October 6, 2025 • 24 mins
This week, Cal tells you about an attack squirrel with a penchant for older women, undercover agents tracking American poachers hiding in Canada, a spate of bear encounters in Ontario and Florida, and so much more.
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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 Col's Week in Review with Ryan cow Klahan. Here's
cal there's an attack squirrel on the loose in Lucas Valley, California,
and local residents are going a little nuts. This clumped
onto my leg and was just hanging on his tail,
(00:31):
was flying up here, you know, and I was like,
get off me, get off me, and I kind of
didn't want to touch it.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Came out out of nowhere.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I didn't see him running up to me at all.
That's Joan Heblick, who was scratched and bit by this
squirrel during her morning walk in what appears to be
an unprovoked attack. But this rodent reprobate appears to have
a pinshon for nice looking elderly women. Because Joan wasn't
the only one to get jumped.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
The squirrel went to the floor and from the floor
tried to jump to my face, which I tried to
protect my face from and then my arm was completely
of a come by the squirrel.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Isabelle Campoys sustained some pretty nasty looking scratches to her
right arm before she convinced the squirrel to let her go.
Since then, local residents have posted signs around the neighborhood
warning of a quote attack squirrel. This is not a joke,
the poster reads, contradicting most media coverage. Thus far more
than five people have been attacked by a very mean
squirrel over the past few days. The squirrel comes out
(01:32):
of nowhere and will attack. Of course, as regular listeners
of this podcast have no doubt surmised by this point,
this squirrel isn't attacking so much as asking for food.
A wildlife biologists who spoke to ABC seven News said
that squirrels aren't vectors for rabies, and so this particular
limb chicken isn't acting out of diseased mind. Instead, in
(01:53):
all likelihood, he's been fed by humans his whole life
and just doesn't know how to ask for food nicely.
All just like that. I'm sure there's another nice looking
elderly woman in this neighborhood who takes great joy in
feeding the local wildlife. But for the sake of her
fellow residence, I hope these incidents convince her to stop.
I am recording this from Anchorage, Alaska. It is gorgeous
(02:18):
up here. It is like real fall temperatures. There's some
fresh snow up on the tippy tops of the mountains.
You can see from town, beautiful fall colors on the
trees down here. And we just did the big gear shuffle.
That's Jason Rare, Garrett Smith aka Dirtmith, and myself. There's
(02:38):
a lot of packing and repacking involved in these trips
and we got multiple legs to go tomorrow to hopefully
get into brown Bear Camp. Really looking forward to a gang,
really looking forward to it. As you know, we got
lots of help on the podcast. Alex Tilney and Jordan
Sillers are going to tag team any update that need
(03:00):
to happen here over the next week or two in
case they get stuck up there in the bush, which
doesn't sound like a bad thing at all. I want
to keep you as up to date and relevant as possible,
and it's good to have some helping hands. Boys do
some heavy lifting as it is, so it's awesome to
have them jump in and read you the news. God,
we've got a lot of stuff. It is just hard
(03:23):
to pack the way you want to when you're doing
this TV stuff, ladies and gentlemen. Makes me little self conscious.
I'm not going to lie. But once we get out there,
it's gonna be fun. We're gonna be doing the thing
which is glass and heavy, looking for big brown critters
and uh maybe some wolves out there too. So lots
(03:45):
to report back on. I came out of Climate Week
New York City, met up with Alex Tilney, had some
great food and talk to politics, climate change, how hunters
see climate and roadless rules and things like that, in
front of a bunch of super nice folks from the
Upper West Side and the Manhattan Patagonia store. And I'm
(04:07):
not talking Manhattan, Montana. I'm talking the island of Manhattan.
First thing I saw when I crossed the bridge was
a dude ripping on a scooter with a couple of
fishing rods on his back, which made me real happy.
Gang really did. Without further ado, let me get to
the news. If you're getting out in the woods, be safe,
be kind, be courteous, work hard, good things will happen.
(04:30):
Moving on to the crime desk, six men from Montana
and Washington State have pled guilty to poaching six bowl
elk and five mule deer bucks in Montana between twenty
twenty and twenty twenty four. Details are still scarce, but
we do know that. Thanks to a tip from the public,
game wardens discovered a group of individuals who had been
illegally killing animals in Hunting District five ninety, which is
(04:53):
located south of a town called Roundup or round Town
as we used to call it, in the eastern portion
of the state, about due north of Billings, Montana. Two
of the men, Devin Ray and Mitch Miller, are from
round Up, while the other four Ben Valadez, Kyle Stealing,
Noah Valades, and Johnny Lopez are from Tri Cities, Washington,
over six hundred miles away. How these fellas connected with
(05:14):
each other and killed all those elk and mule deer
is unclear. What is clear is that they're all paying
hefty fines and are looking at two, four and eight
year hunting licensed suspensions. They also had their trophies confiscated
and get to hear their names on podcasts like this one, which,
let's be honest, is an even worse punishment. An American
(05:34):
fugitive hiding in Canada was arrested last week after Canadian
officials discovered he and four others had been allegedly poaching
eagles and hawks. The five individuals face that combined forty
three federal and provincial charges, including hunting of birds of
prey and unlawful possession of wildlife for the purpose of trafficking.
The American a fella named Simon Paul had been charged
(05:55):
with similar crimes on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana.
