August 18, 2025 • 27 mins
This week, Cal tackles the latest update on the gray wolf debate, pigs with blue meat, a zoo that feeds pets to animals, and a province-wide hiking ban.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Calahan. Here's
cal In a triumph of practicality over public relations, A
zoo in Denmark put out a call on Facebook this
week for donations of anyone wanted live pets to be
(00:31):
fed to the zoo's predators. The public can bring in
up to four chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, or other small
prey per day to the Alborg Zoo, two hundred miles
northwest of Copenhagen. Horses are also welcome, provided that they
meet sized guidelines and have not been treated for diseases
in the previous thirty days. The comments section on the
(00:52):
Facebook post was, of course calm and measured, with everyone
respectfully discussing the plan's nuanced pros and cons. Several comment
are also asked whether they could donate children to the program,
which indicates that at this point in August, the start
of school cannot come soon enough. Back in my seasonal
employment days, we refer to this as angry August. The
(01:13):
zoo clarified that it doesn't feed live animals directly to
lions or bears unless you are willing to pay extra
I'm kidding. Instead, the zoo is skipping over an obvious
revenue stream by euthanizing the pets before they go to
the predators. While animals are important for zoos because carnivores
can't just eat backstraps and sirloin the way many humans do,
(01:33):
they also need the hide, feathers, organs, fat, and bones
to keep their digestive systems healthy. Zoos in the US
almost never accept these kinds of donations, relying instead on
breeding supply companies to deliver the same chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits, rats,
and other animals that Alborg is accepting at no cost. However,
(01:53):
the Oregon Zoo has in the past accepted road killed
deer in the Minnesota Zoo will sometimes take deer killed
through color programs. Notably, the Alborg Zoo specifically states that
it does not accept donations of other predators as feedstock. Well,
there goes a good idea on how to replace those
trap newter release programs for feral cats, doesn't it. Side
(02:15):
note and not completely unrelated, We have an interview segment
coming up with Jenny Luciitre, who with twenty years experience
in the wild Horse and Burrow program does point out
that zoos in the US currently pay to have horse
meat shipped in from other countries to feed caged carnivores.
Dial into that one and please write in to askcl
(02:36):
that's Ascal at meeater dot com. This week, we've got
the wolf Desk, Don't Eat the blue Meat, Government overreach,
Nova Scotia style, and so much more. But first, I'm
going to tell you about my week. In My week, well,
hot dang always interesting. Let me tell you right in
this I am high in the sky above Minneapolis and
smoke is in the air. The only reason this surprises
(02:58):
me is that my home state verbial hotspot for forest
fire has been pretty darn calm. We've had plenty of
lightning strikes, but nothing has taken off this season, But
Septembers have been hot and dry. Fire on the landscape
is a good and natural thing, but just like every
other nimbi out there, I'd rather have it not interfere
with my elk season. And speaking of elk season, we're
(03:21):
gonna hit our next round of listener hunt prep emails.
Rich rites in pretty excited to follow along on your
brown bear adventure. Hey me too, Rich, thanks myself and
three buddies from here in Wisconsin drew Wyoming deer tags.
Our first time hunting in grizz Country. Any tips for
how to get to our glassing knobs safely before daylight,
(03:42):
make extra noise, use white lights over the red and
green lights, camp closer to our hunting area, et cetera.
And just to add another wrinkle, one of the guys
is a warden here and he just tore the cartilage
and his knee while on the job. At least we
all know who we have to run faster than well. Rich.
There are spots where the hair on the back of
(04:04):
your neck stands up and the cover is thick. Maybe
the wind is rustling the foliage overhead, and you're trekking
up a little babbling brook so nothing can hear you coming,
and you got the wind in your face. In those circumstances,
you want to have your bear spray ready, You can
have your headlights on. You might want to chat back
and forth outside of those situations. However, if you're not
(04:28):
encountering bear sign, you should just move easy and focus
on the deer. If you want to take extra precautions,
you can swing around and get the wind at your
back on your approach. The more wide to open the better,
so you should be all right. Just be bare aware,
keep a clean camp, look for tracks, scat and carcasses.
(04:49):
Listen to yourself. If something tells you the situation isn't right,
believe it. Come up with the new plan. A lot
of it's just common sense, man. You guys will be fine.
Clean camp, have the wind at your back, Be on
the lookout for bear sign. If you encounter large amounts
of bear sign, avoid that area. If you're going out
with the group and everybody's probably like your warden friend
(05:11):
is thinking about packing a side arm, I suggest having
people who do not pack side arms. Bear spray is
a great tool. And between I'm assuming it's mule deer
rifle season. Don't even need side arms, just have rifle
with you. But having that bear spray is a great option.
And you might end up coughing, but you're not gonna
(05:34):
shoot your neighbor. Another rich writes in this fella has
just moved to a very popular dare I say, hip
mountain town and is wondering how to tackle local hunting
as it seems everyone else has gotten to this place
before him. Additionally, he's got an actual job that limits
his hunting ability to a maximum amount of time of
(05:56):
three days in a row. So in other words, he
just a normal person working a normal job. For those
of you who don't know, if you can scrape together
more than three days of hunting in a season, you're
beating the national average. Anyway, it's the little stuff that counts.
The folks that make a habit of getting out in
those small windows of time, those small opportunities before and
(06:21):
after work are the ones that do the most hunting,
not the folks that get out for a week. And
that's the whole hunting enchilada. As far as hunting pressure goes, yeah,
it's real. But use ignorance to your advantage. You don't
know what you don't know. Expect to see people around
every corner. But if you don't see people, stop and
(06:42):
go on a little hunt. Check that spot out. I
guarantee you'll find some worthwhile places and they'll be quote
yours won't have that guilty feeling that somebody told you
to go to a spot and then you're like, boy,
I want to go back, but I don't want to
keep bothering the person who told me about the spot.
Find them on your own. It's really not hard. Lastly,
(07:04):
observe the local courtesy. Don't park on top of people.
