Hypothermia is a serious condition, and it doesn’t just happen in frigid temperatures.

The first of several important misconceptions about hypothermia is that it means “freezing to death.” That’s not accurate. Hypothermia is the loss of core body heat to a level that impairs normal muscular and mental functioning, endangering life. If not treated and reversed, hypothermia can worsen until the victim, no longer able to generate internal warmth, becomes semiconscious or unconscious, is extremely vulnerable to cardiac fibrillation, and eventually dies from heart stoppage.

You can begin having the signs and symptoms of mild hypothermia with a core-temperature drop of only a couple of degrees–and it doesn’t take much to fall to that mark in conducive circumstances. This leads to another common misunderstanding: that hypothermia is mainly an extreme-cold, frigid-weather issue. Of course heat loss is a danger in the deep cold, but it can be as much or more of a problem in less obvious conditions. When various factors combine–such as moisture, comparatively cool temperatures and/or wind–a person can become hypothermic virtually any month of the year, and in a surprising array of locations. For instance, in a recent study of 428 cases of accidental hypothermia, 69 of them occurred in Florida, not a place most people associate with cold.

It’s also important to understand that hypothermia is not just about getting too cold at the core and dying from the lack of necessary heat. That can happen;, but the more frequent way people die from hypothermia is by perishing from its side effects or symptoms. Even when one is mildly hypothermic, coordination and cognition are impaired. Clumsiness, stumbling, falling, thinking unclearly, making poor decisions–these are all by-products of core heat loss. Many deaths seemingly caused by “accidents” and bad choices are actually a result of the victim’s addled, hypothermic state.

Dangerous heat loss occurs in stages, with varying signs and symptoms. Mild hypothermia begins with a small drop in core temperature, usually signaled by the sensation of feeling cold and shivering, which is the body’s way of generating internal heat. At about 96 or 95 degrees F, shivering becomes more constant and involuntary. The person might have goose bumps, numb hands, and be unable to perform complex or fine-skill manual tasks.

The transition or drop to moderate hypothermia usually occurs as core temperature lowers to about 90 degrees F. At this stage shivering is intense, coordination is obviously impaired, the person may stumble, act confused, move in a slow, labored way, have difficulty speaking and show signs of amnesia, apathy, or withdrawal. At approximately 88 degrees shivering stops, so internal heat can no longer be generated. Muscle coordination is poor, the person may no longer be able to walk and will be confused, possibly incoherent and irrational. Victims at this stage are past being able to save themselves or act appropriately on their own behalf, and will most likely die if not rescued and treated to reverse their condition.

Severe-stage hypothermia starts when core temperature lowers to about 82 degrees F, involving much-decreased heart and respiratory rates, muscle rigidity, loss of awareness, and semiconsciousness or unconsciousness. The heart becomes dangerously “irritable” (easily stimulated into ventricular fibrillation). From here through profound-stage hypothermia, the details are medically technical and all bad news. If untreated the result is cardiac failure and death.

One of the best ways to avoid these grim states is to detect the signs and symptoms of core heat loss as early as possible. First responders and rescue workers are taught to watch for the “umbles:” stumbles, mumbles, fumbles, and grumbles that indicate a decrease in motor coordination, cognition, and consciousness. At an early enough stage, you can even detect these in yourself, especially if you also feel very cold and are shivering. In what might be called “hypothermic conditions” it’s always a good idea for partners or groups to agree to periodically monitor each other for umbles, shivering, and other clues that hypothermia may be occurring. If a person can’t easily count backward from fifty and/or walk a straight heel-to-toe line for thirty feet, it’s time to suspect the onset of dangerous heat loss.

What are “hypothermic conditions”? As noted, extreme cold and moderately frigid air temperatures are pretty obvious environments, but hypothermia can occur whenever the body is losing more heat than it can replace. This usually involves one or more of the following elements: moisture, moderately cool to cold air temperatures, and wind–coupled with clothing inadequate for the conditions. If it’s 50 degrees and you get soaked in a rain and the wind is blowing, and all you have is a light, sodden jacket for insulation, you’re in hypothermia territory. A hunter damp from rain, snow, or sweat who becomes stranded overnight in moderately chilly temperatures is at a high risk for hypothermia, if unable to stop continual heat loss.

Briefly, there are four main ways we lose heat: radiation, conduction, convection, and evaporation. Radiation is direct heat loss from a warm body to a cooler environment. In cold weather you can radiate a lot of heat from your exposed head and neck. A warm hat that covers your ears and a neck gaiter or scarf can mean the difference between heat maintenance and hypothermia. Conduction is heat loss through direct contact with a colder surface. Avoiding such contact when possible or placing insulation between yourself and colder surfaces are the obvious solutions. Water conducts heat away from the body 25 times faster than air. Thus the great danger of getting wet in a cool to cold environment, and justification for the survival slogan: “Stay dry to stay alive.” Convection is heat loss caused by air moving around you. This can be a breeze or wind, amounting to the well-known wind-chill factor; or it can be a “wind” effect created by your movement, as in a boat or other vehicle. The antidote for convective heat loss is shelter found or made, including the “personal shelter” of appropriate outer shell clothing. Carrying two or more heavy-duty, yard-size garbage bags in your survival kit can also be lifesaving in this regard. Even if your clothing is wet and cannot be dried, encasing yourself in the plastic bags (using them as a “vapor barrier,” one for the lower body, one with eye and mouth holes for over your head and upper body) will help you dry out while keeping convective and conductive heat loss to a minimum. Evaporation of sweat or water on your skin has a cooling effect and pulls heat from your core. This is another reason to stay dry, not only from external causes, but also from sweat buildup. In very cold air another seldom-recognized cause of evaporative heat loss occurs during basic respiration, especially when heightened by strenuous physical effort. A simple way to reduce this type of lost heat is to breathe through a face mask or scarf.

