Hard Truths of Conservation (2022) s01e06 Episode Script
Episode 6
1
(slow music)
- The exotic game trade has
existed in the United States
for quite some time.
Texas particularly, is a
stronghold for this industry.
(birds chirping)
I'm gonna take a closer look
at this thriving industry
and its impact on
wildlife conservation.
(dramatic music)
Hunting has become a
controversial practice
in modern times.
My name is Dan Cabela
and I'm traveling the globe
to explore the true impact
that hunting is having on our
remaining wild landscapes.
(slow music)
This practice goes as far back
as human history can remember
but does it have a place
in modern conservation?
(dramatic music)
(seat creaking)
(engine rumbling)
The exotic trade
began decades ago.
The origins of the
exotic industry,
especially in Texas,
was fueled by surplus animals
that came out of public zoos.
(birds squawking)
(auctioneer rambling)
And if you look at today,
there is a very robust business
aspect to the game trading,
and specifically some of
the more endangered stuff
like the dama gazelles,
(slow music)
king and mountain bongo,
the addax.
A lot of these
animals rarely occur
in their native
lands at this point.
There are far higher
numbers in Texas
than there are in Africa.
I'm heading to Mason Mountain
Wildlife Management Area
to learn more
about what it takes
to manage exotic
game on U.S. soil.
(birds chirping)
And this is a state-owned area
that was donated
quite a few years back
that actually has exotics
and native game on it.
Morning.
- Good morning, Mr.
Nice to meet you.
Welcome to the area.
- Morning. Nice meet you, sir.
- Glad to meet you, sir.
- At least we picked a
beautiful day to do this on.
- Oh, absolutely.
Come on in.
Spring, this is it.
- This is the area.
It's 5,300 acres
and it was acquired as
a donation from a guy
who was concerned
about conservation.
He bought this place in the '80s
and he set this up as
a breeding facility
for exotic wildlife,
mainly African stuff,
but it did have some
Asian stuff on it also.
But at the time it
was pretty unique
in that our commission said
we had to earn operation and
maintenance off the property.
We, here, started looking at,
hey we've got exotics on the
place 'cause we inherited them.
There's a need
to know how to manage
these things to some extent
and do less amount of damage,
you might say, to
the native wildlife.
(uplifting music)
- We're a piece of
the puzzle out there
in a very fragmented landscape.
And our role is to teach.
That approach has always
been based on plants,
carrying capacity, and
management of land health.
It's based on two
powerful principles,
prescribed fire which
we conduct a lot of,
as well as teaching land
owners about animal impacts,
including exotics here.
- So, we wanna go on the field?
- [Dan] In an increasingly
fragmented landscape
with competing
interest for land use
actively managing land with
tools like fire, amongst others,
is crucial to maintain
functional ecosystems.
(uplifting music)
(gravel crunching)
- Every piece of ground
in Texas has been touched.
We can't put the
original ecosystem back
'cause we can't bring
a million buffalo
through this country.
- [Dan] That's right.
- So what you do is you
take a piece of property
and you try to manage
it the best you can
for all the native stuff
that are still here.
- [Dan] By having
wildlife on land,
either exotics or
native species,
it is still possible to maintain
functional natural habitats
around human development.
- All those plants are
contributing to structure
as well as providing
food at the same time.
And we're utilizing a grazing
impact in these grass systems
to open up space and allow
forbs or weeds to grow.
- By picking a species
such as scimitar,
they're not
attacking the browse.
They're not competing
for whitetail
for those browse and forbs.
What they're after
is more of the grass
that you see back here.
(uplifting music)
- We manage these
systems with fire.
Our goals here are obviously
not to over-utilize
but understanding that this
land needs animal impact.
(upbeat music)
- This is an area that's
burned in the wintertime
or cool season every other year.
And then this is an
area across the road
that is burnt,
typically, cool season
but hasn't been burning in
about four or five years.
(upbeat music continues)
- Well, I appreciate it guys.
I learned a lot today
and I appreciate you
guys taking us around
and showing us a different
way of doing this.