A confidential informant told law enforcement that he'd fled up
to Alberta to live with Teresa Snow on the Stony
Nakota First Nation. When game boardens started poking around up there,
they learned that Paul was actively killing eagles on the
Stony Nakota and Eden Valley First Nation's land and selling
wildlife products. Undercover agents approached Paul Snow and another man
(06:18):
named James Britton, and they sold the agents various illegal items,
including a ball to eagle feather headdress, black bear claw necklaces,
and a raptor talon dance stick. Subsequent searches of the
suspects trucks and residences revealed freshly removed eagle feet with talons, feathers, blood,
and other raptor parts, and a tipster said Paul and
another man named Eli Snow had been shooting eagles from
(06:40):
their truck. Eagle feathers and parts are important ceremonial items
in many indigenous communities, but Alberta and other provinces and
states have instituted means by which these items can be obtained.
As with hunting regulations, these rules are designed to allow
for responsible harvest while maintaining the health of wildlife populations.
But when there's a market for wild life parts, there
(07:00):
will always be suppliers who tried to cut corners, which
is likely what has happened in this case. Old Simon
Paul wasn't the only poacher to get caught by undercover
wildlife agents last month, thirty two year old Dylan Nisley
of Indiana had been operating illegal guided fishing trips on
Lake Erie, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
When agents caught win toed this, they signed up for
(07:23):
one of Nisley's trips. They discovered that Nisley did not
possess a valid US Coast Guard Captain license or a
valid fishing guide license, and he allowed the undercover agents
to keep more walleye than their daily limit. Agents also
discovered that in November of twenty twenty three, Nisley traveled
to Missouri and killed a buck with a firearm during
archery season, failed to report all the deer he harvested,
and took more than two antler deer during the season.
(07:45):
Nisley was charged with federal LACI Act violations and sentenced
to two years of probation, which includes a universal fishing
and hunting band for the entire probation period and one
hundred and forty four hours of community service. Nisley also
paid ten thousand dollars to the Lacy Act Reward account.
Last One for You, a Washington State woman has pled
(08:08):
guilty to a single felony account of wildlife trafficking for
buying and selling waterfowl and black bear parts. The trouble
for fifty four year old the Yan L Lee began
all the way back in twenty twenty, when the Skadget
County Health Department received complaints about Lee's restaurant. Someone found
dead waterfowl outside Lee's establishment, but investigators found that Lee
wasn't selling the bird meat in her restaurant. She was
(08:30):
fined for possessing the birds without the proper paperwork, and
that should have been the end of the story, but
the Health department continued to receive complaints, and so the
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife launched a full investigation,
which included you guessed it, undercover game wardens. One of
these agents approached Lee with animal parts to sell, and
she purchased thirteen gall bladders, six livers, and twenty four
(08:51):
black bear pause with the claws still attached. These parts
are bought and sold in the States for hundreds of dollars,
but can be resold overseas four thousands. After pleading guilty
to a Class C felony, Lee was sentenced to forty
five days of confinement and an eighteen hundred dollars fine.
There's probably more to the story. If Lee was buying
and selling black bear parts, then she must have had
(09:11):
a supplier along with a buyer. I'm sure investigators are
looking into who these people were and whether the bears
were being poached from the good people of Washington State.
Moving on to the mailbag desk, listener Brian Sadler wrote
in with a sobering but helpful report from his part
of the woods in Wisconsin. Brian lives in a county
(09:31):
near r Pal Doug Duran, and he believes CWD is
becoming more prevalent and having a serious impact on hunting opportunities.
Brian said, quote, I hunt public and some private permission
in a few of the counties that show very high
prevalence of CWD. It really has become a coin flip
the last decade for if I'm going to get a
CWD positive or not. Some deer look fat and healthy,
(09:54):
others look like an old rug draped over bones. I
feel that the continued high population density in certain parts
of the county overshadows the fact that the prevalence is increasing.
From independent conversations with hunters in the area who've been
running trail cameras since before CWD was detected, the age
class of bucks has really dropped over the last few years.
They used to have several target bucks each year in
(10:15):
their area between four and six and a half years old.
Now all of them say they don't see any bucks
over three and a half anymore. Brian clarifies that these
landowners haven't changed their management strategy and are still trying
to target bucks four and a half years and older,
but they're seeing less and less of these older bruisers
and Saddler believes CWD is the culprit general whitetail season
(10:37):
is right around the corner if you live in an
area with CWD restrictions. I know it's a pain in
the ass, but Brian's email is a good reminder that
we need to stay vigilant and do everything in our
power to mitigate the impact of this disease. Your kids
and grandkids will thank you now to pile on here
bubbly Doug says ten years ago, we didn't have a
positive deer thirteen years ago. Based on the recommendations of
(11:01):
James Doctor dear Kroll, Uncle Ted's buddy, the tools to
manage the herd and the disease, like eern a buck
and an early and extended gun buck and doe seasons
were outlawed. We watched that tipping point of exponential growth
happen in real time. One of the big land owners
just south of Durkin's cousin's place, who I keep in
contact with and whose experience has been chronicled by Pat
(11:22):
and other writers, had eleven out of eleven bucks harvested
last year test positive. None were older than three and
a half. Then in February he walked out into a
food plot and found three more bucks dead, all emaciated,
like they were standing there knowing they were supposed to eat,
but didn't know how. It's anecdotal, but hunters got their
(11:43):
finger on the pulse of this stuff because they're paying
attention to it. Take her or leave it. CWD isn't
the only disease white tail have to worry about. Epizootic
haemorrhagic disease, or more commonly known by its acronym, is
ravaging the herds in southeast Ohio as thousands of deer
(12:04):
succumb to the usually fatal viral illness. EHD is spread
by midge flies that transmit the virus through their bites.
