Why Ethical Hunting Could Be Saving Wildlife

0:00There are over 50 species on some of these ranches, so that can get very complicated. There's a zebra. Yeah. And yeah, there's herds a zebra ostrich. In Texas? Will to be. These ranches? On these ranches? Oh my lord, I had no clue. And many didn't. And quite frankly, I didn't know when I moved down there to start running a ranch to just do the management side of thing that all this existed and how much hunting played a role into it. Not only to keep the genetic diversity, but to fund it. Matt Tacolvi is a dedicated strategic and purpose driven wildlife biologist and the founder of Tech Outdoors. Guided by a deep commitment to conservation, he helps outdoor enthusiasts engage in ethical hunting experiences, creating a lasting legacy of sustainable wildlife management and environmental stewardship. There are plenty of elephants that will never be hunted. There are plenty of different sub-species that elephants that are protected, but then there are also other elephants that are not and they are thriving. And to the point where they're invading on us as a human and it's becoming a safety issue.

1:04That's where you see these harvested. It's not a free for all in any state where you can just go harvest whatever you want. What? Harvest. They do have the restrictions and bag limits, but the information coming back is through the hunters and the biologist that say this is what we're seeing. They're the ones that are out there in the wild. They're the ones that are out there on the ranches, on the farms, with the wildlife. And they see what's happening because the hunter does not want this animal to go away. I believe that is what truly just our passion and my guys and myself, that's what really makes us stand out from our competition. Nice. Is our care in love for it. It spans the globe like a super high school. It spans the globe like a super high school. Internet Elvis. Ready? Ready? Today, Apple is going to reinvent the ball. It's not over. Until I win. The Living Your Legacy Podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. That's amazing. That's amazing. That's awesome.

2:05Oh, that is sensational. Open. She's coming with the way you said. You can live your dream. Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast where we have the privilege to have conversations with some of the best entrepreneurs and business leaders and people and leaders in their industry. We have another special guest today. Does some outdoor stuff. You know, Texan. What's your name? Where are you from? I'm from Texas. What's your business? My name is Matt Tukolvi. I am from Fredericksburg, Texas. My business is Tech Outdoors. We do wildlife consulting and outfitting. Wildlife consulting and outfitting. What kind of wildlife consulting? What's that mean? Great question. That is the question. When you say your wildlife consultant, no one knows what you do. They stop asking questions. I don't know.

3:06How to talk to deers. That's right. That would be the question is what's your perception on what it is? I don't know. Wildlife consulting. How to kind of be out in the wildlife for X amount of days. Sure. What wildlife consulting is and especially when it portrays to us are there are so many different species, both native and exotic, down in Texas. They have to live. They need to thrive. That's where we really come in is how to work with landowners, how to work with the environment and stuff to make sure these exotic animals can thrive with our native animals and not push them out. And then we do other things that go way more in detail with it as far as trying to get them back into their native lands if they're in danger to threatened or something like that. Okay. So you're like almost like environmental surveys before they put up a new building or office.

4:06So it is one aspect of what we do. Yes. We have been called before to do environmental survey studies whether it's a nesting of a certain bird or what is there to go in. We do that. It's probably not the biggest thing that we do is definitely not the biggest thing we do. A lot of what we do, especially in Texas with having so much land down there and so many successful people coming down there to purchase large pieces of land, is they'll call us. And they want to see these exotic. They want to help. They want to be in the conservation in it and the hunting side of it as well. And that's one thing that we do is we bring the two together. We bring the, we manage, we manage a lot of this conservancy through hunting. Draws in a great revenue source to the landowners which can continue to allow them to have either bigger herds or healthier herds of certain species or more species. Right. So is that the main focus of your company is like hunting?

5:11So it is a big, yes, the main focus for our business would be the consulting and the hunting together. They really can't be done without each other. They could be done. We don't do them without each other. Because then you need to sustain the amount of wildlife there in order to find, right? That's correct. And without, without one, you won't have the other. Because if you don't have the hunting, then you come into where they're not diversifying in genetics, they're overpopulating. A lot of diseases come up and then it affects the animals and the plant life and the things you're not. So you're like a dude at Yosemite that says bring back the wolves. That's right. Yeah. That's right. But we need to do it in a way that helps. You know, because too many wolves are around your life. You're like, wait, too many wolves, too many wolves. So we monitor both sides. And so we're not constricted the way that when you bring back the wolves, you're definitely in the government side of things on that. So we're a separate entity of that altogether. So we have a little bit more freedom to not have to go through all the loop holds that