- Great coming out.
Glad to show you.
- Exotic game is primarily
in the private hands
of ranchers in
Texas at this point.
The buying and selling
of these exotics
has become a very
profitable business.
My next stop is one of the
largest game breeders in Texas,
to learn more about
how the business works
and the industry as a whole.
(slow music)
Hey, Brian
- Hey, Dan. Good
morning. How are you?
- Morning. Good to see you.
- Yeah, likewise.
Nice to see you.
(slow music)
In a nutshell, what we're doing
is we're creating
the full circle.
We provide the animals initially
to the people that
wanna buy them.
We offer consulting services
and then we offer
them the way out
when they need to
generate income.
(slow music continues)
In 1963, we found an
article that talked about
there were 13 species
in Texas at the time.
In 2010, it's estimated that
there's 125 non-native species
that are living on
ranches in Texas.
When you start taking
into consideration
the amount of land that's
being used for wildlife habitat
here in the state
versus growing cotton,
or pecans, or whatever.
South Africa, they
converted 50 million acres
of marginal farmland into
native habitat for wildlife.
And the very same thing
is happening here
in Texas right now.
I think if you get a chance to
see what we're actually doing
on one of the ranches
versus just sitting here in
an office looking at numbers,
I think it'll kind of
bring this full circle.
- I said, we go down
there, we take a look
and I'm very excited to see
what you guys are doing.
- Brian and I head out
in search of a herd
of Kenyan mountain bongo
that they will be capturing
some individuals from.
The business model behind
the exotic game trade
is essentially the breeding
of these exotic herds
and the trading and
selling of them.
(vehicle humming)
Because it's privately owned,
this is what stimulates
the industry,
the commerce behind it, the
trading, and the selling,
and the demand, and the supply.
And so you've got very
specialized ranchers
who manage these populations.
(vehicle rumbling)
- So we're just
gonna circle back
and go back towards those bongo.
I figured we'd come
up here real quick
and there's some springbok
out there on the hill.
There's a group of
wildebeest over there.
(uplifting music)
Tad, can you get in with us
and start from here?
- [Tad] Absolutely. Yes, sir.
- [Dan] On our way, we
pick up Tad Honeycutt,
who is the capture team
manager at Wildlife Partners.
- [Brian] All good?
- Yes, sir.
(uplifting music)
(gun popping)
(slow music)
- What's neat about this drug
is once it starts taking effect,
the animals come to noise.
The animal usually gets clinical
between five and seven minutes.
(vehicle humming)
- They're Kenyan mountain bongo,
which are critically endangered.
The numbers that
remain in the wild,
it's not exactly certain,
but it's probably
somewhere around 100.
I estimate that here
in the United States
there's somewhere between
600 and 1,000 bongo.
(slow music)
(squeaking)
(slow music continues)
(squeaking continues)
(slow music continues)
- [Tad] All right.
- As I said earlier, these
are Kenyan mountain bongo,
(slow music continues)
Once we get it caught, we
put the blindfold on it
just to protect its eyes and
to reduce the stress load.
So, these are incredibly
beautiful animals.
They're extraordinarily rare.
And here in Texas, they
have tremendous value
which is the reason
why we breed them,
and take care of them, and
allocate space to them,
and do all these
things to make sure
that they're well taken care of.
This one animal generates
about $100,000 worth of
revenue for this ranch,
which goes a long ways
when you've take
into consideration
there's about 1,500 animals here
that we've gotta look after,
and provide veterinary
care for, and feed.
If it were not for
the economic value,
there's just no way
we could do this
on the scale that
we're doing it now.
- [Tad] 1, 2, 3.
(bongo grunting)
- The buying and
selling of these exotics
has become a very
profitable business.
The demand is high
because they're rare
and there's not a
surplus of inventory.
Some people are just hobbyists
who do it for the
conservation aspect.
Others do it for profit.
And I also think, just
the aesthetic value
of seeing gazelles and
different antelope on a property
versus cattle, or
sheep, or goats
is appealing to a lot of folks.
