The premiere episode chronicles a journey into the jungles of the Yucatan outside of Campeche, Mexico, to hunt the gorgeous ocellated turkey.
The eastern wild turkey of North American is one of the great conservation success stories and hunters played a direct role in this recovery. In the early 1900s, there were approximately 30,000 wild turkeys in America due to market hunting and loss of habitat. Concerned outdoorsmen including Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell began a movement to enact game laws and protect wild lands to help restore wildlife populations across North America. Today, there are over 7 million wild turkeys in America, and conservation groups such as the National Wild Turkey Federation and individuals through hunting licenses and tags continue to fund the conservation and management of our continent’s greatest game bird.
Today, the ocellated turkey – the psychedelic southern cousin of the eastern wild turkey – deserves the same chance. The ocellated turkey is native to the Yucatan Peninsula, Belize and Guatemala and boasts a stunning iridescent rainbow plumage. Underneath its coat of many colors the ocellated is 100% turkey, and it suffers from the familiar threats of subsistence hunting and loss of habitat that our native birds faced over a century ago.
Thanks to the familiar champions of proper land management and funding through hunting, the ocellated turkey has recovered from the brink of extinction and population numbers are on the rise. As a model of conservation, hunting ocellated turkeys ensures sustainable populations and habitat conservation. Dollars spent through these singular hunts reinforce the true value of the species to the locals and creates a pragmatic reason to protect the gorgeous birds and the wild habitat – just as the fathers of the North America Model of Wildlife Conservation foresaw over 100 years ago.
This week’s season premiere of Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey chronicles a journey into the jungles of the Yucatan outside of Campeche, Mexico, to hunt the gorgeous ocellated turkey and help the rebounding population of these wild birds. The series airs five times a week on Outdoor Channel at:
- Monday 11:30am
- Wednesday 9am
- Friday 7am
- Saturday 12:30pm
- Sunday 9:30am
(all times ET)
The World Of Sporting Literature Has A New Classic from one of the planet’s most widely traveled hunters. Director’s Cut…Big game hunting through the lens of the largest outdoor TV producer in history, is a book and film production more than 15 years in the making. Author and Executive Producer Chris Dorsey, along with a team of the world’s best sporting life photographers and cinematographers, embarked on expeditions to distant corners of the globe to create an indelible portrait of big game hunting.
Dorsey has spent the past 25 years investigating and chronicling the animals, people and unforgettable places home to remarkable big game hunts while producing nearly 60 outdoor adventure television series. In the process, his teams amassed a library of more than 100,000 hours of HD footage and nearly 150,000 photographs, making Director’s Cut (the book and DVD) an unmatched celebration of the world of big game hunting. Pre-Order Now
