Looking for a wounded big game animal at night

Can you look for a wounded big game animal at night?

After having shot at a big game animal and depending on the part of the body that was hit, the hunter generally waits a certain amount of time before looking for the animal. This waiting period allows the animal to succumb to its injuries. Often, the animal is found a few hundred metres from the place where it was hit. However, it may happen that the search continues until nightfall, after the legal hunting hours. How can a hunter legally look at night for a big game animal that he has shot?

The following information does not cover every possible situation. However, by observing these guidelines, you will make sure that you are looking for the animal in accordance with the law.

The Act respecting the conservation and development of wildlife defines the action of hunting as follows: “to pursue, chase, harass, stalk, mutilate, call, follow after, lie in wait of or search for an animal or attempt to do so, while in the possession of an arm, or to shoot, kill or capture an animal or attempt to do, except by trapping it”. The Act also states that no one may abandon edible meat of a big game animal that he has killed while hunting, except for bear meat. Moreover, this same act prohibits hunting big game at night with a spotlight, as well as the use of a spotlight at night to detect the presence of an animal in a place frequented by big game.

The search for a wounded big game animal at night must comply with the aforementioned legal provisions. Consequently, it cannot be done with a spotlight or when you have an arm in your possession. As a spotlight cannot be used, the use of another lighting device, such as a lantern that runs on batteries or gas, is recommended under such circumstances. Such a device will allow you to follow the traces left by the wounded game and to eventually find the animal if it is dead or too weak to flee.

To accommodate hunters, the use of a pocket lamp or a headlamp, having a power supply of a maximum of 6 volts direct current, is accepted when looking for a wounded animal at night.

If, in the course of searching, you realize that the animal is fleeing in front of you, a longer waiting period is necessary. You should then clearly identify the place where you saw the last traces of the animal’s passage and head back, even if this means waiting for daybreak to continue the search at the place where you left off.

And what about looking for a wounded animal after the close of the hunting season?

If the search continues after the close of the hunting season, the same principle applies; the search must be made without arms.