Despite the fact that humans beings have evolved into a civilized society over the course of thousands of years; we are still considered to be the apex predators on this planet.
For untold millenniums, human beings functioned through the evolutionary process in the role of 'hunters and gatherers'. Subsistence depended upon what could be caught or gathered from the water and the land. This process was accomplished while simultaneously avoiding being caught or eaten by the some of the very species being hunted.
Until humans attained the capacity for agriculture, the survival of our species depended upon fine tuning the skills of our natural, predatory abilities.
The development of agriculture was essential to the development of civilizations. Once humans learned to raise food, they rapidly lost the natural ability to hunt.
In his biophilia hypothesis, Harvard University professor E.O. Wilson described this nature heritage in an effort to better understand the human need for nature.
Professor Wilson theorized that despite the fact that humans no longer function as true hunter/gatherers; we remain focused on the natural world. We are attracted to green spaces and we need the outdoors. It is in our genes!
I believe the best proof of Wilson's theory is evident when a toddler first picks up a stick. Although the child may never have seen a gun or a spear before, there is often an innate response that makes the child point the stick as if it were a weapon.
The same situation occurs when a little boy gets his first b-b gun. There is a certain, inexplicable draw that makes him point the gun at the first bird to fly by or the first frog to jump. It's a reaction that occurs across geographic, cultural and economic boundaries. Where does it come from if not a hunting instinct in our genes?