Safari Club International Foundation (SCI Foundation) recently awarded the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department a $50,000 grant in support of an ongoing three-year study the department is conducting on the state’s moose herd. The organization awards grants to “projects with strong potential to contribute to the sustainable management of natural resources or the advance of constructive wildlife research.” Read more.

SCI Foundation is proud to team up with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department to uncover previously unknown information about elk habitat usage and movement patterns – information that is starting to help guide elk management decisions for the state wildlife agency.  GPS collar data will be turned into ‘Heat Maps’ to provide important occupancy patterns for elk in the Gunnison Basin that will help guide management decisions for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department. Long distance movements recorded from the GPS collars are already showing how elk move across federal jurisdictional and game management unit boundaries more than initially thought. Local state and federal managers are taking notice of this and starting to plan differently in terms of long term elk conservation.  This study will shed light on how a growing human footprint can destabilize the elk movements, and thus elk hunting opportunities. Read more.

SCI Foundation is partnering with Virginia Tech to collar bears in the spring of 2018 before the peak fawning period to potentially capture a predation spike. This project will continue to monitor the bear population in the area and will present be a unique opportunity to study the entire carnivore guild. Researchers will also be using novel methods to determine whether predator diet samples represent actual predation or scavenging behavior.

The project will correspond with an upcoming Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries study on does and fawns, completing the predator-prey picture. Ultimately, data will used be used by wildlife managers in the department to update white-tailed deer and predator management plans and set hunting regulations. Read more.

In collaboration with Humboldt State University, the Integral Ecology Research Center, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife(CDFW), SCI Foundation will help shed light on bear demographics in northern California.  Researchers intend to determine how black bears from Nevada and Oregon are entering the Warner Mountains inside the Modoc National Forest. Read more.

SCI Foundation has partnered with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MFWP) on its moose population monitoring project. Moose populations in the Rocky Mountain West have experienced declines over the past two decades. In Montana, observed drops in harvest rates are causing concern. The objectives of the study are to evaluate the most cost-effective means to monitor the population, assess population status and trends, and measure the external factors influencing population growth. Read more.

SCI Foundation partnered with the Arizona Department of Fish and Game to restore bighorn sheep in the Santa Catalina Mountains.  Arizona is concurrently monitoring the impact of mountain lions on the reintroduced bighorns to minimize lion impacts on the state’s sheep restoration goals. Read more.

Officially titled, “Estimating Multi-State Bobcat Populations to Inform State Management Decisions throughout the Western U.S.,” funding from SCI Foundation is now being used to organize bobcat data via the Wildlife Ecology Institute’s Western U.S. Bobcat Project conducted by Dr. Tim Hiller. Ultimately the goal of this project is to guide state agencies that plan to continue or begin harvesting bobcats while backing their decisions with hard science. Read more.

SCI Foundation is committed to science-based management of wildlife. Research like the South Rockies Grizzly Project helps to ensure that bears are managed based on science. By continually working together and building partnerships, we are able to contribute to conservation efforts around the world. Read more.

In the mid-1990s, the population of white-tailed deer in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan declined.  Michigan and Mississippi State University Researchers are now estimating the effect of multiple predators on white-tailed deer fawn survival, while including information on how survival is influenced by winter conditions. Read more.

The Wild Harvest Initiative is the first attempt to systematically quantify wild protein harvest on such a large scale and seeks to change the narrative surrounding the importance of modern hunting and fishing. Wild protein harvest is one of the most healthy and ecologically sustainable methods of food procurement, and is an integral part our diet, culture and economy.

This initiative brings together a powerful group of sustainable use supporters. Conservation Visions Inc. is a private conservation organization focused on building boarder coalitions in support of biodiversity and sustainable use. Read more.

In an effort to understand the dynamics of the ongoing black bear recovery, SCIF and our partners are studying bear habitat use and survival, and obtaining accurate population estimates in order to help the Missouri Department of Conservation develop a black bear management plan.  Black bears are doing well in Missouri, and we expect that in the near future a limited hunting season will return for Missouri bears for the first time in nearly a century. Read more.

The Ya Ha Tinda Elk Project is one of the longest-running studies on elk in an intact ecosystem under wolf and grizzly bear predation in North America. This research will continue to improve understanding of the factors affecting calf recruitment and migratory behavior in the YHT elk population and allow for more effective wildlife management. Read more.

SCI Foundation is proud to be a part of this multi-year study by lending support to the Wyoming Migration Initiative (WMI). This project began in 2011 and was intended to examine movements and habitat use in a non-migratory population of mule deer in western Wyoming. What was discovered shocked researchers, as the collared deer were tracked up to 150 miles away from their home range. This officially makes the yearly migration of mule deer the longest in the northern hemisphere. The more we learn, the more local communities can make science-based management decisions to preserve these century-old migrations and manage them through sustainable harvest. Read more.