Identification of Differences in Hunting Management in Poland and Selected European Countries in the Context of Sustainable Development
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
2-4: Title could be shorter - I would suggest to remove the following part "and promotion of game consumption" since this aspect was extended only in one subsection of the results.
11-13: The utilitarian aim of the work is barely developed in the paper so I would also recommend to remove it.
98-100: Probable reasons for the existing significant differences in the number of hunters in analyzed countries weren't demonstrated in the paper.
167-169: The utilitarian aim of the work - as above.
181: Item 18 from the references wasn't used here because Slovenia wasn't analyzed in the paper.
200: Recently there is only one ministry - The Ministry of Climate and Environment.
216: Serbia has different climate and hunting habits so I would recommend to exclude it to shorten the entire paper.
253: It's not based on the mating season at all. Rather than that the hunting season is focusing on excluding hunting when young are being raised and in the difficult (for animals) time in the end of winter. I agree that mating season should be also excluded because the quality of the game meat is worse during that time.
345: Piglets can be hunted in Poland all year long so it's longer than in the Czech Republic.
399-401: What kind of regulations are recommended for implementing by the Authors?
419-421: Wolves are not being complementary fed. The quoted work mentions that they prefer to hunt wild animals rather than farm animals.
434-435: Problem of the protection of big predators is not limited only to Poland and Czech Republic and other countries also have habitats that allow for their living.
449: Bears are not being perceived by hunters as a competition when hunting game at all, especially when it comes to roe deer.
470: Data regarding the wolves' occurrence in the Eastern Poland should be added.
547: It is not assigned to a specific hunter but to a specific hunting area.
565-567: The same unit of area should be used.
614-616: Poland also has penalties for illegal harvesting.
662-664: The reason for the extinction of the tarpan and the aurochs was completely different. The quoted authors also write about it differently.
670-671: That is not true. Wild gamois is not considered as game animal in Poland since 1868.
678-679: That type of increase is actually typical fot big herbivores.
679-681: It cannot be considered as neglected in this paper since it is not a game animal (as mentioned above).
687-689: The European bison is also not considered game animal and actually Poland has many successes when it comes to its restitution.
710-712: The aspect of farm bred animals should not be mentioned here.
881-882: It may also result in overpopulation.
Conclusion no. 8: Poland also tested various methods of counting animals, e.g. Bobek i in. 2013.
Conclusion no. 9: Belgium also has good solutions for wild animals feeding.
Conclusion no. 10: I don't see any justification for this in the paper.
Author Response
2-4: Title could be shorter - I would suggest to remove the following part "and promotion of game consumption" since this aspect was extended only in one subsection of the results.
Response 1: Agreed
11-13: The utilitarian aim of the work is barely developed in the paper so I would also recommend to remove it.
Response 2: Agreed
98-100: Probable reasons for the existing significant differences in the number of hunters in analyzed countries weren't demonstrated in the paper.
Response 3: Agreed
167-169: The utilitarian aim of the work - as above.
Response 4: Agreed
181: Item 18 from the references wasn't used here because Slovenia wasn't analyzed in the paper.
Response 5: Agreed
200: Recently there is only one ministry - The Ministry of Climate and Environment.
Response 6: Agreed
216: Serbia has different climate and hunting habits so I would recommend to exclude it to shorten the entire paper.
Response 7: Agreed
253: It's not based on the mating season at all. Rather than that the hunting season is focusing on excluding hunting when young are being raised and in the difficult (for animals) time in the end of winter. I agree that mating season should be also excluded because the quality of the game meat is worse during that time.
Response 8: Agreed
345: Piglets can be hunted in Poland all year long so it's longer than in the Czech Republic.
Response 9: I do not know if I am right, but in accordance with the decree No. 245/2002, as amended on 01/01/2021 in paragraph 1, point 1, there is information that piglets can be hunted all year round. So basically like in Poland. If the Reviewer has other documents that I have missed, I will be happy to read them and make changes to the article
399-401: What kind of regulations are recommended for implementing by the Authors?