It causes deer to become disoriented, feverish, and causes their head, neck,
and tongue to swell. Deer often become thirsty, and so
the carcasses are often found in or near waterways. EHD
is a common deer disease and it usually doesn't cause
(12:26):
high rates of mortality, but when conditions are right and
the midge flies swarm, it can cause serious outbreaks. In
southeast Ohio, nearly eight thousand deer have been reported dead
or sick in twenty twenty five. That's up from two
thousand last year and only eighteen the year before. One
local resident who spoke to the media said that he
and his neighbors located thirty dead deer within a one
(12:49):
mile radius of his home. Wildlife managers believe the heavy
rains in July coupled with the droughts in August, created
the perfect muddy habitat for flies to reproduce, and the
white tail population is feeling the consequences. Hunters aren't happy either.
Wildlife managers are considering an emergency rule that would reduce
the bag limit for deer in Athens, Washington, and Megs
(13:10):
County from three to two. If deer herds are already
being diminished by EHD, they don't want hunters to put
them back even further. Most hunters support these emergency measures,
though some say they don't go far enough. EHD doesn't
appear to be dangerous to humans, and there haven't been
any cases of humans contracting the virus by eating venison,
but wildlife officials still discourage hunters from eating disease deer,
(13:34):
partly because you never know when a virus might make
that jump, and partly because hunters can't say for sure
the deer died from EHD. A sick deer might have
another illness that is dangerous to people, so officials advise caution.
The flies will die when the weather gets colder later
this year, and the deer herds can usually bounce back
pretty well from an EHD outbreak, but it might take
(13:54):
a few years, and in the meantime, hunters in southeast
Ohio might have to make do with you were venison
steaks in the freezer. In regards to eating EHD positive deer,
typically if they're positive, you're not going to know it.
If you shot it, you'll know it because you found
them dead in close enough proximity to water. Your normal
(14:16):
cooking routine for venison wild game is going to be
just fine. You're not going to contract EHD. The bear
Encounter's desk has been seeing its annual spike in activity.
Last week in Nipigon, Ontario, a couple who had to
open the back door to let their dog out got
more traffic than they bargained for when a black bear
walked right in that same door. After suffering scratches and bites,
(14:39):
the couple barricaded themselves in the bedroom and called the police.
Smart of these folks not to barricade themselves in the pantry.
The bear then wandered into the basement of the house,
where the dog managed to confine it by standing at
the top of the stairs and barking its head off.
Law enforcement responded to the scene and killed the bear,
and thankfully, the couple and the dog received medical care
but will have no long term injuries. In response to
(15:01):
the incident, Martin Obert, a research scientist with Ontario's Ministry
of Natural Resources, told the CBC that this year's failed
blueberry crop was driving bears to seek calories closer to houses,
restaurants and trash. He said, quote, when we have droughts
like we had this summer, that really hammers the blueberry crop,
and droughts across Ontario were pretty widespread this year. There
(15:23):
have been six hundred and seventy reports of bear encounters
from the northwest region of Ontario this year, much higher
than the successful blueberry crop years of twenty twenty two
and twenty twenty three, but under last year's total, when
the crop also failed, leading to seven hundred and one
bear reports by the same point last season. That's right,
(15:44):
black bears, if you're listening, you got some catching up
to do winners coming in fast. Down in central Florida,
a bear walked into the garage of a local man,
Zeke Clark, and panicked after the garage door closed behind him.
The bear then opened the door to the kick and
charged into the house, and Clark's mother in law screamed,
bear in the house, Bear in the house. Clark said
(16:07):
that at that point, quote all hell broke loose. Listen.
I understand not wanting your mother in law to come
over so often, but orchestrating a bear intrusion is going
to extremes anyway. After the bear fled into the bathroom,
Clark retrieved a firearm, opened the door and shot the
bear once, then closed the door again with the bear
charging toward him, and shot two more times through the door.
(16:30):
This was the third time bears had managed to get
into Clark's house this year, although both previous times the
intrusions were limited to the garage. Clark said he plans
to install locks on all his doors from now on.
Clark's encounter is happening against the backdrop of controversy surrounding
the upcoming Floorida bear season, the first one in the
state in ten years. For all the background on this one,
(16:51):
head over to the meeater dot com and read the
excellent recent article by our own Jordan Sillers. Opposition to
the hunt has been intense, with animal rights groups buying
up lottery entries in hopes of winning tags so that
hunters won't. Of course, if management objectives aren't met this year,
the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will likely just
to increase the hunting quotas until bears reach a sustainable
(17:12):
carrying capacity. But that strategy isn't the only way anti
hunters are trying to disrupt Florida's bear season. After challenges
to the state's administrative process failed, the anti hunting group
Bear Warriors Unlimited, this week filed a lawsuit in Tallahassee
Circuit Court, hoping to convince a judge to cancel the season.
