Ralph Durham of the Missouri Department of Conservation delighted the crowd
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If you’ve ever wanted to hear the call of dozens and dozens of wild animals and birds at one sitting, you should have attended the Farm Bureau meeting last Thursday. Ralph Durham of the Missouri Department of Conservation delighted the crowd with realistic sounds of outdoors spiced with humorous stories.
Ralph explained how he developed his talent by perfecting a turkey call while awaiting the first turkey season opening in Missouri in 1960. Eventually, his expertise garnered awards in state and national turkey calling contests, and he expanded to include all sorts of other animal sounds — now 120 in all! He has made appearances on cable television and was once a guest on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show.
Thursday night at Gallatin, Durham joked that he hesitated to stand before any crowd so soon after the controversial conservation proposal to introduce elk in Missouri.
“The polls indicated that 75% of Missourians wanted elk here but landowners wherever the elk were to be turned loose overwhelmingly opposed the idea,” Durham said. “The commissioner who was interested and promoted the idea concluded his term, and the whole idea is dead now.
“July was a disastrous month for us. We worked to get rid of Red Oak Boars and zebra mussels coming up the Missouri River,” Durham said. “We had to deal with a sturgeon kill, gypsy moths and announce mercury contamination in bass (really, no difference than before except new EPA standards are now in effect). I’m telling you, last month was rough!”
Durham said that’s why he prefers to entertain by imitating animal calls.