November 12, 2023 • 21 mins
This week Cal talks about hunting accidents, black bears and captive deer, tigers on the prowl and cave lion for dinner.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
From Mediators World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is
Cal's weekend review, presented by Steel. Steel products are available
only at authorized dealers. For more, go to Steel Dealers
dot com. Now here's your host. Ryan cal callahan.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
A Canadian hunter, bagged a three legged boil class month
that probably meant more to him than it would have
to most. That's because Brock McDonald of British Columbia is
also missing a leg. McDonald told local media that he
lost his right leg working on an oil rig after
it got caught in a chain. He was lifted twenty
five feet in the air and the leg was ripped
(00:43):
from his body. Looks like me back on my menu. Boy,
that sounds like just about the worst way a fella
can lose a leg, But it doesn't seem to have
slowed him down all that much. His Facebook page shows
him out in the woods with his family, and he's
posted photos pos with elk, whitetail, mountain lions, and moose.
But his latest elk seems like it was destined for him.
(01:06):
He says the elk's back right leg had been removed
at the joint, but that it was totally healed. Real
random because I am missing a leg as well, he
posted on Facebook. You know how they say that dogs
and dog owners start looking like one another after a while.
I wonder if the same is true of hunters and
game animals. If I'm going after an old, grumpy white
(01:27):
tail that doesn't like to leave, it's bad. Maybe I
should start acting grumpy and lazy, just to you know,
get in his head. You know what I'm saying. This week,
We've got tigers, black bears, lions, and elk. But first,
I'm gonna tell you about my week. In My week
was great. Hitched up the old tin tepee aka the
(01:47):
Black Series camper and hit the snow and ice covered
road to deer hunt with my girlfriend. Tents were in
the single digits and a lovely fifteen mile per hour
breeze was blowing, which always makes me grateful for good gear.
I've been in product testing twenty twenty four first Light apparel, jackets, pants, gloves,
plus a couple of special items I can't talk about.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
All right, then, keep your secrets good.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I feel like I get colder easier these days. Trend
that started after I came down with limes disease about
five years ago. And I just can't recommend the current
first light lineup enough. We're kicking butt on this stuff.
Catalyst foundry pant is definitely worth a look, and if
you're spending time behind the spotting scope, you just can't
leave home without the uncompagraate puffy pants. This is a
(02:33):
synthetic insulated overpant for insulation at the glassing knob. Stay comfortable,
find more deer, which we did. However, when the one
mule deer buck that sauntered within two hundred and forty
yards of us stopped beautifully broadside, the girlfriend declared, he's
really good looking. I want to shoot him next year,
(02:54):
to which I replied, you know that two track we passed,
I'm pretty sure I can get the truck really close
to that deer if you were to shoot it. But
the mind was made up. Lastly, before we hit the
long and a lonesome road back home, I took a
little pheasant walk with the old Snort, thinking for sure
our rooster luck would be amazing with the fresh fallen snow.
(03:16):
But these Montana birds are sly and extra wild now
they've been pressured, and when they get up, if they
get up, they do not cackle. So it's got to
be a clear visual identification of the bird. And when
they do fly, they are already at high gear. There's
no slow rise anymore. What about breakfast, I've already had it.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We've had one. Yes, what about second breakfast?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So after covering a couple of square miles and a
cat's cradle of on X tracks, we flushed one rooster.
Just prior to this, a pair of high flying sharp
tail sword overhead en route to destination unknown. With the
new twenty gage weather beside by side, I pulled up, swung,
(04:04):
found my lead, and folded the first bird with the
first trigger, the second bird with the second trigger, and
Snort retrieved the deader than a wedge pair two hand,
at which point I felt as if I was a
master shotgunner on like some driven bird hunt somewhere. The
beauty of that pair of birds and pair of shots
would surely be recounted by all hunters in front of
(04:28):
a roaring fireplace that evening, at some estate that we
would have been at. Then back to reality, when we
walked no more than forty yards farther, Snort working her
fuzzy little ars off bird dogging an invisible track. She
put up a rooster right in my face, and I
shaved his tail feathers with the first trigger, adjusted my lead,
(04:50):
and still managed to miss far behind the bird. With
my second trigger, the warm lodge thoughts disappeared and the
cheek stinging, nose, dripping e stream Montana wind remained. That's reality,
and it still hurts.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Folk in those stories had lots of chantzes are turning
back warily. They didn't.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
They kept going.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Because they were holding onto something.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Well, better get on with the news by the time
you hear this, Just so you know, I'll be beat
up from another mule deer hunt full of steep frozen
mountains and you know, another year older. Good luck out
there in the bird deer in elkwoods. I'll need it too.