The group alleges that the hunt is based on out
(17:33):
of date science from ten years ago. Observers think the
suit has very little chance of success, as all the
biology from more recent years has confirmed that black bears
are absolutely kicking butt in the Sunshine State, with as
many as four thousand of them now on the landscape. Finally,
in the northern New Jersey town of Vernon, a one
hundred and seventy five pound female bear entered a Dollar
(17:56):
General last week, shortly after biting a ninety year old
woman near the entry to the store. Footage captured by
another patron shows the bear calmly walking the aisles as
though looking for the sour cream and onion pringles. The
bear then left the store, and area police attempted to
haze her back into the woods with rubber bullets. However,
after the sow headed back to the Dollar General two
(18:17):
more times, police made the decision to kill her. Vernon
city ordinance allows stores and restaurants to leave dumpsters open,
and the death of this bear prompted another round of
calls for elected officials to change town law to require
dumpsters to be covered. These stories make for splashy news,
but those kind of boring steps just make trash harder
to eat make all the difference in the world. New
(18:40):
Jersey's bear hunt also survived a recent lawsuit when a
state appeals court rejected a challenge to the authority of
the New Jersey Fishing Game Council. The challenge was filed
by State Senator Ray Lesniak, who argued that because six
of the eleven Fishing Game Council members were nominated by
the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, a hunting
in common reservation advocacy group, the council was in effect
(19:02):
controlled by that private organization. In its decision, the Appeals
Court pointed to the fact that all members of the
Council had been lawfully appointed by the governor and confirmed
by the state Senate. New Jerseys Hunt faces another legal
challenge from the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, which
seeks to overturn the state's comprehensive black bear management policy
(19:23):
from twenty twenty two and will be sure to keep
you up to date with what happens on that one.
This flurry of bear human conflict is happening now because
black bears are entering a state called you guessed it, hyperfacia,
which literally means intense feeding, the phase of year when
they eat as many calories as possible to pack on
(19:43):
all that fat they can in preparation for hibernation, you know,
like a tailgate party. Hyper Fascia is triggered by a
spike in blood insulin, allowing bears to consume as much
as three times the daily calories they eat at other
times of year. Most bears will consume a wh being
sixty percent of their yearly food in just a three
month window. Black bears have been known to double their
(20:05):
weight in this period, adding all those extra pounds in
pure fat. Then they burn that fat during hibernation when
they won't eat, drink, pea, or poop for months at
a time. This fat storage system is so sophisticated that
the longest recorded black bear hibernation was an astonishing two
hundred and forty seven days logged by a Sal bear
in the Sassitna Valley in Alaska in the Winner of
(20:28):
nineteen eighty one to eighty two. Biologist R. A. Nelson
called the hibernation of a bear quote a refined response
to starvation, and that Sal's epic sleep was in response
to a failed Alaskan berry crop, much like our Ontario story.
Even more unbelievable, that same bear in the Sassitina Valley
den for exactly two hundred and forty seven days again
(20:50):
in the Winner of eighty four eighty five. Just a reminder,
if you or I didn't drink for three days, we'd
be dead. If we lay in bed for only about
three weeks. We'd hardly be to walk when we stood up. Anyway,
that biological drive to survive over the winter leads bears
to take a whole lot of risks in the fall
to get food. So lock your doors, bring your garbage
(21:10):
cans inside, keep that dog on a leash when you
go walking or running, and let's try to have as
few bears get killed for no reason for the rest
of the fall. If you're going to eat them, that's
a different story. Wrapping up the bear desk. A few
weeks ago, we brought you news of the sky high
level of bear conflict in Hokkaido, the northernmost island in Japan,
(21:31):
along with some very Japanese responses to the threat, including
Ai bear facial recognition, robot wolves, and a not very
convincing actor in a rubber suit. Well, this week we
found out about another more practical but still very Japanese
solution bear spray rentals. That's right, if you're worried about
(21:51):
coming face to face with a bear while hiking, fishing,
or delivering papers in the northernmost prefecture, you can rent
a can of bear spray from a newly found a
company called Yamibiori for right around four thousand yen about
twenty five American dollars. The company will deliver a can
of bear spray to a hotel or rental car for
two days of use. Customers can also pick up the
(22:13):
spray at a farmer's market if they prefer to get
some picnic provisions along with the predator defense. Tokyo businessman
Noritaka Shirawa told the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper that started the
company after falling in love with hiking in Hokkaido in
twenty nineteen, flying there at least five times a year
and seeing at least one bear every season. He started
to carry bear spray as a result, but had to
(22:35):
leave his can of the stuff with a local friend
because it's prohibited to carry bear spray on a plane
in Japan, even in your check luggage. Pretty sure, that's
pretty universal, and because there are no bear spray manufacturers
in Japan, imported spray is extremely expensive. It can cost
up to twenty five thousand yen or about one hundred
and thirty five dollars per can. For comparison, it costs
(22:57):
only about thirty or forty dollars here in the US.
Bear spray shortages have also been reported across Japan, with
waiting lists that can be up to a year long.
Many times, the import process takes so much time that
cans are almost expired by the time they make it
two store shelves. Now, far be it from me to
interfere with the livelihood of the guy who started this
(23:18):
rental business. But maybe a Japanese company can start up
the country's own bear spray industry. After all, this is
a place that knows a thing or two about spicy food.
I for one, have definitely eaten too much with sabi
and kind of hunched over for a while waiting for
the pain to pass. So what about wasabi bear spray?
Big opportunity, especially because as any bear spray defense expert
(23:39):
will tell you, you should really always be carrying two
cans of bear spray, one for the encounter back there
in the woods and one for the walk out of
the woods. You heard it here first, And if anyone
out there starts the Wasabi bear spray company, I'll accept
ten percent of annual gross revenue, thank you very much. Simplify,
focus on the product and allow That's all I got
(24:02):
for you this week. Thank you so much for listening,
and remember to write in to a s k c. A.
