00:00:02 Speaker 1: 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. The global Blitzkrieg hypothesis of animal extinctions asserts that hunting by colonizing prehistoric human societies killed off several species way before the invention of the rifle. For example, there were a whole lot of enormous animals here in the America's tens of thousands of years ago, like the wooly mammoth, the Master don, the American horse, the American camel, as well as the gampho theory, which is something I haven't heard of. It's an animal that descended from the order Probosity, of which the elephant is the only living member. If you were mean kid and he wanted to remember that word probos city A, you could pick on someone with a tooth that sticks way out by calling them a member of the order probos city A. I don't understand, and I won't respond to it anyway. Humans showed up in the America's a new species unknown to the aforementioned megafauna, and now none of these animals remain. So many scientists have claimed that US, bloodthirsty Homo sapiens did them all in before they could figure out that we were killing them. Other hypotheses, ones that I find more convincing, pin the blame on several factors, including a changing climate around the same time. What we do know for almost certain is there's no such thing as a simple explanation in nature. The odds of finding a singular answer such as do you know who killed the wooly mammoth Bob, Well, you know it just doesn't exist. So if you want to get even more common plex and say you know who killed the wooly mammoth, the wooly rhino and all those other members of the probost city a order, well that gets more complex. You're just not gonna find it. However, a new team conducting a study out of the Tel Aviv University in Israel, as opposed to you know, the Tel Aviv Night University down there in Queens, New York, is reviving the humans as killing machines theory. And I will admit this team has done their homework. They collected all available data from every excavation since nineteen thirty two in the area that is now Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, and they've been tracking the animal bones that were found in one d and thirty three distinct dirt layers, each layer representing a different archaeological era. Eighty three different species were discovered, and the size of those species kept going down as time went on. The scientists therefore concluded that from as far back as one point five million years ago the day is of Homo erectus, people targeted the biggest animals first wipe them out, then the next biggest, and the next biggest, and so on. The Tel Aviv study tracks a progression from ancient elephants that weighed more than twice as much as modern African elephants all the way down to gazelle's hairs and turtles as species after species vanished. What do you think of that? Now, I didn't analyze findings from every archaeological dig across an entire geographical region from the last ninety years, but I would like to offer the flip side to this one. If let's say this region of Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon went through I don't know, some sort of warming trend that changed the food and water sources in the region from ones of abundance to scarcity. Wouldn't that also change the landscape from one that favored a multitude of large animal species animals that, let's say are twice the size of African elephants, to a landscape that was more conducive to smaller animals that required less food and water and had a greater ability to hide from a scorching sun. What to sciencey for you? Go ahead, believe that your ancient ancestors were such incredible hunters that they were able to eradicate whole herds of wooly mammoths and Gampo theoris from entire continents with rocks and brains slightly larger than rocks. This week we've got fox fisticuffs, wandering wolves, and the policy desk. But first, I'm gonna tell you about my week. And my week was a cold and fairly miserable type of week. Really, I went all the way out to Devil's Lake, North Dakota, caught exactly to perch at negative thirty degrees, which is cold cold enough to send a little tickle of fight or flight response. Deep into our cave person brains, that little tickle I believe, says, be careful. You shouldn't be messing with this. Be careful, no mistakes. Certainly, don't lick that. No mistakes. You screw up, you might die. Now. I know that sounds very dramatic, but it's actually pretty accurate. It's that little voice that says, put on your big boots, grab that really big jacket, and grab your mittens, even though you're just running into town for a jug of milk, because if things go wrong, well, you're gonna freeze, maybe lose some digits. And if I'm being honest, I enjoy that type of weather. I like that feeling. But the part that I was not enjoying was getting COVID and spending forty eight hours alternating between crazy fever dreams, bathed in sweat and chills so bad that I thought the furnace had seized up and quit, all while my joints felt like someone had come in and crucified me. In the back of a double wide trailer. The only highlight was bumping into Matthew McConaughey, which was cool, but I couldn't think of anything good to say, So I unfortunately and embarrassingly lied about like in his book. He apparently knew that I was lying and wandered off to take a blatantly fake phone call, one of those things where you don't want to talk to someone so bad that you actually fake getting a phone call and pretend like you just got to take it in order to get out of talking to