SCI Recognizes Top 10 Exhibitors at Appreciation Party

Each year Convention exhibitors help fund many of SCI’s conservation, education and humanitarian programs. Through their participation as exhibitors and the donation of an incredible array of outstanding auction items, SCI has become the leader in worldwide conservation. In recognition of their contributions, SCI honored an elite group of the top ten exhibitors during the annual Exhibitor Appreciation Party Tuesday evening.

President Elect Kevin Anderson expressed SCI’s gratitude to all the exhibitors for their support, particularly in light of the challenging economy, but individually praised the ten exhibitors who have contributed greatly to SCI’s success over the years through their participation in the show and generous donations of product and services.

The top ten were determined using a combination of tenure, booth size and past donations and they included:

#1 – John Rigby & Co.

SCI’s perennially top-ranked exhibitor is the oldest gun maker in the English-speaking world.  Though Rigby now operates in Paso Robles, California, they are the modern incarnation of one of Britain’s most storied gun makers.  Rigby has exhibited with SCI since 1988, and SCI has profited more than $300,000 from the sale of their donations.  In addition, Rigby has donated top-quality firearms to SCI to honor important guests at the SCI Convention.

#2 – Rann Safaris

Jeff Rann, the driving force behind Rann Safaris, has been hunting professionally since 1977. Jeff has conducted safaris in South Africa, Tanzania, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. In 1998, SCI named him its International Professional Hunter of the Year. His many contributions to the club have made him SCI’s Number 2 ranked exhibitor and our evening auctions have featured Jeff’s Okavango Delta hunts for years.

#3 – Beretta USA

One of the world’s oldest corporations, Beretta has been owned by the same family since its inception in 1526. Under the leadership of current owner Ugo Beretta, they have been unflagging supporters of SCI.  Since 1992, Beretta has donated at least 34 firearms to SCI that have a combined retail value of nearly $500,000.

#4 – Swanepoel and Scandrol

A reliable donor of Zambian safaris, Swanepoel and Scandrol’s hunt donations bring some of the best values at SCI’s auctions.  Doug Scandrol and Peter Swanepoel established their company together in Zambia in 1984.  Swanepol and Scandrol’s professionals have guided SCI members to more than 2300 record book animals.  More than 100 of these are currently in the top ten of their species.

#5 – Holland & Holland

H&H is as well-known for their classic cartridges as for the quality of their guns.  Their quality has made them favorites of such hunting luminaries as Samuel Baker and J.A. Hunter. H&H has been a consistent donor to SCI’s auction program since 1983, but their crowning achievement in that department is a grand Millennium Special Royal grade double rifle in .600 Nitro Express that sold for $270,000 in 2000, netting $189,000 for SCI.

#6 – Call of Africa

When Ross Parker and his wife, Kristen, opened their gallery in 1987, they were fortunate enough to represent some of Africa’s most talented artists.  They now feature African and environmentally themed art by artists from around the world.  Call of Africa has exhibited at SCI’s Annual Hunters’ Convention since 1987, and SCI has been able to further mission programs with the $250,000 raised from their donations.

#7 – John Banovich

The work of internationally acclaimed wildlife artist John Banovich can be described as flawless, inimitable, and transcendent and auction sales reflect these sentiments.  An exhibitor since the early 1990’s, over the years his donations have netted proceeds nudging the $400,000 mark.  John’s talent fittingly earned him the nod as the first featured artist for SCIF’s Conservation Artist of the Year program.

#8 – Mayo Oldiri Camp

Although Mayo Oldiri is the only top-ten exhibitor who has not regularly exhibited with SCI since the last century, their Cameroon safaris for bongo and Lord Derby eland have graced SCI’s evening auctions since 2001.  The family-run operation is owned by Antonio Reguerra and offers first-class savannah and forest safaris.  The superb quality of their donations surely accounts for their rapid ascent through the ranks of exhibitors.