Obviously, having proper clothing for the conditions is a basic way to prevent hypothermia. For example, a good rainsuit or outer shell, moisture-resistant pants (no denims), adequate gloves and footwear, a middle layer of fleece, a warm shirt, and wick-dry polypro undergarments. If hypothermia conditions exist or could occur, it’s wise to carry extra undergarments and socks, so that you can replace wet clothing with dry if necessary.
Other advance prep should include fire-making gear, two or three commercial hand warmers, the aforementioned garbage bags, a balaclava or face mask in very cold conditions, and a few energy bars, high in sugar, for quick-burst metabolic fuel that will help heat your core more quickly and effectively if you do begin to get shiveringly cold.

How do you proceed if you or a partner appears hypothermic?

Treatments and responses vary depending on the stage of the problem. Contrary to popular belief, for mild to early-moderate hypothermia, one should not attempt to rewarm the victim with external heat application (in the form of chemical heat packs, hot water bottles, heated rocks, another person’s warm body, etc.). Here’s why: your sense of being cold or warm is more a result of skin temperature than core temperature. Cold skin cues the brain to signal a shiver response, generating inner heat. If you warm a shivering hypothermic person’s skin, the person will stop shivering (and stop generating necessary heat at the core), while actually losing additional heat because of dilated blood vessels near the heated skin. So the attempt at external rewarming actually leads to becoming more hypothermic, not less. The general field rule is: no direct external warming unless the person has stopped shivering (can no longer shiver) in an advanced-moderate to severe stage of hypothermia.

To treat mild to moderate hypothermia, first reduce heat loss. This can mean adding layers of clothing, changing wet clothing for dry, bundling the victim in an insulating wrap, finding or making shelter and warming the immediate area with a fire. Next, add fluids and fuel. Warm to hot (not scalding) liquids help reheat the inner core, and also add fuel calories if the liquid contains sugar or other nutrients. No alcohol, however, since it’s a vasodilator that will only increase heat loss. Also avoid caffeine, a diuretic that furthers dehydration, which worsens hypothermia. Eating a candy or energy bar, spoonfuls of peanut butter, gorp–whatever you have for survival food–will provide calories for rewarming. If water can be boiled by fire or stove, breathing in warm steam can bring additional heat to the core.

For more advanced, severe and profound hypothermia, the situation is much more serious and delicate. Insulate as well and fully as possible in clothing and wraps, making sure the person is dry. Don’t try to give fluids or food to anyone who is badly altered mentally, or who is semiconscious or unconscious. For those who have stopped shivering, external heat can be applied, especially to the major arteries. Chemical heat packs, hot water bottles, or hot towels can be placed at the neck for the carotid, in the armpits for the brachial and in the groin for the femoral arteries. Handle the victim carefully, since rough handling can trigger heart disfunction and failure. Evacuation and hospital rewarming are vital at this stage. Because the “irritable” heart is so easily disturbed, do not attempt CPR on a hypothermic person who appears dead unless you are certain there is no pulse or respiration. These may be hard to detect because of the severely reduced heart and breathing rates. Again, evacuation is usually the best remaining option. As wilderness medical expert, Dr. Eric Weiss advises: “Never assume a profoundly hypothermic victim is dead until the body has been warmed and there are still no signs of life. Rarely, a victim who is without detectable signs of life, and presumed to be dead, will recover when rewarmed.”

Leave a Comment

DSC’s Frontline Foundation supports people injured or killed in the war against poaching.

Illegal wildlife trafficking is conservatively estimated to be worth a minimum of $10 billion per year, globally. More moderate estimates place the figure at closer to twice that amount. Either way, illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products is, today, one of the largest black markets in the world, ranking alongside illegal drugs, weapons, and human trafficking. Every day, scores of animals, some endangered, are illegally killed by poachers, often for a single body part–a tusk or a bone–that can be illegally sold for a huge amount of money. The scale and reach of this criminal enterprise should not be underestimated or misunderstood. There are fewer and fewer lone gunmen hiding in the shadows. These have been replaced by transnational organized crime syndicates operating across international boundaries and killing animals en masse to the global detriment of wildlife, nature, and society.

The system is complex and well organized. Small-scale and regional-level syndicates manage poaching and trafficking operations on the ground and pay poachers and couriers to acquire and deliver animals and animal parts. These syndicates create and support trafficking networks, and usually also distribute weapons to poachers, as well as bribes to local law enforcement. Reports of locals being coerced into service as wildlife poachers or ivory couriers by regional syndicates, even by such extreme means as kidnapping, are not uncommon. International wildlife traffickers lead the larger enterprise; they typically support regional criminal groups, supply weapons and money, and bribe government officials. They obtain illicit wildlife products from the regional groups and smuggle them to major departure points or receive shipments from abroad and smuggle them to destination markets. The money feeds corruption at all levels. Often, it is the same group trafficking in drugs, arms, humans, and illegal wildlife.

These illegal markets are threatening many wildlife species, but consequences are especially severe in Africa, home to many of the world’s most iconic animals and host to much of the world’s organized commercial poaching. Many African wildlife populations have already been decimated, threatened with extinction or, as in the recent case of the Western Black black rRhino, wiped from the face of the Earthout. On average, three3 African rhinos are killed by poachers every day. But it is not just the charismatic mammals that fall prey to poaching and illegal trafficking. Nearly 20 tons of pangolin scales were seized from illegal shipments originating from Africa between 2013 and 2016, and in 2016, more than 5,300 kilograms of illegal ivory and rhino horn, and more than 16,000 trafficked reptiles, were seized at airports, either in passenger baggage or cargo shipments. Many species simply cannot withstand this slaughter. The lion has been extirpated from seven African countries, the total population of Grevy’s zZebra stands at just about 2,000 individuals, and fewer than 900 mountain gorillas remain in the wild; yet poaching threatens all of them.