Moving on to the accident desk. We cover hunting accidents
(05:41):
pretty frequently on this here podcast, not because hunting is
especially dangerous, but as a kind of educational exercise. One
of the things I've noticed about many of these stories
is that the accident doesn't happen in the field. It
happens back at the car, or in the hunting lodge,
or while packing out an animal. We let our guard
down and that's when tragedy strikes. For example, a fifty
(06:02):
year old Minnesota man was shot in the rear end
last month by a ten year old girl. He'd taken
deer hunting. They weren't successful, and when they returned to
the truck, he instructed the girl to unload the rifle.
He turned his back on that situation, and when he
did so, the girl accidentally pulled the trigger. The gun
sent a two to seventy Winchester round through both of
the man's buttocks. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources,
(06:25):
the man was transported by ambulance to a hospital in
Bumigi before being airlifted to a hospital and Fargo due
to the seriousness of his injuries. Another incident took place
in Minnesota last month that also involved a juvenile. A
forty five year old man was shot by his twelve
year old daughter after the girl shot a deer. The
DNR doesn't offer much additional detail, but I'm guessing there
(06:46):
was some kind of celebration after the girl's successful shot
on the deer, which is a wild guess. She was
probably just unloading her rifle too. At the very least,
I'm sure everyone was excited and maybe not too concerned
about following the four rules of gun safety. During that time,
the girl pulled the trigger again and shout her father
in the leg. They called the other family members for help,
(07:07):
and one of them put a tourniquet on the leg
while they waited for first responders. The man was taken
to the hospital for treatment. I have not seen any
update on his condition. That also reminds me if you
go out into the field with the firearm, be sure
you've taken some kind of medical training for treating gunshot wounds.
A Stop the bleed class is very short and it
will teach you how to use a tourniquet and about
(07:29):
other ways to keep as much of that red stuff
inside you as possible. It's not a long class, like
I said, but it can come in handy if God forbid,
your daughter accidentally shoots you in the leg or the behind.
In another accident that occurred in the field, that eighteen
year old Joe Salmon was shot last month while hunting
waterfowl in northwest Iowa. While the incident is still under investigation,
(07:52):
local media reports that Salmon was shot in the back
of the head and he was put into a medically
induced coma because two of the beebi's were too deep
to safely removed. Fortunately, according to an update on his
GoFundMe page, Salmon has started his long road to recovery.
He was taken off sedation on October twenty two, and
doctors have observed him moving his legs, hands, and eyes.
A head X ray came back showing no signs of
(08:14):
brain aneurysms, but he's still unable to breathe on his own.
If you live in the Okoboji area, you may have
heard of Salmon's name before. He's a member of the
Okoboji High School football team. But he was also in
the news earlier this year when he saved the life
of an eighty three year old man and his dog.
He was ice fishing with his mother on East Okoboji
Lake when he saw a jeep break through the ice
(08:35):
and start to sink. He was able to shatter the
car's back window and get both the man and the
dog to safety. Moving on to the bear desk, employees
at a nature center in North Carolina are scratching their
heads after two of their white tailed deer were killed
by a wild black bear. Ashville's WNC Nature Center announced
(08:55):
on Facebook that Becca and Curly, a doe and a buck,
were found dead in their exhibit. Quote, though there are
still some unanswered questions, it would appear that a wild
black bear entered their exhibit and either directly or indirectly
caused their passing. It's unclear how bear could have killed
the deer indirectly, but it's safe to assume it wasn't
by telling them jokes, I don't.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Know half of the office as well as I should like,
and I like less than half of the office well
as you deserve.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
The Nature Center says black bears have been observed in
the vicinity of this exhibit prior to this, so presumably
the deer were at least somewhat acclimated to seeing bears
through their fence. Employees also told local media that they're
taking actions to deter wild animals from breaking through the fence,
so the bear was clearly in the enclosure at some point.
(09:44):
The perimeter fence has been improved and secured, as have
the barn doors. The animals are also being housed in
the barn at night as an extra precaution. If you
ever wonder where deer are taken after they're scooped up
as fawns are rescued from dog cages. It's often to
places like this. Yes Becca was ten years old and
was brought to the center as a fawn because she
was too young to survive on her own. Curley was
(10:06):
eleven years old and he came to the center in
twenty twenty after being kept as a pet. The center
says this is the first time anything like this has
ever happened. Thanks to listener Spencer Cook for sending us
this story. A California condor was treated for lead poisoning
last month after wildlife officials say at eight from the
carcass of an elk that have been poached using lead ammunition.
