Game scouts in Zambia receive an initial issue of clothing and equipment. When they wear out, there are often no replacements. Game scouts in the North Luangwa National Park (where Americans Mark and Delia Owens worked - authors of "Cry of the Kalahari" and "Eye of the Elephant") were going bare foot or making foot wear out of tire carcasses. Their "uniforms" were tattered and torn and many had none at all. All 20 Ruger Model 77, Mk II, .308 rifles had broken stocks that were held together by screws and wire and all rifle sights were broken. Malaria was rampant and the scouts had no mosquito netting to sleep under. Poachers, on the other hand, were well equipped with Soviet bloc AK-47 rifles and seemingly unlimited supplies of ammunition.

WILDCON "adopted" the 83 game scouts and supplied them with several sets of uniforms, back packs, combat boots and boot socks, mosquito bars, rain ponchos, ground sheets, blankets, canteens, anti-malaria tablets, hats, web belts, first aid kits, polymer military rifle stocks and rifle sights, and much more.

When Mark and Delia left Botswana and started their antipoaching operations in Zambia's North Luangwa National Park, they, together with the now better equipped game scouts, brought the killing of elephants down from an annual average of 1,100 to ZERO! Those who watched "Turning Point" in early March 1996, saw Mark handing out the WILDCON combat boots to the scouts. Mark and Delia have now concluded their very successful antipoaching and research project in Zambia and are now involved in conservation in the USA.

Game Scout Awards
Few people recognize the often heroic job game scouts perform while carrying out their work under extremely harsh conditions of weather and danger. In 1993 WILDCON established an awards program to recognize game scouts who distinguish themselves in contacts with poachers. WILDCON renders appreciative awards to those men who demonstrate outstanding acts of bravery by issuing cash awards plus prized equipment such as Mini-Maglites and Swiss Army Brand "Swisschamp" knives.