by Mike Arnold - Monday, March 3, 2025
“I grew up an anti-hunter, in a residential neighborhood in Scarborough, Maine. My dad laughs at who I am now,” said wildlife biologist Olivia Lappin, grinning on my Zoom screen as she mentioned her father. “My motto when I was a child was ‘save the animals.’ It would be years before I saw the role hunting played in doing just that.”
That realization grew slowly, she shared, resulting from interactions with mentors such as David, her boyfriend and a passionate hunter. Continuing with her musings, she explained, “I honestly believe that it requires two things for changing someone’s attitudes about hunting. First, a hunter and a non-hunter need to be willing to listen to one another, without mistaking disagreement for criticism of the other’s beliefs. Second, it is key that a hunter not just tell, but also show a non-hunter the wonders of hunting and the hunter community.”
As I glanced through the photos Olivia had sent me prior to our interview, one of a grinning young girl holding a snake caught my eye. “Have you always loved animals?” I asked. “Absolutely,” was her quick and enthusiastic reply. Chuckling, she added, “However, my mom did not appreciate me constantly bringing captured snakes into the house.”
Olivia’s family wasn’t totally against harvesting nature’s bounty, with her dad being a passionate angler. Another photo, with a grown Olivia, chest wader-bedecked, and a beautiful Dolly Varden trout cradled in her hand, proves that this particular apple didn’t fall too far from her dad’s influence. The family also wasn’t anti-gun, with outings to a family cabin including plinking with a pistol. However, hunting remained unethical in the young Olivia’s universe, as she continued her journey as a budding biologist.
“My first fieldwork involved living in a shack on an island off the coast of Maine,” she said, referring to time as a young biology student. “I collected data on seabirds. Wandering around among colonies of puffins and other coastal species, I had to take care not to trod on eggs or the young birds scattered across the rocky landscape.”
I asked about living in a shack for months at a time. Olivia’s face once again lit up as she exclaimed, “It was wonderful! I would go back there in a heartbeat.” After completing a degree in biology at the University of Maine, and more fieldwork in various parts of the United States, Olivia realized she wanted to see through a wildlife biology research project of her own from beginning to end. That led her to the next phase of her immersion with nature, and the master’s degree program at Mississippi State University. It would also lead to a serious challenge of her anti-hunting stance.
“Louisiana holds a very special place in my heart,” Olivia shared, and I couldn’t have agreed more with that perspective. As a scientist and professor, I’d crawled through alligator-infested swamps and eaten my weight many times over in the wonderful world of Cajun cuisine over my 30 years of research on the beautiful, native Louisiana irises. In contrast, Olivia’s sentiment came from her first hunting experience at the beginning of her graduate studies at Mississippi State. Like me, she pushed her way into the flooded cypress/hardwood stands, but unlike me, she wasn’t there in search of the red, violet or yellow flowers reminiscent of the fleur-de-lis on the flag of New Orleans. Olivia was in the Louisiana watery environs in pursuit of waterfowl. And what an adventure as, for the first time, she experienced the thrill of outwitting wary animals and sharing the fruits (or rather meats) from the hunting lifestyle with new friends. After her time in Louisiana, Olivia was a newly fledged hunter. However, she was still evolving in her attitude of what was, and was not, ethical hunting. In particular, she remained opposed to so-called “trophy hunting” in Africa.
Species hunted by Olivia over the next several years included pheasants, mule deer and turkey, all from South Dakota, and whitetail deer in multiple states. While adding notches to her hunter’s belt, Olivia continued her graduate work. In 2023, she earned her master’s degree and produced a landmark scientific publication in the Journal of Field Ornithology. Her research described, for the first time, the types of habitat chosen by bobwhite quail as roosting sites during the game bird’s breeding season.
During her graduate work, Olivia encountered staff from the organization Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, also known as PFQF, at scientific meetings. These seemingly random encounters led to the next paradigm shift for Olivia regarding how hunting and hunters support ecosystem restoration, and species conservation.
Olivia recalled, “Every time I ran into people from this organization, they were excited about discussing their work, and employer; they were all happy.” That left an indelible impression in Olivia’s mind. A year later when scanning job listings, she ran across one from PFQF. She did not hesitate in applying. “Because of my graduate research and other fieldwork, I got the job,” she shared. “Specifically, they hired me to work in conjunction with transportation, railway, electric, oil/gas and solar agencies to improve habitat on rights-of-way corridors and footprints across the United States.”
The other part of Olivia’s PFQF job description involves working with landowners in developing seed mixes for habitat improvement. Much of this work involves constructing plans for restoring areas for bobwhites. PFQF supplies the landowner with both the improvement plans and the seed mixtures needed for everything from small pollinator plots to large tracts for turkey and whitetail deer. Though they charge landowners for the seeds, 100 percent of the proceeds funnels back into the PFQF mission. Olivia emphasized that all of the seeds making up the mixtures come from plants native to the specific region. As a biologist working in restoration projects, I appreciated this recognition that plants and animals alike are adapted to specific environments. By matching the plants represented in the seed mixtures to the local environment, quail, turkeys, whitetail deer, songbirds, reptiles, butterflies and everything in between would thrive in the appropriately restored ecosystems.
Olivia’s employment with Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever not only allowed her the opportunity for using her expertise gained from her graduate work, it also exposed her to another example of how hunters and hunting provide the needed support for the restoration and conservation of natural areas. As stated in the recent PFQF annual report: “This network of 754 chapters spread across North America determines how 100 percent of their locally raised funds are spent to support the organization’s top priorities. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever is the only national conservation organization that operates through this grassroots structure. The efforts of our chapters and volunteers go beyond adding acres. Through the financial support garnered at local fundraising events, our chapters are making an impact that resonates across generations, inspiring future hunters and conservationists to commit to the uplands.”
“So,” I asked, “what is the most recent stage in your transition from anti-hunter to passionate huntress?” Olivia’s lips first formed a smirk seen in some of her photos, but then she broke into the bright smile that accompanied most of our conversation. “Remember back at the beginning of our Zoom call when I said, even after hunting several species of birds and mammals in North America, I still believed “trophy” hunting in Africa was unethical?” I found myself smirking as well in anticipation of Olivia’s next statement. “Well, I went on my first African hunt in April of last year with Western Safaris South Africa. I know that everyone talks about how beautiful impala are, and I agree, mine was gorgeous, but I really loved my springbok.”
Glancing again at the set of photos, I spotted a smiling Olivia beside her ram. I mentioned that springboks were a favorite of mine as well, reminding me as they always do of hunting pronghorn antelope in the open vistas of Western North America.
As the Zoom call came to an end, I pondered Olivia’s journey from her anti-hunting advocacy to a person passionately supportive of hunting and hunters and their role in conserving the natural world she has always loved. I think we, as hunters, and even organizations who support Second Amendment rights, sometimes use the term “mentoring” in a flippant way when discussing how to attract new members to the shooting and hunting community. It’s impossible to be flippant when listening to someone like Olivia who states categorically that without mentoring, she would not be a supporter of hunting and hunters. I realize that provides me with my marching orders.
About the Author
Mike Arnold is professor and head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia and author of the 2022 book Bringing Back the Lions: International Hunters, Local Tribespeople, and the Miraculous Rescue of a Doomed Ecosystem in Mozambique. The book is available for purchase at bringingbackthelions.com. You can find a description of his travels, talks and articles at mikearnoldoutdoors.com.