(This week The Columbian-Progress spotlights wildlife control agent Randell Baker.)
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born in Mobile, Ala., Dec. 18, 1971.
Q: Where did you attend school?
A: I went to Columbia High School, Jones County Junior College and Mississippi State. I went to school for wildlife management.
Q: Where do you work? Tell us about your job/company.
A: I’m a wildlife control agent, which means I handle nuisance wildlife when it comes in contact with humans. Whether it be predator management on farms, ranches or hunting clubs or beaver management for timber companies or snakes in people’s houses, I handle it all. I’m a private contractor with contracts with the state, county, any local governments and private individuals like timber companies and hunting clubs. I’ve been doing it for 26 years. I volunteer for Morgantown Fire Department as an EMT firefighter and have been doing that for 31 years.
Q: What led you to your profession?
A: It was a TV show I watched as a kid called “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.” They’d go out to trap animals, tag them and all that stuff. I was about 4 years old when I started watching it, and I knew then I wanted to work with wildlife. I went to school and am a licensed biologist, but I wanted to be in the field catching animals.
Q: What is an example of situations you encounter on a daily basis?
A: The wildest thing I ever did was a lady called me one night and said the opossum was in her house, and it was possessed by the devil. It was under the sink, and every time she’d open the door it would open its mouth and hiss at her. She thought it was possessed by the devil. She said, “You have to come get it. This thing got the devil in it.” I went over there and got it. Another lady called me one night about 2 in the morning and said there was a black panther trying to get in her car. I got there and winded up being a big Labrador. She had left a Burger King bag in the car, and the neighbor’s Labrador was trying to get it. There hasn’t been a confirmed sighting of a black panther or a cougar in Mississippi since 1983.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: Being alone in the woods with the wildlife. It’s a lot better and more fulfilling than dealing with people.
Q: What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
A: Trying to make people understand that wildlife is meant to be in the wild, especially with spring coming up. I get hundreds of calls of people picking up baby wildlife thinking it’s going to be a good pet, then a few months later they realize they’re not domesticated. They try to touch the wildlife, and they start biting. The bad part is they don’t know what to feed them, and the animals get to the point where they are dehydrated, and we have to get them and nurse them back with as little contact with people to be able to release them.
Q: What is the most important lesson you have learned in your career?
A: That everything deserves a chance to live and strive.
Q: When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: This is absolutely what I wanted to be. There were two things in my childhood I always had an obsession about — wildlife and woodworking. I’m doing both of them now.
Q: What was your first job?
A: I worked at the Orleans Furniture Factory when I was 16. I worked there during the summer. They had these racks that would go around and lacquer and stuff would build up on, and they hired school kids during the summertime to beat them racks off. I did that for two summers in a row.
Q: Who is the person who has been most influential in your life?
A: I’d say my mother, Judy Ball, because she raised six of us all by herself until she married my stepfather. As a child it was mainly her, and she worked three jobs to provide for us.
Q: Do you have children?
A: I have a daughter, Rachel, that is 19 and a son, Remington, that is 16.
Q: If you could have anything for your last meal on earth, what would it be?
A: Steak and shrimp. I’m 100 percent carnivore.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
A: The Amazon jungle. I’ve always been fascinated with the wildlife down there, and I’ve always wanted to go.
Q: What hobbies do you like to do in your spare time?
A: Woodworking is my escape from everything. I build custom furniture for people.
Q: What do you enjoy about Columbia and Marion County?
A: The people as far as the unity in our community. Whenever there’s a disaster or hardship for somebody, we all come together and help each other out.
Q: If you could have lunch with anyone from your life or history, who would it be and why?
A: Lewis and Clark. I’m fascinated with their journeys. I’ve read all of their journals about their exploration out to the Pacific Ocean and things like that. I’m fascinated by all of what they accomplished with as little as they could. They had the first BB gun or air rifle they carried with them. It could shoot 23 shots at a time before they had to reload it. That’s what mystified all of the people on their travels and kept them from attacking them. They had only seen muskets before, which could only shoot one time before it was reloaded. Lewis would bring out the air rifle every time they’d meet a new tribe, and he would repeatedly shoot it and they would be so mystified that they left them alone.
Q: If you didn’t have to worry about money, what would you do all day?
A: I’d travel from continent to continent looking for the next unidentified species of wildlife.
Q: What moment in your life has had the biggest impact on who you are today?
A: I’d say my childhood because I mostly stayed to myself with my dog, and we would explore the woods. That’s what made me addicted to it.
Q: What is one thing you want to do that you’ve never tried?
A: Deep sea diving. I’ve dove in the creeks around here in shallow water, but I’ve always wanted to dive around the wrecks and stuff.
Q: Using one word for each, what are your top three morals?
A: Honesty, respectfulness and dependability.
Q: How would you like to be remembered?
A: As making an impact on the community and making a difference in at least one person’s life.
— Joshua Campbell
Pictured Above: Wildlife control agent Randell Baker said he was inspired to work with wildlife because of a show he watched as a kid, “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.” Above, Barber poses with a wild coyote he trapped Wednesday morning. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
