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April 14, 2023
LoneOStar Outdoor News
LSONews.com
Half-million for rhino conservation DSC South Texas sets record Lone Star Outdoor News A half-million dollars was raised for one item at the sold-out DSC South Texas gala in San Antonio on April 1. And the winners won’t be taking a rifle or bow. The winning bidder, Ms. Shannon Ralston and the Ralston Family Charitable Foundation, will take part with five Transporting black rhino from areas where poaching is prevalent to Buffalo others spending 10 days Kloof Conservancy in South Africa has proven effective, and DSC South Texas as part of a relocation raised $500,000 for the efforts at its annual gala on April 1. Photo from Blake experience at the Buf- Barnett. falo Kloof Conservancy dianship of a proven producing black rhino in collaboration with East Cape Parks and cow with an opportunity to take part in the the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project. next translocation of black rhino from a Blake Barnett, outdoor television pro- National Park in an area where poaching ducer and a founding member of the chap- has become a heavy threat to Buffalo Kloof. ter committee, said a few years ago he “It is through collaborations like these approached Warne Rippon, owner of the that we can achieve our conservation goals Buffalo Kloof Conservancy in South Africa in protecting this critically endangered with an idea. black rhino,” Rippon, who attended the It was a novel approach to auction a cus- event with his wife, Hannah, said. “In just todianship and experience to, in part, show over three years we have already produced the rest of the world that hunters are con- seven black rhino babies.” servationists who put their money where At the gala with 600 attendees, DSC their mouth is, Barnett said. South Texas, along with the DSC FoundaBuffalo Kloof Conservancy was started in tion, gave the entire half-million back to 1999 with Warne Rippon’s idea to expand Buffalo Kloof to aid in tracking devices for small individually owned farmlands into the rhinos that call the conservancy home. a large reserve with free-ranging animals. It also will go toward land and habitat exNow, the area is home to a healthy popula- pansion for the black rhino and security. tion of white and black rhino, a rehabilita“I had no idea this auction would turn tion journey which began in 2010. into something like this,” Barnett said. The monies raised will establish a custo- “Hunters really walk the walk.”
Toms on the move Continued from page 1
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afternoon, we had some birds working that just wouldn’t commit to our decoys and come into range.” The next morning turned out to be pretty exciting. “I kept hearing some birds gobble in the distance, all morning long, and we were just about to make a move when a hen showed up,” Yates said. “I hit a call, and then all of a sudden two toms came running in. My brother and I counted to three, and then shot at the same time. We doubled up.” Nick Dancsak spent the opening weekend hunting in Lampasas County with his father-in-law. They heard and saw quite a few birds but were unable to bring any within shotgun range. “The toms were in somewhat of a fickle
mood, it seemed,” Dancsak said. “At times they would be pretty vocal, but there were also long stretches of radio silence. They appeared to be pretty henned-up on the property we were hunting.” Turkey hunters in Stonewall County reported large flocks of birds with good numbers of hens and mature gobblers aggressively engaging with decoys without any calling from the hunters. Several hunters reported taking multiple bearded toms. James Meissner had some buddies travel from Tennessee to Wilson County, where they doubled up during a morning hunt, tagging both a triple beard and a quadruple-bearded tom, while Joshua Haese harvested a gobbler with six beards near San Angelo.