L Let's ascal at the meteater dot com. Let me
know what's going on in your neckh the words. We
appreciate it.
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Col's Week in Review with Ryan cow Klahan. Here's
cal there's an attack squirrel on the loose in Lucas Valley, California,
and local residents are going a little nuts. This clumped
onto my leg and was just hanging on his tail,
(00:31):
was flying up here, you know, and I was like,
get off me, get off me, and I kind of
didn't want to touch it.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Came out out of nowhere.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I didn't see him running up to me at all.
That's Joan Heblick, who was scratched and bit by this
squirrel during her morning walk in what appears to be
an unprovoked attack. But this rodent reprobate appears to have
a pinshon for nice looking elderly women. Because Joan wasn't
the only one to get jumped.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
The squirrel went to the floor and from the floor
tried to jump to my face, which I tried to
protect my face from and then my arm was completely
of a come by the squirrel.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Isabelle Campoys sustained some pretty nasty looking scratches to her
right arm before she convinced the squirrel to let her go.
Since then, local residents have posted signs around the neighborhood
warning of a quote attack squirrel. This is not a joke,
the poster reads, contradicting most media coverage. Thus far more
than five people have been attacked by a very mean
squirrel over the past few days. The squirrel comes out
(01:32):
of nowhere and will attack. Of course, as regular listeners
of this podcast have no doubt surmised by this point,
this squirrel isn't attacking so much as asking for food.
A wildlife biologists who spoke to ABC seven News said
that squirrels aren't vectors for rabies, and so this particular
limb chicken isn't acting out of diseased mind. Instead, in
(01:53):
all likelihood, he's been fed by humans his whole life
and just doesn't know how to ask for food nicely.
All just like that. I'm sure there's another nice looking
elderly woman in this neighborhood who takes great joy in
feeding the local wildlife. But for the sake of her
fellow residence, I hope these incidents convince her to stop.
I am recording this from Anchorage, Alaska. It is gorgeous
(02:18):
up here. It is like real fall temperatures. There's some
fresh snow up on the tippy tops of the mountains.
You can see from town, beautiful fall colors on the
trees down here. And we just did the big gear shuffle.
That's Jason Rare, Garrett Smith aka Dirtmith, and myself. There's
(02:38):
a lot of packing and repacking involved in these trips
and we got multiple legs to go tomorrow to hopefully
get into brown Bear Camp. Really looking forward to a gang,
really looking forward to it. As you know, we got
lots of help on the podcast. Alex Tilney and Jordan
Sillers are going to tag team any update that need
(03:00):
to happen here over the next week or two in
case they get stuck up there in the bush, which
doesn't sound like a bad thing at all. I want
to keep you as up to date and relevant as possible,
and it's good to have some helping hands. Boys do
some heavy lifting as it is, so it's awesome to
have them jump in and read you the news. God,
we've got a lot of stuff. It is just hard
(03:23):
to pack the way you want to when you're doing
this TV stuff, ladies and gentlemen. Makes me little self conscious.
I'm not going to lie. But once we get out there,
it's gonna be fun. We're gonna be doing the thing
which is glass and heavy, looking for big brown critters
and uh maybe some wolves out there too. So lots
(03:45):
to report back on. I came out of Climate Week
New York City, met up with Alex Tilney, had some
great food and talk to politics, climate change, how hunters
see climate and roadless rules and things like that, in
front of a bunch of super nice folks from the
Upper West Side and the Manhattan Patagonia store. And I'm
(04:07):
not talking Manhattan, Montana. I'm talking the island of Manhattan.
First thing I saw when I crossed the bridge was
a dude ripping on a scooter with a couple of
fishing rods on his back, which made me real happy.
Gang really did. Without further ado, let me get to
the news. If you're getting out in the woods, be safe,
be kind, be courteous, work hard, good things will happen.
(04:30):
Moving on to the crime desk, six men from Montana
and Washington State have pled guilty to poaching six bowl
elk and five mule deer bucks in Montana between twenty
twenty and twenty twenty four. Details are still scarce, but
we do know that. Thanks to a tip from the public,
game wardens discovered a group of individuals who had been
illegally killing animals in Hunting District five ninety, which is
(04:53):
located south of a town called Roundup or round Town
as we used to call it, in the eastern portion
of the state, about due north of Billings, Montana. Two
of the men, Devin Ray and Mitch Miller, are from
round Up, while the other four Ben Valadez, Kyle Stealing,
Noah Valades, and Johnny Lopez are from Tri Cities, Washington,
over six hundred miles away. How these fellas connected with
(05:14):
each other and killed all those elk and mule deer
is unclear. What is clear is that they're all paying
hefty fines and are looking at two, four and eight
year hunting licensed suspensions. They also had their trophies confiscated
and get to hear their names on podcasts like this one, which,
let's be honest, is an even worse punishment. An American
(05:34):
fugitive hiding in Canada was arrested last week after Canadian
officials discovered he and four others had been allegedly poaching
eagles and hawks. The five individuals face that combined forty
three federal and provincial charges, including hunting of birds of
prey and unlawful possession of wildlife for the purpose of trafficking.
The American a fella named Simon Paul had been charged
(05:55):
with similar crimes on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana.