(slow music)
(gun popping)
(slow music continues)
A total of two bongo
calves are being captured
and relocated to a new property
as part of a study to learn
more about the species.
(uplifting music)
- Just give her little
more time, she'll be fine.
(uplifting music continues)
All right, she's down.
(slow music)
Check the sex.
(slow music)
(slow music becoming
uplifting music)
All right, same thing.
We've got second
girl here, loaded.
She's fixing to
go to the trailer
and they're giving
all of her vaccines
and all that good
stuff right now.
So, it's going good.
(uplifting music continues)
- The animals on this
ranch pay for this ranch.
This ranch doesn't
cost me anything.
These animals that live
here generate enough revenue
that they cover the overhead,
they cover the feed,
the people, everything,
and they cover the mortgage
(slow music)
- The trading species like
the Kenyan mountain bongo
that are on the
brink of extinction
in their natural habitats
has directly led to
preserving viable populations
of these highly endangered
species in Texas.
When you look at it from
an economic standpoint,
if these animals in
their native range
had the value that
they do in Texas,
you'd probably have
a little more stable
environments for them.
- When you look at South Africa
and what occurred
between the early 1800s
all the way through
the early 1990s,
you had this
decimation of wildlife
in large part due to farming,
agriculture, and livestock.
And then in 1991,
privatization occurred
with the Game Theft Act
and it gave
landowners the ability
to extract value from wildlife.
(slow twangy music)
- The business model behind
the exotic game trade
has evolved over time.
And recently, auctions
have become very lucrative
to the exotic game trade.
(slow twangy music)
- Hey, Will.
- Hey, Dan.
- Good to see you, buddy.
- Good to see you, man.
- [Dan] Tell us a little
bit about, you know,
the kind of people that
are selling animals here.
What kind of ranch?
- So this is a 'by
invitation only' auction.
We basically decided we
were gonna do something
that was more along the lines
of the things we'd seen in
other parts of the world.
And so we started
during 2005, 2004.
We averaged $8,500 a sable cow,
across all the sable
cows we acquired.
And I mean, tomorrow, you'll
see me sell some for $80,000.
I mean, that's a huge
amount in 15 years.
Some of that's about
breeding for quality
and some of that's just demand.
It's been great.
You know, it helps the
value of the animals.
Those ranchers are
propagating the species
and that's always
been the goal, right?
I mean, it's about conservation
and preservation
of these species.
(upbeat dance music)
(people chattering)
(upbeat dance music)
- [Guest] Well, Mimi
is interested in
this one right here.
(auctioneer rambling)
- 95!
- Boys, y'all pay
attention. 100,000.
$100,000. Who's
the (indistinct).
Somebody give 100,000.
- The best role that
game trading plays
for the conservation
of these species
is the propagating
of these species.
As these herds grow of
these endangered animals,
even though they're not in
their native environment,
there's more of
them on the planet.
Over time,
if things become stable in
their native environment
reintroductions
could be possible.
We own exotics in
Texas, ourselves.
(upbeat music)
I find it to be very meaningful
to have these herds
on our properties.
We've always had
a love of wildlife
and have traveled to
Africa numerous times.
(upbeat music continues)
Today is a special day,
as our herd will be growing
with some new arrivals.
We are about to unload two roan,
a female and a male, young ones,
and three young female addax.
(uplifting music)
(door creaking)
Okay big guy, let's go.
(hooves clanking on metal)
(hooves clomping)
(uplifting music)
Just offloaded a young male
and a young female roan.
Got off the trailer looking
in excellent condition.
So things are good, and
they'll join the others now,
and we'll get this herd started.
(uplifting music continues)
I personally participate
in the industry
and own these exotic animals
because I enjoy watching
these herds grow.
(uplifting music continues)
The exotic trade
industry certainly has
conservation value.
As these species decline
in their native areas
they're growing in
the state of Texas.
So it's insurance that
maybe later down the road
a reintroduction
could take place
if these environments
become stable.
As the exotic industry
pushes forward
one can only hope that
the further expansion
of these endangered
species is better realized.
