The perspective of an evolutionary biologist (please note that the website substitutes [censored] for the genus name of modern humans and our immediate ancestors):
The evolution of hunting skills and meat eating was the single most important development in human evolution. Access to the large quantities of protein and fat in meat (compared to the largely vegetarian diet of our pre-hunting predecessors) allowed the growth and elaboration of our energy-hungry brain, and that in turn led to increasing ability to communicate, plan, and coordinate complex activities, e.g. hunting and dealings with the other group of [censored] erectus on the far side of the valley.
I am convinced that the first great leap in this process was the development of the ability to throw stones hard and accurately: all of a sudden, we could drive lions, hyenas, and leopards off their kills without getting up close and personal, where a glorified monkey stands no chance. This led to a stage of our evolution where we got most of our meat largely through scavenging from real predators, but stone-throwing also made small game vulnerable, and eventually led to the development of spears to kill larger game.
Because of the profound importance of hunting up until the development of farming and livestock domestication say 12,000 years ago (less than 0.5% of our history as the genus [censored]), the urge to hunt is rooted at least three million years back in our genome, and many of us males are still firmly in the sway of those ancient genes.