Use your maps to guess where folks may be hunting
depending on where they are parked. Then find another pull
out that puts you in a different drainage. Be courteous,
talk to people, offer to help pick up trash. Take
those side adventures to kill a couple of grouse or
pick up some fall mushrooms. It's your time outside, have fun,
(07:27):
and again, don't write off those little increments of time.
Have your hunting stuff in the truck, be ready to
move when you get those opportunities. Most learning happens when
you are not in the animals. Moving on to the
wolf desk. Last week of federal judge in Missoula, Montana,
vacated a twenty twenty four ruling by the US Fish
(07:50):
and Wildlife Service that refused to relist the Northern Rocky
Mountain population of gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act. Already,
a coalition of sporting groups have appealed to judge's decision,
adding another couple chapters in the seemingly endless story. Of
the battle over wolves in the West, a quick refresher
for those just joining the story. In two thousand and nine,
(08:10):
after almost forty years, gray wolves were delisted from the
Endangered Species Act after their numbers rebounded from almost nothing
in the nineteen seventies to well pass their target number
of four hundred and fifty in the northern Rocky Mountains
by the mid two thousands. In twenty eleven, Congress turned
over management of this population of gray wolves to five states, Montana, Idaho,
(08:31):
and Wyoming, as well as Oregon and Washington in the
eastern one third of their states. Wolves are still listed
as threatened in Minnesota and remain endangered in the other
forty four states, as all lower forty eight keep in mind,
Montana waste no time in establishing wolf hunting and trapping
seasons with the objective of reducing the state's population of
(08:51):
around eleven hundred wolves to five hundred, a number mandated
by the Montana state legislature in twenty twenty one as
a quote unquote sustainable level. Despite hunters and trappers taking
significant numbers of wolves every year, including three hundred and
twenty six and twenty twenty and two hundred ninety seven.
Last year, populations have remained steady around the one thousand
(09:13):
griitter mark. Those healthy populations are what led the US
Fish and Wildlife Service to reject the relisting writing quote.
We concluded that the gray wolf in the Western United
States is not in danger of extinction or likely to
become in danger of extinction in the foreseeable future, throughout
all of its range or in any significant portion of
its range. But those same stable populations have led the
(09:35):
Montana state legislature to consider even more aggressive wolf reduction measures,
including a possible unlimited quota to get to that target
number of five hundred wolves. A recent proposal by Montana Fish,
Wildlife and Parks doesn't go that far, but it would
significantly expand wolf hunting and trapping, increasing the state wide
wolf quota from three thirty four to five hundred and
(09:57):
liberalizing bag limits to allow fifty teen wolves to be
taken with a single hunting or trapping license. That means
one person could theoretically take a total of thirty wolves
per season. Although that's likely to increase the annual wolf harvest,
those changes still aren't likely to creator this population of wolves.
Very few people take wolves in the state of Montana
(10:18):
take some dedication or just sheer luck, and everybody in
between the sheer luck and the dedicated only take a handful.
So there's probably a couple of people in the entire
state who could even come close to getting thirty wolves. However,
when you read regulations like this, you know, I think
(10:39):
it's fair to say that most people would be like,
oh my god, everybody can kill thirty wolves anyway. Old
Dan Malloy, US District judge in Missoula struck down the
Fish and Wildlife Determination site of the Montana Legislature's mandates
his justification for his ruling, agreeing with the plaintiffs that
the state laws are quote politically motivated the legislative interference
(10:59):
with agency discretion and management authority. He also ruled that
states are not using the quote unquote best available science
required by the ESA to arrive at their estimations of
wolf populations. Montana uses hunter surveys and statistical models rather
than direct observation of animals in the wild. mLOY went
on to state that the US Fish and Wildlife didn't
(11:21):
adequately consider recovery of wolves across their entire historical range
in their decision. Of course, if wolves return to their
full range from before European contact, you'd be running into
them down at your local Starbucks, public library, and baseball diamond,
which might cause a bit of a stir. Montana Governor
Greg Janforte's office responded immediately to the rulings, say quote,
(11:41):
Montana has a healthy, sustainable population of wolves. While we
are reviewing the decision, it will not implicate our states
management efforts or our wolf season. Judge mlloy's ruling would
send the decision about whether to relist wolves back to
US Fish and Wildlife, but the counter appeal filed by
these Sportsmens Alive Foundation, Safari Club International, and the Rocky
(12:02):
Mountain Elk Foundation will hold that up even further. Wildlife
management by elected officials and lawsuits isn't anyone's idea of
a good time. That's what we're likely going to get
for the foreseeable future. If we remember way back when
same judge, same town, Missoula grizzly delisting, there's a lot
of overlap here, So Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, we're all able
(12:26):
to submit grizzly bear management plans, and Wyoming took a
ton of heat because the way that they wrote their
management plan, kind of similar to their wolf management plan,
didn't seem very bare friendly. It was perceived by many
to be too aggressive, and that management plan was then
(12:47):
politicized as a show that these states were not ready
to manage grizzlies. So a lot of the same vibes here.
There's a lot of opportunity to manage wolves in the
state of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming. The fact of the matter
is hunters might slow a few wolves down, trappers will
(13:07):
put a larger dent in them. US Fish and Wildlife
Service if they're out there. Aerial gunning can put a
hurt on certain packs in certain places, but if folks
aren't using poison, wolves are very resilient and we're going
to have them. Plenty of room for some middle area
here gang. The USDA has recently deployed a new tool
(13:31):
in the fight against wolf depredation of livestock a wicked
fight between Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver from the twenty
nineteen movie Marriage Story. More specifically, the agency has been
using drones equipped with loud speakers playing stressful recordings to
haze the predators away. As reported in The Wall Street Journal.
Since twenty twenty two, the USDA has been running a
(13:52):
study to determine the effectiveness of the drones, and several
recent flights have taken place in southwestern Oregon and northern California,
places where wolves are still listed under the essay and
therefore off limits to hunting. The team recently responded to
the situation in the Klamath Basin, where a rash of
eleven cow killings over twenty days took place this year.