(10:28):
California condors are an endangered species of vulture native to
North America. The birds became extinct in the wild in
nineteen eighty seven, but many organizations have been working to
restore the animals to their historic range. One of those
organizations is the Urrok Tribe, and they say a routine
health check revealed five birds that had concerning levels of
lead in their blood. One of those birds had ingested
(10:49):
enough lead to warrant treatment. While that bird is set
to be released into the wild again soon. Tribal officials
say they believe an elk poacher is to blame for
the incident. They say the elk was shot sometime in
early October, but from what I can tell, the hunt
in this area ends on September twenty eighth. Not only that,
but California ban the use of lead ammunition for hunting
(11:10):
across the entire state. Biologists were unable to find any
large fragments of lead in the bird's digestive tract, but
they say it's possible the bird consumed dust sized particles
left behind by the bullet. To add insult to this injury,
this was apparently this bird's first ever meal in the wild.
Welcome to the real world, kid, it's tough out here.
(11:30):
As for the lead versus non lead projectile debate, California
condors is where the rubber meets the road for US hunters.
This is the species where if one dies, that can
be a population level effect, and we don't want that
to happen from a hunter's bullet. And I'm sure you
don't want to be forced to choose non toxic hunting
(11:53):
ammunition in your state, which is why we got to
follow the rules or else we can stand to lose
our choice in certain situations. Moving on to the elk desk,
another grizzly scene played out last month in Wyoming, where
a pickup truck plowed into a herd of elk and
(12:15):
caused what one official described as a Sunday morning elk massacre.
The incident occurred on Highway one twenty near Matitzi. The
heavy duty RAM thirty five hundred pickup truck slammed into
the herd around seven am and may have killed as
many as seven elk. Four were dead on the road
and another three had to be euthanized due to their injuries. Incredibly,
the driver at the truck was unharmed, though the truck
(12:37):
is likely totaled. The driver was unable to stop or
miss the animals because he was coming around a curve
with guardrails on both sides of the road. The herd
stretch from guardrail to guardrail, so it was either hit
the animals or plow into the guardrail and down the embankment.
While Wyoming has several new and ongoing wildlife crossing projects
in the works, officials told The Cowboys State Daily that
(12:58):
they don't have any plans to build on along that
stretch of road. That's unfortunate, because they also admit that
it's a well known spot for wildlife collisions. They usually
aren't quite as bad, but a collision with even a
single animal can be deadly for humans and of course
the critters too. Wyoming Game and Fish reports that they
are in the average of six thousand vehicle collisions with
(13:18):
big game every year in the state, resulting in twenty
three million dollars in wildlife costs and twenty nine million
dollars in personal injury costs. Massacres, aside elk aren't actually
the main culprits. Eighty five percent of the vehicle animal
collisions are with mule deer, and vehicle collisions are responsible
for up to four percent of the entire population every year.
(13:42):
This is especially bad news for the Wyoming mule deer
heard on this type of year because it's a recovery
year in the western part of the state. The herd's
been on a sharp decline in recent years. In general,
hunters don't usually take much more than cars do. In
twenty twenty one, for example, about nineteen thousand mule deer
were harvested from the total estimated population of three hundred
(14:03):
and thirty thousand, or about five point eight percent. In
other words, be careful on the roads for you, your car,
other drivers, and the critters who still can't figure out
why we like riding around those giant metal machines. Moving
on to the crime desk. A few weeks ago we
covered several cases of cocaine being discovered by fishermen in
(14:25):
the sea. But now I'm here to tell you about
another illicit trade, something called cocaine of the sea. The
difference might sound subtle, but it's really not. Cocaine of
the sea isn't actually cocaine. Instead, it's endangered fish organs,
specifically the swim bladders of Totoba, which is a type
of drum endemic to the Gulf of California and Mexico.
(14:45):
The reason I'm talking about this is because of the
customs officials in Arizona recently conducted their second largest seizure
to date of these swim bladders. They seize ninety one
bladders weighing about one hundred and nine pounds, which would
fetch between nine hundred and ten thousand dollars and one
point four million dollars on the black market. If my
math is correct, that means each bladder is worth about
(15:07):
fifteen thousand dollars. As with other high dollar animal parts
poached from the US, such as bear paws and gall bladders,
Totoba swim bladders are used in traditional Chinese medicine. They
are high in collagen, and some believe they can boost
fertility and improve circulation and skin vitality. This is a
serious problem because, unlike black bears, to Toba are endangered.
(15:28):
They're on the Endangered species list in the US, and possession, transport,
and sale of any part of this fish is prohibited.
Poachers were trying to smuggle the bladders in a shipment
of frozen fish filets, but they were caught by US
Customs and Border Protection officers. Law enforcement has been on
the lookout. Just a few months ago, Customs officials made
the largest Totoba bladder seizure in Arizona history and the
(15:50):
second largest in US history, a haul worth a whopping
two point seven million. Officials haven't provided much additional detail
on the outfit in charge of this smuggling operation, but
it's likely similar to another poaching ring that got busted
in twenty thirteen. A businessman in Sacramento was arrested along
with a Mexicoli resident who appeared to be the one
(16:10):
actually doing the fishing. The businessman acted as the middleman
and paid the fishermen to steal and transport the fish.
