She's at home with hunting

She's pushing 5-foot-2 but can bring down a wild giraffe on the African savanna — and she has the animal's head to prove it.

Amy Knobbs, 30, a graphic designer at Microsoft's Redmond campus, said most people are surprised when they find out she's a big-game hunter, because she's "not the outdoorsy type."

Students in the hunters-education class she teaches in Issaquah stare at the petite instructor in disbelief when she calmly describes tracking wildebeests on safari. New guests in her Duvall home are sometimes rendered speechless by the hunting trophies mounted in the tidy dining room. Salesmen in one local gun shop ignore her when she's shopping for bullets to fill her Winchester rifle.

Slowly, more women are breaking into a sport that has been historically dominated by men. Since 2001, the number of female larger-game hunters in Washington has increased by more than 10 percent, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, a trend that may be the result of its new marketing campaigns geared toward women.

"We're seeing a steady, strong participation by women and that's the future of hunting," said Justin Pettis, supervisor of business and marketing development for the department. "We've really tried to connect with women in the state of Washington and tried to get them involved. I think there are a lot more women willing to try new things, and we're starting to see women teaching other women about outdoor skills."

Knobbs and her sister, who had no brothers, began hunting with their father, Tim Powell, and grandfather in Yakima at a young age. Knobbs said her greatest childhood memory is tromping beside them on wooded trails. "My dad always said he had hoped for a boy to be able to hunt with," she said. "But recently, he's been bragging that two daughters has been much more rewarding."

Knobbs has traveled the world hunting all types of wild game with her father and sister, including Alaskan caribou, Hawaiian black sheep and African zebra. In October, the three will drive to their favorite ranch in Wyoming to hunt antelope. Powell can hardly wait.

"It's not the hunt. It's sharing the great things, and the disappointment and some time around the fire at night that I love," he said. "A lot of kids just don't take the time to go with their parents. It doesn't matter if you're going fishing or boating or for a walk down the street. ... If they go with me; that's my dream."

Knobbs took a one-year break from hunting to raise her daughter when her husband, Deputy U.S. Marshal Karl Knobbs, was deployed to Iraq in 2003. And although she purchased a little camouflage jumpsuit for 1-year-old Elora, she's waiting a few years before taking her on a hunt.

"I think hunting teaches kids responsibility, because you're being given something that's potentially very dangerous," she said. "It also teaches family values. Hunting was always a family thing for us. A dad may not know how to relate to his daughters, but hunting gave us that connection."

Animal-rights groups that oppose hunting and the state's recruitment efforts disagree. "The added factors of shooting animals with a camera, rather than a gun, are compassion and respect for life," said Heidi Prescott, senior vice president of campaigns for The Humane Society of the United States.

Some use gender as a reason women should not participate in the sport.

"If women do try it out, I don't think they're going to continue with it," said Anne Muller, president of the Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting, a New York-based nonprofit. "I think it's as bizarre as men wearing evening gowns. It's just something that's not in our nature."

But women may be better hunters than men, some seasoned veterans said.

"I have found that women have the patience to be very still and quiet in the woods. They also take direction and coaching very well," said Donna Farley. Farley, an instructor certified by the National Rifle Association, teaches at Washington Outdoor Women (WOW), a Bellevue-based nonprofit that teaches outdoor skills to women.

This weekend, WOW will host its annual retreat at Camp Waskowitz Environmental Learning Center near North Bend. More than 100 women are expected to attend the three-day workshop, which includes classes about hunting ethics and wild-game preparation.

Farley, 70, began hunting as a girl to feed her family. She enjoys hunting with Knobbs because they share similar ethics. "People that [hunt] understand that it's a very special thing to take an animal's life," Farley said. "I show respect to the animal that I take, and I do it with reverence."

As a self-pronounced animal lover and keeper of two donkeys, two pugs and a coop full of chickens, Knobbs said, it's her respect for nature that keeps her hunting.

Lara Bain: larabain@yahoo.com