Beards, Bighorns and a Big Change of Perspective

IN OUR FAMILY, the pursuit of wildlife was as natural as breathing. Whether dragging mud minnows for flounders or hunting whitetails in the wilderness growing up, we always focused our energies on wild things.

As I stood at 10,000 feet glassing a ridge for bighorns, both breath and energy were in short supply. Days of hiking and glassing in the high country left this coastal Texan exhausted.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, he appeared.

A beautiful bighorn ram emerged from a steep slope and made its way toward me. Frustration turned to excitement, and suddenly, the air didn’t feel quite so thin.

I raised my camera, focused on the full-curled ram, and pushed the shutter button in this serene setting among snow-covered peaks where I and my wife Lisa celebrated our 20th anniversary in 2019.

A few months later, I had dinner with my friend Thompson Temple and slid him one of the photos .

“I might never get drawn for a bighorn tag, but I sure had fun shooting this big ram with my camera,” I said.

“Chester, you know in the Bible, we learned that David snuck into King Saul’s tent and cut a piece of his robe off while he slept. He could’ve killed Saul, but he still got a victory,” Temple said.

“When you do all of that work, and you get within photo range, pushing the shutter on your camera is just like squeezing the trigger of your rifle. You made your shot.”

At that moment, something clicked. I had always dreamed of pursuing sheep, involving drawing a tag and going on an epic hunt. However, going full bore after sheep with my camera would have another powerful benefit—conservation.

My career as a wildlife journalist affords me a voice here in Texas Fish & Game and on many media platforms. That could be beneficial for sheep and other wildlife.

The final puzzle piece fell into place after I found a box of old scrapbooks at my mother’s house.

When I was a kid, used copies of Sports Afield, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, and other outdoor publications were a nickel apiece at the local thrift store. I would go in and buy them out.

Then Dad and I would sit together and make scrapbooks of our favorite pictures and dream grand hunts together.

My Dad passed away from natural causes while deer hunting with me in South Texas in 2014, so this was like getting back part of my favorite hunting partner.

After flipping through the first book, I was blown away by the presence of sheep. There were desert bighorns, Stone sheep, Dall sheep, Rocky Mountain bighorns, and even urials There were more sheep than any other animal.

Then, there were turkeys. Lots of them. There were shots of hunters with big-bearded gobblers, strutting gobblers, flying turkeys and even a shot of a hen with poults.

I have always used photo-journalism as an awareness-raising mechanism, but this revelation gave me new purpose and created two projects.

The first is “Turkey Revolution,” which seeks to raise awareness about wild turkeys, their conservation challenges and their habitat.

In year one, my goal was to photograph the Grand Slam, which I did and reported on here in these pages. Year two was about photographing an Eastern turkey in East Texas, which was super challenging and happened in May 2020 in Newton County near the Sabine River.

Year three was a quest to find Gould’s turkeys in Arizona, and I had the incredible privilege of photographing two massive gobblers in the Sky Islands area in March 2021.

For 2022, the goal is to involve you.

The more people who realize we have Eastern turkeys in Texas, the more light we can shine on the great work done by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and National Wild Turkey Federation-Texas to restore them. Also, the more we discuss the need for quality habitat for turkeys, benefits everything from whitetails to woodpeckers.

So, I have created a new “Eastern Turkey Aware” challenge token. If you have photographed Eastern turkeys in East Texas or Louisiana on a game camera or by traditional photography, email the photos with the county or parish the photo was taken to chester@chestermoore.com.

We will share these photos in posts in our e-newsletter, post them at fishgame.com, and they will go in the Turkey Revolution photo gallery at highercalling.net.

In addition, my Sheep Scrapbook project is ongoing. If you have photographed wild sheep (native American wild sheep—not exotics such as mouflon or aoudad) email them to chester@chestermoore.com. Include the state where you photographed them with as much information as you would like to share. These photos will also be shared through our e-newsletter and in a special gallery at highercalling.net.

Everyone who contributes a photo gets a special challenge token.

The goal is to raise the profile of wild sheep and tell the story about the literal pandemic they have faced for the last 150 years through encountering pathogen passed on from domestic sheep.

I still love to hunt turkeys, and I would probably faint if I drew one of the desert bighorn tags I apply for every year. However, I get as much thrill by capturing photos of these and other animals.

I have little room for taxidermy where I live now, so my walls have but a few animals on them. Instead, they are mainly covered with photos of turkeys, sheep, elk, moose, bears and other animals I “shot” with my Canon camera.

Many things in life are about the perspective we choose in pursuing them. In this case it has increased my love of encountering wildlife.

It’s a blessing to be a part of Texas Fish & Game where conservation-centric ideas like this are embraced by the publisher and engaged by the readers.

I look forward to seeing your Eastern turkey and sheep photos.

 

Email Chester Moore at cmoore@fishgame.com

 

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