A confidential informant told law enforcement that he'd fled up
to Alberta to live with Teresa Snow on the Stony
Nakota First Nation. When game boardens started poking around up there,
they learned that Paul was actively killing eagles on the
Stony Nakota and Eden Valley First Nation's land and selling
wildlife products. Undercover agents approached Paul Snow and another man
(06:18):
named James Britton, and they sold the agents various illegal items,
including a ball to eagle feather headdress, black bear claw necklaces,
and a raptor talon dance stick. Subsequent searches of the
suspects trucks and residences revealed freshly removed eagle feet with talons, feathers, blood,
and other raptor parts, and a tipster said Paul and
another man named Eli Snow had been shooting eagles from
(06:40):
their truck. Eagle feathers and parts are important ceremonial items
in many indigenous communities, but Alberta and other provinces and
states have instituted means by which these items can be obtained.
As with hunting regulations, these rules are designed to allow
for responsible harvest while maintaining the health of wildlife populations.
But when there's a market for wild life parts, there
(07:00):
will always be suppliers who tried to cut corners, which
is likely what has happened in this case. Old Simon
Paul wasn't the only poacher to get caught by undercover
wildlife agents last month, thirty two year old Dylan Nisley
of Indiana had been operating illegal guided fishing trips on
Lake Erie, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
When agents caught win toed this, they signed up for
(07:23):
one of Nisley's trips. They discovered that Nisley did not
possess a valid US Coast Guard Captain license or a
valid fishing guide license, and he allowed the undercover agents
to keep more walleye than their daily limit. Agents also
discovered that in November of twenty twenty three, Nisley traveled
to Missouri and killed a buck with a firearm during
archery season, failed to report all the deer he harvested,
and took more than two antler deer during the season.
(07:45):
Nisley was charged with federal LACI Act violations and sentenced
to two years of probation, which includes a universal fishing
and hunting band for the entire probation period and one
hundred and forty four hours of community service. Nisley also
paid ten thousand dollars to the Lacy Act Reward account.
Last One for You, a Washington State woman has pled
(08:08):
guilty to a single felony account of wildlife trafficking for
buying and selling waterfowl and black bear parts. The trouble
for fifty four year old the Yan L Lee began
all the way back in twenty twenty, when the Skadget
County Health Department received complaints about Lee's restaurant. Someone found
dead waterfowl outside Lee's establishment, but investigators found that Lee
wasn't selling the bird meat in her restaurant. She was
(08:30):
fined for possessing the birds without the proper paperwork, and
that should have been the end of the story, but
the Health department continued to receive complaints, and so the
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife launched a full investigation,
which included you guessed it, undercover game wardens. One of
these agents approached Lee with animal parts to sell, and
she purchased thirteen gall bladders, six livers, and twenty four
(08:51):
black bear pause with the claws still attached. These parts
are bought and sold in the States for hundreds of dollars,
but can be resold overseas four thousands. After pleading guilty
to a Class C felony, Lee was sentenced to forty
five days of confinement and an eighteen hundred dollars fine.
There's probably more to the story. If Lee was buying
and selling black bear parts, then she must have had
(09:11):
a supplier along with a buyer. I'm sure investigators are
looking into who these people were and whether the bears
were being poached from the good people of Washington State.
Moving on to the mailbag desk, listener Brian Sadler wrote
in with a sobering but helpful report from his part
of the woods in Wisconsin. Brian lives in a county
(09:31):
near r Pal Doug Duran, and he believes CWD is
becoming more prevalent and having a serious impact on hunting opportunities.
Brian said, quote, I hunt public and some private permission
in a few of the counties that show very high
prevalence of CWD. It really has become a coin flip
the last decade for if I'm going to get a
CWD positive or not. Some deer look fat and healthy,
(09:54):
others look like an old rug draped over bones. I
feel that the continued high population density in certain parts
of the county overshadows the fact that the prevalence is increasing.
From independent conversations with hunters in the area who've been
running trail cameras since before CWD was detected, the age
class of bucks has really dropped over the last few years.
They used to have several target bucks each year in
(10:15):
their area between four and six and a half years old.
Now all of them say they don't see any bucks
over three and a half anymore. Brian clarifies that these
landowners haven't changed their management strategy and are still trying
to target bucks four and a half years and older,
but they're seeing less and less of these older bruisers
and Saddler believes CWD is the culprit general whitetail season
(10:37):
is right around the corner if you live in an
area with CWD restrictions. I know it's a pain in
the ass, but Brian's email is a good reminder that
we need to stay vigilant and do everything in our
power to mitigate the impact of this disease. Your kids
and grandkids will thank you now to pile on here
bubbly Doug says ten years ago, we didn't have a
positive deer thirteen years ago. Based on the recommendations of
(11:01):
James Doctor dear Kroll, Uncle Ted's buddy, the tools to
manage the herd and the disease, like eern a buck
and an early and extended gun buck and doe seasons
were outlawed. We watched that tipping point of exponential growth
happen in real time. One of the big land owners
just south of Durkin's cousin's place, who I keep in
contact with and whose experience has been chronicled by Pat
(11:22):
and other writers, had eleven out of eleven bucks harvested
last year test positive. None were older than three and
a half. Then in February he walked out into a
food plot and found three more bucks dead, all emaciated,
like they were standing there knowing they were supposed to eat,
but didn't know how. It's anecdotal, but hunters got their
(11:43):
finger on the pulse of this stuff because they're paying
attention to it. Take her or leave it. CWD isn't
the only disease white tail have to worry about. Epizootic
haemorrhagic disease, or more commonly known by its acronym, is
ravaging the herds in southeast Ohio as thousands of deer
(12:04):
succumb to the usually fatal viral illness. EHD is spread
by midge flies that transmit the virus through their bites.
