Hunting Skills / Training Sessions

Having trouble roleplaying a hunt? This page should help!

## Overview

Hunting is a crucial part of clan life. Since the prey in Sunlit Prairies is kept track of and dwindles when cats eat it, as it would normally, it's important that the Trackers and Moor-Runners of the clan use all their skills in order to feed their clanmates. Of course cats must not forget the Prairies' Promise, making sure to feed Kits, Elders, Queens, and the Nurse before any cat else. When prey is caught, cats will give thanks to Silkstar for providing them with the life of their prey, usually muttering the words over the catch before taking it back to camp. On a hunt, patrols of cats or simply a cat out alone can hunt as many prey-animals as they wish in regards to the weather for that day and the difficulties finding prey. When hunting for lots of prey, cats often will bury their catch in a marked position for collection after they've caught more. There is a strong risk of starvation if the prey-pile is kept empty too long, though most of the time cats of Sunlit Prairies are not struggling for food due to their vast territory.

Prey killed and left out has a chance of attracting predators to it's position, so it's important that cats do not keep left-over scrap around long, some cats on occasion will offer to dispose of prey remains for the entire clan, a very kind and load-off gesture, as often cats do not enjoy where the clan has placed the disposal spot. Cats are instructed to take the remains to Hinterland Coast, dropping them off the edge of the cliff so there is no chance of predators being lead back to camp. Apprentices, who are often too lazy to do this task, will instead bury the remains in the territory, which on occasion will cause issues for the clan, though not entirely frequently if the apprentice thinks on it first.

## Importance

Hunting skills are crucial to the lives of every cat, not just the hunting class. Tunnelers are taught their own special skill-set of hunting moves to be used while underground, while Sentinels and medicine cats normally only learn the basics of hunting skills to give them something to do in their time spent off from their duties. Cats start learning to hunt as soon as they start to play, crouching and chasing their littermates around just a cat may chase prey. It's in every cat's nature to hunt, but it's crucial that cats of Sunlit Prairies also take note of select rules put in place when it comes to hunting. Different leaders may add or remove rules as they see fit during their reign, though these rules have been universal throughout most of the leaders of Sunlit Prairies, up to Dawnstar's Reign, where the new rules were enforced during her first moon as leader.

* Dawnstar's Rule: Nursing prey and their kits are off limits. Dawnstar believes that if they allow their prey to thrive in their youth and move on to breed more, it will lead to a better outcome overall for prey all across the moors. She honors motherhood and every difficulty that goes alongside it, so she prohibits the clan from hunting prey that has any trace of milk scent, as well as adolescent prey or young, defenseless kits. Cats catching kits are often frowned upon by Dawnstar, though it's not something that the molly is known currently to punish cats for.
* Don't overhunt. Overhunting is a waste of prey for every cat involved, and can lead to punishment from Starclan in the form of a famine through leaf-bare. Cats have been told since kithood that playing with food, taking it for granted, or killing prey just for fun rather than necessity would result in Starclan taking their prey away for good.
* Tunnel in rows rather than in set patterns, and spread any joining tunnels out. This rules has specifically been put in place for Tunnelers due to conflicts in the past with Tunnelers digging too close to different chambers, resulting in the Earth to collapse more easily. Tunnel hunting has been changed throughout the course of the clan's history.

## Training Sessions

From the very beginning of life kits will begin to play in place of the training they will receive later on. This play is crucial for kit's development, as it begins to build instinct and important technique when handling hunting and stalking later on in life. Mentors that are scouting kits to apprentice may also create games for kits, or begin to show them perfected version of the crouch before they're able to begin to truly train.

Young apprentice Trackers and Moor Runners begin travelling the territory and beginning to learn the depths and importance of their roles and what goes into the job. Young apprentices are expected to be patient and willing to listen, as a lot of the early moons of training under these ranks takes lots of memorization and understanding of explanations. They will go over the scents, deciphering tastes and understanding general landmarks, going over safe portions of territory and ones that are dangerous, as well as pointing out where prey may escape to during hunts. Once they've shown patience and enough understanding as to not harm themselves or interrupt the flow for other cats, they will begin to learn to truly hunt.

Apprentices are encouraged to attempt any strategies they think of, and are encouraged to give orders to their patrol once they're nearing the end of their apprenticeship. They are taught to crouch, how far it takes to pounce, and each of the quickest ways to silence prey before it has a chance to alert the rest of the territory they're there. Silence and stealth is crucial, and this is the reasoning for the slow start in training before the eventually pick up. Due to constantly being on the move and running along the moors, the apprentices are usually full of energy and aching to hunt, showing a good resolve from past obtained knowledge to track and bring down prey with accuracy and ease.

Apprentices can learn in various ways depending on the mentor as well as the rank, Tunnelers may instruct digging into faint traces of rabbit holes to attempt to drive them from the den into their claws, while Moor Runners may encourage some type of maneuver off a tree to direct a stronger attack onto an enemy that could escape otherwise.

## General Skills

The skills of hunting are much more limited and come more naturally to cats than battle moves might, so hunting skills are split up into less categories and have a lot less diversity in terms of variation/limits on skills specific cats may possess. It's more about speed, accuracy, and the patience a cat possesses to hunt, and it's expected upon all cats to hunt to the best of their ability when they are not busy doing anything else, including medicine cats. Hunting is practiced from kithood from the very start of tracking scents by learning the scents of clanmates and how to decipher the wind, and Queens will encourage play through pouncing, play fighting, and stalking to help a kit develop these skills early in life. It's important to practice hunting often, as it's easy to become rusty on the techniques.