He would then sell the bladders with a significant markup
to his overseas customers. I wouldn't be surprised if a
similar thing is happening here. Jumping over to the lion desk,
a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports has
(16:31):
uncovered evidence for the first time that Neanderthals hunted and
consumed cave lions. Neanderthals are an extinct subspecies of human
that lived between four hundred thousand and forty thousand years
ago when Homo sapiens that's us, more or less took over.
They lived across Europe and Southwest and Central Asia, and,
as your girlfriend occasionally suggests, they are closely related to
(16:53):
the folks you see running around today. In fact, your
girlfriend will be unsurprised to know that some people have
inherited around two percent Neanderthal DNA. Throw yourself in next
time in ridless of your stupidity. Anyway, we've known that
cave lions and neanderthals overlapped for thousands of years, but
until now we didn't know which species was predator and
(17:15):
which was prey. The truth is that predation probably went
both ways, but scientists recently unearthed cave lion bones that
strongly suggest that Neanderthals hunted this apex predator. Cave lions
didn't just live in caves. They were the most dangerous
animal in Eurasia for two hundred thousand years until they
went extinct at the end of the Ice Age. The
(17:35):
larger specimen stood about four feet high at the shoulders,
which is about as tall as a grizzly bear, and
they were likely about ten percent larger than today's African lions.
They hunted larger herbivores such as mammoth, bison, and horse,
as well as cave bear. I'd also be very surprised
if they never added a little Neanderthal to their diet.
Neanderthals did the same. According to this study, A towbone
(17:58):
was found in a cave in Germany, and the cut
marks indicate that the animal was skinned with its claws attached.
This suggests to the researchers the Neanderthals used cave lions
as a source of goods and materials. They set out
to find whether the human subspecies preyed on lions directly.
They analyzed cave lion rib bone found in Bavaria, on
which they detected some unusual damage. They were able to
(18:19):
determine that the bone had likely been damaged by the
point of a spear that was thrust into the lion
while it was lying down. The rib lesions clearly differs
from bitemarks of carnivores and shows the typical breakage pattern
of a lesion caused by a hunting weapon. Remarked one
of the researchers, I suppose it's possible that an excitable
Neanderthal stuck a spear into a lion that had already died,
(18:41):
but that seems unlikely ish The study demonstrates that the
sphere penetrated deeply into the lion's vital area, which indicates
that whoever was wielding the weapon knew where the vitals were.
What's more, the tissue fracture exhibits a degree of elasticity
that suggests that the damage occurred paramorph them, which means
at or near the time of death. Once these Neanderthal
(19:04):
hunters killed the lion. Other cut marks on its skeleton
suggest that they butchered it for meat. That's right states
like Colorado and Washington, when you're talking about people hunting carnivores,
it's been going on for a while, and it's good meat.
The Neanderthals, with whom we share a common ancestor, would
have a thing or two to say about what modern
(19:25):
people say we can or can't eat to us. Moving
on to the tiger desk, we've covered bears and lions,
so you know you saw this coming. Wildlife officials and
law enforcement officers in Rowan County, North Carolina are looking
(19:45):
for a tiger that may be wandering the area near
the town of Rockwell. A grainy trail cam photo shows
what looks for all the world like a tiger. It
has the right tail and the right stripes, and the
local media confirmed that there is a tiger sanctuary in
the area. Fortunately for the good residents of Rockwell, the
sanctuary says that all of its tigers are accounted for.
The Sheriff's office also looked into it, and they say
(20:08):
that none of the registered tigers in the area have
been reported missing, but they're still taking the potential sighting
seriously in what has to be beyond the job description
for a local sheriff's deputy. Several officers have walked the
wooded area near where the supposed tiger was seen. I
can't say I had volunteer to go wandering around a
forest where a tiger might be waiting at the top
(20:28):
of a tree. But that's why I'm not a sheriff's deputy.