(14:12):
Another single farm in the area, owned by Jim and
Mary Rickard, lost twenty cows in twenty twenty four, as
well as forty calves that were either eaten or miscarried
after wolves chased their mothers. The USDA technicians began patrolling
the area in the spring with the specialized drones, each
of which comes with the thermal camera to locate the wolves,
a spotlight to dazzle them, and a speaker to stress
(14:33):
them out. In addition to the marriage story argument or,
researchers have had success with sounds of gunfire, the song
Blue on Black by the band Five Finger Death Punch
acdc's Thunderstruck, and simply yelling at the wolves through microphones
included with the drone controllers. I have to say I'm
a little worried that the most awesome wolves are actually
going to be attracted to the sounds of thunderstruck. Maybe
(14:56):
the team should try blasting baby shark instead and just
irritate the world wolves away. Results, however, have been promising.
Over the eighty five days that the drones patrolled the
Klamath Basin area, only two cows were killed, and the
records reported that their herd has been much more relaxed
and productive. Still, there are complications. Each drone cost twenty
thousand dollars, which sounds like a lot, especially when one
(15:18):
hits a tree. Has happened during the study. However, California
spent three million dollars compensating farmers for lost livestock between
twenty twenty two and twenty twenty four, and several states
have even set up so called pay four Presents or
P four P funds, which give farmers tens of thousands
of dollars a year to just offset the risk of
having livestock in wolf habitat. Now I know what you're thinking.
(15:41):
If the animal rights groups spent less money on billboards
and more money deterring wolves by dumping them into these
predator de terrence funds, they might make an impact. The
drones also only have about a twenty minute flight time
because all of that advanced tech drains their batteries really fast.
There are indications that the wolves are already getting acclimated
(16:01):
to them. One wolf was even recorded by a drone
putting its front legs out straight and dropping its head
as though to play with another dog. It's also unclear
what happens after the drone team has to move on
to another location. Farmer Jim Rickert said of the program, quote,
Hopefully they're going to be successful, but I'm kind of
betting on the wolves truth be known. A flying fish
(16:24):
sparked a small fire in British Columbia last week, prompting
the social media manager of Ashcroft Fire and Rescue to
issue what I can only take as a tryout for
Col's We Can Review quote do you wonder why the
power was out in Ashcroft today? The agency posted on Facebook.
There is something fishy about this call and we definitely
suspect foul play. Post goes on to explain that after
(16:47):
putting out a small brush fire outside of the village
of Ashcroft, firefighters found something strange on the ground, a fish.
This fish appeared to have been flambayed. It was covered
in char and missing most of its head. The strain
thing was the closest body of water, the Thompson River
is nearly two miles away. Investigators theorized that an osprey
had caught the fish in the river and then dropped
(17:09):
it on the power lines. This caused embers not to
mention the flaming fish to drop on the dry grasses blow,
which ignited the blaze. We do suspect that the size
of the fish and the heat of the day probably
caused the rather tired bird to drop its catch, the
post continues. Or another suspicion could be that it's tired
of raw fish and wanted to give cooked a try.
(17:30):
We may never know the answer, but it has been
verified that our prime suspects sustained no injuries in the
incident and is still flying at large. Couldn't have said
it better myself, though I have said something similar Cal's
Weekend Review. Listeners may remember that all the way back
in episode two twenty seven, we covered a different fish
and I assume a different ospray in New Jersey In
that incident, the bird dropped the fish on a transformer,
(17:53):
which cut power to two thousand New Jersey ins. Birds
of prey drop fish all the time, but an expanding
human foot is bound to cause this kind of thing
to happen more often. Either that or the ospreys are
evolving and going after our critical infrastructure. After all, birds
aren't real. If that happens, we'll be sure to cover
(18:16):
it here on Cal's weeken View. Moving on to the
Trail Nazi Desk, Western Canada is experiencing some pretty bad
fires this year, and like the fish fry we covered
at the top, some have grown to millions of acres
and are totally out of control. But the eastern provinces
aren't immune from dry heat and high winds, and Nova
Scotia has taken drastic steps to make sure it doesn't
(18:38):
see its own conflagration. Here's Nova Scotia's premiere Tim Houston
telling Canadians no hiking for.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
You, effective four pm today. We're telling Nova Scotians stay
out of the woods. We are restricting travel and activities
that really aren't necessary for most of us, hiking, camping, fishing,
and the use of vehicles in the woods. Are not permitted.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Houston goes on to explain that while camping is still
permitted in designated areas, campers are not allowed to enter
the trails through the woods. To find for violating this
new prohibition is a whole whopping twenty five thousand dollars.
The ban only applies on public land, so private landowners
can still walk through their woods without fear of prosecution,
but officials are encouraging landowners to follow the hiking ban voluntarily,
(19:25):
and guests of landowners can still be fined. There are
currently no big wildfires in Nova Scotia, but Houston argues
that these prohibitions are necessary to avoid repeating what happened
in twenty twenty three. In May and June of that year,
wildfires burned twenty five thousand hectors of the small province,
two hundred homes were lost, and sixteen thousand people were displaced.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
It's a small price to pay right now to avoid
the kind of devastation that we saw from the wildfires
in twenty twenty three. Nobody wants to go back there,
Nobody wants to repeat of that, and staying out of
the woods is what's necessary right now for the safety
of your families, your friends, and your neighbors.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That may be true, but it's a tough pill to
swallow for Nova Scotians and local businesses. Summer is the
height of the tourist season and many travel to the
province to take advantage of its outdoor recreation. Online commenters
have taken to social media to voice their frustration, and
the CBC reports that there are lawsuits in the works,
but so far nothing has been able to change the
minds of public officials. Nova Scotians can at least find
(20:27):
comfort in the fact that they aren't alone. Listener in
New Brunswick, resident George MacGregor wrote in to tell me
that this province, just to the north of Nova Scotia
has closed all crown land. Crownland is what Canadians call
public land, and George told me the closure will keep
him from doing much summer scouting this year. Still, he says, quote,
I guess it's better to have a forest that he
can't go in than none at all. Unlike Nova Scotia,
(20:49):
New Brunswick has several large fires, some of which have
yet to be contained. The band in Nova Scotia will
remain in place until October fifteenth, or weather conditions improve.