How has this problem become so widespread and destructive in Africa and elsewhere, despite advances in international laws and policies, as well as anti-poaching technologies? Weak governance is almost always a factor and is exacerbated by regional poverty, high unemployment, and lack of state funding for wildlife management and protection activities. Currently, about 90 percent of African protected areas are unable to finance themselves and, in most cases, little government money is available to assist in anti-poaching efforts, including the employment of well-trained, well-equipped, and properly supported enforcement officers. It’s one thing to ban or limit trade in a particular species, but another to effectively enforce this, especially in countries where training and funds for enforcement are lacking. At the national and regional level, effective law enforcement to reduce and prevent poaching is now a critical need. Without effective “boots on the ground,” there can be no success in combating illegal wildlife use internationally. As President Lincoln once affirmed, laws without enforcement are just good advice. Well, dDisappearing wildlife does not need advice or even just purposeful laws; it needs action, swift and sure.

Professional hunters (P.H.s) conduct sport-hunting safaris, most often in Africa, and are typically required to accompany foreign hunters. They, like game rangers and scouts, frequently work in remote wilderness areas under dangerous conditions, usually where communication is a serious challenge and resource support is not easily accessible. Africa’s professional hunters regularly participate, often as volunteers, in anti-poaching patrols alongside game rangers and scouts, facing off against threats ranging from masked gunmen on the ground to so-called “heli-poachers,” armed with automatic weapons and firing indiscriminately from the air. The rangers, P.HH.s, and their assistants commonly choose to disregard their own personal well-being for the greater good, understanding fully that the conservation of Africa’s wildlife is meaningful to much more than their own livelihoods. These individuals make tremendous sacrifices, regularly placing their lives at risk to ensure a global heritage– – the conservation of Africa’s wildlife and protected areas.

Those on the front lines of African wildlife conservation are waging a war that is relentless and unforgiving, and that it is taking a physical and emotional toll. There are injuries and there are fatalities. Globally, the estimated number of individuals killed while engaged in anti-poaching activities has climbed past 1,000 in the last decade. That’s an average of 2of two people per week, every week, dying on the front lines of conservation. It illustrates just how devastating the losses due to poaching can be, not just to threatened wildlife populations or the success of sustainable wildlife programs, but also in terms of human fatalities and impacts on families and communities. In the event of serious injury or death of a primary breadwinner, the hardships placed on family, especially in regions where individuals are unlikely to have health insurance, life insurance, or disability coverage, can be disastrous.

In 2014, Dallas Safari Club identified this humanitarian issue as a critical need for the international hunting community to address. The Club moved swiftly and introduced the DSC Frontline Foundation, a Texas-based, non-profit organization founded in the spirit of St. Hubert, the Patron Saint of Hunters. The Foundation stands in support of those men and women who put themselves in danger, or expose themselves to significant risk, for the direct benefit of wildlife and those who value it. Since its inception, the Foundation has provided financial assistance to eligible professional hunters, guides, and outfitters (and members of their staffs) who have been seriously injured while providing professional hunting and guiding services. In 2015, its mission was expanded to encompass P.H.s and their staffs, as well as government game rangers and scouts, who are injured while participating in anti-poaching efforts.

And the DSC Frontline Foundation didn’t stop there. It also created a separate fund to assist surviving family members lies of P.H.s, game rangers, and scouts who are killed while performing anti-poaching duties, a humanitarian gesture that acknowledges our shared struggle for wildlife conservation and demonstrates a deep appreciation and respect for the victims and their families. Embodying its motto and putting words into action, the DSC Frontline Foundation truly does “Stand up for those who stand in front.”

The international hunting community owes a debt to the men, women, and families who have suffered so directly in conservation’s cause. Indeed, we all do,; whether we hunt or not. Wildlife is a legacy for all of humanity. A well-supported field force is essential if our efforts to curb poaching and conserve African wildlife is to succeed. We can’t all fight on the front lines. However, by helping support the DSC Frontline Foundation, we can stand beside those who do.

For more about the DSC Frontline Foundation and how to help, see www.dscfrontlinefoundation.org.

Leave a Comment

New Mexico has wide-open spaces, spectacular sunsets, and tons of pronghorn.

Opening day of antelope season dawned sunny and warm on the high plains of northern New Mexico, where the welcome signs at the state line tell you you’re entering the “Land of Enchantment.” It had been an unusually wet summer and the rains had left behind cattle ponds filled to the brim, lush waves of blue grama grass as high as your knees, and abundant herds of pronghorn dotting the sprawling ranchlands. We had gotten an early start, driving northeast two hours from Las Vegas, New Mexico, to the vast landholdings of the M&M Cattle Company, for which a coveted landowner tag for a buck antelope was tucked safely in my pocket. Now we were glassing a large group of more than twenty of the distinctive tan-and-white animals before the sun had even cleared the eastern horizon.

“Mostly does,” said Robbie Trujillo, my guide. “But it looks like four bucks on the far side of them. Feel like taking a walk?”

“Absolutely,” I said, pleased. Too many antelope hunts I’ve been on involve mostly driving around. It’s undoubtedly the best way to cover ground, but it’s much more fun to explore the high plains on foot and try to sneak into range of an unsuspecting antelope.

Half an hour later we were crouched in the grama grass while a dozen pronghorn does moved around us, feeding on both sides of us as we sat motionless, discussing the situation in low tones. None of the bucks we had glassed earlier were visible, and we speculated that they were probably hidden just beyond a small rise. A large, beautifully furred coyote loped in to check out the situation, and one of the does promptly ran him off. Affecting little concern, the coyote trotted casually past us, pausing just 120 yards from me before meandering away.

“Today is that coyote’s lucky day,” I said. Taking a shot at him would risk spooking the antelope herd.

Robbie grinned and shook his head. “He has no idea.”

Eventually we were able to work our way around the group of does and glass into a wash beyond them, but we spotted only one small buck. We continued, making a wide circle across a huge roadless section of the ranch as we worked our way back, glassing carefully from the top of each rise and the edge of each section of broken ground. We took several hours to make the loop, spotting more does, a few small bucks, several mule deer, and another coyote, this one off in the distance. It was a beautiful morning with an abundance of sunshine and a few puffy clouds giving definition to New Mexico’s magnificent skies.

The pristine, unpopulated landscape stood in contrast to the high-tech way I’d found this hunt. After coming up empty on the draw tags I put in for this spring, I’d turned to a new hunt-booking website called BookYourHunt.com. I’d surfed around for promising hunts, found this one, and reserved it. Three months later, as I returned to the truck after a fine morning’s hike on a game-rich ranch in New Mexico, I was very happy I’d done so.

Robbie and I decided to head to another part of the property to try our luck. Passing some cattle pens and a couple of old buildings, we were soon back out on the endless green of the high plains, which were now starting to shimmer with mirage, making glassing more difficult. Nevertheless, it was impossible not to spot the big buck antelope running full-tilt across a low hillside. A moment later, without even a pause to consider his action, he simply dropped to the ground and lay there for about ten minutes, shaking his head periodically to discourage the flies. Soon he was up again, running full tilt for no apparent reason, then once again dropped to the ground where he rested for a time.

“Do you suppose he’s trying to outrun the flies?” I asked Robbie. All of the antelope we’d seen had been plagued with swarms of flies buzzing around their heads, another by-product of the wet summer.

“I have no idea,” he shrugged. “I’ve never seen one behave like that before. He’s kind of loco.”

Loco he might be, but he had a nice set of horns, so we decided to see how close we could get. We waited until he had bedded down again, then began walking straight toward him, trying to be nonchalant. We closed the distance from well over a thousand yards to five hundred, then four hundred. At 350 we dropped to our hands and knees and crawled forward until our rangefinders read 305. I set up on the sticks, but I had trouble getting comfortable. Something about my setup wasn’t working. When I squeezed off the shot, it kicked up dirt well underneath the buck, and he was up and running again. While I wasn’t happy about the miss, I was relieved it was, at least, a clean one.

We continued our pursuit of the buck, but my shot had only accelerated his crazy behavior. He continued to run and occasionally bed, and we walked when he ran and crawled toward him when he bedded down. We stayed in sight of him for more than two hours, but never again would he let us approach within 300 yards.

Eventually we decided to return to the truck and regroup. We had covered many miles already, and the trudge back to the truck was a long one. I had long since drained my water bottle and was looking forward to raiding Robbie’s cooler of ice-cold Gatorade.

As we sat on the tailgate and drained our drinks, we discussed our next move. Robbie had more than done his job, getting me within shooting distance of a very fine antelope—it was my own fault I had mucked it up. Still, we knew there were other nice bucks on the ranch, so we decided to continue our drive through this section of the property to see what we could see. As we passed a creaking windmill several small bucks looked up at us in alarm, but relaxed as we continued on past. We glassed scattered herds of does as we approached an old, abandoned house surrounded by a few trees.

The buck we spotted beyond the old house was far different from the loco buck. He was relaxed, glancing at us between indulging in mouthfuls of the lush grass. We began our stalk with great care, hoping he would maintain his calm demeanor. As we closed the distance, the antelope bedded down in the tall grass, much to my delight. The morning’s pleasant temperatures had given way to a blazing hot afternoon, and the sun beat mercilessly down on Robbie and me as we crawled on hands and knees, then on elbows, slowly moving in on the buck. Flies buzzed around our sweaty faces, and big grasshoppers leaped away on either side every time I placed a leather-gloved hand between bunches of grass.

Then the antelope stood up, looking at us. I eased the rangefinding binocular to my eyes and read the distance quickly: 250 yards. We stopped and I pushed the Bog-Pod out ahead of me and rested my rifle across it. This time I felt rock-solid as I eased a round into the chamber and slid the safety off. I held for the shoulder and squeezed off the shot. The buck took a few steps, then tipped over backward and lay still.

He was a fine, mature specimen, with good prongs and tips that bent inward in a perfect heart shape. We took photos quickly, eager to get him (and ourselves) out of the sun. The big shade trees around the abandoned ranch house were an ideal spot to skin and quarter the fat buck, and we placed the meat in coolers as quickly as possible, where it could be iced down and kept cool for my journey home the next day. An enthusiast of all wild game meat, I was thrilled with the abundance of steaks and roasts this antelope would provide and happy to have been given a chance at him after missing his loco counterpart, who probably would not have tasted quite as good as this one, anyway.
As we headed back toward town, driving into one of New Mexico’s spectacular sunsets, dozens of pronghorn gazed at us from the tall grass on both sides of the road. The Land of Enchantment really does have an irresistible appeal, especially if you’re an antelope hunter.

This fine antelope was taken with a Sauer XT 100 in 6.5 Creedmoor, using Nosler 140-grain ballistic tips.

BookYourHunt.com

The new website called BookYourHunt.com offers something I’ve never found before—a way to search for hunts for almost any species around the world and compare outfitters, features, and prices across the board. This year, since I had no hunts scheduled for the fall, I decided to try it out.

First, I signed up for a membership on the site, which is free. I was looking for hunts within driving distance of my home in Colorado, so I started with the map page. The map was populated with little dots, showing me hunts close by and in neighboring states. I began clicking randomly, finding some elk hunts in my home state, antelope hunts in New Mexico, whitetail hunts in Iowa and Missouri, and antelope, deer, and elk in Wyoming. I focused on the whitetail and antelope hunts with guaranteed tags. With the cost breakdown shown right there on the screen, I knew right away if a hunt was in my price range or not.