6:13they have to go through. Of course. So then is your company the one saying, because like in Connecticut, you're allowed to hunt deer. There's like deer hunting season, okay? And they say, okay, we can hunt X-meni deer per year or whatever, right? And you need to get your licenses. Sure. So are you saying, okay. I'm not a hunter. So I don't know what they're hunting down there. But are you the guy that recommends how many deer per year or whatever species that they can hunt? Yeah, great question. And so there are over 50 species on some of these ranches. So that can get very complicated. But to answer your question directly. So like in Connecticut, that is governed by the state of Connecticut of what their season comes from. Not only their limit. Fish and Wildlife. Or whatever they call it there in Connecticut. And that is governed by them. And that is the way they get their information is through the hunters of what they've harvested,

7:13what they've reported. Yeah. And so they govern that. Well, in Texas, Texas Parks and Wildlife also governs a lot of our native species on the seasons of when we can hunt them and what our bag limits are. And that's your total amount that you're allowed. It's not a free for all in any state where you can just go harvest whatever you want to harvest. That's what I want. They do have the restrictions and bag limits. But the information coming back is through the hunters and the biologist that say this is what we're seeing. They're the ones that are out there in the wild. They're the ones that are out there on the ranches, on the farms with the wildlife. And they see what's happening because the hunter does not want this animal to go away. The hunter wants to be able to do this and pass this on to generations. And they want to do this as a camaraderie with their friends. They want to do this as something they've done with their fathers or grandfathers or ant temples or however it was growing up. Hunters and hunters. Hunters are hunters. It's just no more hunting than what are they, right?

8:13That's right. They're going to be like, Zoolander. They're going to be like, who am I? But you also talk about kind of like, I mean, tech outdoors. There's going to be some outdoor tech and gearing them up, right? So that's the half of the business. Yeah, that's a misconception. We definitely spelled it T-E-K based off of my name when I was playing rugby. Was tech. We're definitely not T-E-C-H. I wish I was a little more. I thought rugby? Rugby, yeah. Rugby, where'd you grow up? So I grew up in Kentucky, a little town called Carrollton, Kentucky. Oh, okay. And I... The football is big down there. What happened? Well, so in Kentucky, it was big basketball, but I played football. I went on to Eastern Kentucky University to walk on and play some football there and then ended up seeing these boys play rugby and went over to it and fell in love. They were like, yo, you're in the real man without a dad. That's it. They're still tads down, right? They are. They're a little wilder. I still talk to these boys today. Yeah, yeah. Even today, the camaraderie we built in in.

9:13When it comes down to the rugby sixes, they're like, yo, come on down. Yeah. We still get together every year. We called Hooligans and Hobbs. Okay. They called you tech. They did. They called me tech, and that's where tech outdoors started. All right. It's just unoriginality of how to name a business, right? I was young. I didn't understand certain other keywords would have been better, but we have what we have. Well, I think it's perfect. It's like, you know, it makes you, it draws you in more, right? And so talk about you do the consulting. Yes, sir. And then the second half of the business, talk about that. Yeah. So second half of the business would be the hunting side of it. We entertain, um, incident entertainment businesses. And that's truly what it is. So is there a brick and mortar part for our own gear? So tech outdoors does not have a brick and mortar. Okay. Um, tech outdoors, we operate on 21 different ranches throughout the state of Texas. We also travel to Alberta, Canada and we travel to South Africa. Yeah. So it's not, we're hearing people out, it's bringing them on trips. It is.

10:14Yes, it is. And that's why I say it's an entertainment business because we manage the expectations of what they have, not, not them managing our expectations of what they should have. We want to, if you were to call me and say, look, I'm new at this. I want to come out and I want to do a hunt. I don't know what to expect. Okay. Well, what do you, what, what are you envisioning? What are you, what are you seeing? And we want to make sure we're the right fit for you. Yeah. Um, because we do focus on conservation. Yeah. We do sustainable hunting. We, it is. It absolutely is sustainable hunting and we, and also the ethics behind it and the safety of it. Perfect. That is what we truly stand behind. We love when we have youth in them. So for all the non-hunches out there, you're the guy that's, we want that kind of guy behind the hunting licenses and bringing people on the hunt because it sounds, it sounds amazing. Sustainable hunting, you want longevity for, for your sport, right? 100%. And that's, I mean, that's legacy, right? Whether it's, whether it's this or whether it's whatever it is, you have to have that longevity. Yeah. And so you have to be true to this. And so you guys doing for a year, you said you were on 20 ranches out in Texas.