As of this recording, there still isn't any rain in
sight for the record gang. Because several of you asked
me to weigh in on this, I do not agree
(21:10):
with all out access bands like this. I understand though,
why they happen. I have empathy for the fact that
the people who regulate these for us have to consider
the worst element. Okay, the human who does not care.
But are we regulating the human who does not care
with bands like this? It's possible because if all the
(21:33):
do gooders, the rule followers stay out of the woods,
the people who break the rules are going to stick
out like a sore thum. Okay. Additionally, most of this
comes from like safety standards, So if there is a fire,
they're going to have to divert resources to getting people
out of the woods. Maybe the data over there says
(21:55):
that the fire is imminent and it's going to be
huge and catastrophic, and spreading resources thin to get a
couple of happy campers out of the woods may further
endanger others. And I get all that, but I think
there's a big danger in being able to close off
all access for a what if because the other side
(22:18):
of The what if game is what if they don't
open it back up, or what if they decide other
activities in other times of the year are unsafe. I
don't really have a solution for you here. We can't
regulate some miscreants doing bad deeds, but just because of that,
I don't think we should regulate the folks who are
responsible either. So moving on to the poison pig desk,
(22:45):
a pig trapper in Monterey County, California, discovered something unusual
earlier this year as he was processing one of the
pigs blue meat. Bear fat can sometimes have a blue
tinge if the bruins have been feeding on blueberries, but
the pig's discoloration had a far more dangerous cause. Rodenticide,
used to kill rats and other rodents, is often tinged
(23:05):
blue for easier identification, and the trapper had observed the
pigs feeding at pesticide bait stations. He contacted the California
Department of Fishing Wildlife, and sure enough, their testing confirmed
that the pork was laced with poison. The agency says
that pigs can also be exposed to rodenticide by eating
animals that have eaten the poison. That's called secondary poisoning.
The meat can sometimes have that blue color, but it
(23:27):
doesn't always. This pig isn't an outlier. At twenty eighteen
study of anti coagulant rodenticide exposure in game animals across
California found anticoagulant rodenticide residue in ten out of one
hundred and twenty wild pig and ten out of twelve
bare tissue samples. These animals came largely from agricultural or
residential areas where rodenticides are commonly utilized. Interestingly, none of
(23:52):
the Muleier samples tested positive for the poison. Obviously, if
you skin an animal and notice a blue tinge in
the tenderloins, take a pay on serving pork chops for dinner.
But what if the meat hasn't been dyed blue and
still contains traces of the chemical? Can it still hurt you?
That's a tricky question to answer. Most of the research
on how rodenticides pass through the food chain has been
(24:13):
focused on raptors. If a bird of prey or a
scavenger eats a rodent that's been poisoned, it can kill
those birds. The same is true of mountain lions, bobcats
and coyotes, especially if they eat poisoned rats regularly, the
poison can accumulate in their bodies and eventually kill them.
But as far as I've been able to tell, there
haven't been any reported cases of a hunter dying because
(24:33):
they've consumed impacted meat. And given the relatively high percentage
of pigs and bears that test positive in that twenty
eighteen study, hunters likely consume poisoned meat on a regular basis. Now,
that doesn't mean hunters haven't gotten sick from eating this meat,
and it's definitely not something you want to do on purpose.
To avoid accidentally consuming rat poison, be especially careful if
(24:56):
you hunt animals that frequent suburban or agricultural areas where
rodentis is used. Check the meat carefully for discoloration, and
definitely don't eat the livers, which is where the highest
concentration of the poison is usually found. And if you're
a homeowner or property manager who uses rodenticide, be sure
to put it out in a way that keeps non
target animals from consuming it. Uses secured bait station that
(25:18):
pigs and bears can't access, and monitor those areas for
wildlife activity. No one likes rats and mice in the kitchen,
but it's also important that we don't accidentally poison the
wrong critters. Hunters included last Stop the Attack Desk, a
Texas hunter chasing cape buffalo and South Africa, died last
week after being struck by one of the animals. Fifty
(25:39):
two year old Asher Watkins was hunting with an outfit
called Conrad Wehrmach Safaris. The company said in a statement
that Watkins was stalking a buffalo with a professional hunter
and a tracker when the animal charged. They said the
buffalo hadn't been wounded, and they described the attack as unprovoked.
Watkins brother mother, and stepfather had traveled to Africa with him,
and he had an ex wife and teenage daughter back
(26:01):
in the States. Of The dangerous game commonly pursued by
hunters in Africa, Kpe buffalo are considered to be the
most dangerous. They kill several hunters every year due largely
to their unpredictable nature. Most fatalities occur when a buffalo
has been shot but not killed, and a hunter is
tracking it to make a follow up shot. But as
we see in this case, Kate buffalo don't have to
(26:21):
be wounded to be dangerous. They can charge whenever they
feel threatened, and their six foot tall, two thousand pound
frame make them difficult to stop before doing serious damage.
We don't yet know all the details of what happened
in this case. Maybe the professional hunter made a mistake
and allowed his client to get too close. Maybe someone
missed a shot or didn't spot the animal when they
should have. Maybe the buffalo is just too well concealed
(26:43):
and this tragedy could not have been avoided. The Safari
company says they're cooperating with investigators they try to figure
out what happened, and we'll keep you in the loop.
It's all I got for you this week. Thank you
so much for listening. Remember to write in to as
case c AL that's asking cal to meet either dot
com and let me know what's going on in your
neck of the woods. Thanks again, we'll talk to you
(27:04):
next week.
