photos; a 256 megabyte card (about $35) yields more than 100 high-resolution photos from a 5.0 megapixel camera. If you don’t like the picture you see in the LCD preview window on the backside of all digital cameras, simply delete it from the memory space and try again. Should you fill the memory card, it can be exchanged for an empty card, or most cameras can be switched to internal memory.

Back in civilization, digital photos can be downloaded directly from camera to computer, where they can be enhanced with graphics software, made into frameable pictures using photo paper and a photo printer (ink from ordinary printer cartridges is not permanent), or e-mailed to friends. If you don’t have a computer, many stores and pharmacies now have automated photo printers that will download images from your camera’s memory card and print those you select on photo paper. The erased memory card can then be re-used an indefinite number of times.

While you can’t eat a photo, a trophy buck captured in a frame on the wall still entitles its owner to bragging rights, and for a lot less money than a taxidermist charges. With so many reliable, good-resolution pocket cameras available at low prices, anyone can have a camera with them at all times. If everyone did, friends would be less doubtful about the time you saw a bear or moose, and maybe we could even clear up this Bigfoot thing.