11:17Yes, sir. We operate, Texas allows us to operate year round and it varies. We, Texas allows you, that means the weather allows you. The weather allows you, that's right. Well, and so when we talked about the season limits as well. So some of the exotics do not have seasons. We have to manage that as biologist, as stewards of the land, as conservation. We have to do our own management on that because the, the state does not, right? And you said it is, there's 50 species, right? There's over 50 species. Let's talk about some of these species that you guys are hunting. Okay, so some of the species that we're hunting, one of the most popular would be the Axis deer in the black buck, Antelope. Both of those are out of India. They're still doing well in India, but they thrive in Texas as well. All right. And they're absolutely beautiful and they make great table fair as well. Okay. So good venison. Good venison. It is. It's, it's actually great venison. My neighbor used to give us venison for the two hunting season. Yeah. And it's a different taste. Back in the day and I'll, I'll miss quote if I try to quote you, or quote to you, when

12:22it was, but Neil got Antelope were brought in to South Texas on the King Ranch, which is a big ranch, huge ranch, biggest ranch in Texas. Okay. And they were brought in to replace the cat. How big is big, biggest ranch in Texas. Oh, I'd be lying to you. It's, it's a size of some states. Yeah. Yeah, it's as a Connecticut. It would probably so. Yeah. Wow. Especially it's huge. I mean, there's different parts of it. There's different, just different animal survived better on it. But the Neil guy Antelope did amazing down there. Yeah. They're, they're a big large 600 pound Antelope. And a lot of times at restaurants, if you see Antelope on the menu, it's Neil guy. Okay. That's what it is. It's a leaner and it was to replace the cattle. Well, we couldn't domesticate the Neil guy like they thought they would. So now they run wild and free during parts, throughout parts of Texas. And that is not our goal is to have exotics running wild and free. But it is a negative side of what happens, right? And so there are management practices in place right now. Oh, well, let's try to control them.

13:23They try to control them. Well, that's right. Just like you guys here in Miami have your iguanas and your pythons and stuff like that. You don't think about it, you know what? And I get why that started. You have people in the pet trade that love their animals. Just like these ranchers love these exotics. You know, they may have kept it here locally. They may have kept it indoors where we keep it on larger ranches. But then eventually they said, wow, this thing's gotten too big. Yeah. Well, I can't. I can't just guard this thing. I need to let it go. And they think they're doing best for the animal, which they may be for the animal, but they're free. They're free. Yeah, they're be free, but they're not doing best for the environment for the other species that are around. And so that's something that we control down there. Just looking at larger animals. They had good intentions, right? Good intentions. Well, be free. Texas, you're on vacation, you know? Yeah. It's been a good time. Thanks, buddy. But then it's like they weren't really thinking. Well, and we have we have such great, there are so many people out there in the, like our

14:24company with tech outdoors and the state. They really do a lot to manage those. And it's a little easier to manage something like a Neil Goddard than it is a boa that goes into your Everglades and who's out there, right? The private landowners that a lot of these are on and those private landowners put out a lot of their own money to raise these animals and to, you know, because one of the things that that's unknown to like some of the threatening endangered species, you know, without those, they wouldn't be doing as well as they are now because of some of the landowners in Texas. And because some of the conservation things that we implement while we're down there to help create that genetic diversity back in their homeland. Yeah. Okay. Is that the biggest species you guys hunt in Texas? So White Tail is a native species and it's still probably the prominent. White Tail are doing great down there.

15:24They co, they co-habit these properties with the exotics, but it is something that we manage down there. That far South Texas, we're more centrally located, but that far South Texas. That's right. There's so much about Texas. Great. But down there in South Texas, the Neogangalope would be it, when you get more into our area, you have a big variety of your kudu, your sable, the ones we talked about, your black buck, your, your, your axis, and then things that are more recognizable to people are, you'll be going, you know, like there's a zebra. Yeah. You know, and yeah, there's, herds a zebra ostrich. In Texas? Will to be. These ranches? I had no clue. And many didn't. And, and quite frankly, I didn't know when I moved down there to start running a ranch, to just do the management side of thing that all this existed and how much hunting played a role into it. Not only to keep the genetic diversity, but to fund it.

