What about bears? Do they hunt those anywhere?
Russia, I’m fairly sure, and maybe the Balkans.
I was once walking in the Scottish Highlands with a bunch of friends plus a fellow who we shall call Rupert because it’s a funny name, plus that was actually his name. He was something of a boofhead, and rather loud.
The experienced walkers explained we were walking through a private deer stalking estate, which we were allowed to do, but we needed to be quiet and respectful of other users.
So we had to walk up this steep and long path to the top of a mountain pass. Partway up someone spotted deer and a pair of hunters stalking them. They were not directly on our path but near enough that we quietly passed the word to walk very quietly and with no sudden movements. Except that Rupert was fat and unfit and had fallen behind. We got to the top and sat down to watch the stalkers and deer, while we waited for Rupert.
He made it to the top (something of a struggle for him) and before we could stop him yelled:
FUCK YEAH! WOOHOO! MADE IT!
The deer ran off. The hunters did not shoot Rupert. Not sure why. I guess I should be grateful for their restraint, given that they may not have appreciated which of us was the loudmouth jerk.
In fact, there are two cultures of hunting in France. One is the quite upscale and costly pass time you saw, and is more prevalent in northern France. You pay the owner of the land for the right to hunt there (which is quite costly) and you meet with other hunters on a given day to hunt a given game.
The other, more prevalent in southern France, is much more low scale. You’re typically a rural, belong to the local hunting association and hunt whatever you feel like wherever you fell like. Beer is certainly involved when hunters come back home.
This difference is even enshrined in the law. Until quite recently, you couldn’t even prevent people from hunting on your land in the regions where doing so was traditionnally the norm. A dozen years ago, due to the pressures of environementalists, a law was passed allowing you to do so. But still, in these regions, either you forbid hunting completely or everybody can hunt on your land. You can’t sell the right to hunt as they do in other parts of France (like the Loire region where you’ve witnessed a gathering of hunters). So, the laws regulating hunting are different depending on where you live, and my neighbors in the village where I was brought up probably wouldn’t have much in common with those guys in Chambord.
This obviously results in two completely different cultures. One more akin to the British style of hunting, and the other much more similar to the American way.
Note also that France is less densily populated than most other european countries (in fact, than all others except Scandinavian countries), so as a result there’s more wild space and game.
Hmmm…When I think about it, I wonder if Chambord isn’t the presidential hunting forest. I’ll have to check that. In which case the hunters you saw were even less representative, being the president’s guests (or at least given the permission to hunt by the president, and it isn’t given to anybody).
ETA : Chambord is indeed a presidential hunting domain. It’s apparently unclear whether the “presidential hunts” have been suspended or not (the current president and his predecessor having few interest in hunting).
Just to add to what Gukumatz said, the reason reindeer hunting is extremely restricted in Norway (and Sweden and Finland too) is that most of the reindeer are private property, part of herds that are being commercially raised rather than being fully wild. Only the relatively small number of wild reindeer can be hunted, and those herds are not exactly huge.
However, there are millions of the damned things, and the meat found in the supermarket is from those commercial herds, which are big enough and then some. So have no guilty conscience about chowing down on Stewed Rudolph. Remember: the maraschino cherry garnish is optional.
Finnish wikipedia says 60-80 bears are shot per year here in Finland.
My brother in law in Russia goes “hunting” on occasion. Its not really easy or cheap to get firearms so I don’t take it to be very common unless you have some cash. Not sure what they are hunting for but I have never heard of him coming back with anything. It’s usually going out in the woods with guns, drinking a bit, firing off a few rounds, and then heading back to their lodge. Kind of a guys’ drinking weekend, with guns. I think if these meatballs actually came across anything larger than a rabbit, they would run screaming into the woods.
Really rich guys go on guided game hunts in the Russian Far East.