The Latest Industry News for the Exciting World of Production.

Titan and Messiah will be the featured guests at this year's Northwest Community Credit Union's Sportsmen & Outdoor Recreation Show.

These two live African lions will have plenty of company in the wildlife kingdom, with three life-sized mounted animals: a world record bison, a black bear and a mountain lion. Big Ike, a Sasquatch replica also will be present.

If you want to take a break from viewing the wildlife and checking out other outdoor recreational pursuits and products, do some taste testing at the wild game and wine pairing table, or say hello to members of the Boy Scouts of America at their "ideal campsite."

There will be a variety of sights, sounds, products and activities at the show scheduled for February 17-19 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds Complex in Roseburg. Hours are noon to 9p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 8p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

"We try to offer something for everyone," says Joe Pate, president of ExpoSure, the producer of the show. "The great response to these shows is truly a reflection of the outdoor interests of the market. We try to bring the commonplace along with the unusual, and mix it in with entertainment and educational exhibits. This formula has worked very well over the past several years, and we are always trying to keep it a fresh, affordable and fun experience."

The unusual in this 16th annual show starts with Titan and Messiah, a couple of almost 2-year-old African lions. The brothers already are stars at their Steve Martin Working Wildlife home in Southern California.

They have done some television commercials and appeared as babies in the recently released movie, "Water for Elephants." They will make their first tour of outdoor shows this month when they visit the Eugene show February 3-5, the Roseburg show and the Medford show February 24-26.

"It will be mainly an educational experience," Steve says of what he plans to do with the young lions during several presentations each day. "They're being trained now. They're learning stuff.
We want to give people a little better education about wild animals that live in captivity, and also expose the animals to new environments and new experiences because that will help them later in their roles in movies. Every job does make them a little more seasoned."

Steve also will bring several smaller animals on stage with him during his presentations. A year ago, he brought three gray wolves to the shows. "The wolves went over pretty well," he says.

Another newcomer to the show will be a display of three mounted life-sized wild game animals. The largest is a bison taken in South Dakota in December 2010 by David Morris, the producer of the All Time Greats of Oregon Big Game display that will be a show feature. The bison's live weight was 2,100 pounds.

David had applied for a bison tag for several years before receiving one of the 10 tags for the 2010 season in the 71,000 acre Custer State Park south of Mount Rushmore.

He hunted with a South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks bison manager. He took the bison in dense pine terrain. Its size and age of 11 years made it the biggest ever taken in the park. Normally, buffalo taken in the park are 10 years old and a bit smaller.

David also will display a 408-pound black bear that was taken in Grant County during the 2010 archery season by an Oklahoma hunter. He killed the bear as it charged him at a distance of 6
to 8 yards.

The third wild game mount, a mountain lion, is one of the largest cougars taken in the state without
the use of dogs, according to David. It was killed in 2006 in Umatilla County by Oregon hunter Bill
O'Loughlin.

If those animals are not impressive or scary enough, then take a look up at Big Ike, a 9-foot tall replica of the legendary Sasquatch. Big Ike is a creation of the Animal Planet channel, which brought him to Oregon early last yearwhen it filmed the "Finding Bigfoot" series.

"They decided they didn't want him, so we decided to purchase it," says Dave Starck, owner of Ike's Pizza in Leaburg, a small community 25 miles east of Eugene on Highway 126. Dave has owned the is 44-year-old business the past seven years.

Big Ike has been used as a prop at the pizza shop, but now is ready for a road trip to the three Southern Oregon outdoor shows. He travels in a 14-foot travel trailer. When on display, he stands in trees.

"We want people to have fun with Ike," Dave says. "The looks on their faces when they see it, that says it all. People can take pictures with him, and there's no cost for a photo."

Ike is dressed in long black fur. Dave says its face is something between a lowland gorilla and a human being.

Another new aspect to the outdoor shows is the wild game and wine pairings brought by Dick
Calafato, managing partner of Pyrenees Vineyard of Roseburg.

Dick plans to pair a variety of Pyrenees' wines with cooked or dried venison, smoked salmon and elk, turkey or pheasant. The wines will be a 2009 chardonnay, a 2009 cabernet sauvignon and two others that he is still experimenting with.

"The whole idea is to introduce people to the taste of wild game when paired with wine," Dick says. "Most people in those hunting and fishing activities are beer drinking. We want to show them how well wild game goes with wine.

"We're excited about being at the shows. We're happy to give it a try. It'll be fun to be first. We're thankful Joe asked us to participate, and hopefully the pairings will be successful enough to continue them in the future."

Another sharing experience will take place at the ideal campsite display presented by the Boy Scouts. The display will include tents, a patrol box (stationary camp kitchen) a simulated campfire and knot tying demonstrations. Scout members will be in the camp every hour throughout the three-day show.

"We hope we can share with parents and grandparents the scouting story," says Chris McCullough, the district executive for Boys Scouts for Douglas County. "Folks can reminisce about their time in scouting and maybe bring their own children, grandchildren or neighbor children
into the scouting program. We wish to tell the story to a new audience."

Several troops from the county will have members participate in the campsite display.

Boy Scouts of America celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010, and has 10 million boy and girl members in the United States.

Joe hopes both the novice and experienced outdoors person will find something of interest at the show, whether through the featured guests or the many other unique exhibits, attractions, speakers, demonstrations and products.

About Steve Martin's Working Wildlife
Steve Martin, founder-owner of SMWW is a seasoned veteran in the film business for near 45 years. Specializing in Exotics that we OWN, and train. Maintaining an "accident free" record knowledge beyond most, plus an amazing perception of how to set up shots, to get your shots! It takes years of experience to understand what motivates animals to perform from positive guided reward. We hand raise our animals from infants, and take them on sets so they grow up being comfortable on sets, and around crews. Our trainers are seasoned with 25 plus years of experience. Our facility is located in the mountainous area outside of LA. We are one of the last company that own "trained" Chimpanzees in the business. A few of our famous animals are: "Major" our big full mane Male lion, two lionesses, wolf or wolf pack, Black leopards with an excellent reputation of performance, and ability to work safely close to actors, Bears that wrestle, cougars, foxes, skunks, and a near total of 90 various animals for film and Education. Over twenty years ago expanded into domestics dogs, with a wide variety of professionally trained dogs. Our dogs keep busy. We maintain an excellent reputation due to the credit of our amazing trainers. For an animal is only as great as the trainer that trained them.

Steve Martin's Working Wildlife
14466 Boy Scout Camp Rd.
Frazier Park, CA 93225
(661) 245-2406
www.workingwildlife.com