NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/912676
48 NEBRASKAland • DECEMBER 2017 show to one of the instructors. He told me that it was a turkey vulture and that they eat dead animals. No wonder why it stunk. I left my trap hidden underneath a tree, but these birds can smell – I thought that was insane. So we let it go. The next day, I caught another one. So after that I gave up on trapping." Pheasant hunting was Haidar's first hunting experience, and since then, he has hunted everything from deer to waterfowl to upland and small game. His gun dog, Sitka, is a part of the family; Haidar had as many photos of his German shorthaired pointer on his iPhone as he did of his two children. All the while, his understanding of the American style of hunting has grown. For to be a true sportsman, conservation must be equally appreciated. Conservation While selling wild game meat in the United States is illegal, waterfowl, for example, presents big business opportunities in the Middle East, Haidar said. Thousands upon thousands of ducks and geese are captured and sold on the market by businessmen who buy exclusive rights to private and mostly government-owned marshes and ponds all season long from November through March. "Iraq has some of the biggest marshes in world, which provides a good wintering ground for waterfowl that migrate from Europe," said Haidar. "These companies feed ducks with milo and wheat which they spread onto the water. And they have nets sitting in the water with a rope system that closes in on the birds. They do not allow hunters there. No shotguns. Believe it or not, a single mallard can sell for about $21-25. At the market, these birds are sold alive with their wings clipped and their feet tied up. It's sad." Flamingos, whooping cranes, herons – anything that flies – it dies, said Haidar. Electrofishing is frowned upon but people still practice it. "We used to have lions, tigers and cheetahs – we read about them in the old stories and poems that were written 800-1,000 years ago. They are all gone now. We still have hyenas – they're not aggressive like African hyenas, but when people see them, they just shoot them. They don't even eat them. In areas where people don't respect the law, there's no game left." Today, the Persian fallow deer is nearing extinction in the Middle East, but despite some conservation efforts and public pressure, people still shoot them. The Saudi gazelle was declared extinct in 2008. "After a while, I realized what's happened in the Middle East and why we don't have animals there," Haidar said. "And the same thing happened here when the first settlers came, but people woke up and they knew that they needed to do something about it and they did. I realized: Yeah, all these laws and regulations are a pain in the butt, but your kids are going to hunt eventually, not just you." A Family That Hunts Together... Like any proud father, Haidar couldn't help but talk about his children. His 8-year-old daughter, Nasreen, and 3-year-old son, Yakub, Sam Tawfek of Lincoln hunts ducks and geese with Kazem in early December at Pawnee Lake SRA.