that person. Like I said, embarrassing, but if I'm being honest, he looked kind of tuned up at the time, so maybe you won't remember. And all this happened while I was in the back of that double wide trailer in North Dakota, so anything's possible, right. I didn't do it to be cool. I didn't do it to make a statement. I just liked it. Only other highlight or low light from that alternating sweaty and frozen bed was not being able to operate the child proof cap on a bottle of Nike will to the point that I had searched in the darkness from my bench made pocket knife in an attempt to vent the bottle by force. I think I think I'll just remember my October trip to North Dakota when it rained four inches moving on an update on our UK fox hunting coverage. On December, in the village of Laycock in northern England, starting point for one of the oldest fox hunts in the world, an enormous brawl broke out between hunt participants and members of the Wiltshire Hunt saboteurs. For anyone who remembers the part of European vacation where the English guy is so polite that he apologizes for getting hit by the car, the videos of the encounter may come as a surprise. Lots of hard punches landed scream very bad manners in general, like soccer hooliganism. Hunt opponents have presented video evidence of two dead foxes that they say were killed illegally on Ministry of Defense property, and three men on the saboteur side have been arrested as of early January. On this side of the pond, conflict between hunters and antis has also been cropping up. On December, agents for Louisiana Partment of Fish and Wildlife arrested thirty two year old Brendan Nolan on charges of harassment of a person lawfully hunting, as well as simple assault, criminal damage to property and illegal discharge of a firearm. No One was caught on tape plowing his boat into the decoy spread of a group of nearby duck hunters, shouting at said hunters, then pulling out a pistol and shooting some of the decoys. Tempting to think that maybe Nolan uh was socially awkward and wanted to join in on the hunt, but was very confused about duck shaped objects. Yeah, that's a bit of a stretch. I don't think that defense is going to uh hold water. Meanwhile, in Vermont, and this is taken directly from the Vermont Department of Fishial Wildlife, Topsham resident Theodore Shelmway and two companions were hunting black bear with hounds in the twenty six thousand acre Groton State Forest near Noise Pond on October nine two. One a bear lead the hounds onto private property before climbing a tree. The hunters entered the woods from Buzzies Road and retrieved the hounds, leaving the bear in the tree. All of this totally legal. On returning to his truck with leashed hounds, Mr. Shelmway encountered Donna Baback and Betty Eastman, releasing air from the tires of his truck. Following an argument between the parties, one of the two women allowed a German shepherd out of their vehicle. The loose German shepherd attacked and injured one of the leashed hounds, which required veterinary care. The game warden side Miss Babbock and Miss Eastman with violations of Title ten v s A eight. Interfering with hunting, fishing, or trapping. Managing Vermont wildlife for a public with the verse values is challenging and a privilege, said Commissioner Christopher Herrick. I encourage all Vermonters to join me in remembering our shared passion for wildlife, no matter how different our practices or approaches maybe, and to remain civil and respectful as we discuss these important conservation issues. Babback and Eastman where each find two d and sixty two dollars and we'll lose their license privileges for fishing, hunting, and trapping for a year, which I'm sure we'll sting. I hope they also began acting neighborly and paid for the hounds vet bill. Maybe Mr Shelmway will return that neighborly kindness with a nice pie baked with bear fat. I've got a sulky bottom. Speaking conflict, Yellowstone wolves are in the news again. This time, media outlets around the country picked up a shocking headline proclaiming that the long term viability of the gray wolf species is in danger after hunters killed twenty Yellowstone wolves this year, the most since the canines were reintroduced in Of course, they weren't killed in the park, which would be illegal, but since Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming all wolf hunting, sometimes wolves are killed when they cross that national park boundary, and that's what happened this year. Fifteen wolves were killed in Montana and another five were killed in Idaho and Wyoming, according to the AP. Some park officials told the AP that the killings of this year represented a quote significant setback for the species long term viability. This struck me as strange, mostly because the gray wolf population in the Lower forty eight has risen from virtually zero to more than two thousand in the last twenty years. Call me skeptical, but I'm not sure how the death of twenty wolves represents a setback for the entire species. It's also worth noting that there are still about ninety four wolves in Yellowstone, which is consistent with the population levels since two thousand eight. The population spiked in the early two thousand's to greater than one hundred and fifty individuals, but since about two thousand eight has remained steady at around one hundred wolves. In two thousand eighteen, the population shrank down to about eighty individuals, but has since recovered. Moving on to the lab grown meat Petrie dish. After much fanfare from the industry, a ton of hopeful media coverage