Once I found this promising-looking New Mexico antelope hunt, I clicked on “Ask the Outfitter A Question” and sent outfitter John Chapel a list of questions. In less than forty-eight hours I got a friendly and thorough response from him through the website’s chat feature.

I chose my dates, clicked the “Reserve” button, and almost immediately received an e-mail from Elena of the BookYourHunt.com team, congratulating me for booking my hunt and offering to help with any questions or problems. That made me feel confident and secure about my hunt plans—and that’s an important aspect of BookYourHunt.com. You’re not on your own, stumbling blindly through a foggy internet world; the site employs a highly competent staff that jumps in to answer questions, solve problems, and make sure you have a good experience. After booking on the site, I then had ten days to send my 50 percent deposit directly to the outfitter. It couldn’t have been easier.—D.R.

Leave a Comment

Robin Hurt and James Mellon will host a special safari to benefit APHA.

The African Professional Hunters Association’s mission is to contribute to the conservation of African wildlife and habitat by continuing the critical role played by ethical, responsible, and sustainable hunting, for the benefit of generations to come.

In order for APHA to make a real impact in support of this mission and to counter the onslaught of negative press generated by the anti-hunting lobbyists, APHA needs funding. One of our founding members, Mr. Robin Hurt, has donated a hunt on his private hunting ranch in Namibia, which he will guide personally and in addition the hunt will be co-hosted by the legendary James Mellon, who authored the wonderful book “African Hunter.”

The hunt will be auctioned at the 2018 SCI show. For details about the hunt and auction, click here.

Leave a Comment

Former PHASA members form new organization for hunting operators.

A group of concerned professional hunters who rejected the hunting of captive-bred predators and the recent constitution adopted by the Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa (PHASA) met on 6 December 2017 in Johannesburg and founded a new professional hunting association to be known as Custodians of Professional Hunting and Conservation South Africa (CPHCSA).

The CPHCSA mission statement:

1. To promote ethical and responsible professional hunting.
2. To demonstrate and enhance conservation and ecologically sustainable development through the responsible use of natural resources in order to ensure that South Africa’s biodiversity and conservation heritage is protected for the benefit of present and future generations.
3. To enhance and promote professional hunting’s contribution to the livelihoods and socio-economic development of all South Africans.

A new constitution was agreed upon and will be released shortly. Membership applications and relevant details will be made public in due course.

A committee was duly elected, consisting of Chairman Stewart Dorrington; Johan van den Berg, Paul Stones, Hans Vermaak, Matthew Greeff, Howard Knott, Mark de Wet, and Hermann Meyeridricks.

The launch of Custodians of Professional Hunting and Conservation South Africa (CPHCSA) breathes new life into professional hunting and conservation in South Africa.

Leave a Comment

Sports Afield, the world’s premier hunting adventure magazine, has long been a supporter of, and donor to, the Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa (PHASA). We are extremely disappointed by PHASA’s recent decision condoning hunts for captive-bred lions—a reversal of its previous position—and in light of this, we will be ending our support of the organization effective immediately.

As a strong advocate for fair-chase, ethical hunting that contributes to the conservation of species worldwide, Sports Afield cannot support an organization that promotes a practice we believe is contrary to the concept of fair chase and detrimental to the future of hunting.

A pro-hunting public relations campaign is providing an example of how to get a positive message out to non-hunters.

If hunting–and by extension, healthy wildlife populations–are to continue, we absolutely must enlist the support of the general, non-hunting public. In PR-speak, we need to “sell” hunting to the non-hunting world.

Hunters are losing the public-relations war for a stupid reason: We’re not even showing up. Fact is, the majority of people still support hunting, or simply don’t have an opinion one way or the other. But that’s going to change, and not in our favor, if hunters don’t start engaging the general public in an approachable way to let them know that what we do matters.

You’ve seen the other side’s emotion-filled public-relations campaigns, which convince well-meaning but uninformed people that wolves are endangered and the last polar bear has already floated away on the last patch of (Photoshopped) sea ice. We’ve got the facts on our side, so why aren’t we playing the game?

A lot of industry organizations and hunting groups are involved in efforts to bring more hunters into the fold, but despite their best efforts, these programs reach a relatively small number of people. What we really need is a big, sweeping, cutting-edge public-relations campaign that tells the story of hunting and its benefits to wildlife conservation and the world at large.

That’s why I was thrilled to discover there is a least one entity out there doing exactly that–in Colorado. Colorado’s Wildlife Council came up with an interesting and effective PR campaign to educate the public about the benefits of hunting, a campaign that should be emulated nationwide.

The heart of it is a series of TV ads called “Hug a Hunter” (they have “Hug an Angler” ads, too). These ads are light, fun, and do a great job of getting a positive message out to non-hunters.

One ad shows a hiker walking on a wilderness trail up a gorgeous mountain. On the peak is a hunter, glassing. The voice-over says, “Coloradans are proud of the wildlife and natural beauty in Colorado. And we have hunters and anglers to thank for helping support it. So if you love protecting Colorado and its natural beauty, go ahead and hug a hunter.” The hiker walks up to the bemused hunter and gives him a hug.

Another ad discusses the economic benefits of hunting to Colorado’s rural towns and small businesses while showing a camo-clad hunter serving breakfast to patrons in a small cafe and getting a hug from one of them at the end. (Watch the ads here.)

What I like about these ads is that they don’t lay it on too thick. They don’t drone on and on with statistics. They don’t take themselves too seriously. They make a simple point, do it quickly, and do it in a feel-good way that leaves the viewer smiling.