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Calahan. Here's
cal In a triumph of practicality over public relations, A
zoo in Denmark put out a call on Facebook this
week for donations of anyone wanted live pets to be
(00:31):
fed to the zoo's predators. The public can bring in
up to four chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, or other small
prey per day to the Alborg Zoo, two hundred miles
northwest of Copenhagen. Horses are also welcome, provided that they
meet sized guidelines and have not been treated for diseases
in the previous thirty days. The comments section on the
(00:52):
Facebook post was, of course calm and measured, with everyone
respectfully discussing the plan's nuanced pros and cons. Several comment
are also asked whether they could donate children to the program,
which indicates that at this point in August, the start
of school cannot come soon enough. Back in my seasonal
employment days, we refer to this as angry August. The
(01:13):
zoo clarified that it doesn't feed live animals directly to
lions or bears unless you are willing to pay extra
I'm kidding. Instead, the zoo is skipping over an obvious
revenue stream by euthanizing the pets before they go to
the predators. While animals are important for zoos because carnivores
can't just eat backstraps and sirloin the way many humans do,
(01:33):
they also need the hide, feathers, organs, fat, and bones
to keep their digestive systems healthy. Zoos in the US
almost never accept these kinds of donations, relying instead on
breeding supply companies to deliver the same chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits, rats,
and other animals that Alborg is accepting at no cost. However,
(01:53):
the Oregon Zoo has in the past accepted road killed
deer in the Minnesota Zoo will sometimes take deer killed
through color programs. Notably, the Alborg Zoo specifically states that
it does not accept donations of other predators as feedstock. Well,
there goes a good idea on how to replace those
trap newter release programs for feral cats, doesn't it. Side
(02:15):
note and not completely unrelated, We have an interview segment
coming up with Jenny Luciitre, who with twenty years experience
in the wild Horse and Burrow program does point out
that zoos in the US currently pay to have horse
meat shipped in from other countries to feed caged carnivores.
Dial into that one and please write in to askcl
(02:36):
that's Ascal at meeater dot com. This week, we've got
the wolf Desk, Don't Eat the blue Meat, Government overreach,
Nova Scotia style, and so much more. But first, I'm
going to tell you about my week. In My week, well,
hot dang always interesting. Let me tell you right in
this I am high in the sky above Minneapolis and
smoke is in the air. The only reason this surprises
(02:58):
me is that my home state verbial hotspot for forest
fire has been pretty darn calm. We've had plenty of
lightning strikes, but nothing has taken off this season, But
Septembers have been hot and dry. Fire on the landscape
is a good and natural thing, but just like every
other nimbi out there, I'd rather have it not interfere
with my elk season. And speaking of elk season, we're
(03:21):
gonna hit our next round of listener hunt prep emails.
Rich rites in pretty excited to follow along on your
brown bear adventure. Hey me too, Rich, thanks myself and
three buddies from here in Wisconsin drew Wyoming deer tags.
Our first time hunting in grizz Country. Any tips for
how to get to our glassing knobs safely before daylight,
(03:42):
make extra noise, use white lights over the red and
green lights, camp closer to our hunting area, et cetera.
And just to add another wrinkle, one of the guys
is a warden here and he just tore the cartilage
and his knee while on the job. At least we
all know who we have to run faster than well. Rich.
There are spots where the hair on the back of
(04:04):
your neck stands up and the cover is thick. Maybe
the wind is rustling the foliage overhead, and you're trekking
up a little babbling brook so nothing can hear you coming,
and you got the wind in your face. In those circumstances,
you want to have your bear spray ready, You can
have your headlights on. You might want to chat back
and forth outside of those situations. However, if you're not
(04:28):
encountering bear sign, you should just move easy and focus
on the deer. If you want to take extra precautions,
you can swing around and get the wind at your
back on your approach. The more wide to open the better,
so you should be all right. Just be bare aware,
keep a clean camp, look for tracks, scat and carcasses.
(04:49):
Listen to yourself. If something tells you the situation isn't right,
believe it. Come up with the new plan. A lot
of it's just common sense, man. You guys will be fine.
Clean camp, have the wind at your back, Be on
the lookout for bear sign. If you encounter large amounts
of bear sign, avoid that area. If you're going out
with the group and everybody's probably like your warden friend
(05:11):
is thinking about packing a side arm, I suggest having
people who do not pack side arms. Bear spray is
a great tool. And between I'm assuming it's mule deer
rifle season. Don't even need side arms, just have rifle
with you. But having that bear spray is a great option.
And you might end up coughing, but you're not gonna
(05:34):
shoot your neighbor. Another rich writes in this fella has
just moved to a very popular dare I say, hip
mountain town and is wondering how to tackle local hunting
as it seems everyone else has gotten to this place
before him. Additionally, he's got an actual job that limits
his hunting ability to a maximum amount of time of
(05:56):
three days in a row. So in other words, he
just a normal person working a normal job. For those
of you who don't know, if you can scrape together
more than three days of hunting in a season, you're
beating the national average. Anyway, it's the little stuff that counts.
The folks that make a habit of getting out in
those small windows of time, those small opportunities before and
(06:21):
after work are the ones that do the most hunting,
not the folks that get out for a week. And
that's the whole hunting enchilada. As far as hunting pressure goes, yeah,
it's real. But use ignorance to your advantage. You don't
know what you don't know. Expect to see people around
every corner. But if you don't see people, stop and
(06:42):
go on a little hunt. Check that spot out. I
guarantee you'll find some worthwhile places and they'll be quote
yours won't have that guilty feeling that somebody told you
to go to a spot and then you're like, boy,
I want to go back, but I don't want to
keep bothering the person who told me about the spot.
Find them on your own. It's really not hard. Lastly,
(07:04):
observe the local courtesy. Don't park on top of people.
