S5 | E1 BORROWED TIME
S5 | E2 LIVING
S4 | E9 FAILURE
S4 | E6 MR. WHITETAIL
S3 |E4 NY JEAGER
S3 | E6 FIGHTER
S2 | E8 FAMILY
S2 | E3 FIGHTER
S1 | E1 IN THE BLOOD
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Arkansas Black Bear Collaring Project
In partnership with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Blood Origins wants to help monitor a new bear hunting season. With the bear season proposed for the Gulf Coastal Plain (Bear Zones 3 & 4) for the fall of 2022-23 (Bear Zones 3 & 4), the most readily available means to monitor the population and assess growth rates would be to equip adult females with collars across the bear range and monitor reproduction efforts and determine female mortality rates. We need to raise $70,000 for this project to collect data for 3 years. Periodic flights once or twice per month will be conducted to determine active collar status or mortality status for each deployed collar. In order to determine population size and growth rates, you must have fecundity information as well as female mortality information throughout the area. Ideally, a sample size of 20-25 collared bears across the Gulf Coastal Plain would be needed for a good sample size.
This project plans to raise $70,000 for 25 collars to support this project for 3 years. We plan to undertake a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign where you can compete against other teams to be the TOP fundraiser. We have two incredible commitments of match: 1) $15,000 from The Wildlife Education Center at Legends Ranch, and 2) an additional $15,000 from the Cabela Family Foundation. These matches are first come first served basis!
Before Arkansas was known as “The Natural State ” it was informally referred to as “The Bear State ” because we had so many black bears. It is believed that there may have been as many as 50,000 bears pre-settlement. But by the 1930s bear populations were reduced so dramatically from habitat loss and overhunting that there were less than 50 black bears in the state. Between 1958 and 1968 approximately 254 bears from Minnesota and Manitoba were released into the Arkansas Highlands which gave way to the most successful reintroduction of a large carnivore in the world.
One aspect of that management is our bear collar monitoring program that concludes with bear den trips to gather data on the reproduction of our bear population. Annually our biologists use telemetry from the bear collars to locate bear dens during the hibernation period.
If you happen to be one of the top two fundraising teams on this project you will have an opportunity to win a trip of a lifetime to go alongside AGFC biologists inside a black bear den to collect vital conservation data. Who doesn’t want a chance to hold a six-week-old bear cub and etch your name as part of the legacy of the bear state? Come on, get involved, and raise some good funding for wildlife conservation in the State of Arkansas.
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Fighting Fire with Fire
We have no idea why the hunting community hasn’t decided to fight fire with fire. Why don’t we take out ads in newspapers? Take ads out on the radio? Put our own billboards in place? Some will say it’s because more often than not when ads are taken out anywhere they are to drive membership, or to some cause – I guess we can see that. But … why can’t we do it just from the standpoint of saying “LOOK! This is who hunters are!” – a simple campaign to plant positive public relations seeds about hunting. Some may say it won’t work, people won’t sell you the ad space, the billboard space, etc. We call bull. If our message is tied to our heart why would they take offense to that – and let’s be honest, we are PAYING for it. Ad placement is a business and as such we are a client looking to place ads. Some may STILL say it won’t work. Well, that’s something we don’t ascribe to – so we are going to TRY.
Naturally to develop ads, create ads, and buy the advertising space for OUR COMMUNITY’s message takes funds. So this campaign will send all funds raised to that end – development, creation, and placement of ads anywhere in the world that help hunters!!
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Depredation to Conservation
When the Utah Department of Natural Resources called the Arizona Game and Fish Department that they have 100 antelope currently under a depredation permit and would Arizona like to have them?? The answer for the sportsmen and sportswomen of the State of Arizona and the country was a resounding yes. The call happened in early December – so teams had to mobilize in swift fashion and figure out logistics for capture, transport, and release, as well as where the funds were coming from for something like this to happen so quickly. Our friends at AZGFD called us and asked, “Would we be willing to help? Could we bring some resources to bear that could help them?” Our response was “Absolutely”. Through a very generous donation from a private donor as well as a match from Shell we were able to raise funds for the solar GPS collars that will be used to track and collect data on the released antelopes. Simultaneously, the board of Blood Origins unanimously voted on spending operating funds to help capture and tell this story that really showcases what hunting and hunters are doing for wildlife conservation.
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Hunters for the Hungry
Wyoming Wildlife Federation, Stone Glacier and Blood Origins have teamed up to expand Wyoming Wildlife Federation’s existing Hunters for the Hungry program.
Wyoming Wildlife Federation has partnered with hunters, processors and distribution organizations to provide food insecure families in Wyoming with sustainably harvested food sources. On average, counties throughout Wyoming face food insecurity numbers of 10-14% amongst adults and 12-20% amongst children.
Help Us, Help Them!
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The Rhino Project
The most current project, arguably the most dire, is The Rhino Project. A massive drought has plagued the area resulting in a substantial loss of wildlife. Without a healthy amount of precipitation, grasses are lacking vital nutrients needed for survival.
