The Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) hosts its 46th annual Convention and Sporting Expo “The Sheep Show” Jan. 12-14 at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center and the Peppermill Resort Spa & Casino.
“Every year we bring the sporting community together to celebrate outdoor traditions and raise money for the conservation and management of wild sheep,” said WSF President & CEO Gray N. Thornton. “It’s the largest celebration of mountain game hunting and conservation in the U.S. This year we’ve expanded the Expo to include three halls filled wall to wall with exhibits featuring the finest guides, outfitters, gear, taxidermy, art, firearms, optics and other outdoor essentials from North America and around the world.”
Higher Calling Wildlife will have coverage of the show on our Facebook and Instagram and a wrap-up here next week.
The Show features hundreds of exhibitors, educational seminars, youth events, drawings, hunt giveaways, raffles, and banquets. Nightly auctions feature more than $3 million in outdoor adventure trips and more special conservation permits than any other convention or hunting expo.
Money raised is used to enhance wild sheep populations across North America and internationally through disease research, herd monitoring, habitat improvements and other initiatives.
The Sheep Show is open to the public Thursday through Saturday, Jan. 12-14, at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. Show hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. Daily admission is $25. Paid attendees are entered daily for floor credit drawings from $1,000-$5,000. Free seminars from experts on mountain hunting in North America, Europe, and Asia include topics such as wildlife conservation, travel, outdoor skills, backcountry fitness and nutrition, wild game preparation and cooking and hunter safety.
The Expo also features a free Youth Wildlife Conservation Experience open to the public at the convention center Saturday, Jan. 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The youth event offers fun educational activities focused on conservation, outdoor skills and nature.
A complete schedule of events, pre-registration and other details are available at www.wildsheepfoundation.org.
Daily passes are available at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center on convention days. Five-dollar discount coupons are available at Sportsman’s Warehouse, Cabela’s, Scheels, Reno HUNTNHOUSE, Mark Fore & Strike (Reno), Bass Pro Shops (Sacramento), Gun World & Archery (Elko) and Honey Lake Firearms (Susanville).
Follow Chester Moore and Higher Calling Wildlife® on the following social media platforms
After a two-month hiatus, Higher Calling Wildlife, the media platform is back! There are some great things already completed that will debut soon and lots of things in the works for 2023.
Higher Calling Wildlife-the podcast makes its 2023 return with a new format Jan. 10. We’ll be putting a a weekly 10 minute episode on intriguing wildlife news and investigations and doing a monthly hourlong deep-dive.
And while we’re on the subject of the podcast, in 2022, we moved into a different network. We greatly appreciate the opportunity but the format didn’t work for how I needed to produce the program.
Now I’m back with my old host where I kept archives of the program and was blown away with how many people downloaded the archives in 2022. When I got the 50,000 downloads badge notification I was pleasantly surprised. I can’t wait to see the numbers we do with an active program on the podbean nework!
There will be much more audio and video content coming. I’m also doing a lot of freelance work on top of my main gig as Editor-In-Chief of Texas Fish & Game.
I’m motivated, more focused than normal (which is a lot) and ready to have an inspirational year of content creation and investigative wildlife journalism.
Chester Moore
Follow Chester Moore and Higher Calling Wildlife® on the following social media platforms
Chester Moore and young artist Chanah Haley will host a book and poster signing Saturday Oct. 8 from 11 a.m. till 1 p.m. at Rambo Outdoors 2335 MacArthur Dr, Orange, TX 77630.
Chester will be signing his hunting and fishing books and Chana will debut a special poster of a red sheep she drew after taking part in one of Chester’s Higher Calling Wildlife expeditions.
“I’ll be there to talk with everyone and sign books to raise funds for our ministry work. It’s really about Chanah and her work. She went on our expedition, photographed a red sheep and then went and did the artwork. This shows her she can use her art for good and raise awareness to conservation. We will donate a portion of the proceeds to wild sheep conservation as well,” Moore said.
Above you see Chana taking photos in Kerr County, TX on a Higher Calling Wildlife expedition in May 2022. Here you see the art she did from one of of her photos. Order this poser and help other kids go on special expeditions.
You can order a print to be a limited to 40 signed and numbered to be shipped to you for only $25. Order here and clicking on the Higher Calling Wildlife fund.
Come out to meet Chester, get a cool, limited art print and help the cause. You can also have a rare chance to talk one on one with Chester about wildlife, Dark Outdoors and other topics.
Follow Chester Moore and Higher Calling Wildlife® on the following social media platforms
Last week we reported on possible wildlife impacts to Hurricane Ian, but the damage has been so bad on the infrastructure side that little info has come out of that part of the state.
Even the toll on people remains mysterious at the time of this writing. Hopefully there will not be as many dead as some officials predict.
This was an incredibly powerful and devastating storm..
One interesting wildlife note that has come out of Florida is a video of a shark in a backyard in Fort Meyers.
There are photos and videos that seem to pop up around every storm and most of them are fake, but this one seems legit.
We will have updates on Ian’s wildlife impact when we get them.
Dark Outdoors: Mysterious Water Deaths
If you think you’ve heard it all in true crime and outdoors mysteries, think again. Chester Moore interviews William Ramsey of William Ramsey Investigates about mysterious water deaths that have been puzzling police around the nation.
This takes us into the “Smiley Face Killers” phenomenon and we also delve into death cults link to murders in the great outdoors.
*Here why police and forensics experts believe young men are being taken and then dumped in water days, sometimes weeks after abduction.
*Learn why a smiley face can be a sinister symbol when found in the outdoors.
*Hear about dangerous death cults who operate in wilderness areas and along the border.
Speaking For The Wildlife Society
Last week, I had the honor of speaking at Stephen F. Austin State University for The Wildlife Society.
My presentation was about how to make an impact on wildlife conservation.
I shared some of my adventures in the field from photographing bighorn sheep to working with sharks.
It was a fun evening and several students have connected with me since then to find ways to use their photography to help wildlife. We will publish some of their work here soon.
Saving Vietnam’s “Unicorn”
One of the world’s rarest animals—the saola, a type of wild cattle likely down to a few individuals—is getting a critical emergency boost from the European Union, Re:wild and WWF-Viet Nam to prevent its extinction.
According to a press release by Re:wild: the saola is the focus of the latest efforts by the Rapid Response for Ecosystems, Species and Communities Undergoing Emergencies (Rapid RESCUE) fund, established in 2020 by the EU, Leonardo DiCaprio and Re:wild to provide a swift response to emerging biodiversity threats.
Saola photo by Toon Fey, WWF
The funding will support Re:wild and WWF-Viet Nam in their search for the last saola that survive in Viet Nam, as a first step in securing these animals for a conservation breeding program to ensure the species’ survival. As a result of the global covid pandemic, intensive search efforts to find the last Saola were effectively stopped for two years, greatly increasing the need for emergency support to quickly initiate surveys and conservation measures to save it from extinction.
“We have an amazing opportunity here to find and save the last saola in Viet Nam,” said Andrew Tilker, Re:wild’s Asian species officer.
“And as we are searching for saola, we will also be looking for some of the other special and endangered species that are found only in the Annamite Mountains. We are working with local stakeholders to start conservation breeding programs for a number of these species with the aim of someday returning them to the wild when it is safe to do so.”
The saola, which was only discovered by scientists in 1992, is so rare that no biologist has ever seen one in the wild. Their evasiveness has earned them the nickname Asian “unicorn.” Like other species in the Annamite Mountains, a rugged mountain chain on the border of Viet Nam and Laos, saola are the victims of unsustainable hunting through wire snares. Although the snares do not target saola, they indiscriminately kill ground-dwelling animals, and have emptied the forests of wildlife across the region.
“Protecting ecosystems is key for wildlife to flourish,” said Giorgio Aliberti, head of the European Union Delegation to Vietnam. “We all depend on it, as biodiversity is crucial to safeguard global food systems and ultimately food security. The European Union is proud to support conservation efforts to save species like saola from extinction, in line with the EU biodiversity strategy.”
Since the saola’s discovery, biologists have only photographed the species five times in the wild, all by camera traps—twice in Laos and three times in Viet Nam. The most recent camera trap photos were taken in 2013, when a WWF camera trap caught images of an animal in central Viet Nam. This year’s Southeast Asia Games, which ran from May 12 through May 23, featured the saola as its mascot.
As monster category 4 Hurricane Ian slams into Florida, the human loss is of course the priority.
There are still people in danger and many homes and businesses are already destroyed.
This is a game changing storm for the Gulf side of Florida.
There will be a major wildlife and wildlife habitat toll as well and that is what we are going to cover here.
Although it will be at least 24 hours before we get into on major results of the storm on wildlife, here is what I believe we should expect.
Manatee Strandings: With the water already sucked out of Tampa Bay in a reverse surge situation, you can expect some impact to the West Indian manatee.
These animals have suffered tremendous losses over the last couple of years and there are chances of strandings and deaths due to direct impact and stress.
Manatee strandings are a big concern in the wake if Ian. (USFWS Photo)
Fish Kills: A storm brining up to 18 feet of storm surge with giant waves on top of that will cause major fish kills along much of the impacted area.
Fish kills will likely occur many miles inland. (USFWS Photo)
Canals where water has been sucked out will see fish death and saltwater intrusion of inland areas will also cause issues. It might be a fe days before we see this begin to happen on a large-scale but it will happen.
Key Deer: The Florida Keys dodged the major brunt of this storm but there was some storm surge.
I got this report from the National Weather Service
A Storm Surge Warning is in effect for the Lower Florida Keys including Key West through Big Pine Key– Act now over the next several hours near and after the low tide to protect property.
Widespread Storm Surge Flooding originating from the Gulfside up to 4 feet above normal high tide levels is expected from Key West through Big Pine Key. For several islands, this will allow the storm surge to pass over from Gulfside to oceanside. The peak storm surge levels will likely occur from around noon through mid afternoon.
It went on to say many streets will become impassable with water into ground floor homes and businesses, especially those in lower elevation areas.
Key deer are under threat on Big Pine Key. (Photo by Faith Moore)
The largest concentration of the endangered Key deer is on Big Pine Key which has an elevation of three feet, so there is still some concern for the wildlife there.
Displaced Snakes & Hogs: In the aftermath of the storm, Florida’s very abundant feral hog and snake population in the impacted areas will be displaced.
That will mean cottonmouths and rattlesnakes in and around housing editions and feral hogs showing up in high ground around cities.
People will need to use extreme caution around debris.
We will post an update as soon as we know more on the wildlife end of things.
Keep the people and wildlife of Florida in your prayers.
They need it.
Chester Moore
Follow Chester Moore and Higher Calling Wildlife® on the following social media platforms
Join Higher Calling Wildlife founder and Dark Outdoors host Chester Moore as he interviews veteran and outdoors lover Lucas Pelt who experienced a very serious cottonmouth bite. Learn how it happened and the experience Pelt had in the aftermath.
In our Dark Outdoors defense segment, we check in with renowned snake venom expert Dr. Spencer Greene and learn what to do if you do get bitten by a snake.
Oh, and we also cover what NOT to do.
The outdoors is a place of serenity and beauty but at times the outdoors experience goes dark. And it can go dark quickly for someone experiencing a venomous snake bite.
A few weeks ago, we put out the word for free-ranging elk photos in the Texas Hill Country.
This is the first shot we got. It’s from Kennth Johnson and he got this near Rock Springs, TX.
Reader Rpy Heiderman photographed this elk near Utopia, TX.
If you have photos of free-ranging elk anywhere in Texas, email me at chester@chestermoore.com. I’d love to share the photos with others.
SFA Student Wins 2022 Tony Houseman Conservation Legacy Award
Borel is studying forestry with a wildlife management concentration.
“It’s such an honor and privilege to receive this award,” Borel said.
“I want to make an impact for wildlife and also get young people involved in conservation, hunting and fishing. This award inspires me to push even harder toward those goals.”
Borel has contributed online articles to fishgame.com and has a feature entitled “Why This College Girl Huns” in the Sept/Oct. edition of Texas Fish & Game.
Emily Odom was inspired by her 2020 turkey release experience. She began doing conservation art for Higher Calling Wildlife and won the 2021 Tony Houseman Conservation Legacy Award.
The award is given annually by Higher Calling Wildlife®, founded by Chester Moore.
“Tony Houseman was a mentor of mine at a very young age. I met him when I was 20 and he made a tremendous impact on me and my career. This honor is for his long-standing legacy of conservation and helps give young people going above and beyond the call of duty a boost to carry on in what can be very hard work,” Moore said.
Borel is the third recipient of the award and was chosen because of her heart for serving and conservation.
“Grades are wonderful. Academics are important and she has those but then there is heart and commitment on top of that. We watched Amber not only serve relentlessly helping some projects we did with young children and wildlife but also write a book about shark conservation she wants to give to kids. She’s a special young lady and me and my wife Lisa are honored to know her,” Moore said.
Tony Houseman was a dedicated conservationist who at different times served as president of the @houstonsafariclubfoundation and Dallas Safari Club. He helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for conservation work across North America and Africa.
His last major hunt was a “green hunt” to extract DNA from a white rhino for conservation purposes, which is why the award itself is a bronze rhinoceros.
Higher Calling Wildlife® is proud that Amber Borel is the third recipient of the Tony Houseman Conservation Legacy Award.
Follow Chester Moore and Higher Calling Wildlife® on the following social media platforms
A woman claims she spotted a mysterious animal resembling the long-extinct Tasmanian Tiger while out on a bush walk with her son and sister according to a report in The Daily Mail.
Jessie Milde was on the hike in Belair National Park in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, when her family noticed a strange animal ‘lolloping’ around.
Ms Milde first thought the creature was either a ‘weird looking kangaroo’ or a ‘really scraggy looking dog’ but her sister was convinced it was a Tasmanian Tiger.
The thylacine has been considered extinct since the 1930s although a fair amount of reports exist.
They are without question in my opinion the most intriguing of possibly still alive-considered extinct creatures. The video (linked above) is interesting, but what interests me more is there seems to be an uptick in sightings and possible videos in recent years.
My good friend Todd Jurasek has made several expeditions into Australia and New Guinea. He believes there is a high chance of thylacines still existing.
“I think there are definitely still some thylacine living in Australia and Tasmania,” he said.
Sept. 13 Higher Calling Wildlife the podcast and this blog will begin a three-part series on mysterious wildlife. The thylacine will be the subject of one of these episodes. We will also cover the ivory-billed woodpecker, blue and black tigers and some other obscure animals.
It’s going to be a fun fall with super cool topics.
Defending Against Guys Likes This In The Great Outdoors
In this epic, hour-long episode, Dark Outdoors host Chester Moore dives into the iconic unsolved Moonlight Murders and the Phantom Killer made famous in 1976’s classic “The Town That Dreaded Sundown”.
The Phantom Killer as portrayed by Bud Davis in The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
This show examines how the phantom operated and compares it to dangers lurking today in sububan forest areas from similar predators.
It begins with a personal brush with danger from me and then goes into an interview with John Tennison, a cousin once removed from one of the chief Phantom killer suspects.
Hear a super rare and historic revelation of an eyewitness to seeing a white-masked figure in the night of Texarkana during the Phantom’s reign of terror.
We also interview Pamula Pierce Barcelou, daughter of “The Town that Dreaded Sundown” director Charles B. Pierce. She shares fascinating insight into this cult classic and her Dad’s role creating it nearly 50 years ago.
And learn why we should be super cautious in urban and suburan parks, greenbelts and forests.
The San Francisco Mountains south of the Arizona border in Sonora, MX, barely receive 3” of annual precipitation according to officials with The Wild Sheep Foundation.
WSF Photo
WSF, along with $10,000 from the Dallas Safari Club Foundation, has contributed $82,500 to drill a well to supply water to local people and provide a close and reliable water source for transport to fill water tanks for desert bighorn sheep and other desert-dwelling wildlife.
Before this well, water had to be trucked daily 30 miles to supply the 78 families living in the area according to WSF reports.
For nearly 25 years, residents have worked to conserve and re-populate desert bighorn sheep in this ejido. As a result of their program’s success, desert bighorn hunting on the ejido has expanded, as six permits were offered in 2020. Four of these permits were sold to generate money to pay for additional transplants of free-ranging desert bighorn sheep.
Paul Fuzinksi of Aptitude Outdoors captured a powerful, inspiring wildlife conservation message by Higher Calling Wildlife® founder Chester Moore.
It took place at the second annual Hunt-Fish Podcast Summit.
If you love wildlife and want to do something about it future, this is a must watch.
Don’t Miss This Intense, Informative Podcast!
My new podcast Dark Outdoors has officially made its debut.
The first episode is calledApex Predators: Ted Bundy And Serial Killers in America’s Forests. And it features an interview with the New York Times best-selling author who sat across from Bundy for six months interviewing him. You can click the image below to listen.
The mission is to save lives and make people of aware of what’s really going on. The outdoors media won’t touch this stuff and mainstream media doesn’t know how to report on it from an outdoors perspective.
You can help by sharing the episode on social media.
Higher Calling Wildlife® hosted by wildlife journalist Chester Moore on the Waypoint Podcast Network recently received some major honors.
At the Press Club of Southeast Texas Awards, Higher Calling Wildlife took top honors in the news category for the “Man Attacked By Hog” episode.
In addition, his “Wild Sheep Pandemic” public service announcement took first place in the Public Service Announcement category and was written, narrated and edited by Moore to raise awareness to the issue of pathogen/disease transmission between domestic and wild sheep.
He also took first place for the following categories:
*Chester’s program “Moore Outdoors” on Newstalk AM 560 KLVI, took first place for radio talk show for an episode he did on Texas’ desert bighorns with Froylan Hernandez, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department Desert Bighorn Sheep Program leader.
*Travel writing for “Sea Flats Safari: Seeking The Flats Slam In The Florida Keys” articles in Hunter’s Horn from theHouston Safari Club Foundation.
*Environmental writing for Chester’s in-depth work on wild turkey restoration in East Texas here at Higher Calling Wildlife®.
“It’s an honor to be recognized by a prestigious group of media professionals like the Press Club of Southeast Texas. Getting honored for broadcasting about wildlife conservation is really exciting”, Moore said.
Higher Calling Wildlife® received another major honor as the program was ranked one of the top wildlife conservation podcasts on the planet by Feedspot. In the 2021 rankings, the program (in its first year) ranked in the top 20.
“I just received an update that we are now the number 10 wildlife conservation podcast on the planet ranked by traffic, social media followers, authority & content. This kind of thing motivates me to work even harder and to use the God-given gift of communication to forward the cause of conservation,” Moore said.
Well, if there was, much restraint went into keeping them that way.
As the wild and domestic sheep disease documentary Transmissionwrapped up and director and producer Jesse Bone approached the podium for questions, there was a palpable sense of urgency.
It was like the previous day’s viewing of Team Bighorn, which showed the Herculean efforts to capture, collar and test wild sheep for pathogen/disease in Idaho.
According to movifree.org, Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M. ovi) is a bacterial species commonly found in the nasal cavity and sinuses of apparently healthy domestic sheep and goats.
It is transmitted to wild sheep and goats (bighorn sheep, thinhorn sheep, and mountain goats) via nose-to-nose contact and, less commonly, aerosol/droplet transmission. In bighorn sheep and very likely thinhorn sheep, M. ovi has been associated with large all-aged die-offs due to pneumonia, which is often followed by years of lower lamb birth and survival rates that can have devastating population impacts.
The two films were rallying cries at a two-day summit of the Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF) and its Chapters and Affiliates in San Antonio, TX.
Hosted by WSF Affiliate, the Texas Bighorn Society (TBS), the goal was to galvanize, organize and strategize wild sheep conservation.
“Leaders and delegates of our chapter and affiliate network convene every year in a one-tent, one-campfire gathering to address challenges and opportunities for wild sheep conservation across North America and internationally,” said Gray N. Thornton, President, and CEO of WSF.
Froylan Hernandez addresses the attendees on the status of bighorns in Texas. (Photo by Chester Moore)
Experts from around the country discussed many items, ranging from fundraising to engaging use of social media, but was M .ovi was front and center.
From capture and removal plans to testing and treatment of domestic sheep herds in bighorn country, speaker after speaker tackled this topic.
Froylan Hernandez, Desert Bighorn Sheep Program Leader with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD), shared the latest on sheep in the Trans-Pecos.
That included drought-related issues and research showing non-indigenous aoudad carry M. ovi and are a growing threat to bighorns and other wildlife through food and habitat competition.
Taking a practical approach that considers the needs of private landowners as well as bighorns, TPWD is engaging the issue directly.
Other issues are impacting sheep as well. Thinhorns are feeling the impacts of climate change in Alaska and Canada. Migration corridors are being looked at and predation always looms as a growing threat.
Dall sheep have experienced die-offs in several ranges in Alaska due to climate change-related issues. WSF recently concluded a thinhorn summit in the Yukon to address these and other issues facing Dall and Stone Sheep. (USFWS Photo)
The challenges are obvious, but discussion and actions taken at the summit were urgent and optimistic.
Despite recent die-offs, Texas is still just below historic (1800s) level desert bighorn populations thanks to the efforts of TPWD, TBS, WSF, and others.
New Mexico has seen a big shift in numbers to the positive over the last few decades and Mexico is experiencing a renaissance of sorts in desert bighorn sheep conservation and hunting.
Upgrade is the goal, but challenges continue to rise.
“We’re going to face those challenges and dare to do epic stuff,” Thornton said.
“We’re going to continue the legacy of putting and keeping wild sheep on the mountain and collaboratively we can make it happen in a big way.”
That was exemplified at the wrap-up dinner and auction that saw thousands of dollars raised for TBS water projects in West Texas.
A particular herd of desert bighorns has taken residence in a remote area near the Mexico border. And with current and historic drought an issue there, these projects could be lifesaving.
But that wasn’t all.
Just before the night was over, Thornton announced The Iowa Chapter of WSF sought to fund a special project in Nebraska.
Rocky Mountain bighorns in Nebraska were the recipients of funding generated from a call to action issued the last night of the summit. (Photo by Chester Moore)
A small but impressive herd of Rocky Mountain bighorns lives in the northwestern corner of the state and the goal is to translocate some to another area with suitable habitat.
With disease already an issue there, the hope is to spread healthy animals into other areas and expand the population.
More than $100,000 was raised with a $50,000 donation from WSF and the rest pledged from numerous chapters and affiliates.
It was an inspiring way to end an event that saw selfless dedication to a wildlife resource highlighted from the Yukon to Colorado and from Arizona to Wyoming.
From Stone sheep to California bighorns, no species or subspecies was left unmentioned, and each chapter and affiliate seemed focused on not only maintaining but growing sheep populations in their state.
This event was a major victory for hunter-conservationists.
It was evident without the interests of hunters and the funding that comes through WSF, its chapters, affiliates, and state/provincial/tribal sheep tags, these animals could easily slip into obscurity.
And that is inspiring because the commitment from everyone in the room was real and passionate.
And that’s a major victory for wild sheep.
For animals facing so many threats, it will take zeal and commitment to see them through.
And those two forces were alive and well at the summit.
Conservationists from the United States, Canada, and Mexico left inspired for the cause of wild sheep.
There’s much work to do but there’s a powerful group of allies to make it happen.