It causes deer to become disoriented, feverish, and causes their head, neck,
and tongue to swell. Deer often become thirsty, and so
the carcasses are often found in or near waterways. EHD
is a common deer disease and it usually doesn't cause
(12:26):
high rates of mortality, but when conditions are right and
the midge flies swarm, it can cause serious outbreaks. In
southeast Ohio, nearly eight thousand deer have been reported dead
or sick in twenty twenty five. That's up from two
thousand last year and only eighteen the year before. One
local resident who spoke to the media said that he
and his neighbors located thirty dead deer within a one
(12:49):
mile radius of his home. Wildlife managers believe the heavy
rains in July coupled with the droughts in August, created
the perfect muddy habitat for flies to reproduce, and the
white tail population is feeling the consequences. Hunters aren't happy either.
Wildlife managers are considering an emergency rule that would reduce
the bag limit for deer in Athens, Washington, and Megs
(13:10):
County from three to two. If deer herds are already
being diminished by EHD, they don't want hunters to put
them back even further. Most hunters support these emergency measures,
though some say they don't go far enough. EHD doesn't
appear to be dangerous to humans, and there haven't been
any cases of humans contracting the virus by eating venison,
but wildlife officials still discourage hunters from eating disease deer,
(13:34):
partly because you never know when a virus might make
that jump, and partly because hunters can't say for sure
the deer died from EHD. A sick deer might have
another illness that is dangerous to people, so officials advise caution.
The flies will die when the weather gets colder later
this year, and the deer herds can usually bounce back
pretty well from an EHD outbreak, but it might take
(13:54):
a few years, and in the meantime, hunters in southeast
Ohio might have to make do with you were venison
steaks in the freezer. In regards to eating EHD positive deer,
typically if they're positive, you're not going to know it.
If you shot it, you'll know it because you found
them dead in close enough proximity to water. Your normal
(14:16):
cooking routine for venison wild game is going to be
just fine. You're not going to contract EHD. The bear
Encounter's desk has been seeing its annual spike in activity.
Last week in Nipigon, Ontario, a couple who had to
open the back door to let their dog out got
more traffic than they bargained for when a black bear
walked right in that same door. After suffering scratches and bites,
(14:39):
the couple barricaded themselves in the bedroom and called the police.
Smart of these folks not to barricade themselves in the pantry.
The bear then wandered into the basement of the house,
where the dog managed to confine it by standing at
the top of the stairs and barking its head off.
Law enforcement responded to the scene and killed the bear,
and thankfully, the couple and the dog received medical care
but will have no long term injuries. In response to
(15:01):
the incident, Martin Obert, a research scientist with Ontario's Ministry
of Natural Resources, told the CBC that this year's failed
blueberry crop was driving bears to seek calories closer to houses,
restaurants and trash. He said, quote, when we have droughts
like we had this summer, that really hammers the blueberry crop,
and droughts across Ontario were pretty widespread this year. There
(15:23):
have been six hundred and seventy reports of bear encounters
from the northwest region of Ontario this year, much higher
than the successful blueberry crop years of twenty twenty two
and twenty twenty three, but under last year's total, when
the crop also failed, leading to seven hundred and one
bear reports by the same point last season. That's right,
(15:44):
black bears, if you're listening, you got some catching up
to do winners coming in fast. Down in central Florida,
a bear walked into the garage of a local man,
Zeke Clark, and panicked after the garage door closed behind him.
The bear then opened the door to the kick and
charged into the house, and Clark's mother in law screamed,
bear in the house, Bear in the house. Clark said
(16:07):
that at that point, quote all hell broke loose. Listen.
I understand not wanting your mother in law to come
over so often, but orchestrating a bear intrusion is going
to extremes anyway. After the bear fled into the bathroom,
Clark retrieved a firearm, opened the door and shot the
bear once, then closed the door again with the bear
charging toward him, and shot two more times through the door.
(16:30):
This was the third time bears had managed to get
into Clark's house this year, although both previous times the
intrusions were limited to the garage. Clark said he plans
to install locks on all his doors from now on.
Clark's encounter is happening against the backdrop of controversy surrounding
the upcoming Floorida bear season, the first one in the
state in ten years. For all the background on this one,
(16:51):
head over to the meeater dot com and read the
excellent recent article by our own Jordan Sillers. Opposition to
the hunt has been intense, with animal rights groups buying
up lottery entries in hopes of winning tags so that
hunters won't. Of course, if management objectives aren't met this year,
the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will likely just
to increase the hunting quotas until bears reach a sustainable
(17:12):
carrying capacity. But that strategy isn't the only way anti
hunters are trying to disrupt Florida's bear season. After challenges
to the state's administrative process failed, the anti hunting group
Bear Warriors Unlimited, this week filed a lawsuit in Tallahassee
Circuit Court, hoping to convince a judge to cancel the season.