According to Hugahunter.com, Colorado’s Wildlife Council (the entity charged with this outreach) is funded by a 75-cent surcharge on each hunting and fishing license sold. The council hired an advertising agency to create ads that convey a simple message: “Once you understand everything hunters and anglers do for our state, you may want to give them a hug.”

A campaign like this needs to happen nationwide. It’s time hunters stopped losing the PR wars. At the very least, it’s high time we started showing up. One state has now provided an example of how it can be done.

Learn more about the Colorado program at www.hugahunter.com. To learn how you can help bring this program to your state, see http://nimrodsociety.org.

Leave a Comment

Understanding the African bushmeat crisis.

Explaining the differences between hunting and poaching is something most hunters have had to do at some point. Asked by people honestly confused over the distinction between these two activities, we smile perhaps and then explain that not only is poaching illegal and a serious crime, it is unsustainable and depletes wildlife populations–the polar opposite of the legal, highly regulated, and sustainable wild harvest derived through recreational hunting. While the media often plays loosely with these terms, hopefully the majority of North Americans understand the differences between them. Yet hunting, as we know, is a complex topic and seldom are issues surrounding it straightforward. There are many world views, not just those of North Americans, and all of them feed the media’s characterizations of what hunting really means. And what the public understands hunting means will determine hunting’s future.

So take a deep breath, step back, and take a world view. Then, maybe, just maybe, on a global scale, the issues of hunting, poaching, and wildlife sustainability are not so clear after all, for any of us. For example, what about unregulated hunting that is not illegal in many countries but which is often definitely unsustainable? Is it poaching? And what if that over-hunting stems from cultural traditions hundreds of thousands of years old, and contributes heavily to the food security and livelihoods of entire communities? Is that defensible? Aren’t most hunters and a majority of North Americans in obvious support of hunting for food and of traditional, local communities and their well-being? Yet, what if that hunting for sustenance by those communities was also endangering entire species and ecosystems? Are we still in support them? In other words, where does bushmeat harvest fit into our personal views about hunting, poaching and conservation? Does where we stand on these issues depend on where we sit?

The term “bushmeat” is traditionally defined as “the meat of African wild animals as food,” African forests and savannas being commonly referred to as “bush.” It is now well established that hunting for food and livelihoods has negatively affected numerous wild animal species, particularly vertebrates, in tropical and subtropical areas of Oceania, South America, South and Southeast Asia, and over-hunting for wild meat in Sub-Saharan Africa is now considered a major and growing threat to biodiversity in the region. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has concluded that the most immediate threat to the future of wildlife in Africa is, in fact, the consumption of and illegal trade in bushmeat, judging this problem more detrimental to wildlife conservation efforts than even habitat loss.

Bushmeat consumption targets a wide array of species, including some that are currently listed as endangered. Left unchecked, bushmeat harvests will inevitably lead to extirpation of these life forms. Small, isolated populations of highly endangered animals are especially vulnerable and can be disproportionately affected, as in the case of Great Ape species. We need to remember that such losses remove not just the animals themselves from ecosystems, but also their functions. Species function as prey for other species, as seed dispersers and forest rebuilders. Thus, reductions in certain species can have far-reaching impacts on numerous others, domino impacts that accelerate biodiversity loss and place ecosystems in crises of instability. It is now estimated that more than a quarter of all mammal species hunted for bushmeat are threatened with extinction. This is a massive conservation challenge and one all hunters should be concerned about. Hundreds of thousands of African animals are being killed annually for bushmeat, almost always by trapping and snaring. Recent reports estimate as much as 5 million tons of bushmeat are being harvested annually across the Congo Basin alone, for direct local consumption and for sale in larger urban markets.

As North American hunters and wildlife advocates, our first reaction to this news may be one of outrage, quickly followed by righteous indignation. Surely, we think, those people need to stop what they are doing. Wildlife is being depleted, species are being endangered. We must do something! For the less informed, the issue can be even more confusing and colors the debate over poaching and hunting and undermines their willingness to consider hunting as a conservation practice. In fact, it encourages their view that all hunting is conservation-negative. Yet, we all need to remember this harvest is all about food and livelihoods, and in many cases, may not be in conflict with any national conservation laws at all, though in some cases it clearly is. Regardless, these individual hunters need the wild food they harvest and the income they derive from its sale. No, their hunting may not be as sustainable or as well-regulated as our recreational hunting here in North America, but it is far more urgent and essential. So, solving this problem and informing the many perceptions around it will not be easy. Complicating things further is the fact that, today, there are two types of bushmeat hunters in Africa.

First, there is the traditional bushmeat hunter whose ultimate goal is to feed himself and his family. He typically resides in a very rural area and has lived and worked in conditions most Westerners would describe as “extreme poverty.” As much as 85 percent of his family’s total protein is sourced from bushmeat and he may still struggle to meet the family’s basic nutritional requirements. While he may sometimes trade meat for other foods or goods with friends and neighbors, his focus when hunting is subsistence, not profit. He hunts “for the pot,” so to speak, and his interactions with local wildlife closely resemble those of his ancestors. His choice of wild meats may not always coincide with the typical North American palate, but his primary motivations are universally understood. He does not have the luxury of choosing whether he would prefer a grocery store alternative. He hunts for food and eats to live.

Then there is the commercial bushmeat hunter. Bushmeat has become big business, a luxury trade, and for those involved in supplying the meat, hunting is now a livelihood choice. While some of the animals killed may still be used for subsistence, the primary motivation for this type of bushmeat hunter is income and profit, two motivations North Americans should surely understand. This hunter provides for himself and his family through organized, profitable, sometimes unregulated, and sometimes clearly illegal trade. He is less likely to live in as extreme poverty as the first hunter, though he is likely familiar with it. He kills large numbers of animals when possible, often during migrations when millions of animals travel vast distances across various parts of the African continent, at times leaving protected areas and straying onto community land where they may be killed by hunters without fear of legal consequences. The commercial hunter cleans and stacks his kills, sometimes piling hundreds of carcasses to await pick-up by his employer’s agent, to be transported across geographic and political boundaries. He, in turn, receives his weekly paycheck.

