The Origins Foundation Podcast

Scruff Vermaak is the son of a legendary professional hunter in South Africa, Coenraad "the Bullet" Vermaak. Coenraad Vermaak Safaris (CVS) is the oldest outfittering company in South Africa. It has been a member of Dallas Safari Club since the first convention, and has been exhibiting there for 45 years now. You could class the Vermaaks as professional hunting history in South Africa - one of 4 f...

Ed Swales is an ex-soldier/security specialist and is a life-long blue collar hunting enthusiast from the Northern England countryside. The traditional hunting method of the rural country individual in the english countryside is running dogs to catch rabbits and hares for the pot. Ed Swales is no different. A lifelong dog hunter, Ed is focused right now on a film from his company, Hunting Kind, ca...

In this very special roundup, Robbie introduces Ashlee Smith, the new Director of Global Policy Outreach at Blood Origins. Robbie and Ashlee cover her background, her storied career in advocating for our wildlife resources and hunting lifestyle, how they know one another, what to expect from this exciting new position. They do a little diving into California’s new black bear management plan (comme...

Robbie is joined by Roy Sloan of the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation and their knockdown, drag out battle with Forest and Bird and some exciting updates on that fight. Roy Sloan is the executive director of the Fiordland Wapiti Foundation and is in charge of argubly the crown jewel of sustainable wildlife management in the world, deer population management, is married with utilization of the resource,...

Robbie is joined by Karl Malcolm and Curt Meine, two experts in the life and history of Aldo Leopold. The conversation revolves around the 75th anniversary of Aldo Leopold's book, Sand County Almanac, and the importance of his ideas in the field of conservation biology. The guests discuss Leopold's influence on the conservation movement and his emphasis on the relationship between people and the l...

Robbie is joined on location in France for the second week in a row by the Slots Media team for another of their rip-roaring post-shoot roundups! After Robbie, Jack and Steffan finish describing the bliss of warm croissants, the boys tackle a lioness scaling a fence, the concept of so-called ‘sophisticated vandalism’, their latest video shoot - filming volunteers saving fawns from agricultural mac...

Continuing our miniseries on the cross-border discussion of elephant hunting out of Tanzania and Kenya, 3rd generation Tanzanian, hunting professional and current chairman of the Tanzania Hunters and Operators Association, Robbie and Michel explore the the viewpoint of the Michel and TAHOA on the elephant debate. As we have noted in previous podcasts, as typical to issues, there are two sides to e...

Continuing our miniseries on the elephant hunting in and around Enduimet out of Tanzania, Dr. Edward Kohi is the Director of Research and Training at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in Tanzania. Having served since 2008 in the wildlife conservation space, working with elephants much of that time, he brings his wealth of experience in the field to an interesting discussion with Robbie...

You’ve asked, we’re answering! Robbie is joined on location in France by the fan favorite Slots Media boy for another of their rip-roaring post-shoot roundups! Sorry team - today' episode is only with JACK, the fan favroite Lewis happens to be on a 75ft yahct in the Carribean photographing marlin fisherman. After a trip through France and Belgium with new member of the crew Steffan, a welshman wit...

Continuing our miniseries on the Enduimet elephant debate, we reached out across the Border to Kenya, to Richard Bonham of the Big Life Foundation. It was important to have Richard on the podcast as he has been in the wildlife conservation landscape for decades in the Amboseli region. Richard joins Robbie on the Blood origins podcast to discuss the Amboseli system, Big Life's involved in wildlife...

Continuing our miniseries on the Enduimet elephant controversy out of Tanzania, Robbie gets some time with Igno Laitayok, the Community Manager for the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area. Over the last 8 months two big tuskers have been hunted in Enduimet. In this conversation Robbie asks the following: The basis of Enduimet, its geography, population size. The point of view of the people on the gr...

This is the first podcast in a mini-series of podcasts on the elephant controversy in Tanzania and Kenya. This is likely the most controversial blood origins podcast episode to date. Robbie is joined by Zidane Janbeck, from Kilombero North Safaris for a 2 1/2 hour conversation on the controversial topic of elephant hunting in Tanzania's Enduimet area. There is so much information swirling around t...