16:26And that's what really keeps a lot of this going is, is the hunters and being able to fund it because the landowners have great, but when you purchase those 12 different, of one species and then all of a sudden you turn around and there's 40, what are you going to do? Yeah. You know, now it's getting a lot to supplemental feed, make sure that you're land, because when you do these things, you do need to put up the proper fences. And we're talking, um, Jurassic Park. We're talking Jurassic Park here, baby. We're talking some of these ranches will be a few hundred acres to several thousands of acres. In there that they're doing it. And that's where we come in and we say, okay, your property is excise and this is your rainfall and what you can sustain, what your carrying capacity can be to not get rid of your native wildlife. That's what we suggest and how we're going to manage these populations, these species, because it all comes down to, it's their money. It's the landowners money and we want them to be happy with what we're doing.

17:29We want them to see the results that they're anticipating and that's where we come in to really make sure that that's happening and to do so is to have guys like you down, to have people that have hunted before or have not. We do a lot of corporate retreats as well where there's no hunting, but there's some outdoors in it. There's seeing these animals, whether we go pedagraph or just see zebras in the distance or the axis or the, there's Cape Buffalo now, they've just introduced the white rhino which is endangered, which will never be for hunting in Texas. It'll never be for hunting. It's strictly conservation. But the same individuals that are putting their money up for these hunting operations are also funding this as well. Okay, okay, wow. I had no clue. No clue. So there's white rhino in Texas. Yes, sir. Wow. Okay. So, real quickly, right? Talk about the competition, right, and kind of what makes you guys stand out from the

18:32competition? Yeah, what makes us stand out from the competition because there's a lot. There's a lot. There is a lot. There's a lot of competition in Texas. What do you guys do to make yourself stand out? Yeah, what we do is we have, we lead with conservation. We lead with the ethical and we lead with the safety. We also lead with building those relationships between our customers, more as friends and family. And we do it naturally, you know, with sharing, not just myself. I mean, I don't do this by myself. I have a great crew. Yeah. We're going, I'm going in my 20th year. Some of my guys have been with me 19 years, 16 years. Okay. Some of them started hunting with me when they were young and are now fully on board with this as well. That's the answer. It's family. Yeah. It's 100% is family. And we tell people, especially when we bring them on, is that you're coming to part of our family. You're coming to part of our team to be this. And I believe, and you're the cool uncle. And I'll be the cool uncle, not all the time. I believe that is what truly just our passion and my guys and myself, that's what really

19:36makes us stand out from, from our competition. Nice. Nice. Is our care and love for it? It's all you're doing corporate trips, you're doing private trips, family stuff, individual. And then we also do some things for charitable, whether it be wounded veterans and things like that. We do that. Now, a lot of that is again, on the landowner, because we don't own the land. We just help manage it. So we have to go through the right steps to make sure that the landowners are okay with it. We absolutely put our services in there and love to do those type of things. Yeah. Yeah. And you guys are helping them out too, by giving them accounts and all kinds of information of where they are. And yes, or yeah, that's on the ground, I guess. Yeah, that's, it is boots on the ground because, you know, one of the things is it's neat to go out there and explore and look through the wildlife or drive through a ranch and see some animals. You've only seen a portion of it. Yeah. Because you were there when you wanted to be there. We're there when the animals want to be out.

20:36We're there. It's something, and it doesn't mean we're physically there. We have cameras, the camera systems that they have out now are fantastic. So we monitor them. Gotcha. Usually every day I wake up to over 3,000 photos or videos on my phone. Oh wow. That we go through just, it'll tell us a lot about what has happened over the night. But again, that is one little small area that that animal had to walk in front of. So there's a lot that goes to it that even I didn't know when I started doing this. I went down there thinking, Texas, let's go. Let's try this out. Yeah. It's such a great world for me. I'm thinking, I'm getting visions of the circle of life in Texas. It is. It's, you know, we're not far off the line, King here, right? Like the circle of life. It's a true thing. We like to say it as a punchline, but we don't feed into it know exactly what that means. But it's true. And you see that what's awesome is this has led me to go over to Africa, South Africa,