Response 10: Agreed
419-421: Wolves are not being complementary fed. The quoted work mentions that they prefer to hunt wild animals rather than farm animals.
Response 10: Agreed
434-435: Problem of the protection of big predators is not limited only to Poland and Czech Republic and other countries also have habitats that allow for their living.
Response 11: I am aware that the problem of predator protection applies to all the countries in question, but in line 410-411 I wrote that "They are limited only to Poland and Czech Republic due to the immediate vicinity and similarity in terms of the current ecosystems". Due to the limited access to documents and the already significant length of the article, I decided that I can limit this aspect only to Polish and Czech.
449: Bears are not being perceived by hunters as a competition when hunting game at all, especially when it comes to roe deer.
Response 12: Agreed
470: Data regarding the wolves' occurrence in the Eastern Poland should be added.
Response 13: Agreed
547: It is not assigned to a specific hunter but to a specific hunting area.
Response 14: Agreed
565-567: The same unit of area should be used.
Response 15: Agreed
614-616: Poland also has penalties for illegal harvesting.
Response 16: Agreed
662-664: The reason for the extinction of the tarpan and the aurochs was completely different. The quoted authors also write about it differently.
Response 17: Agreed
670-671: That is not true. Wild gamois is not considered as game animal in Poland since 1868.
Response 18: Agreed
678-679: That type of increase is actually typical fot big herbivores.
Response 19: Agreed
679-681: It cannot be considered as neglected in this paper since it is not a game animal (as mentioned above).
Response 20: Agreed
687-689: The European bison is also not considered game animal and actually Poland has many successes when it comes to its restitution.
Response 21: Agreed
710-712: The aspect of farm bred animals should not be mentioned here.
Response 22: Agreed
881-882: It may also result in overpopulation.
Response 23: Agreed
Conclusion no. 8: Poland also tested various methods of counting animals, e.g. Bobek i in. 2013.
Response 24: Agreed
Conclusion no. 9: Belgium also has good solutions for wild animals feeding.
Response 25: Agreed
Conclusion no. 10: I don't see any justification for this in the paper.
Response 26: Agreed
Reviewer 2 Report
First of all, I would like to congratulate the authors for tackling such an important and, at the same time, novel subject as the management of hunting activity. In general terms, the article is correct, although it is necessary to make a series of changes that respond, fundamentally, to questions of structure and form in order to be published. The changes requested are as follows:
- INTRODUCTION: the bibliographical analysis of the concept of "hunting" should be expanded, as well as a more detailed justification of why the authors have chosen to take the Oxford Dictionary definition as a reference. On the other hand, this section presents certain problems with regard to its structure, in such a way that the paragraphs from lines 77 to 94 should be moved to the end. Thus, the structure of the introduction would respond to the following scheme:
- Analysis of the hunting concept.
- Review of the bibliography on hunting management.
- Preview of the contributions made by this article.
- MATERIALS AND METHODS: the content of this section seems correct, although it is advisable to structure it in the following sub-sections:
- Study area: this would include everything related to the situation in Poland.
- Methodology: where the methodology used would be defined.
On the other hand, a conceptual map could be included in this Methodology sub-section so that the phases of the methodological process could be more clearly observed at a glance.
- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: firstly, although the name of the section "Results and discussion" alludes to the existence of a discussion in the text, this has not been given as such and is one of the fundamental parts of any scientific article. Therefore, it is ESSENTIAL that the authors include a discussion in which the results obtained are debated in comparison with those presented by other authors in the bibliography. At the same time, this "Discussion" section should appear separately from the "Results" section. Thus, the structure of the article would be as follows: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and, finally, Conclusions. On the other hand, the content of the "Results" section is well organised and its content is very interesting and appropriate. However, it would be advisable to follow the same structure in section 3.2 Predator Control as in the rest, making a comparison of what happens in all the countries that have been taken as reference: Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, France and Serbia. In the case of not being able to carry out this analysis, please justify correctly why.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
INTRODUCTION: the bibliographical analysis of the concept of "hunting" should be expanded, as well as a more detailed justification of why the authors have chosen to take the Oxford Dictionary definition as a reference.