Robbie Kroger is joined in this week’s roundup by Charles Whitwam of the Howl For Wildlife group that is doing the Yeoman’s work on wildlife issues all over the west. After catching up on this week’s game of ‘Where In The World Is Robbie Kroger, Robbie's upcoming trip to France and Belgium, the two discuss a laundry list of issues including an upcoming roe deer conservation project in Europe, the...

Jimmy Liautaud, aka Jimmy Johns of Jimmy Johns sandwich fame joins the Blood Origins podcast after 3 years of engagements and does a sit down, in-depth interview to get to know who exactly he is. What Robbie wanted to do in this interview is be able to allow folks to hear from a different side of Jimmy. Everyone knows the hunting side of Jimmy, the very confidence, almost laissez faire attitude of...

In this conversation, Robbie and new grandpapa Cody tackle an update on Cody from chickens, to dogs, to the evolution of Blood Origins. They talk about Cody's recent experiences from raising and protecting baby chickens to the joys of being a grandparent. The conversation then shifts to the evolution of Blood Origins and the importance of genuine and independent content in the hunting community -...

Khory Hancock, an environmental scientist who owns a company called Climate Revive on the Gold Coast of Australia, joins to talk to Robbie about regenerative agriculture, taking care of and restoring the land, and that all interacts with cattle grazing, and taking care of the land. Naturally Robbie was curious to hear Khory's outlook on hunting, its effect on grazers, and how hunting can synergist...

Dr. Daniel MacNulty is an Associate Professor in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University. Robbie really is interested in the wolf elk dynamics across the west, and really wanted to dig into what the science actually says - are wolves decimating elk herds? We have seen graphs from Idaho about changes in elk due to wolves, and so what better place to start this conversation tha...

Robbie chops it up with Ben Cassidy, the Executive Vice President of Safari Club International, from the recent CIC General Assembly in Portugal. The two reminisce about Brazilian soccer and Robbie’s early childhood there, the recent epic call-out by Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi challenging the UK and German governments to take delivery of elephants, a legal clarification by the German go...

Ron Thomson is a former 25-year Zimbabwe Parks Board veteran who was involved in wildlife management’s heyday in the 60’s through the 80’s. Ron was involved in elephant management - including so-called ‘precision removal’ of elephants, i.e., a population control mechanism called culling. Culling is an extremely controversial topic and has been eradicated from all elephant management today. It was...

Dylan Williams out of the UK makes his livelihood in the shooting sports arena. He is a stalwart in the english shooting and conservation space, and was gratefully brought to our attention by a very good friend of us both, Hannah Gibson, the GM of Spartan Precision. Raised a farmer, with a formal education in conservation, has a broad idea of game bird resource conservation, rural life and shootin...

David Quammen, the evolutionary author behind Robbie’s favorite book ‘Monster of God’ (you’ve DEFINITELY heard that title a few times) joins Robbie for an amazing, insightful conversation with his favorite author. Support our newest Conservation Club Members! Canada North Outfitting: https://www.canadanorthoutfitting.com/  Vortex Optics: https://vortexoptics.com/  Spartan: https://javelinbipod.com...

Peet Van Der Merwe is a senior lecturer on tourism economics at Northwestern University in South Africa. Peet has dedicated much of his career to studying the economic impacts of consumptive (hunting) tourism, tourism writ-large, and how they benefit the region. So, if hunting disappeared, what would happen to the economy and wildlife conservation? Its an important question to ask and get answered...

Lucas Cooke, CEO of Field and Game Australia, joins Robbie on the podcast on the eve of the upcoming duck season in anticipation of the amount of anti hunters that will be pushing back on the duck season. Antis fell just short of a victory last year when the parliamentary inquiry voted to suggest banning duck hunting in Australia, but the force of the trade unions swayed them, and the labor govern...

Sarah Vermaak was a non hunter before she got married into the Vermaak family. The Vermaaks are a stalwart family of the hunting industry of South Africa, starting in 1970 (they are actually the longest standing outfitter in South Africa) and as a result today has very much become an avid hunter. Robbie catches up with Sarah on location in Zululand, in the hills next to the Tugela river, when he w...

Robbie catches up with Jess Johnson, the Government Affairs Director of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, an independent affiliate of the Wildlife Federation and the biggest and oldest conservation advocacy organization in the state. The two cover Wyoming’s HB 60 concerning elk population issues in the state, some misinformation that’s spreading around about the unlimited elk tag proposal in Wyomin...