#9 – Kobus Moller Studios

Kobus Moller has always been a staunch supporter of Safari Club International. Year after year he has made the long trek from halfway around the globe to exhibit at SCI and donate his original art for our auctions. His paintings have been shown around the world with great success and acceptance in South Africa, Sweden, and the United States. Kobus is also SCI Foundation’s 2010 Conservation Artist of the Year.

#10 – Tanzania Game Tracker Safaris

An exhibitor with SCI since 1983, Tanzania occupies one of the bigger displays on the show floor.  For several years, they have taken SCI auction buyers to some of Tanzania’s premier safari destinations.  Their hunters have entered almost 600 entries in SCI’s Record Book of Trophy Animals.

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Media Alert: SCI Hunters’ Convention Opening



***Media Alert***

Safari Club International Annual Convention Opening Ceremony.

A kick-off event is planned for Safari Club International’s Annual Hunters’ Convention in Reno on Wednesday at 9:45 a.m. National and local dignitaries will join SCI for the official opening of the convention to attendees and media.  All media must be credentialed.

WHAT:

Kick-off the 2010 Safari Club International Annual Hunters’ Convention as the show floor officially opens to attendees and members of the media.  All media must be credentialed.

WHO:

SCI President Larry Rudolph & other key SCI leadership

Governor Haley Barbour, Mississippi

Ellie Oppenheim, President & CEO, RSCVA

Mayor Robert Cashell, Reno, NV

WHEN:

Wednesday, January 20th

9:45 a.m.

WHERE:

Entrance to Hall 3, Reno-Sparks Convention Center

4590 S. Virginia St., Reno, Nevada

Contact:

Erica Fitzsimmons, efitzsimmons@theheraldgroup.com, 202-441-8740

Jill Stockton, jstockton@RSCVA.com, 775-827-7654

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Safari Club International is the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and promoting wildlife conservation worldwide. SCI effectively represents hunters’ interests in legislative bodies at every level, the legal arena and international diplomatic forums. Safari Club International Foundation funds programs worldwide in wildlife conservation, outdoor education and humanitarian services. For more information visit www.scifirstforhunters.org or call (888) HUNT-SCI.

Asian Conservation Projects Reported by SCIF

The Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF) issued a report during the SCI Convention on its conservation, education, and humanitarian projects around the world. Among the highlights were Asian projects benefiting the snow leopard, saiga antelope, and argali sheep.

Snow Leopard

The SCIF snow leopard project was initiated to estimate snow leopard abundance, population age structure, recruitment, survival and causes of mortality, home range and movement patterns, food availability and other variables in the Altay-Kayan-Sayan region of Siberia. Now in the third year of the project, the Russian Academy of Science has partnered with the project and is up-scaling the research effort. New information will be collected from ARGOS satellite collars that will be put on captured snow leopards. The project will also
produce an environmental assessment for snow leopard habitat quality to determine whether management of natural resources or game species is necessary to improve snow leopard habitat.

Argali Sheep

SCIF completed its scientific review of argali sheep, testing DNA and using morphometrics (body size measurements) to properly classify species of sheep and to validate the extent and composition of surveyed sheep subpopulations. The taxonomic status of many sheep populations in central Asia was unclear and controversial, and this research has provided a clear way to classify different sheep species. As it turns out, the most useful body measurements taken to differentiate between species are of the lacrimal pit depth, the direction of horn twisting, and the presence of the first premolar.

Efforts continue to work with central Asian countries on issues related to argali sheep management, including hunting. We have confirmation from the Tajikistan government that they will endorse SCIF’s argali survey efforts and SCIF will be finalizing research plans in the next few months. This success is largely due to Safari Club’s Washington, DC staff developing a working relationship with the Embassy of the Republic of Tajikistan in Washington, DC.

SCIF recently partnered with Grand Slam Club/Ovis to support a survey of argali in Mongolia by researcher Mike Frisina of Montana. Field work has been completed and a report is being prepared.