(uplifting music)
(slow music)
(slow music)
- The exotic game trade has
existed in the United States
for quite some time.
Texas particularly, is a
stronghold for this industry.
(birds chirping)
I'm gonna take a closer look
at this thriving industry
and its impact on
wildlife conservation.
(dramatic music)
Hunting has become a
controversial practice
in modern times.
My name is Dan Cabela
and I'm traveling the globe
to explore the true impact
that hunting is having on our
remaining wild landscapes.
(slow music)
This practice goes as far back
as human history can remember
but does it have a place
in modern conservation?
(dramatic music)
(seat creaking)
(engine rumbling)
The exotic trade
began decades ago.
The origins of the
exotic industry,
especially in Texas,
was fueled by surplus animals
that came out of public zoos.
(birds squawking)
(auctioneer rambling)
And if you look at today,
there is a very robust business
aspect to the game trading,
and specifically some of
the more endangered stuff
like the dama gazelles,
(slow music)
king and mountain bongo,
the addax.
A lot of these
animals rarely occur
in their native
lands at this point.
There are far higher
numbers in Texas
than there are in Africa.
I'm heading to Mason Mountain
Wildlife Management Area
to learn more
about what it takes
to manage exotic
game on U.S. soil.
(birds chirping)
And this is a state-owned area
that was donated
quite a few years back
that actually has exotics
and native game on it.
Morning.
- Good morning, Mr.
Nice to meet you.
Welcome to the area.
- Morning. Nice meet you, sir.
- Glad to meet you, sir.
- At least we picked a
beautiful day to do this on.
- Oh, absolutely.
Come on in.
Spring, this is it.
- This is the area.
It's 5,300 acres
and it was acquired as
a donation from a guy
who was concerned
about conservation.
He bought this place in the '80s
and he set this up as
a breeding facility
for exotic wildlife,
mainly African stuff,
but it did have some
Asian stuff on it also.
But at the time it
was pretty unique
in that our commission said
we had to earn operation and
maintenance off the property.
We, here, started looking at,
hey we've got exotics on the
place 'cause we inherited them.
There's a need
to know how to manage
these things to some extent
and do less amount of damage,
you might say, to
the native wildlife.
(uplifting music)
- We're a piece of
the puzzle out there
in a very fragmented landscape.
And our role is to teach.
That approach has always
been based on plants,
carrying capacity, and
management of land health.
It's based on two
powerful principles,
prescribed fire which
we conduct a lot of,
as well as teaching land
owners about animal impacts,
including exotics here.
- So, we wanna go on the field?
- [Dan] In an increasingly
fragmented landscape
with competing
interest for land use
actively managing land with
tools like fire, amongst others,
is crucial to maintain
functional ecosystems.
(uplifting music)
(gravel crunching)
- Every piece of ground
in Texas has been touched.
We can't put the
original ecosystem back
'cause we can't bring
a million buffalo
through this country.
- [Dan] That's right.
- So what you do is you
take a piece of property
and you try to manage
it the best you can
for all the native stuff
that are still here.
- [Dan] By having
wildlife on land,
either exotics or
native species,
it is still possible to maintain
functional natural habitats
around human development.
- All those plants are
contributing to structure
as well as providing
food at the same time.
And we're utilizing a grazing
impact in these grass systems
to open up space and allow
forbs or weeds to grow.
- By picking a species
such as scimitar,
they're not
attacking the browse.
They're not competing
for whitetail
for those browse and forbs.
What they're after
is more of the grass
that you see back here.
(uplifting music)
- We manage these
systems with fire.
Our goals here are obviously
not to over-utilize
but understanding that this
land needs animal impact.
(upbeat music)
- This is an area that's
burned in the wintertime
or cool season every other year.
And then this is an
area across the road
that is burnt,
typically, cool season
but hasn't been burning in
about four or five years.
(upbeat music continues)
- Well, I appreciate it guys.
I learned a lot today
and I appreciate you
guys taking us around
and showing us a different
way of doing this.
- Great coming out.
Glad to show you.
