Posts Tagged ‘Articles’
Congratulations to AAE’s very own Craig Ellwanger on his article recently published in the latest volume of The Journal of the Texas Trophy Hunters magazine! In the 3-page featured article, Craig recounts his weekend at the Diamond TF Hunting Ranch in Sonora last fall when he harvested his first axis deer with a bow and biggest axis to date. The story actually making the magazine came as a bit of a surprise to its writer.
“It has long been a goal of mine to have one of my stories featured…ever since I picked up my first TTHA magazine as a teenager”, Craig says. “I was actually pretty shocked that my story was in there. I sent in the story almost 8 months ago and just assumed it hit the ‘no thanks’ pile with the others. I mention in the story that harvesting a trophy axis with a bow was a thrilling feeling, but this has to be up there as well.”
You can find “Coming Up Aces with Axis” on page 148 of the Sept/Oct edition of “The Journal”. If you do not subscribe to The Journal of the Texas Trophy Hunters or have access to a copy, you can read the original full story here:
“Coming Up Aces with Axis”
by Craig Ellwanger, AAE
There are hundreds and hundreds of hunting stories where everything just seems to come together perfectly (just watch the last 10 minutes of most hunting shows). The perfect stand, the perfect wind, the perfect time of year, and then the perfect deer walks out…BOOM. Story’s over. Yet, for most of us, events seldom transpire this way.
Hours, days, and even seasons worth of seemingly “perfect” set-ups may go by without the epic crescendo of a successful harvest. Our hunt in Sonora, Texas on the Diamond TF Ranch this past weekend was one of the best few days of my short bowhunting career, but it definitely did not start out nor appear as though it was headed that way. [To read the entire article, click here]
AAE: This story gave us quite a kick. This is a recent story from several Minnesota newspapers about a hunter’s run-in with an axis deer that apparently escaped from a game farm or preserve. They seem to be describing an alien encounter rather than an exotic deer…Enjoy! (Note: the man pictured below is not the hunter in the story, but a cool dude none-the-less!)
“Northwestern Minnesota hunter shoots exotic axis deer that escaped from game farm” – The Bemidji Pioneer - November 10, 2009
A deer hunter in northwestern Minnesota shot what turned out to be an axis deer Sunday.
An exotic species, axis deer are native to India.
Stuart Bensen, conservation officer for the Department of Natural Resources in Erskine, said he received a call Sunday afternoon from a hunter who’d shot the deer. The animal was a spike buck, Bensen said, and was about 60 percent white with areas of brown down the middle and spots along its sides.
“The buck had 6- to 7-inch spikes but they didn’t go straight up,” Bensen said. “They kind of went out at a 40-degree angle. It was kind of spooky looking, actually.”
According to Bensen, the hunter said he was walking through… (more…)
With a membership of 3700, the Exotic Wildlife Association (EWA), headquartered in Ingram, Texas, is dedicated to preserving animal-owner rights and conservation. One of the many ways the EWA is putting “mission” to practice is in the form of repatriation, or reintroduction, of several exotics back to Africa. Working hand-in-hand with the Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF), the EWA has mobilized efforts to expand the Ferlo National Park in Senegal.
This protected park is a refuge for scimitar-horned oryx, dama gazelle, and dorcas gazelle as well as other African species; many of which have gone extinct in the wild. Beyond protection, these reserves also serve as gentic reserviors for future reintroduction projects. Recent efforts by the EWA and donations of fencing and tools by the Stay-Tuff Company and Uvalco Supply have helped add 4 km of fencing to the Ferlo reserve, increasing its area of protection by 50%. Another 3 km of fencing is also headed to Niger to help expand an ostrich preserve there.
To read the entire October 2009 article from the Sandscript publication follow this link; to learn more about the EWA, visit www.exoticwildlifeassociation.com
Exotics have exploded onto the scene in Texas. Since their introduction to South Texas in the 1930s, non-native species have grown from a mere 13,000 in the 1960s (est. by The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department) to population estimates that range from 275,000 to well over 1 million.
…there could be over a million free-ranging exotics in the Hill Country alone.
Much of their success in this state has come from a growing hunting industry, high reproductive rates, and an innate ability to adapt. The YO Ranch, founded as a cattle ranch in 1880, persists today because of the revenues generated from exotic hunting.
“We can’t make enough on cattle to survive anymore”, says Eric White, hunting manager for the YO. “If not for exotics, this ranch would not be in existence today.”
Ranches and landowners are finding exotic hunting a viable option to cattle production and a way to profit year-round where they are limited to 4 to 5 months a year for whitetail hunting.
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Congratulations to AAE’s very own Craig Ellwanger on his article recently published in the latest volume of The Journal of the Texas Trophy Hunters magazine! In the 3-page featured article, Craig recounts his weekend at the Diamond TF Hunting Ranch in Sonora last fall when he harvested his first axis deer with a bow and biggest axis to date. The story actually making the magazine came as a bit of a surprise to its writer.
