Notable Quote:

Hunting Life's Kevin Paulson asking Steve Rinella of The Wild Within: "What do you think the biggest threats are to the world of hunting?"

Access to land and habitat loss due to development are the biggest threats to hunting. Restrictive gun laws are definitely troublesome, as are hunting regulations that aren’t based on sound science (such as the wolf debacle in Montana and Wyoming, and Yellowstone’s buffalo situation) but loss of access and habitat worry me the most. Put simply, we need to stop building trophy homes and subdivisions on top of our hunting lands.

Hmmmmmm

More on the lion Issue...

http://www.safarinewsreel.com/hunterproudfoundation.htm

Update: Research by Bauer and van der Merwe (2004) and Chardonnet (2002) reveal the number is likely closer to 30 000 or more (according to Conservation Force). Chardonnet estimates up to 14000 in Tanzania. Rolf Baldus and Craig Packer believe there may be more in that country alone. The other question is who made these historical population estimates? Obviously there were more lions a century or 50 years ago but if experts battle to conduct large scale lion counts today, how accurate were those conducted a half century ago? With a fractional off take of large males, even managed per sub population to ensure sound pride social structures, the sustainable removal of a few males per annum seems qute plausible.

©Brian Joubert

Bow fun

I finally took the plunge and entered the world of stick and string. For years I have toyed with the idea of dabbling in archery but never committed. In fact the last time I expressed my interest in this one of my older, wiser friends advised me that I already had too many hobbies and that I should “just sit down for a while and the desire will go away”!


Well the urge to be in the bush with a bow led me to purchase a new Mission ‘Craze’. After test shooting it at Sherwood Park Archery I was smitten (which is easy when you are a bow neophyte). What I love about this bow is its 28” axle to axle length. In other words, it is tiny. In fact in my hands it looks like a kids bow, but draws to a full 30” and fits me well at that length. It also has an unbelievable 15-70lbs draw weight range! I actually shoot it without target-embarrassment too!

This photo gives you an idea of how small this bow is. Time to fling pointy sticks...

Notable Quote:

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

- T.S. Eliot

The whole truth please

I love this talk by Dereck and Beverly Joubert (no relation by the way). I am inspired by their passion and in many ways, like Kerasote or McCallum, by their quest to look for beauty and poetry in nature beyond scientific rationality – something that can be hard to justify in the face of orthodoxy. I have a great respect for their hard work; few people can match their dedication and the shear time spent in the field. I have also been an ardent fan of their work from their early magnificent films like Lions of Darkness and Eternal Enemies.