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The Tahr Project
The Himalayan Tahr are an iconic feature of the New Zealand landscape. They are almost extinct in their native range of the Himalayas and New Zealand holds the last bastion where they are thriving. Unfortunately there are plans afoot to reduce densities drastically, including eliminating Tahr in certain areas of New Zealand. Tahr are more than a species that are a valuable economic driver for New Zealand, they are a part of the ecosystem.
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The Sun Project
A Hunter backed community enrichment project impacted by COVID-19. Our Goals, Feeding the kids, Schooling the kids and providing a future.
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Everyone Deserves to Play
The John X Foundation has completed a number projects related to the infrastructure of the buildings, water supply, electricity, school supplies and security at the Carlisle Bridge Country School, and are moving towards the next phase of development. We know it wont be easy under current Covid-19 conditions but we’re up for getting it done. The Foundation has teamed up with Blood Origins and together we will embark on one of the most exciting projects the Foundation has taken on to date.
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Raise Em Outdoors
Raise Em’ Outdoors camps are different. Their mission is dedicated to helping kids from any background, learning about the outdoors and hunting, but it also requires an adult in the house/family to atend the camp too so that those skills perpetuate once they come home from camp. COVID has reduces fundraising to a standstill. This project will fund the running of 5 camps in 2021. Remove the burden of fundraising in 2021 and help jumpstart the program into 2022.
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Lion Heart
Likely the most vilified practice in the hunting industry is the chasing of predators with hounds. It’s the thing that gets the anti-hunter brigade up in arms against what we do and how we do it. It’s likely the combination of predator hunting that has a nuance unto itself given an ancient, deep-seated, tribal connection between alpha predators and humans, and the domestication of the dog to the comfort of our houses and our souls. Those two issues are like oil and water and there is disdain and ethical questions thrown around combining the two. As a result, it’s imperative as hunters to communicate who a Lion Houndsman really is, to communicate the role of the hound in this endeavor, to communicate the heart of the Houndsman for their dogs.
With gracious support from the 100 Hunter Legacy Fund of Safari Club International Foundation, as well as the Weatherby Foundation and several anonymous private donors all of the funding necessary to produce a documentary of this magnitude have been secured. This project is FULLY FUNDED.
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Success Untold
Success Untold is a documentary that seeks to show the success of hunting in South Africa. It’s a documentary of the thing that is unspoken, the thing that goes unseen, but is a constant in the background. It’s an outline of why there is wildlife in South Africa, what does hunting mean to the people that hunting employs. Wildlife conservation, employment, biodiversity enhancement are all successes that are untold as a result of hunting. So we decided to tell a small bit of the story. With grateful thanks to the generosity of Splitting Image Taxidermy who funded this entire project as well as the incredible talent of Slots Media, and the help of Greater Kuduland Safaris and Maarten Safaris we were able to put together a compelling story of hunting in South Africa.
This is Success Untold.
BLOOD ORIGINS PROJECTS
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S5 | E1 BORROWED TIME
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S5 | E2 LIVING
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S4 | E9 FAILURE
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S4 | E6 MR. WHITETAIL
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S3 |E4 NY JEAGER
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S3 | E6 FIGHTER
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S2 | E8 FAMILY
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S2 | E3 FIGHTER
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S1 | E1 IN THE BLOOD
STORIES BY BLOOD ORIGINS
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Success Untold
Success Untold is a documentary that seeks to show the success of hunting in South Africa. It’s a documentary of the thing that is unspoken, the thing that goes unseen, but is a constant in the background. It’s an outline of why there is wildlife in South Africa, what does hunting mean to the people that hunting employs. Wildlife conservation, employment, biodiversity enhancement are all successes that are untold as a result of hunting. So we decided to tell a small bit of the story. With grateful thanks to the generosity of Splitting Image Taxidermy who funded this entire project as well as the incredible talent of Slots Media, and the help of Greater Kuduland Safaris and Maarten Safaris we were able to put together a compelling story of hunting in South Africa.
This is Success Untold.
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Out of Africa
When you drive down the highways of West Texas it will feel like Africa. The road width, the shoulder depth, the vegetation, it even sometimes smells like Africa. The highways are bordered by hundreds of miles of high fence (just like Africa) and yes that may be keeping wildlife from getting on the highways and getting run over but mainly they are there to keep the wildlife, that is privately owned, on their properties.
However, there is an incredible stigma with the idea of a high fence from both the anti-hunting establishment as well as deeply rooted within the hunting community. Concepts of fair chase, ethics, and ease of the kill will all be thrown around in a conversation about “High Fence Hunting”.
Out of Africa sets in motion to challenge those concepts. This is what the vast majority of high fencing looks like, and feels like, and the people behind the scenes operating them. This isn’t your small enclosure-raised animal that is significantly confined, but rather something that will make you question your definition of free range.
Watch it with an open mind, let yourself challenge the status quo, and let yourself challenge your ideas of what high fence hunting is. Have a discussion in the comments section, it’s what’s needed most – which is for people to amicably discuss differing viewpoints – that’s a good thing!
Massive thanks to the West Texas Chapter of SCI for the support to generate this documentary. You can see what West Texas SCI does here: https://sciwesttexas.godaddysites.com/