The group alleges that the hunt is based on out
(17:33):
of date science from ten years ago. Observers think the
suit has very little chance of success, as all the
biology from more recent years has confirmed that black bears
are absolutely kicking butt in the Sunshine State, with as
many as four thousand of them now on the landscape. Finally,
in the northern New Jersey town of Vernon, a one
hundred and seventy five pound female bear entered a Dollar
(17:56):
General last week, shortly after biting a ninety year old
woman near the entry to the store. Footage captured by
another patron shows the bear calmly walking the aisles as
though looking for the sour cream and onion pringles. The
bear then left the store, and area police attempted to
haze her back into the woods with rubber bullets. However,
after the sow headed back to the Dollar General two
(18:17):
more times, police made the decision to kill her. Vernon
city ordinance allows stores and restaurants to leave dumpsters open,
and the death of this bear prompted another round of
calls for elected officials to change town law to require
dumpsters to be covered. These stories make for splashy news,
but those kind of boring steps just make trash harder
to eat make all the difference in the world. New
(18:40):
Jersey's bear hunt also survived a recent lawsuit when a
state appeals court rejected a challenge to the authority of
the New Jersey Fishing Game Council. The challenge was filed
by State Senator Ray Lesniak, who argued that because six
of the eleven Fishing Game Council members were nominated by
the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, a hunting
in common reservation advocacy group, the council was in effect
(19:02):
controlled by that private organization. In its decision, the Appeals
Court pointed to the fact that all members of the
Council had been lawfully appointed by the governor and confirmed
by the state Senate. New Jerseys Hunt faces another legal
challenge from the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, which
seeks to overturn the state's comprehensive black bear management policy
(19:23):
from twenty twenty two and will be sure to keep
you up to date with what happens on that one.
This flurry of bear human conflict is happening now because
black bears are entering a state called you guessed it, hyperfacia,
which literally means intense feeding, the phase of year when
they eat as many calories as possible to pack on
(19:43):
all that fat they can in preparation for hibernation, you know,
like a tailgate party. Hyper Fascia is triggered by a
spike in blood insulin, allowing bears to consume as much
as three times the daily calories they eat at other
times of year. Most bears will consume a wh being
sixty percent of their yearly food in just a three
month window. Black bears have been known to double their
(20:05):
weight in this period, adding all those extra pounds in
pure fat. Then they burn that fat during hibernation when
they won't eat, drink, pea, or poop for months at
a time. This fat storage system is so sophisticated that
the longest recorded black bear hibernation was an astonishing two
hundred and forty seven days logged by a Sal bear
in the Sassitna Valley in Alaska in the Winner of
(20:28):
nineteen eighty one to eighty two. Biologist R. A. Nelson
called the hibernation of a bear quote a refined response
to starvation, and that Sal's epic sleep was in response
to a failed Alaskan berry crop, much like our Ontario story.
Even more unbelievable, that same bear in the Sassitina Valley
den for exactly two hundred and forty seven days again
(20:50):
in the Winner of eighty four eighty five. Just a reminder,
if you or I didn't drink for three days, we'd
be dead. If we lay in bed for only about
three weeks. We'd hardly be to walk when we stood up. Anyway,
that biological drive to survive over the winter leads bears
to take a whole lot of risks in the fall
to get food. So lock your doors, bring your garbage
(21:10):
cans inside, keep that dog on a leash when you
go walking or running, and let's try to have as
few bears get killed for no reason for the rest
of the fall. If you're going to eat them, that's
a different story. Wrapping up the bear desk. A few
weeks ago, we brought you news of the sky high
level of bear conflict in Hokkaido, the northernmost island in Japan,
(21:31):
along with some very Japanese responses to the threat, including
Ai bear facial recognition, robot wolves, and a not very
convincing actor in a rubber suit. Well, this week we
found out about another more practical but still very Japanese
solution bear spray rentals. That's right, if you're worried about
(21:51):
coming face to face with a bear while hiking, fishing,
or delivering papers in the northernmost prefecture, you can rent
a can of bear spray from a newly found a
company called Yamibiori for right around four thousand yen about
twenty five American dollars. The company will deliver a can
of bear spray to a hotel or rental car for
two days of use. Customers can also pick up the
(22:13):
spray at a farmer's market if they prefer to get
some picnic provisions along with the predator defense. Tokyo businessman
Noritaka Shirawa told the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper that started the
company after falling in love with hiking in Hokkaido in
twenty nineteen, flying there at least five times a year
and seeing at least one bear every season. He started
to carry bear spray as a result, but had to
(22:35):
leave his can of the stuff with a local friend
because it's prohibited to carry bear spray on a plane
in Japan, even in your check luggage. Pretty sure, that's
pretty universal, and because there are no bear spray manufacturers
in Japan, imported spray is extremely expensive. It can cost
up to twenty five thousand yen or about one hundred
and thirty five dollars per can. For comparison, it costs
(22:57):
only about thirty or forty dollars here in the US.
Bear spray shortages have also been reported across Japan, with
waiting lists that can be up to a year long.
Many times, the import process takes so much time that
cans are almost expired by the time they make it
two store shelves. Now, far be it from me to
interfere with the livelihood of the guy who started this
(23:18):
rental business. But maybe a Japanese company can start up
the country's own bear spray industry. After all, this is
a place that knows a thing or two about spicy food.
I for one, have definitely eaten too much with sabi
and kind of hunched over for a while waiting for
the pain to pass. So what about wasabi bear spray?
Big opportunity, especially because as any bear spray defense expert
(23:39):
will tell you, you should really always be carrying two
cans of bear spray, one for the encounter back there
in the woods and one for the walk out of
the woods. You heard it here first, And if anyone
out there starts the Wasabi bear spray company, I'll accept
ten percent of annual gross revenue, thank you very much. Simplify,
focus on the product and allow That's all I got
(24:02):
for you this week. Thank you so much for listening,
and remember to write in to a s k c. A.
L Let's ascal at the meteater dot com. Let me
know what's going on in your neckh the words. We
appreciate it.
Host
Cal Callaghan
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