- Exotic game is primarily
in the private hands
of ranchers in
Texas at this point.
The buying and selling
of these exotics
has become a very
profitable business.
My next stop is one of the
largest game breeders in Texas,
to learn more about
how the business works
and the industry as a whole.
(slow music)
Hey, Brian
- Hey, Dan. Good
morning. How are you?
- Morning. Good to see you.
- Yeah, likewise.
Nice to see you.
(slow music)
In a nutshell, what we're doing
is we're creating
the full circle.
We provide the animals initially
to the people that
wanna buy them.
We offer consulting services
and then we offer
them the way out
when they need to
generate income.
(slow music continues)
In 1963, we found an
article that talked about
there were 13 species
in Texas at the time.
In 2010, it's estimated that
there's 125 non-native species
that are living on
ranches in Texas.
When you start taking
into consideration
the amount of land that's
being used for wildlife habitat
here in the state
versus growing cotton,
or pecans, or whatever.
South Africa, they
converted 50 million acres
of marginal farmland into
native habitat for wildlife.
And the very same thing
is happening here
in Texas right now.
I think if you get a chance to
see what we're actually doing
on one of the ranches
versus just sitting here in
an office looking at numbers,
I think it'll kind of
bring this full circle.
- I said, we go down
there, we take a look
and I'm very excited to see
what you guys are doing.
- Brian and I head out
in search of a herd
of Kenyan mountain bongo
that they will be capturing
some individuals from.
The business model behind
the exotic game trade
is essentially the breeding
of these exotic herds
and the trading and
selling of them.
(vehicle humming)
Because it's privately owned,
this is what stimulates
the industry,
the commerce behind it, the
trading, and the selling,
and the demand, and the supply.
And so you've got very
specialized ranchers
who manage these populations.
(vehicle rumbling)
- So we're just
gonna circle back
and go back towards those bongo.
I figured we'd come
up here real quick
and there's some springbok
out there on the hill.
There's a group of
wildebeest over there.
(uplifting music)
Tad, can you get in with us
and start from here?
- [Tad] Absolutely. Yes, sir.
- [Dan] On our way, we
pick up Tad Honeycutt,
who is the capture team
manager at Wildlife Partners.
- [Brian] All good?
- Yes, sir.
(uplifting music)
(gun popping)
(slow music)
- What's neat about this drug
is once it starts taking effect,
the animals come to noise.
The animal usually gets clinical
between five and seven minutes.
(vehicle humming)
- They're Kenyan mountain bongo,
which are critically endangered.
The numbers that
remain in the wild,
it's not exactly certain,
but it's probably
somewhere around 100.
I estimate that here
in the United States
there's somewhere between
600 and 1,000 bongo.
(slow music)
(squeaking)
(slow music continues)
(squeaking continues)
(slow music continues)
- [Tad] All right.
- As I said earlier, these
are Kenyan mountain bongo,
(slow music continues)
Once we get it caught, we
put the blindfold on it
just to protect its eyes and
to reduce the stress load.
So, these are incredibly
beautiful animals.
They're extraordinarily rare.
And here in Texas, they
have tremendous value
which is the reason
why we breed them,
and take care of them, and
allocate space to them,
and do all these
things to make sure
that they're well taken care of.
This one animal generates
about $100,000 worth of
revenue for this ranch,
which goes a long ways
when you've take
into consideration
there's about 1,500 animals here
that we've gotta look after,
and provide veterinary
care for, and feed.
If it were not for
the economic value,
there's just no way
we could do this
on the scale that
we're doing it now.
- [Tad] 1, 2, 3.
(bongo grunting)
- The buying and
selling of these exotics
has become a very
profitable business.
The demand is high
because they're rare
and there's not a
surplus of inventory.
Some people are just hobbyists
who do it for the
conservation aspect.
Others do it for profit.
And I also think, just
the aesthetic value
of seeing gazelles and
different antelope on a property
versus cattle, or
sheep, or goats
is appealing to a lot of folks.
