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Fair chase is a term used by hunters to describe an ethical hunt. North America's oldest wildlife conservation group, the Boone and Crockett Club, defines “fair chase”〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=https://www.boone-crockett.org/huntingEthics/ethics_fairchase.asp?area=huntingEthics )〕 as requiring hunted big game animals to be “wild and free-ranging.” Wild refers to an animal that is naturally bred and lives in nature. Free-ranging, as defined by the Club, means an animal is “unrestricted within its biological home range, has adequate protective cover, and reasonable opportunity to elude the hunter.” A game animal’s biological home range is generally understood as the geographic area where an animal roams to find food, water, shelter, and to reproduce. Biological home range will vary from species to species and depend on available habitat. It is a concept of animal behavior and ecology that is very difficult to model or measure accurately. Fair chase has been the honor code of North American hunters for over a century and the principle underlying many of North American hunting laws, and is taught to new hunters in hunter certification courses. The literal meaning of fair chase is complicated by the fact that “fair” has many meanings and uses in the English language, e.g., fair ball, fair weather, fair skin, fair chance, fair play. When the word “fair” is paired with “chase,” it implies hunting is fair or equal. It is not. Hunting is not a field sport like baseball or football where the participants agree to the rules of engagement beforehand. In hunting, the hunted has not agreed to anything, nor does it have an equal chance in most cases to kill the human hunter. For most species, escape is the only option. Therefore, the meaning of fair chase is based on the definition of “fair” that relates to legitimate, honorable, genuine, or appropriate in the circumstances. To complicate matters further, fair chase is associated with the notion of sport hunting in the minds of many hunters, even though it does not resemble any sport played on a field or court. There is only one willing participant in hunting and the competition is not between groups of people. The term “sport,” in hunting, means only a sporting approach or a sporting chance, which are the principles behind fair chase. That approach recognizes the advantage of human capabilities, including technologies, and represents a desire to constrain ourselves so as to give the animals pursued a chance to escape. ==History== The concept and the popularization of the term "fair chase" is credited to Theodore Roosevelt and perpetuated by the Boone and Crockett Club, a conservation organization of Roosevelt's creation.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://cdm103401.cdmhost.com/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16013coll13/id/51/rec/10 )〕 The earliest recorded North American usage of the term “Fair Chase” is in the fifth article of the Boone and Crockett Club constitution, adopted in February of 1888. At this time in history there were no laws governing the talking of game for food or for sport. Water-killing deer (driving deer with hounds or pushers into lakes where shooters waited in boats to either shot, club or cut the throats of deer) was also a widespread practice, especially in the Adirondack mountains. Article X of the Club’s constitution declared that the killing of game while swimming was an “offense” for which a member may be suspended or expelled from the Club.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://cdm103401.cdmhost.com/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16013coll13/id/96/rec/1 )〕 Later writings by Club members Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, and Aldo Leopold articulated the term “fair chase” to the public through books and magazine articles. Most notable of these where the Club’s Acorn book series on hunting (1893 – 1933), Leopold’s ''Sand County Almanac'' and Grinnell’s ''Forest and Stream'' magazine – now ''Field & Stream''. In 1893, Theodore Roosevelt wrote about hunting and fair chase in his book titled ''The Wilderness Hunter''. The history of the Teddy Bear has a close connection to fair chase. During his presidency in 1902, Theodore Roosevelt was in Mississippi to settle a border dispute. His hosts knew Roosevelt was an avid hunter and arranged for a black bear hunt for the President. In the thick brush swamps of Mississippi it was a common practice of the day to hunt bears with hounds. With concern for the President's safety the guides insisted that he stay in camp until a bear was brought to bay by the hounds. A small bear was caught and tied to a tree. When Roosevelt arrived at the scene he refused to shoot the defenseless animal. Being omitted from the chase was unsettling to Roosevelt who prided himself in living the hardy life of an outdoorsmen – the harder the hunt the better. He did not earn this bear though a fair pursuit. Political cartoonist Clifford Berryman immediately drew a cartoon depicting Roosevelt refusing to shoot the restrained bear. The story made national headlines and a shopkeeper, Morris Michtom in Brooklyn, New York, had his wife sew a stuffed bear to sell in his store. He wrote the Roosevelt asking permission to call the child's toy, Teddy's Bear. Roosevelt gave his permission, and history was made. Ethics, or a code of conduct in hunting first emerged centuries ago among European hunters who were primarily the wealthy landowners and royalty. While the commoner hunted to stay alive, the aristocrat hunted for sport, and it was this sporting approach that separated the two. These ethics did not transfer to the majority of immigrants that settled in the New World. Mere human survival and commercial enterprises had no room for a hunting ethic. After two hundred years of the unregulated taking of wildlife by subsistence, recreational, and commercial market hunters, the negative effects were inescapable. By the end of this “era of extermination,” wildlife and especially big game populations were in dismal condition. Some species had already been lost to extinction and others were on the edge of being lost forever. In the early part of the 20th century, there began to emerge a sense of pride and accomplishment among sportsmen that came with their newly accepted responsibility to conserve. Doing right by the game being hunted meant working with conservation and population recovery efforts. These efforts included the creation of the National Wildlife Refuge System. As for the hunt itself, using restraint shifted the emphasis of measuring success, from the quantity of game taken, to the quality of the chase. The hunting experience became more important than the number killed, and success was now more memorable because the hunting experience became sustainable in the long term. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fair chase」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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