Even though the communities of Chalain and Clairvaux depended on agriculture - and, to a lesser degree, animals - for their food, hunting always remained important.
In addition to providing food, it played a crucial social role in allowing men to display their merits through obtaining trophies and offering quarters of meat. This form of predation, involving the slaughter of entire herds of animals, was extremely un-ecological, as it required immense territories to avoid quickly running through the supply of game.