Use your maps to guess where folks may be hunting
depending on where they are parked. Then find another pull
out that puts you in a different drainage. Be courteous,
talk to people, offer to help pick up trash. Take
those side adventures to kill a couple of grouse or
pick up some fall mushrooms. It's your time outside, have fun,
(07:27):
and again, don't write off those little increments of time.
Have your hunting stuff in the truck, be ready to
move when you get those opportunities. Most learning happens when
you are not in the animals. Moving on to the
wolf desk. Last week of federal judge in Missoula, Montana,
vacated a twenty twenty four ruling by the US Fish
(07:50):
and Wildlife Service that refused to relist the Northern Rocky
Mountain population of gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act. Already,
a coalition of sporting groups have appealed to judge's decision,
adding another couple chapters in the seemingly endless story. Of
the battle over wolves in the West, a quick refresher
for those just joining the story. In two thousand and nine,
(08:10):
after almost forty years, gray wolves were delisted from the
Endangered Species Act after their numbers rebounded from almost nothing
in the nineteen seventies to well pass their target number
of four hundred and fifty in the northern Rocky Mountains
by the mid two thousands. In twenty eleven, Congress turned
over management of this population of gray wolves to five states, Montana, Idaho,
(08:31):
and Wyoming, as well as Oregon and Washington in the
eastern one third of their states. Wolves are still listed
as threatened in Minnesota and remain endangered in the other
forty four states, as all lower forty eight keep in mind,
Montana waste no time in establishing wolf hunting and trapping
seasons with the objective of reducing the state's population of
(08:51):
around eleven hundred wolves to five hundred, a number mandated
by the Montana state legislature in twenty twenty one as
a quote unquote sustainable level. Despite hunters and trappers taking
significant numbers of wolves every year, including three hundred and
twenty six and twenty twenty and two hundred ninety seven.
Last year, populations have remained steady around the one thousand
(09:13):
griitter mark. Those healthy populations are what led the US
Fish and Wildlife Service to reject the relisting writing quote.
We concluded that the gray wolf in the Western United
States is not in danger of extinction or likely to
become in danger of extinction in the foreseeable future, throughout
all of its range or in any significant portion of
its range. But those same stable populations have led the
(09:35):
Montana state legislature to consider even more aggressive wolf reduction measures,
including a possible unlimited quota to get to that target
number of five hundred wolves. A recent proposal by Montana Fish,
Wildlife and Parks doesn't go that far, but it would
significantly expand wolf hunting and trapping, increasing the state wide
wolf quota from three thirty four to five hundred and
(09:57):
liberalizing bag limits to allow fifty teen wolves to be
taken with a single hunting or trapping license. That means
one person could theoretically take a total of thirty wolves
per season. Although that's likely to increase the annual wolf harvest,
those changes still aren't likely to creator this population of wolves.
Very few people take wolves in the state of Montana
(10:18):
take some dedication or just sheer luck, and everybody in
between the sheer luck and the dedicated only take a handful.
So there's probably a couple of people in the entire
state who could even come close to getting thirty wolves. However,
when you read regulations like this, you know, I think
(10:39):
it's fair to say that most people would be like,
oh my god, everybody can kill thirty wolves anyway. Old
Dan Malloy, US District judge in Missoula struck down the
Fish and Wildlife Determination site of the Montana Legislature's mandates
his justification for his ruling, agreeing with the plaintiffs that
the state laws are quote politically motivated the legislative interference
(10:59):
with agency discretion and management authority. He also ruled that
states are not using the quote unquote best available science
required by the ESA to arrive at their estimations of
wolf populations. Montana uses hunter surveys and statistical models rather
than direct observation of animals in the wild. mLOY went
on to state that the US Fish and Wildlife didn't
(11:21):
adequately consider recovery of wolves across their entire historical range
in their decision. Of course, if wolves return to their
full range from before European contact, you'd be running into
them down at your local Starbucks, public library, and baseball diamond,
which might cause a bit of a stir. Montana Governor
Greg Janforte's office responded immediately to the rulings, say quote,
(11:41):
Montana has a healthy, sustainable population of wolves. While we
are reviewing the decision, it will not implicate our states
management efforts or our wolf season. Judge mlloy's ruling would
send the decision about whether to relist wolves back to
US Fish and Wildlife, but the counter appeal filed by
these Sportsmens Alive Foundation, Safari Club International, and the Rocky
(12:02):
Mountain Elk Foundation will hold that up even further. Wildlife
management by elected officials and lawsuits isn't anyone's idea of
a good time. That's what we're likely going to get
for the foreseeable future. If we remember way back when
same judge, same town, Missoula grizzly delisting, there's a lot
of overlap here, So Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, we're all able
(12:26):
to submit grizzly bear management plans, and Wyoming took a
ton of heat because the way that they wrote their
management plan, kind of similar to their wolf management plan,
didn't seem very bare friendly. It was perceived by many
to be too aggressive, and that management plan was then
(12:47):
politicized as a show that these states were not ready
to manage grizzlies. So a lot of the same vibes here.
There's a lot of opportunity to manage wolves in the
state of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming. The fact of the matter
is hunters might slow a few wolves down, trappers will
(13:07):
put a larger dent in them. US Fish and Wildlife
Service if they're out there. Aerial gunning can put a
hurt on certain packs in certain places, but if folks
aren't using poison, wolves are very resilient and we're going
to have them. Plenty of room for some middle area
here gang. The USDA has recently deployed a new tool
(13:31):
in the fight against wolf depredation of livestock a wicked
fight between Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver from the twenty
nineteen movie Marriage Story. More specifically, the agency has been
using drones equipped with loud speakers playing stressful recordings to
haze the predators away. As reported in The Wall Street Journal.
Since twenty twenty two, the USDA has been running a
(13:52):
study to determine the effectiveness of the drones, and several
recent flights have taken place in southwestern Oregon and northern California,
places where wolves are still listed under the essay and
therefore off limits to hunting. The team recently responded to
the situation in the Klamath Basin, where a rash of
eleven cow killings over twenty days took place this year.