and an influential report from a think tank called the Good Food Initiative, a separate and very exhaustive and potentially damning study by the group Open Philanthropy was just released that concludes that lab grown meat uh inc and work. David Humbird, the chemical engineer who led the Open Philanthropy be studies, said, quote, it was hard to find an angle that wasn't a ludicrous dead end. The report concluded that on pretty much every front biological, thermodynamic, technological, economic, there is no way to make fake meat viable, and Humbard went on to call the effort not just a no go, but a fractal of nose, which incidentally was the name of my Pink Floyd cover band in college. You know we could have made a big anyway. You may be thinking, fine, so a bunch of rich investors waste a bunch of money on the boondoggle of fake meat. Who cares? But what's at steak? Get it at steak? Fake meat? Anyway, Just like a bad band getting funding, it pulls funding away from the real talent out there. The competition that lab grown meat is competing in, as you know, is not best burger, but excuse the roast there. But the climate change competition and the massive government funding that has gone to lab grown meat could have been going to a much better band. A fractal of yes is perhaps well, I'm sure we'll see rebuttal in the lab grown meat industry. This story does give me the opportunity to bring this up one more time. Petree dishes do not need green grass, clean water and space. But you know what does cattle. You've heard me say it before. I'm a cow's not condos type of guy, and I fear hopefully baselessly, but I don't think so that if the world were to shift to synthetic meats, that connection to the soil to the grass and yes to the animals would also shift and go away, and where the hell would we be? Then? All right, I'm gonna move on. Quit proselytizing here, moving on to thegislation desk. Over the next few weeks, I'll be running through some of the most important changes to hunting and fishing regulations around the country. State legislatures are reconvening, wildlife commissions are handing down new rules, and I'm here to keep you in the loop. In Colorado, the Parks and Wildlife Department has considered a proposal that would require archery hunters to wear blaze orange during the overlapping dates between archery and muzzleloader seasons in September. Since only two archers have diet after being shot by muzzleloader hunters, but one of those incidents occurred this year. The tragic shooting has prompted the commission to consider a rule change that would require archery, deer, elk, bear, and moose hunters to wear orange or pink on all public land west of interstate. As you know, it just isn't right to say only on public land because the wildlife hunters pursue is not decided by public or private land that is a public resource managed by the state. Alternatives to this new rule include requiring hunter orange on public and private land, or separating archery and muzzleloader seasons by date. This last option may require shortening archery season and extending muzzleloader season into October. But the die has been cast. We'll figure out what the decision is, hopefully by the next episode. Hats off to the Colorado bo Hunters Association for getting the news out when you could. Unfortunately it got to me late. I'll let you know what they decide. If that's not crazy enough. Colorado SB to two zero three one. That's twenty two DASH zero three one has been introduced by Representatives Sonja Jacquez Leuis, Joe m Gainel, Jody Amabile, and Monica Durham, which would make it illegal to hunt or trap bobcat, mountain lion, or links in the state of Colorado. These reps have some collective cat fancy. I would call them and other members of the Colorado House Natural Resources Committee and let them know what you think about that. In Utah, the Wildlife Board just adopted a rule that will prohibit the use of all trail cameras, both transmitting and non transmitting, on both public and private land from July thirty one to January one. As I've covered previously, Arizona has banned cellular trail cam use since two thousand eighteen. In the state recently banned all trail camera use on all public and private land. Montana, New Mexico, New Hampshire, and Nevada have also placed restrictions on trail camera usage. According to surveys of hunters conducted by the Utah dw R, forty nine point nine percent of survey respondents said that trail camera use impacts fair chase, and sixty seven point four percent opposed the use of transmitting cameras during big game hunting seasons. However, fifty six point five pc of hunters opposed a year long ban on all trail camera use like that in Arizona. The Utah Wildlife Board voted four three to impose the band. In Montana, the Fish and Wildlife Commission is seeking public comment on over two hundred changes to current wildlife regulations. According to the Helena Independent Record, these policies include restricting a hunter who has awarded a limited bull permit to hunting in that district, eliminating all limited permits for cow elk and offering extra licenses, and offering and over the counter cow elk license that could be used on private land in any district. Many of these policies are aimed at reducing elk populations, which some say have grown too large to complicate matters even further. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is working on updating the state's elk management plan, which hasn't been updated since two thousand five. That new plan won't be ready until two thousand twenty three, and some folks would rather the Wildlife Commission wait until the new management plan is finalized before moving forward on new elk regulations, As previously discussed here on the Weekend Review, at least one of these new regulation changes has been abandoned after a backlash from hunters and other concerned groups. Under that proposal, uh, let's just say it didn't make any sense, and groups like Montana back country Hunters and anglers strongly opposed the measure. They got the word out, and the Montana Fish Wildly in Parks dropped the proposal in December. If you live in Montana, or really any state, there are two takeaways here. First, hunters and anglers have a real voice when it comes to wildlife regulations. If you care about a topic, let your voice be heard. It can make a difference. Second, your state might be considering major changes to hunting and fishing regulations. I'll give you a little hint they are. Pay attention. I'll do my best to cover some of those changes over the next few weeks, but I can't touch on everything. Pay attention to your local news Join rod and gun clubs in your state. At a minimum, sign up for their newsletters. You don't have to become a member. Don't let legislators and lobbyists change the laws without hearing from you. You have to be a part of this process. Finally, one legislative bright spot. You are now legally permitted to harvest road kill in the Great State of Wyoming as of January one, The quality state joins neighbors in Idaho, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, and Montana and allowing residents and those just passing through to dine at the grit cafe or the road kill Cafe, whatever you wanna call it. Interestingly, Nebraska to the East has no laws on the books allowing or outlying salvage of road kill. Only a few states, including Montana, allow people to take road kill with no restrictions whatsoever. Most require a license and tag the same him as if you were taking the animal with a rifler bow, which you know. I'll admit it has seemed strange, as though the state we're including the grill of your camera or escalated as a llegal means of take not the most preciser cost EFFECTI approach, I would argue. In Wyoming, this new harvest permission is not broker through fishing game, but through the Department of Transportation. The state's app now provides traffic weather updates, road closures, as well as the green light to take those antelope backstraps. This is a great thing to know about wherever you live. Search online and find out what your state requires. Then sign up and keep your knife, rubber gloves, a steel battery operated chainsaw with canola oil in place of your bar and chain oil, and a couple of pillow cases in the car. In no time you'll be saying, I swear, officer, it's for road kill. There are around one point five million car on deer collisions in the us and salvaging some of that resulting food makes the best out of a bad situation. Moving on to the crime desk, Idaho Fishing Game recently announced the sentencing of fifty five year old Paul Coward. That's CEO W A r D. It's spelled just like it sounds. Coward, who pled guilty to a pile of poaching charges from the previous ten years across multiple jurisdictions, including a felony offense for killing a mountain goat in Washington State then hiding said goat in his home in the Idaho Panhandle. Often the sentences for poaching make us scratch our heads. When a guy gets caught with a hundred deer heads in a single bag of meth, he tends to get harsher punishment for the drugs than for the killing of our collective wildlife. So the Coward case caught our I for a very neat piece of sentencing. Coward will serve ninety days in prison, but instead of serving those days all in a row, he'll be in the cooler for the thirty days of archery elk season this year as well as in and if he doesn't show up for one of those stretches, or if he commits any further offenses, he'll serve five solid years in the clink. Many of Coward's offenses were for illegally guiding and hunting over bait during archery elk season, and so keeping Coward out of the woods when he could reoffend during that specific time makes a ton of sense, like locking up a bank robber from nine to five on week days and ten to four on weekends. Coward was a notorious offender, and a lot of people in the Idaho Panhandle wondered why it took so long to put him away. Wildlife crimes take place in the middle of nowhere, away from surveillance cameras were physical evidence to Kay's almost right away, and so building a coaching case is much much harder than the typical hotel room shooting on your favorite op show. Oh and you know, your eyewitnesses typically our wildlife, so outside of bugles, ground scrowls, and chuckles, their statements can only be interpreted so far. But you know a mountain goat killing on c S I, maybe c S I Vegas that I'd be willing to watch. That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening. As per usual, if you're feeling a little shorthanded on your yard chores, or maybe you're staring at that wood stack next to the woodstove and you're thinking I need a little more muscle, go to www dot steel Dealers dot com and find a local, knowledgeable steel dealer near you. I promise you you'll go in, they'll get you what you need, and they'll send you home with nothing that you don't. On top of that, get a hold of me by writing in to a s k C. A L. Let's ask Cal at the meat Peter dot com and let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. Thanks again, I'll talk to you next week.

Save this episode