Good work everyone, anyway. They said they found no evidence
of a tiger. They didn't see any tracks or scat,
and they didn't hear any tiger vocalizations. The leading theory
is that the picture shows a tabby cat. It's tough
to say how large the animal is without any sense
of scale, and some domestic cats do have markings similar
(20:50):
to tigers. For now, it looks like the residents of
Rockwell are safe, but I'll, you know, keep you in
the loop if things look differently out there. That's all
I got for you this week. Thank you so much
for listening. Remember to write into a sk C a
L that's asscal at the meat eater dot com and
let me know what's going on in your neck of
the woods. On top of that, go to www dot
(21:13):
steel dealers dot com. Find a local, knowledgeable steal dealer
near you. They'll get you set up with what you
need and they won't try to send you home with
what you don't. Thanks again and I'll talk to you
next week
From Mediators World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is
Cal's weekend review, presented by Steel. Steel products are available
only at authorized dealers. For more, go to Steel Dealers
dot com. Now here's your host. Ryan cal callahan.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
A Canadian hunter, bagged a three legged boil class month
that probably meant more to him than it would have
to most. That's because Brock McDonald of British Columbia is
also missing a leg. McDonald told local media that he
lost his right leg working on an oil rig after
it got caught in a chain. He was lifted twenty
five feet in the air and the leg was ripped
(00:43):
from his body. Looks like me back on my menu. Boy,
that sounds like just about the worst way a fella
can lose a leg, But it doesn't seem to have
slowed him down all that much. His Facebook page shows
him out in the woods with his family, and he's
posted photos pos with elk, whitetail, mountain lions, and moose.
But his latest elk seems like it was destined for him.
(01:06):
He says the elk's back right leg had been removed
at the joint, but that it was totally healed. Real
random because I am missing a leg as well, he
posted on Facebook. You know how they say that dogs
and dog owners start looking like one another after a while.
I wonder if the same is true of hunters and
game animals. If I'm going after an old, grumpy white
(01:27):
tail that doesn't like to leave, it's bad. Maybe I
should start acting grumpy and lazy, just to you know,
get in his head. You know what I'm saying. This week,
We've got tigers, black bears, lions, and elk. But first,
I'm gonna tell you about my week. In My week
was great. Hitched up the old tin tepee aka the
(01:47):
Black Series camper and hit the snow and ice covered
road to deer hunt with my girlfriend. Tents were in
the single digits and a lovely fifteen mile per hour
breeze was blowing, which always makes me grateful for good gear.
I've been in product testing twenty twenty four first Light apparel, jackets, pants, gloves,
plus a couple of special items I can't talk about.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
All right, then, keep your secrets good.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I feel like I get colder easier these days. Trend
that started after I came down with limes disease about
five years ago. And I just can't recommend the current
first light lineup enough. We're kicking butt on this stuff.
Catalyst foundry pant is definitely worth a look, and if
you're spending time behind the spotting scope, you just can't
leave home without the uncompagraate puffy pants. This is a
(02:33):
synthetic insulated overpant for insulation at the glassing knob. Stay comfortable,
find more deer, which we did. However, when the one
mule deer buck that sauntered within two hundred and forty
yards of us stopped beautifully broadside, the girlfriend declared, he's
really good looking. I want to shoot him next year,
(02:54):
to which I replied, you know that two track we passed,
I'm pretty sure I can get the truck really close
to that deer if you were to shoot it. But
the mind was made up. Lastly, before we hit the
long and a lonesome road back home, I took a
little pheasant walk with the old Snort, thinking for sure
our rooster luck would be amazing with the fresh fallen snow.
(03:16):
But these Montana birds are sly and extra wild now
they've been pressured, and when they get up, if they
get up, they do not cackle. So it's got to
be a clear visual identification of the bird. And when
they do fly, they are already at high gear. There's
no slow rise anymore. What about breakfast, I've already had it.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We've had one. Yes, what about second breakfast?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
So after covering a couple of square miles and a
cat's cradle of on X tracks, we flushed one rooster.
Just prior to this, a pair of high flying sharp
tail sword overhead en route to destination unknown. With the
new twenty gage weather beside by side, I pulled up, swung,
(04:04):
found my lead, and folded the first bird with the
first trigger, the second bird with the second trigger, and
Snort retrieved the deader than a wedge pair two hand,
at which point I felt as if I was a
master shotgunner on like some driven bird hunt somewhere. The
beauty of that pair of birds and pair of shots
would surely be recounted by all hunters in front of
(04:28):
a roaring fireplace that evening, at some estate that we
would have been at. Then back to reality, when we
walked no more than forty yards farther, Snort working her
fuzzy little ars off bird dogging an invisible track. She
put up a rooster right in my face, and I
shaved his tail feathers with the first trigger, adjusted my lead,
(04:50):
and still managed to miss far behind the bird. With
my second trigger, the warm lodge thoughts disappeared and the
cheek stinging, nose, dripping e stream Montana wind remained. That's reality,
and it still hurts.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Folk in those stories had lots of chantzes are turning
back warily. They didn't.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
They kept going.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Because they were holding onto something.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Well, better get on with the news by the time
you hear this, Just so you know, I'll be beat
up from another mule deer hunt full of steep frozen
mountains and you know, another year older. Good luck out
there in the bird deer in elkwoods. I'll need it too.