(14:12):
Another single farm in the area, owned by Jim and
Mary Rickard, lost twenty cows in twenty twenty four, as
well as forty calves that were either eaten or miscarried
after wolves chased their mothers. The USDA technicians began patrolling
the area in the spring with the specialized drones, each
of which comes with the thermal camera to locate the wolves,
a spotlight to dazzle them, and a speaker to stress
(14:33):
them out. In addition to the marriage story argument or,
researchers have had success with sounds of gunfire, the song
Blue on Black by the band Five Finger Death Punch
acdc's Thunderstruck, and simply yelling at the wolves through microphones
included with the drone controllers. I have to say I'm
a little worried that the most awesome wolves are actually
going to be attracted to the sounds of thunderstruck. Maybe
(14:56):
the team should try blasting baby shark instead and just
irritate the world wolves away. Results, however, have been promising.
Over the eighty five days that the drones patrolled the
Klamath Basin area, only two cows were killed, and the
records reported that their herd has been much more relaxed
and productive. Still, there are complications. Each drone cost twenty
thousand dollars, which sounds like a lot, especially when one
(15:18):
hits a tree. Has happened during the study. However, California
spent three million dollars compensating farmers for lost livestock between
twenty twenty two and twenty twenty four, and several states
have even set up so called pay four Presents or
P four P funds, which give farmers tens of thousands
of dollars a year to just offset the risk of
having livestock in wolf habitat. Now I know what you're thinking.
(15:41):
If the animal rights groups spent less money on billboards
and more money deterring wolves by dumping them into these
predator de terrence funds, they might make an impact. The
drones also only have about a twenty minute flight time
because all of that advanced tech drains their batteries really fast.
There are indications that the wolves are already getting acclimated
(16:01):
to them. One wolf was even recorded by a drone
putting its front legs out straight and dropping its head
as though to play with another dog. It's also unclear
what happens after the drone team has to move on
to another location. Farmer Jim Rickert said of the program, quote,
Hopefully they're going to be successful, but I'm kind of
betting on the wolves truth be known. A flying fish
(16:24):
sparked a small fire in British Columbia last week, prompting
the social media manager of Ashcroft Fire and Rescue to
issue what I can only take as a tryout for
Col's We Can Review quote do you wonder why the
power was out in Ashcroft today? The agency posted on Facebook.
There is something fishy about this call and we definitely
suspect foul play. Post goes on to explain that after
(16:47):
putting out a small brush fire outside of the village
of Ashcroft, firefighters found something strange on the ground, a fish.
This fish appeared to have been flambayed. It was covered
in char and missing most of its head. The strain
thing was the closest body of water, the Thompson River
is nearly two miles away. Investigators theorized that an osprey
had caught the fish in the river and then dropped
(17:09):
it on the power lines. This caused embers not to
mention the flaming fish to drop on the dry grasses blow,
which ignited the blaze. We do suspect that the size
of the fish and the heat of the day probably
caused the rather tired bird to drop its catch, the
post continues. Or another suspicion could be that it's tired
of raw fish and wanted to give cooked a try.
(17:30):
We may never know the answer, but it has been
verified that our prime suspects sustained no injuries in the
incident and is still flying at large. Couldn't have said
it better myself, though I have said something similar Cal's
Weekend Review. Listeners may remember that all the way back
in episode two twenty seven, we covered a different fish
and I assume a different ospray in New Jersey In
that incident, the bird dropped the fish on a transformer,
(17:53):
which cut power to two thousand New Jersey ins. Birds
of prey drop fish all the time, but an expanding
human foot is bound to cause this kind of thing
to happen more often. Either that or the ospreys are
evolving and going after our critical infrastructure. After all, birds
aren't real. If that happens, we'll be sure to cover
(18:16):
it here on Cal's weeken View. Moving on to the
Trail Nazi Desk, Western Canada is experiencing some pretty bad
fires this year, and like the fish fry we covered
at the top, some have grown to millions of acres
and are totally out of control. But the eastern provinces
aren't immune from dry heat and high winds, and Nova
Scotia has taken drastic steps to make sure it doesn't
(18:38):
see its own conflagration. Here's Nova Scotia's premiere Tim Houston
telling Canadians no hiking for.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
You, effective four pm today. We're telling Nova Scotians stay
out of the woods. We are restricting travel and activities
that really aren't necessary for most of us, hiking, camping, fishing,
and the use of vehicles in the woods. Are not permitted.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Houston goes on to explain that while camping is still
permitted in designated areas, campers are not allowed to enter
the trails through the woods. To find for violating this
new prohibition is a whole whopping twenty five thousand dollars.
The ban only applies on public land, so private landowners
can still walk through their woods without fear of prosecution,
but officials are encouraging landowners to follow the hiking ban voluntarily,
(19:25):
and guests of landowners can still be fined. There are
currently no big wildfires in Nova Scotia, but Houston argues
that these prohibitions are necessary to avoid repeating what happened
in twenty twenty three. In May and June of that year,
wildfires burned twenty five thousand hectors of the small province,
two hundred homes were lost, and sixteen thousand people were displaced.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
It's a small price to pay right now to avoid
the kind of devastation that we saw from the wildfires
in twenty twenty three. Nobody wants to go back there,
Nobody wants to repeat of that, and staying out of
the woods is what's necessary right now for the safety
of your families, your friends, and your neighbors.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That may be true, but it's a tough pill to
swallow for Nova Scotians and local businesses. Summer is the
height of the tourist season and many travel to the
province to take advantage of its outdoor recreation. Online commenters
have taken to social media to voice their frustration, and
the CBC reports that there are lawsuits in the works,
but so far nothing has been able to change the
minds of public officials. Nova Scotians can at least find
(20:27):
comfort in the fact that they aren't alone. Listener in
New Brunswick, resident George MacGregor wrote in to tell me
that this province, just to the north of Nova Scotia
has closed all crown land. Crownland is what Canadians call
public land, and George told me the closure will keep
him from doing much summer scouting this year. Still, he says, quote,
I guess it's better to have a forest that he
can't go in than none at all. Unlike Nova Scotia,
(20:49):
New Brunswick has several large fires, some of which have
yet to be contained. The band in Nova Scotia will
remain in place until October fifteenth, or weather conditions improve.