21:41and see how parallel it is there. Yeah. Yeah, the government's different. Things are ran differently. But those that own the ranches, the concessions as they call them over there, they have such passion just like our landowners back in Texas. Okay. They have such a love for what they are doing over there to manage. They manage all the little things. Talk about us like calm some of us down because some of us are flipping through the airport magazine or we're scrolling or whatever. And then there's a picture of some dudes with some big lion or I don't know. Like you just see some of these hunters down or maybe the vice president, I don't know, the Don Jr. He's got the elephant tail, right? Sure. So talk us about that. You know, maybe you can calm us down because we only see, oh my god, the animals, right? But you're talking about this whole ecosystem, circle of life and sustainability, right? That elephant had to come into it because there's been numbers or whatever, but talk to us

22:46about that for some of us that don't really know. Absolutely. And that really is a thing that I didn't always know. And it's something that I've learned over time. These animals, especially when you see the elephant, it's typically a nuisance element elephant that has invaded into a village. Okay. So it's a lot of different things that are caused death or has the potential to. And it doesn't always have to be death of human life, but it could also be to the, their sustainable food. You know, they'll walk through the fences, they'll tear up things, they'll tear up their crops. And so they've been destructive and many times there's so many different ways to try to shoot them off, if you will, or try to relocate them. But you can't just grab it elephant relocated when you're talking about something of that size. It doesn't just go to elephant. But many times these elephants, the ones, there are plenty of elephants that will never be hunted. There are plenty of different subspecies of elephants that are protected, but then there are also other elephants that are not. And they are thriving. And to the point where they're invading on us as a human.

23:49And it's becoming a safety issue. That's where you see these harvested. But you don't see that report of where we got to this point, right? Of those things. And that's what's happening when you see that. But you also don't see on that is it's not inexpensive to harvest that elephant. It is pretty costly to that hunter. Well, that money doesn't go all to the landowner. It goes to conserving the rest of the elephants that are alive. It goes to finding a way to get them into new places to where they're not being invading in with the humans in a negative impact. And that's where a lot of it that I think we do a bad job, a poor job as a hunter, is expressing that, look, it's kind of hidden. Well, no one wants to know what you paid for that animal. Well, you know what, maybe you do because we need to come to that full circle. You need to know that this was extremely expensive for that hunter, whomever it may be, to harvest that animal.

24:50But that money went to save many, many more. Not only of the elephant, but other animals that are affected in its environment that will be, that it creates new habitat or it translocates them to different places. And I think that's something that we've really missed out on the hunting world is getting that information out there. Because a lot of times as someone that's a non-hunter that loves animals and has that same detest for that, believe me, I see many of pictures in there that I'm like, why? Why would you have taken that photo? Why did you choose that photo to publish? Like, that's not flattering. And so I get it. I get angry. I get upset at it. I get the purpose a little more. But I think a lot of times we have the same goal, but we're coming at it from such different angles that it's just, it's hard for us to see that we're out for the same thing. Yeah. I mean, even some of the hardcore animal lovers, they might have to put their dog down.

25:53Because of some debilitating disease or something, right? They don't want to, right? Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, I mean, I'm definitely open to what you're saying and it's good to see the other side of the hunting industry and whatever. No. That's good to share it. Yeah. And I appreciate that. I think if more of us and the hunting side as well, it isn't one-sided. Yeah. Because this needs to be all the way around. Yeah. I think if more of us are open up to see the other viewpoints that you realize that you're after the same goal. And that's the good side of capitalism, you know? So you have to make money in order to spend money on stuff like conservation or whatever that village needs or whatever those safari guides need in order to manage everything. I mean, it takes money to do those kinds of things, right? Absolutely. So, yeah, I mean, how do people find you? So they can find us various different ways.

26:54We're on all the social medias, Tech Outdoors, which is the TEK Outdoors. Yeah, I see. That is also the .com. That's our website on Instagram. It's Tech underscore outdoors and then on Facebook, it's just Tech Outdoors. But you can find us. You'll see our logo. It's a whitetail deer with the Tech Outdoors on there. All right. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. It's been a pleasure to talk to you and learn. And that's what we do. We keep an open mind. And we get the privilege to talk to a lot of great business leaders and now hunters and, you know, someone behind the circle of life, people, right? That's it. All right. Well, yeah, thank you for joining us. And thank you guys for joining us. If you want to tune in to more of this like interesting talk, then tune into his episode. And yeah, we'll see you again. Cheers, everyone.