In our series, Ask a Warden, we interview officers from across the country to learn about their role in protecting our game, fish, and other resources. In this edition, we asked officers from Ohio, California, Alabama, and Montana if most wardens are avid hunters, trappers, and/or anglers.
During my five years with the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, I worked with some wardens that were great guys, but...

Myths, lies and old wives’ tales loom large in the outdoor pursuits. Here at MeatEater, we’re dedicated to separating facts from bullsh*t, so we created this series to examine suspect yarns. If there’s a belief, rumor, or long-held assumption you’d like us to fact check, drop us a note at factchecker@themeateater.com.
Claim
Some Christmas trees have dormant ticks and tick eggs that will hatch in your home. Those ticks can carry Lyme disease...

Whether you’re hunting whitetails, trapping wolves, or simply potting blackbirds to protect your strawberry patch, you notice when your prey changes its behaviors and movements to avoid death or capture.
Can hunting also “scare grizzlies straight,” making the bears less likely to cause conflicts with people and their property? After grizzly bears were temporarily removed from the federal Endangered Species List in 2018, Wyoming proposed a tightly...

In our new series, Ask a Warden, we’ll be interviewing officers from across the country to learn about their role in protecting our game, fish, and other resources. In this edition, we asked officers from Minnesota, West Virginia, and Arizona what injury they deal with most is.
I’ve buried hooks in my hands and slipped coming out of treestands, but nothing has warranted a 911 call yet. Odds are if something did happen, a warden would be the...

In our new series, Ask a Warden, we’ll be interviewing officers from across the country to learn about their role in protecting our game, fish, and other resources. In this edition, we asked officers from Kentucky, Wisconsin, Alaska, and Oklahoma about what day of the year they write the most citations.
The South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks recently posted on Facebook that a check station for pheasant and duck hunters resulted in a 5...

Wildlife agencies could more easily assess their state’s elk, deer, or pronghorn populations if every animal alive in August fell into one of two groups by Christmas: those registered as hunters’ kills, and those destined to see spring’s fawning or calving seasons.
It’s never that easy, of course, because legal hunting harvest isn’t the only drain on a herd’s bottom line. The long list of other possible deductions includes disease, injury...