Moving on to the accident desk. We cover hunting accidents
(05:41):
pretty frequently on this here podcast, not because hunting is
especially dangerous, but as a kind of educational exercise. One
of the things I've noticed about many of these stories
is that the accident doesn't happen in the field. It
happens back at the car, or in the hunting lodge,
or while packing out an animal. We let our guard
down and that's when tragedy strikes. For example, a fifty
(06:02):
year old Minnesota man was shot in the rear end
last month by a ten year old girl. He'd taken
deer hunting. They weren't successful, and when they returned to
the truck, he instructed the girl to unload the rifle.
He turned his back on that situation, and when he
did so, the girl accidentally pulled the trigger. The gun
sent a two to seventy Winchester round through both of
the man's buttocks. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources,
(06:25):
the man was transported by ambulance to a hospital in
Bumigi before being airlifted to a hospital and Fargo due
to the seriousness of his injuries. Another incident took place
in Minnesota last month that also involved a juvenile. A
forty five year old man was shot by his twelve
year old daughter after the girl shot a deer. The
DNR doesn't offer much additional detail, but I'm guessing there
(06:46):
was some kind of celebration after the girl's successful shot
on the deer, which is a wild guess. She was
probably just unloading her rifle too. At the very least,
I'm sure everyone was excited and maybe not too concerned
about following the four rules of gun safety. During that time,
the girl pulled the trigger again and shout her father
in the leg. They called the other family members for help,
(07:07):
and one of them put a tourniquet on the leg
while they waited for first responders. The man was taken
to the hospital for treatment. I have not seen any
update on his condition. That also reminds me if you
go out into the field with the firearm, be sure
you've taken some kind of medical training for treating gunshot wounds.
A Stop the bleed class is very short and it
will teach you how to use a tourniquet and about
(07:29):
other ways to keep as much of that red stuff
inside you as possible. It's not a long class, like
I said, but it can come in handy if God forbid,
your daughter accidentally shoots you in the leg or the behind.
In another accident that occurred in the field, that eighteen
year old Joe Salmon was shot last month while hunting
waterfowl in northwest Iowa. While the incident is still under investigation,
(07:52):
local media reports that Salmon was shot in the back
of the head and he was put into a medically
induced coma because two of the beebi's were too deep
to safely removed. Fortunately, according to an update on his
GoFundMe page, Salmon has started his long road to recovery.
He was taken off sedation on October twenty two, and
doctors have observed him moving his legs, hands, and eyes.
A head X ray came back showing no signs of
(08:14):
brain aneurysms, but he's still unable to breathe on his own.
If you live in the Okoboji area, you may have
heard of Salmon's name before. He's a member of the
Okoboji High School football team. But he was also in
the news earlier this year when he saved the life
of an eighty three year old man and his dog.
He was ice fishing with his mother on East Okoboji
Lake when he saw a jeep break through the ice
(08:35):
and start to sink. He was able to shatter the
car's back window and get both the man and the
dog to safety. Moving on to the bear desk, employees
at a nature center in North Carolina are scratching their
heads after two of their white tailed deer were killed
by a wild black bear. Ashville's WNC Nature Center announced
(08:55):
on Facebook that Becca and Curly, a doe and a buck,
were found dead in their exhibit. Quote, though there are
still some unanswered questions, it would appear that a wild
black bear entered their exhibit and either directly or indirectly
caused their passing. It's unclear how bear could have killed
the deer indirectly, but it's safe to assume it wasn't
by telling them jokes, I don't.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Know half of the office as well as I should like,
and I like less than half of the office well
as you deserve.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
The Nature Center says black bears have been observed in
the vicinity of this exhibit prior to this, so presumably
the deer were at least somewhat acclimated to seeing bears
through their fence. Employees also told local media that they're
taking actions to deter wild animals from breaking through the fence,
so the bear was clearly in the enclosure at some point.
(09:44):
The perimeter fence has been improved and secured, as have
the barn doors. The animals are also being housed in
the barn at night as an extra precaution. If you
ever wonder where deer are taken after they're scooped up
as fawns are rescued from dog cages. It's often to
places like this. Yes Becca was ten years old and
was brought to the center as a fawn because she
was too young to survive on her own. Curley was
(10:06):
eleven years old and he came to the center in
twenty twenty after being kept as a pet. The center
says this is the first time anything like this has
ever happened. Thanks to listener Spencer Cook for sending us
this story. A California condor was treated for lead poisoning
last month after wildlife officials say at eight from the
carcass of an elk that have been poached using lead ammunition.