### Basic

* Hunting crouch, the cat will splay out legs, muscles bunched beneath them with one paw ahead in position to creep forward. The body should be lowered so close to the ground that grass can nearly touch the belly, the fur should feel it. The tail is curled up against the flank as to not rattle anything, and paw-steps are very slow, almost as if the cat is not moving at all.
* Creeping death, the basic prowling move in reference to creeping up so slowly the body looks as if it isn't moving, breaths so shallow they barely stir. To hunt successfully is to hunt upwind as to not alert prey (wind is pushing your scent towards you instead of towards the prey).
* Pounce, general pounce on the prey when the cat is close enough to do so. The cat should successfully manage to leap onto the prey, with their paws landing squarely on top of it, or around it's neck in larger prey cases.

### Professional

#### Tracker Specific

* Prowl ambush, Trackers are used to clinging to shadows within the territory, and keeping a steady pace along their route and picking off prey quickly before depositing it to a common holding spot in the given area. Prowling upon spotting, they will keep padding along their route though silently and slowly against the edge before in pouncing range, where they will then dart forward and swoop up the prey in their jaws, using their paw to snap the neck by batting the body opposite to how the prey is held, leaving them to immediately continue with the prey already secured, and silence from alert due to the head being silenced in the jaws.
* Plunging shadow, Trackers are a deadly force for prey, and are so quick they're merely more than shade in the eyes of prey before their life is stolen right from them. Drop from a tree to where a bird may be resting, flattening it squarely under your belly, using both your forepaws to break its neck. Cats should be careful not to fall when using this move from high above a target in a tree, though when used dropping onto ground this move is efficient and merciful.

#### Moor Runner Specific

Moor Runners are the fastest and longest lasting of their clan mates in terms of stamina whilst running at full speed. They are lean and thin because of this, but are deadly hunters when put up to the task. They are used to taking down all sorts of prey, but are usually the ones tackling prey on the moors while Trackers hunt in the forests. Prey like hares, shrews, thrushes, magpies, moorhen, and wrens are most commonly caught by them, though occasionally they'll give chase to a stray squirrel or two. They are quick and have a very strong spring, able to scale much higher when jumping compared to any other cat, easily leaping at least a few feet high into the air to grab prey mid flight. They are very skilled and used to their territory, and such have perfected their hunting on the moors.

* Yowling to divert prey, despite how other groups of cats may prefer to hunt in silence, Moor Runners prefer to yowl loudly to change the direction their prey may be fleeing in, or scare it into a burrow where it can then be cut off and trapped under the paws of the Moor Runner. Apprentices often mistake this for being welcome to yowl whenever they please, occasionally scaring off prey and resulting in a scolding.
* Flight catch, on occasion prey will be startled into flying when they are hidden within the tall grass, where a waiting patrol of Moor Runners will then spring from hiding and twist mid-air, grabbing down the birds and killing them upon impact with the ground.
* Diversion, Moor Runners are used to hunting in groups and are such equipped with enough knowledge to sign with their tail to indicate a diversion hunting tactic, very helpful against rabbits. One cat will go on the either side, blocking the burrow preferably and scare it towards a waiting patrol member. If the rabbit wards to the side the flanking cat should yowl to avoid it scrambling to change direction, and with the two cats flanking it eventually they're be able to bring it down.
* Burrow plunge, Moor Runners often find burrows where rabbits will hide, and by plunging a paw down into them they can begin to scrape at the fur of the rabbit, pinning down sections of its fur and dragging it closer until it can be drug out and killed by the patrol.
* Group-catch!, a patrol of Moor Runners can easily take down larger prey simply by hunting as a pack. On occasion these are used to take down owls or other birds of prey. During a group-catch each cat will be assigned to a certain portion of the body where they must bite down and cling on, with each usually immobilizing the prey with a final cat being placed at the neck. This is usually a pretty reasonably powerful strategy, but goes unused often.

#### Tunneler Specific

Tunnelers primarily hunt when not practicing for battle, and they do so in various ways depending on the Tunneler. Some may choose to join with Moor Runners and search for burrows that they will dig out for them to then enter and scare rabbits out of for the patrol, or they will go beneath the Earth and, using expanding tunnels that branch out on different sides, will dig beneath the Earth at burrow level until they've dug into one, where animals are occasionally hiding or nesting. Animals often tend to wander into the tunnels as well, making it easy for cats to wander through and pick at any prey that happened to get stranded in there day by day.

* Burrow-hunting, digging off branching tunnels from the ones under hunting grounds give varying degrees of luck for digging into a burrow if they're digging at the right level. Opening a burrow takes a decent amount of time and makes the Tunnelers filthy, but it's worth the effort if they unearth a rabbit's burrow, occasionally opening up a route into new systems for the clan, as well as multiple prey items to bring home on occasion.
* Tunnel-tracking, since sound bounces and travels through the tunnels, often times Tunnelers will silently creep along the chambers of tunnels dug in systems throughout prey-territory where plenty of animals may be roaming. It's normally impossible to tell, though Tunnelers have tuned their senses so closely to the Earth that they can pick up where even the smallest scratching may be coming from.
* Shade-stalker, many of the Tunneler's moves have to do with creeping against the walls of the tunnels where the shadows are darkest. Cats usually dig shallow dips into the land for their paws to tread against the walls, giving them space to pad cleanly in the shadows along long routes and paths. Tunnelers experienced with this technique can easily pad right up to prey in the tunnels, killing it and taking off before anything knew what may have happened.
* Gargoyle hunting (Shallowshrine specific), a strange way of hunting developed by Shallowshrine, where the tom will sit so still he barely breaths, almost like he's turned to stone. He then waits for prey to wander past him and he kills it instantly, before tucking the prey under him and repeating the process. This way of hunting is not very efficient and takes *forever* giving the tom a very bad reputation among the Tunnelers.