As of this recording, there still isn't any rain in
sight for the record gang. Because several of you asked
me to weigh in on this, I do not agree
(21:10):
with all out access bands like this. I understand though,
why they happen. I have empathy for the fact that
the people who regulate these for us have to consider
the worst element. Okay, the human who does not care.
But are we regulating the human who does not care
with bands like this? It's possible because if all the
(21:33):
do gooders, the rule followers stay out of the woods,
the people who break the rules are going to stick
out like a sore thum. Okay. Additionally, most of this
comes from like safety standards, So if there is a fire,
they're going to have to divert resources to getting people
out of the woods. Maybe the data over there says
(21:55):
that the fire is imminent and it's going to be
huge and catastrophic, and spreading resources thin to get a
couple of happy campers out of the woods may further
endanger others. And I get all that, but I think
there's a big danger in being able to close off
all access for a what if because the other side
(22:18):
of The what if game is what if they don't
open it back up, or what if they decide other
activities in other times of the year are unsafe. I
don't really have a solution for you here. We can't
regulate some miscreants doing bad deeds, but just because of that,
I don't think we should regulate the folks who are
responsible either. So moving on to the poison pig desk,
(22:45):
a pig trapper in Monterey County, California, discovered something unusual
earlier this year as he was processing one of the
pigs blue meat. Bear fat can sometimes have a blue
tinge if the bruins have been feeding on blueberries, but
the pig's discoloration had a far more dangerous cause. Rodenticide,
used to kill rats and other rodents, is often tinged
(23:05):
blue for easier identification, and the trapper had observed the
pigs feeding at pesticide bait stations. He contacted the California
Department of Fishing Wildlife, and sure enough, their testing confirmed
that the pork was laced with poison. The agency says
that pigs can also be exposed to rodenticide by eating
animals that have eaten the poison. That's called secondary poisoning.
The meat can sometimes have that blue color, but it
(23:27):
doesn't always. This pig isn't an outlier. At twenty eighteen
study of anti coagulant rodenticide exposure in game animals across
California found anticoagulant rodenticide residue in ten out of one
hundred and twenty wild pig and ten out of twelve
bare tissue samples. These animals came largely from agricultural or
residential areas where rodenticides are commonly utilized. Interestingly, none of
(23:52):
the Muleier samples tested positive for the poison. Obviously, if
you skin an animal and notice a blue tinge in
the tenderloins, take a pay on serving pork chops for dinner.
But what if the meat hasn't been dyed blue and
still contains traces of the chemical? Can it still hurt you?
That's a tricky question to answer. Most of the research
on how rodenticides pass through the food chain has been
(24:13):
focused on raptors. If a bird of prey or a
scavenger eats a rodent that's been poisoned, it can kill
those birds. The same is true of mountain lions, bobcats
and coyotes, especially if they eat poisoned rats regularly, the
poison can accumulate in their bodies and eventually kill them.
But as far as I've been able to tell, there
haven't been any reported cases of a hunter dying because
(24:33):
they've consumed impacted meat. And given the relatively high percentage
of pigs and bears that test positive in that twenty
eighteen study, hunters likely consume poisoned meat on a regular basis. Now,
that doesn't mean hunters haven't gotten sick from eating this meat,
and it's definitely not something you want to do on purpose.
To avoid accidentally consuming rat poison, be especially careful if
(24:56):
you hunt animals that frequent suburban or agricultural areas where
rodentis is used. Check the meat carefully for discoloration, and
definitely don't eat the livers, which is where the highest
concentration of the poison is usually found. And if you're
a homeowner or property manager who uses rodenticide, be sure
to put it out in a way that keeps non
target animals from consuming it. Uses secured bait station that
(25:18):
pigs and bears can't access, and monitor those areas for
wildlife activity. No one likes rats and mice in the kitchen,
but it's also important that we don't accidentally poison the
wrong critters. Hunters included last Stop the Attack Desk, a
Texas hunter chasing cape buffalo and South Africa, died last
week after being struck by one of the animals. Fifty
(25:39):
two year old Asher Watkins was hunting with an outfit
called Conrad Wehrmach Safaris. The company said in a statement
that Watkins was stalking a buffalo with a professional hunter
and a tracker when the animal charged. They said the
buffalo hadn't been wounded, and they described the attack as unprovoked.
Watkins brother mother, and stepfather had traveled to Africa with him,
and he had an ex wife and teenage daughter back
(26:01):
in the States. Of The dangerous game commonly pursued by
hunters in Africa, Kpe buffalo are considered to be the
most dangerous. They kill several hunters every year due largely
to their unpredictable nature. Most fatalities occur when a buffalo
has been shot but not killed, and a hunter is
tracking it to make a follow up shot. But as
we see in this case, Kate buffalo don't have to
(26:21):
be wounded to be dangerous. They can charge whenever they
feel threatened, and their six foot tall, two thousand pound
frame make them difficult to stop before doing serious damage.
We don't yet know all the details of what happened
in this case. Maybe the professional hunter made a mistake
and allowed his client to get too close. Maybe someone
missed a shot or didn't spot the animal when they
should have. Maybe the buffalo is just too well concealed
(26:43):
and this tragedy could not have been avoided. The Safari
company says they're cooperating with investigators they try to figure
out what happened, and we'll keep you in the loop.
It's all I got for you this week. Thank you
so much for listening. Remember to write in to as
case c AL that's asking cal to meet either dot
com and let me know what's going on in your
neck of the woods. Thanks again, we'll talk to you
(27:04):
next week.
Host
Cal Callaghan
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