Hunting is thought to be the oldest human activity. Our Palaeolithic ancestors, from the proto-historic period that extended from 4 million B.C.E. to 150,000 B.C.E., hunted to eat and to defend themselves in a relatively hostile environment.
As a principal means of obtaining food, its importance waned with the advent of more sedentary lifestyles, herding, the domestication of animals and the begin- ning of soil cultivation, but for millennia it continued to be an integral part of our culture, later as an important form of training for warriors preparing for battle, although without ever losing its link to human nourishment.
The apogee of hunting as an elite form of physical exercise (mainly practised by the nobility and clergy) was reached during the Middle Ages, when there was a proliferation of specialised texts on the subject. The general population also hunted, and always had, but they mainly sought smaller species, such as birds, rabbits, and hares. The pursuit of larger game (deer and boar, even bear) was normally reserved for the nobility, and infractions of this rule could result in severe punishment.
The importance of hunting in the cuisine of this period (as well as earlier periods) is well known. One of the oldest culinary texts in existence, De re coquinaria by the Roman epicure Apicius, is a good demonstra- tion of this. In Portugal, too, Isabel Drumond Braga, commenting on the Livro de Cozinha da Infanta Dona Maria (Princess Maria’s Cookbook) in her work À Mesa com Grão Vasco: para o estudo da alimentação no século XVI (At the table with Grão Vasco: for the study of eating habits in the 16th century), noted that there were plentiful game recipes at the dawn of the Modern Age. Nowadays, the impact of hunting on natural and semi-
-natural ecosystems can be negative if the capture of animals is carried out indiscriminately and without respecting the reproductive sustainability of the species. The countless decrees regulating hunting activities over recent centuries in Portugal attest to this fact. However, regulated hunting can exert a beneficial stimulus on the healthy reproduction of cynegetic species, acting chiefly on surplus in the populations and favouring the elimination of weaker or sick animals.
Hunting does not compete negatively with nature, rather it contributes to the healthy regeneration of populations and to natural selection. The creation of good natural conditions for species to develop and produce surplus in the populations should be the aim of all organisations, public and private, operating in this sector. And they must always bear in mind the sustainability of running the many hunting zones established from north to south, so as to ensure maximum protection of hunting resources in Portugal. Hunting is a sport, but also a business that brings considerable benefits to the country and – if carried out well – a factor of protection and development of wild species. And let us not forget, it also offers significant stimulation to our gastronomic tradition.
It was this sustainable perspective of the activity, as well as the outstanding gastronomic potential of cynegetic species, that led CTT Correios de Portugal
– under the guidance of the Portuguese Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) – to propose this stamp issue dedicated to Hunting in Portugal. There are so many animals we would like to feature in these stamps that there will be two series, in consecutive years. The animals chosen for this first series of stamps are: wood pigeon, partridge, mallard, snipe, and woodcock. All these species are subject to regulated hunting in Portugal. And they all lend themselves to remarkable culinary creations.
Philately Unit Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, IP
