On the Hunt
- Invitation
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Life experiences in places as far as South Africa and as nearby as Oxford lead Robbie Kroger to travel the world promoting stories about hunting.
Written by Eugene Stockstill | Photos Courtesy of The Origins Foundation
You might assume a South African native would automatically come loaded with stories about hunting down rhinoceroses and mountain lions in the wild, just like in a classic adventure story, but you would be wrong. Robbie Kroger, the founder and executive director of the hunting advocacy group, The Origins Foundation, was born in Johannesburg, then transplanted to Oxford and now calls Collierville, Tennessee, home, but he never went hunting until he found his way to Lafayette County.
“South Africa is not a public land model, the United States is,” said Kroger, who took a long time to follow in the tracks of his father and grandfather, both of whom were big-game hunters.
Born in the largest city in South Africa, Kroger said his first thoughts of a career turned him in the direction of the great outdoors.
Just like children in the United States, he said, “you want to be a firefighter, you want to be a policeman. But in South Africa, you also want to be a game ranger.”
It did not take him long to figure out that as exciting as that sounded, it was not the sort of work that would support him or a family. Around the time he was having that epiphany, he took a trip to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, one of the world’s great swamplands.
It was love at first bog.
“Ever since I was 16, I knew I wanted to work with wetlands,” he said. “It was fascinating.”
His experience there eventually connected him to Marjorie Holland, a biology professor at the University of Mississippi, which inspired him to move to Oxford for doctoral studies at Ole Miss, where he also met his wife.
During that time, a new friend in town took him hunting (for deer) for the first time in his life, just a few minutes outside of Oxford, and he got hooked on that, too.
Years after that first hunting experience in north Mississippi, he decided that if his own sons needed a good explanation about why they were going hunting, then other people did, too.
“I started realizing, ‘How am I going to communicate hunting to my boys?’” Kroger said.
And so, about seven years ago, The Origins Foundation, formerly known as Blood Origins, was born.
Kroger’s nonprofit efforts, which are a full-time job for him these days, have taken him a long way from home. He has traveled to a dozen countries, including India, Australia, New
Zealand, Spain, France, Belgium, Denmark, Mexico and nations throughout southern and eastern Africa, preaching about the benefits of hunting.
Through The Origins Foundation, Kroger shares stories about why people hunt and how their work impacts the society and environment around them. The information presented does not shy away from controversies or conflicting opinions related to hunting.
“We want to communicate to the nonhunting community,” he said. “I’m not trying to convince you to love hunting, but you can still understand the benefits that come from it. You may hate hunting, you may want to ban it, but it’s an important tool to support the environment.”
He tells the stories through documentary films, podcasts, written articles and interviews that are posted at theoriginsfoundation.org and shared on the foundation’s many social media outlets, which have a big following: 214,000 Facebook followers; 70,000 Instagram followers, 133,000 YouTube channel subscribers.
Among numerous documentaries, there’s “Lionheart,” a film about lion houndsmen in the U.S. — men and women who hunt mountain lions with their hounds. “Protecting Aotearoa” is about wildlife conservation efforts in Fiordland National Park in New Zealand, and another film takes on a controversial hunting ban in Cabañeros National Park in Spain that Kroger believes has been disastrous for the local people, economy and environment.
Kroger also hosts The Origins Foundation podcast. In its 675 episodes, he interviews experts from around the world about topics ranging from wildlife management at Texas Hill Country ranches to elephant hunting in Africa to conservation efforts in Pakistan.
Kroger also produces Origins Stories, short film interviews with individuals who share their backgrounds and feelings about hunting. More than 80 are posted on the foundation website. There’s Julia, a nonhunter but skilled butcher who learned the craft in culinary school and shares her perspective on hunting through that lens. Mixed martial arts fighter Corey Anderson talks about his love for hunting. Margie Grube, widow to Navy Seal Devin Grube, began hunting so she and their children could feel connected to Devin after he was gone.
Through Kroger’s storytelling, viewers get to know him as well. Bearded and robust, he looks the part of an ideal big-game hunter, and for him, going hunting is almost like being in church.
“I hunt because there’s a sense of fulfillment in it,” he said. “I get a spiritual fulfillment in the woods … I feel more connected to Mother Nature.”
Find The Origins Foundation Online
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