Saiga Antelope

SCIF concluded its support of the saiga antelope project. For many years, poachers and the commercial sale of saiga horn were blamed for the regional decline of the species. The decline is one of the most dramatic in all land mammals. Results from habitat studies now show that poaching was only a small part of an ecosystem problem.

Changes in saiga habitat are now thought to be the leading cause in the decline. Nutritionally poor plant species such as needle grass and feather grass have replaced the plant species saiga rely on for food. These species now comprise 70-90% of the above ground plant biomass in saiga habitat. The sudden shift in plant species, large-scale fires in the grassland steppe, and dry summers have deprived saiga of adequate forage. In addition to this stress, high poaching levels dramatically reduced the number of mature males in the population. These factors compounded, among others, and the saiga population crashed.

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SCIF Conservation Report Highlights African Projects

Safari Club International Foundation, which funds and manages wildlife conservation projects, outdoor education, and humanitarian services worldwide, reported on its projects in Africa during the SCI Convention in Reno. Among the highlights of the report:

Rhinoceros

SCIF is working to connect hunting with conservation and enhancement of black rhinoceros. Namibia has the most progressive black rhino management program in Africa and has the CITES-approved ability to auction 5 (five) black rhino hunts as part of their management program. In 2009, an American hunter took one of these hunts, thus creating a need for the USFWS to approve the importation of the first black rhino trophy into the United States in decades. This issue is significant because the black rhinoceros is listed as Endangered on the Endangered Species Act, and thus would require the hunter to demonstrate that the harvest of the animal enhanced the species.

SCIF assisted the Government of Namibia to provide critical information about their rhinoceros management program to the USFWS to show how the hunting of a single rhinoceros can enhance the black rhinoceros population. SCI and SCIF submitted official comments to the USFWS in support of importing the black rhinoceros. Also, SCIF’s DC staff worked to garner support from twenty-six like-minded organizations on the request to import the black rhinoceros hunting trophy. If the importation is approved, it will be the first recognition by the USFWS that the taking of an animal can enhance a species. This issue demonstrates how the use of a natural resource promotes the betterment and sustainability of that resource. Many other species will benefit from success in this issue.

African Lion

As researchers completed a SCIF-funded population survey and review of national lion status in Mozambique, plans were already underway to conduct a similar project in Tanzania. Efforts to attract conservation partners to the project were successful, and funding was obtained for the entire project as the result of generous contributions from SCIF, Tanzania Game Tracker Safaris, Gerald and Eric Pasinisi of Tanganyika Wildlife Safaris, and the SCI NC Triangle Chapter.

While the SCIF Tanzania Lion Project continues, SCIF is working to help Mozambique complete the remaining step, which is to finalize a national lion management plan. SCIF sponsored and participated in Mozambique’s national lion workshop which intended to produce the plan and will sponsor Tanzania’s workshop when they are ready to develop their plan.

AWCF

The 8th annual African Wildlife Consultative Forum (AWCF) was attended by fourteen countries including the USFWS, six NGOs, and nine professional hunting associations to focus on African lion, leopard, and CITES issues. Since the meeting was held in November, after the submission deadline for listing proposals, all proposals being considered for action at the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP15) to CITES in March were available and discussed.

Significant at the meeting were CITES proposals on elephants and rhinoceros. Tanzania and Zambia are trying to downlist elephants from CITES Appendix I to Appendix II, and Kenya, Ghana, Congo and others are proposing to ban all trade in elephant ivory for the next 20 years. Kenya is also proposing stricter rhinoceros enforcement measures. Also significant at the AWCF meeting were range state presentations on the management of leopards, another cat species that has attracted the attention of conservation groups. Progress reports were given on all work regarding the African lion. It appears that SCIF’s continued population surveys and efforts on lion conservation and management plans have paid off; no CITES listing proposals concerning the African lion were submitted.

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