ArchStudent

Yeah, I have noticed that. The trouble is that I am a Veteran, and while I don't mind guns (I have several) I would just prefer to use them for targets anymore. I really have had enough death. Especially death early in the morning.

Well, except for death that happened 50,000 years ago. LOL.

Anyways, I am going to a gun show/collectable/hunting expo nearby tomorrow to gather more in-person data, but I was kinda hoping for the pure numbers aspect of things on here.

BIG BIG BIG thanks to all those who have answered. Your information has been awesome. Interestingly, I have learned from a few that your presence over several hunting seasons does not seem to inherently "spook" or scare off prey. That's really interesting.

If it helps, I am specifically studying the Neandertal site of La Chapelle Aux Saints cave in France. It contains one of the oldest Neandertal finds, and has long been a cornerstone of the argument that Neandertals buried their dead.
I am trying to counter that theory. One of the points made by those who feel that this was an intentional burial is that if the body had been left inside this cave without being buried, it would certainly have been devoured by large scavengers and carnivores. Therefore it must have been buried to have been preserved.
I am arguing that if a human (Neandertals are Homo Sapiens Neandertalensis so they were "human") was using an area to hunt for an extended period of time, and died in his cave (full of his scent and central to his hunting area) that anything larger than small rats and insects would avoid the cave out of fear. Therefore, the body would have been left to be preserved in the cave by natural sedimentation.

Unfortunately there is little empirical evidence for this common knowledge that animals fear humans, so I am attempting a small ethnography of hunting to determine if prey specifically avoids a hunting ground after a period of occupancy by a hunting human.

Again, thanks everyone who answered!!