Instead of hunting, one Augusta man sings to wildlife

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - One attorney in Augusta has a cool morning routine.

Almost every day for the past three months, he wakes up at dawn to sing to wild animals in the woods. But why is he doing this? We tagged along to find out more.

Jacque Hawk has always enjoyed the woods.

“It’s beautiful down here. I love it,” he said.

He’s hunted for years, but instead of a gun, he’s carrying a guitar. Hawk puts out food just in case some guests come to enjoy the show.

“It’s a way for me to get in some guitar practice and do a little singing, and then hopefully, the animals will come,” he said. “I usually skip one morning a week, and that’s so they don’t say ‘well, he’s gonna be down there,’ they take me for granted.”

Why is he doing this? Hawk didn’t want to fire at an animal on a hunt last year.

“I just couldn’t kill anything. I really didn’t have the desire to kill anything,” said Hawk.

He thinks if he gives the animals dinner and a show maybe they’ll start to like him.

“You’ve got to understand, I’m trying to gain the trust of animals who’ve lost trust for human beings for years, so it’s gonna take time, and I know that,” he said.

Hawk believes if he keeps doing this, one day, they’ll feel safe to come up to him.

“Sort of like kids coming to an ice cream truck, you know they hear the music, and they go running out to get the ice cream,” he said.

Hawk might not be the ice cream man, but he is a man trying to make a difference one strum at a time. Hawk says he set up a trail cam that captured raccoons, skunks, and deer coming to get the food after he left.

He says he’ll keep doing this as much as he can until the animals come.

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