The markets are not just African. Commercial bushmeat hunting forms the basis of a multi-billion-dollar international trade, involving hundreds of species, from antelopes to rodents, from elephants to bats. Once exploited because of low cost, tradition, weak law enforcement, and/or lack of food alternatives, bushmeat now supports a sophisticated commercial trade run by international criminal syndicates. The dramatic increase in bushmeat value in recent years has been spurred by demand from growing urban populations throughout Africa, coupled with the increasing demand for bushmeat products by established cultural communities internationally. An estimated 7,500 tons of bushmeat enters the European Union each year and, while North American numbers are harder to come by, we know that it’s becoming more common to find bushmeat, especially from primates, at clandestine markets in urban centers across the United States and Canada. This commercial trade is often facilitated by logging ventures (whether legal or illegal) that create new roads and offer easy access not only to remote wildlife habitat and better transport routes, but also to new pools of impoverished rural hunters from which to draw recruits.

It is not difficult to comprehend the motivations of either the first or the second hunter. We may not agree with either of them entirely, at least in theory, and we may feel inclined to judge the second hunter more harshly, but neither circumstance is outside our comprehension. And it is easy to imagine how the first hunter for subsistence becomes the second hunter of commerce. Whether a person lives in Africa or North America, food and income are necessary to survival, and the ease with which these may be secured greatly affects quality of life. One makes the most of what one has.

For the international community to effectively engage this issue, it is not enough to demonstrate that bushmeat hunting, especially for commercial trade, is unsustainable, that it is depleting wildlife populations and endangering iconic species. The fact is that bushmeat remains a necessity for many, and it is, understandably, difficult to feel concern for wildlife and some distant future when day-to-day living is a struggle. International criticisms and directives, without offering viable solutions, will never solve the bushmeat crisis. To find solutions, we must first understand not just the problem, but its roots. Do we need enforcement of hunting quotas and better endangered species protections in Africa? Yes. Do we believe that cultural reliance on bushmeat may have to change to some degree? Yes. Should we create educational programs to alter public perceptions and educate the future consumer base for bushmeat? Of course. But above all else, we must address the concerns of average citizens who, like us, worry about feeding their families and about finding and keeping a job that pays well but who, unlike us, live amid Africa’s wildlife and the immediate challenges and opportunities it presents.

Relieving the bushmeat crisis will bring long-term benefits to wildlife and people and is a laudable goal for these reasons alone. It will also help remove one more factor contributing to public confusion over hunting’s conservation value.

Leave a Comment

Brown bears are found in many parts of the world, with the biggest in Alaska and Kamchatka. But don’t delay.

If a brown bear hunt is on your radar, don’t wait much longer. Anti-hunting political pressures recently caused bear hunting to close in such places as British Columbia and Romania, regions with strong bear populations, long established hunting traditions, and successful conservation programs. Never mind about science and sustainable use or the fact that the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists brown bears as a species of Least Concern. Blind emotionalism is driving this train. And it’s not good for the bears: In recent years Croatia has permitted an 8 percent harvest of its brown bears by sport hunters, while neighboring Slovenia, which does not allow sport hunting, killed 20 percent of its bears via government culls to address citizen complaints.

Arguably the largest bear species in the world, the brown bear is unarguably the most widely distributed. Forget black bears and polar bears; brown bears are the ursine dispersal champions. Starting from ancient cave bear ancestors some 800,000 years ago, brown bears evolved in central Asia and dispersed around the northern hemisphere. The fossil record indicates they moved into Europe about 250,000 years ago and spread from Ireland to the Atlas Mountains of north Africa. They fished and prowled, dug and foraged, hunted and bred from the seashores of Norway across Russia and down into Syria, India and Tibet. They padded across Siberia, through Korea, and somehow managed to populate the northern islands of Japan, probably swimming, perhaps ice skating down from Sakhalin Island before hopscotching up the Kuril Islands toward Kamchatka. From their Arctic outposts at the northeast tip of Russia, they could gaze across to Alaska on a clear day. They must have liked what they saw because they crossed over perhaps 100,000 years ago, then spread east to Hudson Bay. After the last glacial retreat roughly 13,000 years ago, they pioneered south down the Rockies, Cascades, and Sierras into Mexico and east into the Great Plains, where Lewis and Clark first encountered them.

Not surprisingly, given their size and proclivity for anything edible—including grain, garden vegetables, cattle, lambs, and the shepherds that guard them—brown bears have been harassed and killed by us puny humans throughout history. And vice versa. Probably more vice versa. Until firearms became powerful and reliable enough to stop raging 300- to 1,500-pound bruins, we mostly avoided the big bears. Nonetheless, our ancestors managed to wipe the monsters from Britain by 1,000 AD. Nature herself, via a thick sheet of ice, probably froze them out of Ireland during the last glacial advance. More recently we cleared them from North Africa by 1890, from California by 1922, and across most of western Europe outside of the larger mountain ranges.

Less surprising than where these apex predators have been extirpated is where they have not been. Despite intense eradication efforts in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, brown bears persist in parts of Spain, France, and Italy. They continue through Scandinavia and the Caucasus and hang on in Turkey, Iran, India, and Japan. They still roam the mountains and forests of western Europe. Romania alone supports an estimated 6,000 Eurasian brown bears. Worldwide their population numbers 200,000 if you count all subspecies such as North America’s interior grizzly. And that makes a hunter’s heart sing. If there’s anything a sport hunter loves more than hunting it’s the healthy and continuing productivity of wildlife in wild places.