(10:28):
California condors are an endangered species of vulture native to
North America. The birds became extinct in the wild in
nineteen eighty seven, but many organizations have been working to
restore the animals to their historic range. One of those
organizations is the Urrok Tribe, and they say a routine
health check revealed five birds that had concerning levels of
lead in their blood. One of those birds had ingested
(10:49):
enough lead to warrant treatment. While that bird is set
to be released into the wild again soon. Tribal officials
say they believe an elk poacher is to blame for
the incident. They say the elk was shot sometime in
early October, but from what I can tell, the hunt
in this area ends on September twenty eighth. Not only that,
but California ban the use of lead ammunition for hunting
(11:10):
across the entire state. Biologists were unable to find any
large fragments of lead in the bird's digestive tract, but
they say it's possible the bird consumed dust sized particles
left behind by the bullet. To add insult to this injury,
this was apparently this bird's first ever meal in the wild.
Welcome to the real world, kid, it's tough out here.
(11:30):
As for the lead versus non lead projectile debate, California
condors is where the rubber meets the road for US hunters.
This is the species where if one dies, that can
be a population level effect, and we don't want that
to happen from a hunter's bullet. And I'm sure you
don't want to be forced to choose non toxic hunting
(11:53):
ammunition in your state, which is why we got to
follow the rules or else we can stand to lose
our choice in certain situations. Moving on to the elk desk,
another grizzly scene played out last month in Wyoming, where
a pickup truck plowed into a herd of elk and
(12:15):
caused what one official described as a Sunday morning elk massacre.
The incident occurred on Highway one twenty near Matitzi. The
heavy duty RAM thirty five hundred pickup truck slammed into
the herd around seven am and may have killed as
many as seven elk. Four were dead on the road
and another three had to be euthanized due to their injuries. Incredibly,
the driver at the truck was unharmed, though the truck
(12:37):
is likely totaled. The driver was unable to stop or
miss the animals because he was coming around a curve
with guardrails on both sides of the road. The herd
stretch from guardrail to guardrail, so it was either hit
the animals or plow into the guardrail and down the embankment.
While Wyoming has several new and ongoing wildlife crossing projects
in the works, officials told The Cowboys State Daily that
(12:58):
they don't have any plans to build on along that
stretch of road. That's unfortunate, because they also admit that
it's a well known spot for wildlife collisions. They usually
aren't quite as bad, but a collision with even a
single animal can be deadly for humans and of course
the critters too. Wyoming Game and Fish reports that they
are in the average of six thousand vehicle collisions with
(13:18):
big game every year in the state, resulting in twenty
three million dollars in wildlife costs and twenty nine million
dollars in personal injury costs. Massacres, aside elk aren't actually
the main culprits. Eighty five percent of the vehicle animal
collisions are with mule deer, and vehicle collisions are responsible
for up to four percent of the entire population every year.
(13:42):
This is especially bad news for the Wyoming mule deer
heard on this type of year because it's a recovery
year in the western part of the state. The herd's
been on a sharp decline in recent years. In general,
hunters don't usually take much more than cars do. In
twenty twenty one, for example, about nineteen thousand mule deer
were harvested from the total estimated population of three hundred
(14:03):
and thirty thousand, or about five point eight percent. In
other words, be careful on the roads for you, your car,
other drivers, and the critters who still can't figure out
why we like riding around those giant metal machines. Moving
on to the crime desk. A few weeks ago we
covered several cases of cocaine being discovered by fishermen in
(14:25):
the sea. But now I'm here to tell you about
another illicit trade, something called cocaine of the sea. The
difference might sound subtle, but it's really not. Cocaine of
the sea isn't actually cocaine. Instead, it's endangered fish organs,
specifically the swim bladders of Totoba, which is a type
of drum endemic to the Gulf of California and Mexico.
(14:45):
The reason I'm talking about this is because of the
customs officials in Arizona recently conducted their second largest seizure
to date of these swim bladders. They seize ninety one
bladders weighing about one hundred and nine pounds, which would
fetch between nine hundred and ten thousand dollars and one
point four million dollars on the black market. If my
math is correct, that means each bladder is worth about
(15:07):
fifteen thousand dollars. As with other high dollar animal parts
poached from the US, such as bear paws and gall bladders,
Totoba swim bladders are used in traditional Chinese medicine. They
are high in collagen, and some believe they can boost
fertility and improve circulation and skin vitality. This is a
serious problem because, unlike black bears, to Toba are endangered.
(15:28):
They're on the Endangered species list in the US, and possession, transport,
and sale of any part of this fish is prohibited.
Poachers were trying to smuggle the bladders in a shipment
of frozen fish filets, but they were caught by US
Customs and Border Protection officers. Law enforcement has been on
the lookout. Just a few months ago, Customs officials made
the largest Totoba bladder seizure in Arizona history and the
(15:50):
second largest in US history, a haul worth a whopping
two point seven million. Officials haven't provided much additional detail
on the outfit in charge of this smuggling operation, but
it's likely similar to another poaching ring that got busted
in twenty thirteen. A businessman in Sacramento was arrested along
with a Mexicoli resident who appeared to be the one
(16:10):
actually doing the fishing. The businessman acted as the middleman
and paid the fishermen to steal and transport the fish.
