I grew up in a family where we literally "lived" on wild game. We seldom ever ate beef and what pork we ate as generally from wild hogs.
Normal fare included rabbit, squirrel, deer, hogs, ducks, quail, doves, fish and various reptiles (turtle, snake, alligator and such). Basically we ate anything that walked, swam, flew or crawled....depending on what came along when we were in the woods.
I liked it all and still do. The "secret" to cooking wild game of any kind is to understand that most of it is very lean. Dry cooking methods will ruin most wild game.....it must be cooked in a way that doesn't dry out the meat. I like deer, elk, pronghorn and moose, but you can not treat it like grain-fed beef. There just isn't enough fat content to prevent toughness and dry meat without some added fat to the recipe. Game birds are much the same.
Wild game does have a distinctive flavor (which I like) and cannot be made to taste like beef. Attempt to make wild game into beef will never work and guarantee failure and disappointment.
I've eaten some strange stuff over the years and mostly liked it all. Some more than others. Possum I've tried baked, fried, stewed and every other way you can imagine......and it was never really great.....edible, but hardly something I'd deliberately seek out. Some were surprisingly good. Never ate Mountain Lion, but have ate quite a bit of Bobcat (when I was running a trap line). It was great....mild, white and tender. Alligator was disappointing. No flavor and bland.
Snake was good....if plain....except Moccasin, which was terrible.
Wild game is great....but it has to be treated like it is not like beef
