Conservation

Where Hunting Happens, Conservation Happens™

Trophy Points

By David G. Hewitt, B&C Club Professional Member The rut can be a particularly exciting time to be afield. Bucks and bulls have one thing on their mind. The intense focus on breeding dramatically changes their behavior. Bachelor groups break up, feeding becomes a distraction, and being...
By Valerius Geist, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, The University of Calgary; Boone and Crockett Club Professional Member "Managing with the rifle", a conception which arose in Europe at the turn of the 20th century, contained the notion that the culling of the "unfit" was a genetic...
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Theodore Roosevelt was a hunter and a naturalist. Knowledge gained from his time afield fueled TR’s zeal for conservation and elevated his appreciation for nature. One of the missions of the Boone and Crockett Club is to disseminate knowledge to ensure that many are passionate about wildlife conservation. Click for more information about current research being conducted by B&C Professional Members.
By David Hewitt, B&C Professional Member Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a malady of the deer family. This disease is caused by a natural protein in the deer’s body called a prion. Prion proteins can misfold, giving the protein a different conformation that makes it resistant to being broken...
By Steve Côté In most instances, a confrontation between a white-tailed deer and a black bear would be decided in favor of the bear. Dr. Steve Côté , a scientist with the Université Laval in Quebec, has indentified a situation which defies this conventional wisdom. Dr. Côté and his colleagues have...
B&C elk
By David Hewitt, B&C Professional Member The distribution of elk in North America is primarily in mountains, northern parklands, prairies, and high deserts where winter can be severe. Deep snows, poor quality forage, and cold temperatures can be a hardship for elk, especially when elk are...
B&C elk
By Kevin L. Monteith (B&C Official Measurer), Jonathan A. Jenks (Distinguished Professor, South Dakota State University), R. Terry Bowyer (B&C Professional Member) Although only one subspecies of white-tailed deer ( O. v. dacotensis ) inhabits South Dakota, deer occupying the Black Hills of...
By Vernon C. Bleich Steep, rocky terrain is widely recognized as an important component of bighorn sheep habitat. Visual openness, however, also is important because it enhances the probability that bighorn sheep can detect and evade predators. In southern California, some populations of bighorn...
By Emily Latch – Purdue University and now at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Gene Rhodes – Purdue University Jim Heffelfinger – Arizona Game and Fish Department and Boone and Crockett Professional Member Rocky Mountain mule deer by David Hewitt Throughout the geographic range of mule deer and...
By David Hewitt - Boone and Crockett Club Professional Member Trophy animals represent many things. For hunters who harvest an exceptional animal, trophies are the culmination of planning, dedication, and hard work. A trophy is a reminder of all the experiences enjoyed, and sometimes tolerated,...
By David Hewitt, Boone and Crockett Club Professional Member It is an axiom that management for trophy deer, sheep, and goats requires management for older males because antler and horn size increase with age. For example, antlers continue to increase in size each year until white-tailed deer bucks...
Kelley M. Stewart, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada Reno R. Terry Bowyer,Professional Member Boone and Crockett Club Big game animals have more complex interactions with their environments than many of us realize and large mammals, such as elk, have far reaching effects on ecosystems. Both...
By Stephen Webb (Biostatistics Specialist, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation) and Ken Gee (Wildlife Research Specialist, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation) White-tailed deer bucks seek receptive does during the rut but their strategies are only now becoming clear as a result of new technology...
Aaron Foley - Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville Randy DeYoung - Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville From a tree-stand, a hunter observes a 10-point, 130-inch Boone and Crockett score white-tailed deer walking...
Implications for Reintroduction and Conservation By Jericho C. Whiting (Senior Wildlife Biologist, Gonzales-Stoller Surveillance) and R. Terry Bowyer (Professional Member, Boone and Crockett Club) Populations of bighorn sheep, which once numbered in the thousands, have declined markedly since the...
By Carl D. Mitchell (Wildlife Biologist, retired) and R. Terry Bowyer (Professional Member, Boone and Crockett Club) Managing game populations subject to predation has long been a topic of research, discussion, and dissension. Predation and predator-prey relationships are complex ecological...
David Hewitt, Boone and Crockett Club Professional Member Eric Rominger, Boone and Crockett Club Professional Member Big game species in North America have fascinating survival strategies and few are more interesting than the mountain caribou of the Pacific Northwest. Mountain caribou live in a...

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"The wildlife and its habitat cannot speak. So we must and we will."

-Theodore Roosevelt