He would then sell the bladders with a significant markup
to his overseas customers. I wouldn't be surprised if a
similar thing is happening here. Jumping over to the lion desk,
a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports has
(16:31):
uncovered evidence for the first time that Neanderthals hunted and
consumed cave lions. Neanderthals are an extinct subspecies of human
that lived between four hundred thousand and forty thousand years
ago when Homo sapiens that's us, more or less took over.
They lived across Europe and Southwest and Central Asia, and,
as your girlfriend occasionally suggests, they are closely related to
(16:53):
the folks you see running around today. In fact, your
girlfriend will be unsurprised to know that some people have
inherited around two percent Neanderthal DNA. Throw yourself in next
time in ridless of your stupidity. Anyway, we've known that
cave lions and neanderthals overlapped for thousands of years, but
until now we didn't know which species was predator and
(17:15):
which was prey. The truth is that predation probably went
both ways, but scientists recently unearthed cave lion bones that
strongly suggest that Neanderthals hunted this apex predator. Cave lions
didn't just live in caves. They were the most dangerous
animal in Eurasia for two hundred thousand years until they
went extinct at the end of the Ice Age. The
(17:35):
larger specimen stood about four feet high at the shoulders,
which is about as tall as a grizzly bear, and
they were likely about ten percent larger than today's African lions.
They hunted larger herbivores such as mammoth, bison, and horse,
as well as cave bear. I'd also be very surprised
if they never added a little Neanderthal to their diet.
Neanderthals did the same. According to this study, A towbone
(17:58):
was found in a cave in Germany, and the cut
marks indicate that the animal was skinned with its claws attached.
This suggests to the researchers the Neanderthals used cave lions
as a source of goods and materials. They set out
to find whether the human subspecies preyed on lions directly.
They analyzed cave lion rib bone found in Bavaria, on
which they detected some unusual damage. They were able to
(18:19):
determine that the bone had likely been damaged by the
point of a spear that was thrust into the lion
while it was lying down. The rib lesions clearly differs
from bitemarks of carnivores and shows the typical breakage pattern
of a lesion caused by a hunting weapon. Remarked one
of the researchers, I suppose it's possible that an excitable
Neanderthal stuck a spear into a lion that had already died,
(18:41):
but that seems unlikely ish The study demonstrates that the
sphere penetrated deeply into the lion's vital area, which indicates
that whoever was wielding the weapon knew where the vitals were.
What's more, the tissue fracture exhibits a degree of elasticity
that suggests that the damage occurred paramorph them, which means
at or near the time of death. Once these Neanderthal
(19:04):
hunters killed the lion. Other cut marks on its skeleton
suggest that they butchered it for meat. That's right states
like Colorado and Washington, when you're talking about people hunting carnivores,
it's been going on for a while, and it's good meat.
The Neanderthals, with whom we share a common ancestor, would
have a thing or two to say about what modern
(19:25):
people say we can or can't eat to us. Moving
on to the tiger desk, we've covered bears and lions,
so you know you saw this coming. Wildlife officials and
law enforcement officers in Rowan County, North Carolina are looking
(19:45):
for a tiger that may be wandering the area near
the town of Rockwell. A grainy trail cam photo shows
what looks for all the world like a tiger. It
has the right tail and the right stripes, and the
local media confirmed that there is a tiger sanctuary in
the area. Fortunately for the good residents of Rockwell, the
sanctuary says that all of its tigers are accounted for.
The Sheriff's office also looked into it, and they say
(20:08):
that none of the registered tigers in the area have
been reported missing, but they're still taking the potential sighting
seriously in what has to be beyond the job description
for a local sheriff's deputy. Several officers have walked the
wooded area near where the supposed tiger was seen. I
can't say I had volunteer to go wandering around a
forest where a tiger might be waiting at the top
(20:28):
of a tree. But that's why I'm not a sheriff's deputy.
Good work everyone, anyway. They said they found no evidence
of a tiger. They didn't see any tracks or scat,
and they didn't hear any tiger vocalizations. The leading theory
is that the picture shows a tabby cat. It's tough
to say how large the animal is without any sense
of scale, and some domestic cats do have markings similar
(20:50):
to tigers. For now, it looks like the residents of
Rockwell are safe, but I'll, you know, keep you in
the loop if things look differently out there. That's all
I got for you this week. Thank you so much
for listening. Remember to write into a sk C a
L that's asscal at the meat eater dot com and
let me know what's going on in your neck of
the woods. On top of that, go to www dot
(21:13):
steel dealers dot com. Find a local, knowledgeable steal dealer
near you. They'll get you set up with what you
need and they won't try to send you home with
what you don't. Thanks again and I'll talk to you
next week
Host
Cal Callaghan
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