I wish people would take a few moments to make the distinction between "big game" hunting and "trophy" hunting. There is a vast difference in the acceptability of these two entirely different hunting groups.
My guess on the distinction: Big game is all animals including really common ones like deer that aren't in any danger of being over-hunted. (though, usually the term is used to refer to "exotic" big game such as lions and elephants). Trophy hunting, I suppose, is a more specific term used for hunting animals that are rarer. But I don't think that the distinction between the two terms is all that clear.
@jonson the other replies from @davidadams and @BennyTheIcepick do a pretty good job of touching on it. The primary distinction is not so much how "big" the animal is but rather the end goal of kill. I am by definition a big game hunter, having taken the life a deer last fall to provide my family with a year's worth of red meat.
A hunter who takes an animal purely for the sake of mounting its head or horns on their wall e.g. as a "Trophy" is going to have do some pretty dang persuasive explaining to tell me why this is an acceptable practice.
Anyway, where I live hunting is an highly sustainable means of putting local, grass-fed meat on the table for my family (we will go through approximately 35 lbs of it this year) and that meat comes from a critter referred to as "big game" so I just hope to educate folks on the difference between sustainable food hunting and killing for sport. Thanks for asking.
What @samh said. In New York, "Big Game" is white tailed deer and bear, whereas "Small Game" is "upland and migratory game birds, small game mammals, and reptiles and amphibians".
I'm guessing it has to do with the purpose of the hunt - whether for meat and survival versus sport - but @samh may have a better explanation.
A hunter who takes an animal purely for the sake of mounting its head or horns on their wall e.g. as a "Trophy" is going to have do some pretty dang persuasive explaining to tell me why this is an acceptable practice.
Anyway, where I live hunting is an highly sustainable means of putting local, grass-fed meat on the table for my family (we will go through approximately 35 lbs of it this year) and that meat comes from a critter referred to as "big game" so I just hope to educate folks on the difference between sustainable food hunting and killing for sport. Thanks for asking.
More info in these 2 PDFs:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs...
http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs...