Higher Calling Wildlife® is a multi-faceted platform and our epicenter is the multiple award-winning podcast. You can listen on all major podcast platforms including Spotify, Itunes, IHeartradio, Googleplay and others.
Featuring deep investigations, interviews with top-level guests and expert commentary, Higher Calling Wildlife is a must-listen. Subscribe and help us spread the word.
Listen to the current episode via the player below.
Ever heard of a 94 pound redfish? How about one that is older than the United States retirement age?
Check out this edition of the award-winning program and also learn about a forgotten stocking of black/red drum hybrids in Texas.
Higher Calling Wildlife is sponsored by Texas Fish & Game.
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
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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
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.
On Sept. 4, visitors to a popular Canadian hiking trail found the body of a young (154 pound) grizzly bear.
According to an article at livescience.com, park rangers airlifted the carcass so it did not attract predators to the popular trail and to ascertain the cause of death.
Wounds around the neck and armpit at first confused officials.
A necropsy, however, revealed the culprit.
“The forensic necropsy subsequently confirmed that the wounds incurred before death were consistent with the size and shape of mountain goat horns,” David Laskin, a wildlife ecologist at Parks Canada, told local news outlet Rocky Mountain Outlook.
Mountain goats are large animals capable of defending themselves against even bear attacks. (Photo by Chester Moore)
So, a mountain goat killed a grizzly.
When attending my first-ever journalism class in high school, I remember hearing, “Dog bites man is not a story. Man bites dog is the story you’re looking for.”
Well, mountain goat kills grizzly is that kind of story.
Yes, it was not a full-grown grizzly, and a 154-pound female was probably a year-old cub.
But even at that size, they are formidable predators.
While the size of the goat implicated in this interesting predator-prey scenario has not been determined, a mature billy can weigh as much as 300 pounds.
These are big, strong, incredibly agile animals that can flee or fight.
“Regarding the recent article about the mountain goat potentially injuring and killing a grizzly…that’s something you don’t hear about every day,'” said Lee MacDonalds, Operations Coordinator with the Rocky Mountain Goat Alliance (RMGA).
“I think the takeaway from that article and information from the biologists is that mountain goats (like any large animal, not just predators) have the potential to injure and even kill human-size animals.”
RMGA’s mission is to conserve mountain goat populations and educate the public about these beautiful and unique animals.
“Every year, there are reports of large ungulates in parks injuring humans when they push too close and prompt a defense response. Mountain goats are no different and should be respected,’ MacDonalds said.
“Here in Montana, we have partnered with Montana, Fish Wildlife & Parks, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to have laminated signs at trailheads in mountain goat areas, helping to warn people not to approach them should they run into one. “
Along with wild sheep, mountain goats represent the best of the American West’s wildlife.
Able to live at the highest elevations and easily move across rocky terrain that few can navigate, they are creatures worthy of our admiration.
And any ungulate that can kill a grizzly in defense is worthy of our respect.
It’s great that a group like RMGA exists to forward the cause of mountain goat conservation.
And this story getting out is a good thing as well.
Maybe it will remind hikers, campers, and others who too often view wild animals on public land as wayward pets to give mountain goats a wide berth.
They might not take too kindly to any attempt to take a selfie with them.
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Yesterday we announced that we created our own conservation outreach Higher Calling Wildlife. Everyone who joins for FREE gets this very special edition Higher Calling Wildlife “Wildlife Of Israel” e-mag.
It’s the first of its kind magazine focusing solely on Israel’s wildlife and we chose to debut it today as the Jewish festival of Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets) begins this evening.
This is the New Year on the calendar God gave to the Hebrews and since supporting Israel’s wildlife is one of our pillars, we thought this would be a good way to celebrate and also a new beginning for us.
You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email address at the subscribe prompt at the top right of this page. You can contact Chester Moore by emailing chester@chestermoore.com. Subscribe to the podcast by visiting thehighercalling.podbean.com.
This summer has been a fun one here at Higher Calling as we have been on a three month long quest called “Summer of the Bear”.
The goal has been to raise awareness to bears and bear conservation around the world.
It started with reporting on greatly increased bear sightings in my home state of Texas and has seen us doing lots of giveaways including plush bears for kids and special edition Texas Bear Aware tokens.
This week ends our summer bear project and we’re doing it in a big way publishing this podcast I recorded with Jack Evans of Bear Trust International.
A large black bear photographed by the author in Estes Park, Co. in August. (Photo by Chester Moore)
Listen to the show below as we talk about that organization’s great conservation education work.
Thanks to everyone who participated by sending emails, social media interaction, photos and videos.
The “Summer of the Bear” was a big success thanks to you.
Chester Moore
You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email address at the subscribe prompt at the top right of this page. You can contact Chester Moore by emailing chester@chestermoore.com. Subscribe to the podcast by visiting thehighercalling.podbean.com.
“You see it on social media all the time, but I never thought it would happen to me. Someone shot and killed our horse last night in his pasture in Port Mansfield. If anyone has any leads please let us know. I am completely devastated R.I.P Seabiscuit.”
Those heartbreaking words showed up in my Facebook feed just a day after I started looking into mysterious horse killings in Texas, Florida and Louisiana.
I was able to interview the horse’s devastated owner Jessica Neu, who said the horse was shot in the chest, head on and no meat was taken.
“This was in a pasture right outside of Port Mansfield, TX. It’s the navigation district property where local kids can keep livestock and show animals..”
There is no known motive and as she noted in her post, these killings are showing up all over the place. If you have any information for Neu, contact her here.
The podcast also addresses three similar killings in the Liberty County area from 2017-2018.
The Pearland killings involved the harvest of meat. Like the death of Neu’s horse, the ones in Liberty were shot and left to die with no meat harvest.
Horse meat is legal and popular in many eastern European, Asian and in some Latin American nations. Are people of wealth from some of these nations driving a black market in the horse meat trade? (Public Domain Photo)
These are both bizarre situations and ones that I believe deserve attention here as horses are such an important part of the lifestyle of outdoors lovers.
There are two different situations happening regarding horse killings.
The Pearland killings along with a similar situation in central Florida most likely is tied to some sort of black market horse meat trade.
In order to butcher a horse and load it up it would be like skinning and packing out a large bull elk.
One hind quarter would possibly weigh over 100 pounds. There’s a good chance this would take more than one person and the risk level of taking the horse, killing and taking the meat is far higher than a drive by shooting of sorts.
Horses are an important part of outdoors culture around the world. (Public Domain Photo)
The second situation is the killing of horses for seemingly no gain other than to kill the horse or perhaps terrorize the owners.
An Aug. 5 story at Spectrum News details a July killing of a little girls’ horse in Caldwell County, TX. where a horse was shot in the head and left to die. Caldwell County is a four hour drive straight up Highway 77 from Port Mansfield.
Two of the killings were the same little girls’ horse-one two days before Christmas in 2017 and the other in February 2018 after someone gave her a new horse. Another child’s horse was killed in the same area Nov. 2017.
Horses are special animals with a special bond to their owners which makes these crimes all the more heinous. (Photo by Tatiana on Pexels.com)
Is there a pattern here?
There are a few similar reports from other states.
A horse was shot in the head as if someone walked up to the horse and did it at point blank range and was the second horse in the area killed by gunfire.
The horses owner in the story said she feels that she and her family are being targeted.
She said that her other horses have been mysteriously released from her barn by someone multiple times over the past year. She feels this is the same person who killed her horse.
Is there a killer fixated on horses in Texas? What is driving the killing of horses for their meat? Why are horses the target of killings all around the nation?
There are many questions to ask and hopefully someone finds an answer soon.
Contact information on all of the above cases are in the linked stories if you have any pertinent information.
Chester Moore
You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email address at the subscribe prompt at the top right of this page. You can contact Chester Moore by emailing chester@chestermoore.com. Subscribe to the podcast by visiting thehighercalling.podbean.com.
There is nothing more majestic than a bighorn ram navigating its mountain domain where the air is thin and the scenery stunning.
As me and my wife Lisa photographed a gorgeous Rocky Mountain bighorn ram enjoying a natural mineral lick at 12,000 feet in Colorado, another ram appeared.
The author photographed this bighorn at 12,000 feet in an area where grazing is restricted but these sheep don’t stay here all the time. Moving into grazing areas is highly dangerous. This is the same described in the introduction standing over a mineral lick (Photo by Chester Moore)
Popping its head up over what looked like a sheer cliff from our angle, the younger ram carefully made it’s away toward the lick, cautiously approaching the older and larger animal.
I thanked God for the moment because I knew it was He that put me and Lisa on this path.
Six months earlier the Holy Spirit whispered the words “Higher Calling” into my spirit and put me on a trajectory that led me on a path of deeper purpose and of elevated expectations.
As COVID-19 continues to shake the world and people debate everything from wearing masks to rioting, there is no doubt times are confusing.
In his letter to the church in Phillip, the Apostle Paul wrote, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
And that’s what seeing the great animals of the high country reminds me of-God, His Creation and divine purpose.
The author glassing for wild sheep with a new pair of Meopta binoculars near Estes Park, Co. (Photo by Lisa Moore)
There was a reason these rams had a mineral lick in their alpine habitat and they instinctively knew they needed it.
When the universe was flung into Creation, those purposes were built into the Earth and the sheep and here we were witnessing it.
There is something pure about mountain air and special about the creatures that thrive in these environments.
Wild sheep don’t always live in the highest altitudes though. They will move down into valleys and fields to feed. And when they do, they are often in grave danger.
There has been a pandemic of sorts ongoing with wild sheep in North America since the 1800s when domestic sheep entered their landscape. Carrying bacterial pneumonia, they transfer it to their wild cousins and the results have been catastrophic.
From two million wild sheep on the continent when Lewis and Clark set out on their expedition to 25,000 or so in 1900 it was brutal.
Hunter-conservationists and concenred fish and game agencies stepped in and through translocation and careful management have brought numbers up to around 175,000 but the threat still exists. And wild sheep still die when the co-mingle with domestics.
Maybe there’a s lesson here for us.
Co-mingling with those infected can only bring trouble.
The coronavirus is one aspect but I am talking about all of the infection of the hateful, vicious fighting over issues that will only truly be settled when the Lord returns. I am talking about the abandonment of honor for fellow humans.
At 12,000 fee that day there were no political debates, election ads, controversies of social issues or division thereof.
It was just me, my wife, what ended up being three Rocky Mountain bighorn rams and a tangible sense of God’s presence.
If I had not heeded the words “Higher Calling”, we would not have experienced this and many things in my life would be different.
This blog would not even exist.
There is something to this whole “Higher Calling” thing and that is for each of us to discover and I believe those who purpose it in their hearts will do so in 2020.
And I am soon heading back to the mountains to do just that.
Chester Moore
You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email address at the subscribe prompt at the top right of this page. You can contact Chester Moore by emailing chester@chestermoore.com. Subscribe to the podcast by visiting thehighercalling.podbean.com.