Finding a place to hunt brown bears is surprisingly easy. A quick online search uncovered ten options in Alaska, Russia, and Estonia. The most popular destinations for brown bear hunting are Alaska and Russia, especially Kodiak Island and the Kamchatka peninsula, destinations widely known for growing the biggest bears on the planet.

The world-record North American brown bear was taken on Kodiak Island in 1952. Its skull measured 30 12/16 B&C points. The world record Kamchatka brown bear, taken in 2013, scored 30 11/16 SCI points. Body sizes for these and related Kodiak and Kamchatka beasts have been estimated and exaggerated for years, but reasonably verifiable top weights come in around 1,500 pounds. Nose to tail lengths prior to skinning might break 10 feet, possibly 11, but tales of 13-footers abound. You are welcome to believe what you wish. Most hunters find the sheer mass of a 10-foot bear more than sufficient for awe.

For a size comparison, the SCI record Romanian brown bear is listed at 26 10/16, fully 4 inches smaller than the Big Two. The biggest Romanian bear by weight reportedly went 1,058 pounds.

Almost all of Alaska’s record- book browns come from Kodiak Island and the nearby Alaska Peninsula. Russia’s Kamchatka bears also roam the coasts of the Okhostk Sea, including Sakhalin Island just north of Japan. These are the regions to hunt if you’re looking for the biggest bears, and if that doesn’t sound fishy to you, it should.
These two locations produce the world’s largest brown bears because of their pipeline to the sea—a salmon pipeline. The volcanic mountains of both regions, part of the Pacific Rim of Fire, create snowpack reservoirs that feed thousands of runoff streams. Hundreds of millions of salmon swim, spawn, and die here every year, many of them in the jaws of hungry bears. These are the best fed bears in the world, and they use a minimum of energy to earn that privilege. If they live long enough, they grow huge.

The size and abundance of these bears—plus the wild, unspoiled wilderness in which they live—attracts intense hunter interest. This leads to high prices and limited opportunities. Alaska’s best big bear hunting units can be hunted by limited entry tag only and then but once every four years. Kamchatka hunts are less tightly limited, but slightly more challenging and expensive to reach. All of this creates what some consider even better and less expensive brown bear hunting opportunities elsewhere.

Much of coastal Alaska from Ketchikan north and west around the state has abundant brown bears. They’re big, but not record-book big, so they are less expensive to hunt and tags are more readily available. In some units you can buy a tag every year. Guide/outfitter fees run from $8,000 up to $16,000. Compare this to coveted Kodiak and AK peninsula hunts running from $20,000 and up.

Some Russian brown bear hunts northeast of Moscow in the Kirov region are being advertised at $72 per day for room, board, and guiding plus a trophy fee from $1,000 to $1,900. These can be spring or fall hunts, usually conducted over oat fields or bait from blinds, but some spot-and-stalk hunts are possible. Hunts in Russia’s Lake Baikal region north of Mongolia are running at daily rates of $188 plus $2,000 if you take a bear. Gun import fees, flights, Visas, CITES permits and bribes/tips always add expense, but Russian guides have always proven welcoming, effective, and fun, in my experience.

I’ve seen Swedish brown bear hunts advertised for $10,000 Krona, which is about $1,260 US as this is written. Finland hunts are advertised at $3,659 US. Tags are strictly limited in both countries. The Swedes, by the way, often hunt with dogs. Something different.

Success rates always vary by region and outfitter. Alaska harvests have been ranging from 0 to 50 percent depending on unit, but that includes do-it-yourself resident hunts. The overall average is about 25 percent. One outfitter who has been setting up Russian bear hunts for more than two decades claims his clients enjoy success rates close to 100 percent. Do your own research, but if you want to indulge in a hunt for the largest land predator on Earth, get going. The anti-hunting movement isn’t getting any weaker.

Leave a Comment

A new book of exciting stories about hunting brown bears in Russia.

The cover photo of Denny Geurink’s reminiscence, In the Land of the Bear, is corny. Stuffed bear. Staged models. But that’s OK because many of the reminiscences in this entertaining book are corny. And  that’s OK, too, because this corn is irresistibly fun.

In the early 1990s, Denny Geurink was a schoolteacher and regional editor for Field & Stream magazine. That position landed him an invitation from a local travel agency tasked with exposing U.S. hunting writers to Russian hunting opportunities. The Soviet Union was dissolving and U.S. dollars were being welcomed into the mysterious Land of the Bear.

What Geurink discovered on his inaugural trip was a vast land similar in forest habitat to the Michigan Northwoods he’d been hunting since childhood. Different, however, were the abundance and size of Russian brown bears, moose, elk, and grouse. In a rural country with vast wilderness where the proletariat were not allowed to own rifles, animals had grown old and huge. Geurink was so impressed he went back for more. Soon he was taking a variety of American and Canadian clients with him, including former astronauts and four-star generals.

Amid anecdotes of roaring stags, charging moose, and man-eating brown bears in this book, Geurink sprinkles familiar touchstones from the Cold War that are oddly comforting, probably because we’re still here to remember them. From Siberia to Crimea, from the threat of nuclear annihilation to gulping vodka with KBG agents, Geurink and his clients take us on a reaffirming ride through the last half of the 20th century and an uplifting peek into the promise of the 21st. En route we find universally familiar characters from hunting camps anywhere: The Lawyer. The Know-It-All. The Whiner. The Tough Cookie. And the welcoming, kindly country folk who open their homes and share their meals with powerful, oversized, gun-toting Americans they’d been taught to fear for most of their lives. Through all of this and the universal language of the hunt we discover the wildlife, the wilderness, the country, the bureaucrats, the bribes, and the humble country folk who are the real Russia. This is hunting “In The Land of the Bear.”

Go to www.targetcommbooks.com for content details about IN THE LAND OF THE BEAR and ordering information.

Leave a Comment