Response 1: Agreed
On the other hand, this section presents certain problems with regard to its structure, in such a way that the paragraphs from lines 77 to 94 should be moved to the end.
Response 2: Agreed
Thus, the structure of the introduction would respond to the following scheme:
- Analysis of the hunting concept
- Review of the bibliography on hunting management.
- Preview of the contributions made by this article.
Response 3: Agreed
MATERIALS AND METHODS: the content of this section seems correct, although it is advisable to structure it in the following sub-sections:
-
- Study area: this would include everything related to the situation in Poland.
- Methodology: where the methodology used would be defined.
Response 4: Agreed
On the other hand, a conceptual map could be included in this Methodology sub-section so that the phases of the methodological process could be more clearly observed at a glance.
Response 5: Agreed
- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: firstly, although the name of the section "Results and discussion" alludes to the existence of a discussion in the text, this has not been given as such and is one of the fundamental parts of any scientific article. Therefore, it is ESSENTIAL that the authors include a discussion in which the results obtained are debated in comparison with those presented by other authors in the bibliography. At the same time, this "Discussion" section should appear separately from the "Results" section. Thus, the structure of the article would be as follows: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and, finally, Conclusions. On the other hand, the content of the "Results" section is well organised and its content is very interesting and appropriate. However, it would be advisable to follow the same structure in section 3.2 Predator Control as in the rest, making a comparison of what happens in all the countries that have been taken as reference: Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, France and Serbia. In the case of not being able to carry out this analysis, please justify correctly why.
Response 6: Thank you very much for the extremely important lesson from this comment. I will keep this in mind in further research, however, I believe that changing the structure of the article at this point is not a good solution. The reviewer stated that the results section is well organized, so I am afraid that by adding additional elements, the work may lose its essential message, which was to indicate the importance of the already forgotten concept of Aldo Leopold. Unfortunately, the articles analyzing the concept of hunting management in various countries in the context of A. Leopold's concept are actually absent in the literature available to me. That is why I decided to conduct mainly this comparative "discussion" between countries and in the context of legislation. I hope that, although I will not use this remark, the cooperation will continue to be fruitful.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Response 9: That's correct. It was miscommunication on my end that hunting season in Poland is longer than in the Czech Republic.
423-424: The following explanation cannot be considered for Poland where climate is different than in Flanders. Time between January and March is actually the most challenging one for wild animals in Poland, their condition is really poor after scarcity of resources in the winter season and they should have stillness to survive.
731-759, 767-778: Maybe earlier I wasn't specific enough but this article is supposed to talk about game management and mentioned species (wild gamois, bison and farm animals) are not considered as game animals so their cases shouldn't be covered here. Therefore, I would suggest to remove it. What's more, those species are being discussed only with examples from Poland, even though they also occur in other mentioned countries (sometimes even as game animals).
Author Response
423-424: The following explanation cannot be considered for Poland where climate is different than in Flanders. Time between January and March is actually the most challenging one for wild animals in Poland, their condition is really poor after scarcity of resources in the winter season and they should have stillness to survive.
Response 1: Agreed
731-759, 767-778: Maybe earlier I wasn't specific enough but this article is supposed to talk about game management and mentioned species (wild gamois, bison and farm animals) are not considered as game animals so their cases shouldn't be covered here. Therefore, I would suggest to remove it. What's more, those species are being discussed only with examples from Poland, even though they also occur in other mentioned countries (sometimes even as game animals).
Response 2: Agreed
I am very grateful for Your time and commitment to reviewing the article.