(slow music)
(gun popping)
(slow music continues)
A total of two bongo
calves are being captured
and relocated to a new property
as part of a study to learn
more about the species.
(uplifting music)
- Just give her little
more time, she'll be fine.
(uplifting music continues)
All right, she's down.
(slow music)
Check the sex.
(slow music)
(slow music becoming
uplifting music)
All right, same thing.
We've got second
girl here, loaded.
She's fixing to
go to the trailer
and they're giving
all of her vaccines
and all that good
stuff right now.
So, it's going good.
(uplifting music continues)
- The animals on this
ranch pay for this ranch.
This ranch doesn't
cost me anything.
These animals that live
here generate enough revenue
that they cover the overhead,
they cover the feed,
the people, everything,
and they cover the mortgage
(slow music)
- The trading species like
the Kenyan mountain bongo
that are on the
brink of extinction
in their natural habitats
has directly led to
preserving viable populations
of these highly endangered
species in Texas.
When you look at it from
an economic standpoint,
if these animals in
their native range
had the value that
they do in Texas,
you'd probably have
a little more stable
environments for them.
- When you look at South Africa
and what occurred
between the early 1800s
all the way through
the early 1990s,
you had this
decimation of wildlife
in large part due to farming,
agriculture, and livestock.
And then in 1991,
privatization occurred
with the Game Theft Act
and it gave
landowners the ability
to extract value from wildlife.
(slow twangy music)
- The business model behind
the exotic game trade
has evolved over time.
And recently, auctions
have become very lucrative
to the exotic game trade.
(slow twangy music)
- Hey, Will.
- Hey, Dan.
- Good to see you, buddy.
- Good to see you, man.
- [Dan] Tell us a little
bit about, you know,
the kind of people that
are selling animals here.
What kind of ranch?
- So this is a 'by
invitation only' auction.
We basically decided we
were gonna do something
that was more along the lines
of the things we'd seen in
other parts of the world.
And so we started
during 2005, 2004.
We averaged $8,500 a sable cow,
across all the sable
cows we acquired.
And I mean, tomorrow, you'll
see me sell some for $80,000.
I mean, that's a huge
amount in 15 years.
Some of that's about
breeding for quality
and some of that's just demand.
It's been great.
You know, it helps the
value of the animals.
Those ranchers are
propagating the species
and that's always
been the goal, right?
I mean, it's about conservation
and preservation
of these species.
(upbeat dance music)
(people chattering)
(upbeat dance music)
- [Guest] Well, Mimi
is interested in
this one right here.
(auctioneer rambling)
- 95!
- Boys, y'all pay
attention. 100,000.
$100,000. Who's
the (indistinct).
Somebody give 100,000.
- The best role that
game trading plays
for the conservation
of these species
is the propagating
of these species.
As these herds grow of
these endangered animals,
even though they're not in
their native environment,
there's more of
them on the planet.
Over time,
if things become stable in
their native environment
reintroductions
could be possible.
We own exotics in
Texas, ourselves.
(upbeat music)
I find it to be very meaningful
to have these herds
on our properties.
We've always had
a love of wildlife
and have traveled to
Africa numerous times.
(upbeat music continues)
Today is a special day,
as our herd will be growing
with some new arrivals.
We are about to unload two roan,
a female and a male, young ones,
and three young female addax.
(uplifting music)
(door creaking)
Okay big guy, let's go.
(hooves clanking on metal)
(hooves clomping)
(uplifting music)
Just offloaded a young male
and a young female roan.
Got off the trailer looking
in excellent condition.
So things are good, and
they'll join the others now,
and we'll get this herd started.
(uplifting music continues)
I personally participate
in the industry
and own these exotic animals
because I enjoy watching
these herds grow.
(uplifting music continues)
The exotic trade
industry certainly has
conservation value.
As these species decline
in their native areas
they're growing in
the state of Texas.
So it's insurance that
maybe later down the road
a reintroduction
could take place
if these environments
become stable.
As the exotic industry
pushes forward
one can only hope that
the further expansion
of these endangered
species is better realized.
(uplifting music)
(slow music)