The Shotgun Conservationist

Brant MacDuff is a conservation educator and taxidermy historian, and a long-time HOC mentor and advocate in New York. An avid environmentalist and jack-of-many-trades, Brant has worked for a variety of museums and outdoor related industries, all while supporting his primary work as a public speaker. He teaches instructional and educational classes on taxidermy, gives tours at the American Museum of Natural History, and lectures on natural history at schools, businesses, private events, outdoor retreats, and museums. When not on the lecture circuit or at home in Brooklyn.

MacDuff can be found indulging in his favorite pursuits including hunting, fishing, horseback riding, sporting clay shooting, kayaking, and searching for the best obscure museums. He’s recently written about his experiences in a book called “The Shotgun Conservationist”. This is a book about wildlife economics and how people relate to animals as told through his own experiences as a conservation historian turned hunter because of his love for animals.

The book is approachable, fun, and geared towards urban non-hunters and anyone else who may be suspicious of hunting. But it’s also a deep dive into the little known and understood world of wildlife economics around the globe. He investigates and explains complex topics like wolf re-introduction, meat sourcing, big game hunting in Africa, politics, cats, taxes, death culture, guns, and conservation history, interspersing these intense subjects with a bunch of dumb movie references, and even a quote from The Lion King. This is info-tainment at its most absurd about a deadly serious environmental topic.