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Mark Freeman Commentary Kaboth no stranger to call of the wild Lying face up in a thick patch of eastern Oregon grass near Ukiah, Dieter Kaboth held the rubber diaphragm tight between his lips and tongue, concentrating hard to imitate what he had heard on cassette tapes and seen in videos. He let loose a string of short chirps and mews that caught the ears of one maternalistic baby sitter concerned that she had lost a toddler from the nursery. A few more soft chirps and whines and there the baby sitter stood, not 10 feet to his side. "It was intense," Kaboth recalls, "watching her nostrils flare as she tried to smell the calf she thought she had lost. Even now, after 14 years, I can put myself right back there, at that place and time. "Of all the animals I�ve called in over the years," he says, "you never can forget your first elk." Thousands of mews and hundreds of tricked animals later, Kaboth tries to recapture that sensation every time he lays tongue to diaphragm in his quest to remain one of hunting�s best Dr. Doolittles. Kaboth is a maestro of that backwoods ballet known as the art of the elk call, the practice of using series of bleats, whines, whistles and bugles to imitate real elk in hopes of coaxing the biggest bull of the woods into view. That first elk Kaboth lured from the eastern Oregon woods in 1986 was a cow that came to find an infant calf she mistakenly believed had slipped away from the collection of calves overseen by a set of cows. And though it was no eight-point trophy bull, the cow did reveal just how powerful keen woodsmanship and a well-honed mouth can be getting in touch with big game. "That moment was incredibly exciting for me, and it showed me just how amazing it is to communicate with animals," Kaboth says. Kaboth has since perfected a series of bull, cow and calf calls that make up the language of the elk. He is the only three-time pro elk-calling champion as crowned annually by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Rogue Valley hunters can get an earful from Kaboth tonight in Medford. The 39-year-old pro caller, who is a member of the Knight & Hale Ultimate Hunting Team, will hold a free 90-minute elk-calling seminar at 6:30 p.m. at Black Bird Shopping Center, 1810 W. Main St., Medford. The seminar will address how to use elk calls with other forms of woodsmanship and preparation to increase a hunter�s chance at bagging a bull on public lands in the Northwest. Becoming a good elk-caller is also the ticket for photographers and others who want to interact with one of nature�s most intriguing big-game mammals. "Even non-hunters can go with their kids to enjoy the sound of the wilderness and the call of the wild," says Kaboth, 39, of Salmon Creek, Wash. "It would intrigue their kids and give them something they�d never forget." Elk calling is a relatively new twist to man�s history of interacting with big game. For years, biologists and hunters have known that elk are some of the most talkative animals in the woods, regularly chatting to each other. During the fall mating season, the cows and bulls communicate, and large bulls will let loose high-pitched bugles to warn other bulls to stay away from their harem of cows. In the early 1980s, pioneers like Larry D. Jones began making and manufacturing diaphragms to imitate the high-pitched whistles, mews and chirps of elk. At first, hunters focused on imitating the bugling bulls, hoping to sound like another large male goading the bull into a show-down. But over time, hunters learned that the chatter among cows and calves can be equally effective at coaxing a large bull into view. As with all acquired skills, someone has made a contest of it. Fifteen years ago, the elk foundation began pitting the cow and bull sounds of callers against each other to see who was the most authentic. In 1990, �92 and �94, it was Kaboth. "But you don�t have to be a elk-calling champion to call in elk," he says. Buy a few calls and learn a few vocalizations and anyone can mix in calls to improve his or her chances at bagging a bull. When you consider that most general-season elk hunts have hunter success rates under 20 percent, any additional advantage is a plus. "The proof is in the freezer," he says. "If you�re a good hunter and a good caller, you�ll be successful year after year." And over the years, elk have come to learn that not every bugle and mew in the woods is another elk. "Elk have become call-shy over the years," Kaboth says. "The more realistic you sound, the better chance you have in calling one in." But even the most realistic elk calls won�t make up for solid woodsmanship, hunting skills and the realization that even the best callers cannot trick all five of an elk�s senses all the time. "You can fool their eyes with camouflage, and you can fool their ears with a call," Kaboth says, "but it�s really hard to fool their nose." (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at: [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA