00:00:09 Speaker 1: From Mediator's World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Kel's we can review with Ryan Kel Kelly and now here's cal. I am so darned jealous. For the most part. I don't get all wrapped up in big antlers or envious of new shiny things, But ma'am am, I jealous of these two sisters from Kansas. Ashley and Aaron Watt, found an old grizzly bear skull sticking out of a sandbar while floating down the Arkansas River in southeast Kansas. You heard that right, Kansas. We're not in Kansas anymore. Although not currently home to Ursus arc dos horribilius, Kansas was at one point. The bears were likely killed off or extra pated from Kansas. By the mid eighteen hundreds, even though we know the grizz lived in Kansas, there only been three skulls found, the one by the Watts sisters being the most intact, only missing a couple of minor teeth. I can't help but think about how hunting in Kansas would be different today had we adopted our notions of conservation a couple hundred years earlier. Can you imagine stepping into a line of pheasant hunters getting ready to walk a field of standing corn that might or might not be hiding an eight hundred pound bear. I imagine there'll be a lot less pressure, as the biggest danger to most Midwestern Upland bird hunters these days is other Midwestern upland bird hunters. But back to that skull find. The Arkansas River still exposes the bones of bison, sometimes the really old ones, but it looks like this grizz skull is likely from a modern bear and actually may have managed to die of old age near the river. As one listener, Jeffrey Hancock wrote in to tell me, he quote like to think this particular bear died fat and happy after eating some settler. This sweek, We've got the Delta, smell, owls, New Jersey, and so much more. But first I'm gonna tell you about my week. As a reminder, this podcast is powered by Steele, the makers of a wide range of equipment used to both cut things down and clean things up, including those battery powered chainsaws I like so much. I keep bringing them up because I throw that saw right into the bed of my truck, which coincidentally is my actual bed. That I sleep and many nights, and that ripping little saw doesn't leave my sleeping space all stinky, like that nasty two stroke Craigslist outboard engine I bought. In fact, I just got done with a few nights crashing in the truck up outside a Sortman, Montana, a town that had a population of over two thousand and eighteen eighty four, but less than seventy in two thousand ten. Two real famous old prospector types named pike Land Dusky and Dutch Louis discovered gold there in eighteen eighty four, setting off a boom. Pike Land Dusky's name pop u up a ton, but mostly because he was killed in a saloon by Kid Curry or Harvey Alexander Logan, who was part of the Wild Bunch, the folks that rode with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Maybe that's where that line from young Guns to with Emilio Estevez comes from. I'll make you famous anyway. I was an ansortment looking up old ghosts. I was up to watch some Peregrine falcons hunt sharp tailed grouse and hang out with the great folks from the Peregrine Fund and the non lad partnership. As we've covered here on the Weekend Review, if you like raptors that occasionally gut piles, you likely have developed a distaste for lead shot or lead core bullets. If not, I don't believe the birds will be going anywhere, as their numbers seem to be steadily increasing. If you are a falconer, however, one who raises, trains and hunts with falcons, you absolutely despise led shot, as these incredibly powerful, honestly pretty intimidating birds are surprisingly fragile and take an astounding amount of time, patience, and from my perspect active neurotic care and the effects of lead poisoning are devastating to both the bird and the falconer. Anyway, I got to tag along and watch the birds hunt. Like many hunts, the ones I watched were unsuccessful, but still a lot of fun. One aspect I found incredibly cool is that these falconers also run dogs English pointers to be exact in tandem with their falcons. The pointers narrowed down the field and limit the exposure to risk for the falcon. Again, no matter how tough looking the bird is, it is a fragile creature that is hunting on someone else's turf. I was really surprised to learn that owl's silently gliding while a falcon is on the ground and grossed in eating or dispatching its prey will often kill a falcon. The owl gets two meals instead of one, and one less competitor on its turf, so the bird dog by finding the bird, limits the amount of time the falcon has in the air and again potentially exposing itself to danger. During one of the flights, an owl came off the ground while the falcon was high overhead, and the birds actually scuffled a bit, but as I said, nothing died that hadn't been dead for a while. On this trip, in addition to keeping the falcons safe, the dogs also act as a clean up crew. Since we didn't kill any grouse, the falcons got fed organically grown, hormone free quail, and I actually watched the pointer come in and share a few bites of the quail with the falcon, who didn't seem to mind that much. Turns out falcons are kind of messy eaters, and the pointer happily cleaned her beak. For falconry has been around forever, possibly since six thousand BC, and the way people hunted with birds back then is likely very similar to how they hunt now, except today the birds carry satellite transmitters linked to iPads that relay location, altitude, and air speed. The allusion paragrine that we flew climbed to seven hundred feet and covered ground at about eighty miles an hour sounds impressive right. Well, when these birds really get going, the allusion paragra in tops out at around two hundred and twenty miles per hour and had to laugh a bit, as even with the technological advances of today, the hunt itself remains a relatively simple thing, was so much of the outcome being determined by a non communicative bird. If you want to tag along and watch one of these birds, or even get a demonstration of bullet performance, call or email the good folks at the Peregrine Fund or the Non Lead Partnership. If you want to take things a bit further, there are a much wider variety of non toxic shot alternatives on the market now than even a few years ago. You may want to start tinkering with them. I know I am currently working with a bunch of loads and options from Federal ammunition, some quick housekeeping, then onto the show. I screwed up a few things that are quite embarrassing. Has this is stuff everyone knows, so let me wipe the egg from my face real quick. Horseshoe crabs are not mollass, so please don't let your children think they are. The horseshoe crab is an arthropod. Secondly, and very embarrassing, as I typically have to buy two a year due to my habit of misplacing things. The federal duck stamp made the jump from fifteen dollars to twenty five dollars back in the season two thousand, fifteen and sixteen. This increase was much needed, as the price of the stamp had not gone up since. Lots of people wrote in on this, all of whom were very nice in their corrections. I appreciate the leeway. One of these folks was U S. Senator Martin Heinrich from New Mexico. The Senator actually sits on the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission and has to approve all of the individual habitat purchases. Senator Heinrich would like to make sure that everyone knows this is no small error that I made as the ten dollar increase will provide an estimated one hundred and fifty million dollars for wetland habitat over ten years, and that even though the price of the stamp has increased, the percentage of funds that goes from the stamp to wildlife habitat has remained at nine eight percent, which I believe pencils out about fifty Additionally, Senator Heinrich mentioned that he managed to take a seek a stag with his bow in Maryland and said, quote, ma'am, are they delicious? And last, but not least had a great listener email in to ask Cal at the meat eater dot com. She says, Hey, Cal, I was hoping that you might be able to provide some insight on how I can practice conservation in my own home. I already hunting fish, but other than contributing additional money to conservation, I'm a poor wildlife graduate student or calling my state representatives, how can I be a better conservationist? I already keep the cat inside, harvest rainwater, practice water conservation, and try not to use too much plastic. But other than these any other tips, I live in an apartment in the middle of Phoenix First, thank you, sounds like you're already kicking butt. Second, if you have windows or a balcony, you could provide some useful plants for pollinators like bees, beetles, and birds. And you can always volunteer a couple of dirty secrets that nobody talks about. When you volunteer, you almost always come away with a new recipe, hunting or fishing spot, or some other personal benefit that makes up for your gas money. And special for those of you in the state of Arizona, if you were to get to know the folks at the Arizona Chapter of back Country Hunters and Anglers, I'll tell you right now that chapter can cook and cook anything found in Arizona, from choia buds to rattlesnakes. This is a great question. If anyone has a great example of conservation work to be done in the home, please right in. This is a great topic. I'll compile them and let you and myself know. Moving on to the slow moving fish desk. Remember how a few weeks ago we talked about how the Trump administration, like nearly all administrations, made changes on how the Endangered Species Act is enforced. This last Tuesday, we might have learned one of the reasons why they wanted to weaken those safeguards. On October twenty two, the Interior Department announced that it was lifting protections for several threatened species in California's Sacramento San Joaquin Delta, including the Delta smelt and endangered winter run chinook salmon, in order to allow more water to be diverted from their area's rivers to large agricultural operations to the south. This is problematic for a few reasons. First of all, several biological opinions dating back decades and as recently as this past June, have clearly demonstrated that these fish and other species and communities that depend on them need sufficient stream flow to persist. The Endangered Species Act protections were meant to make sure the fishes have enough water during drought, which happens a lot in California. A group of farmers represented by the Westlands Water District, have been fighting against these ees A protections for as long as they've been in effect. Oddly enough, or maybe coincidentally enough, David Bernhardt, the current Acting Secretary of the Interior Department, worked as a lawyer and lobbyist for Wesland's through much of this battle. Those farmers were his biggest lobbying client from two thousand eleven to two thousand sixteen, in which time they paid his firm one point three million. According to The New York Times, he may not be on that payroll anymore, but he is still getting some work done, weakening essay protections for the Delta smell. The revolving Door provision of the Trump administration's own ethics Pledge, which Bernhardt signed, bars officials from working on issues they previously lobbied on for two years after taking office. At Times investigation, however, revealed that Bernhardt ordered Department of the Interior officials involved with the San Joaquin Delta, salmon and smell to start rewriting the biological opinions only four months after he was confirmed as the Deputy Secretary of the Interior in two thousand seventeen, though he was given verbal ap roval to waive the ethics pledge from d o I ethics lawyer. This June, scientists working on the Delta produced a new biological opinion that pretty much said what others have in the past, that rerouting more water to irrigators and reducing protections for the salmon and smell would be devastating to the entire ecosystem. Those scientists also feared these actions could promote toxic blue green algae blooms in the Delta and San Francisco Bay and caused more harm to the critically threatened Southern resident killer whales that depend on chinook. The scientists and biologists involved in this biological opinion were quickly reassigned and replaced, according to report from the Los Angeles Times. Their replacements the new group quickly turned around another biological opinion that said rerouting massive amounts of water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and tributaries would have no effect on salmon, smell or the eCos system at large. Let's hope they're right. Salmon is tasty stuff. In fact, some of the best salmon I have ever had was in the form of sashimi fresh out of California waters. But in order for the authors of this latest opinion to be right, a whole lot of hard working scientists and biologists would have to be wrong several times over which, sure, I guess that could be the case, but it doesn't take a real savvy biologist to come to the conclusion that fish need water. The Delta smell isn't exactly sexy. They're two to three inches long and not particularly interesting to most people. The thing is they're an indicator species. At the smell they're doing good, the water is good, and if the water is good, the salmon are good. Just like sagebrush two antelope or pintails to flooded grass. They're also the primary bait fish in the California Delta ecosystem. If they go away, it could set off a cascade effect up through the food chain. If you want your salmon, you want your smell. If you want your killer, way else you want your salmon. The intentions from the Department of the Interior are clear. It just doesn't seem to me like the time to sit back and see what happens. It's time to call your congressional representatives today and let them know how much these lands, waters, and animals mean to you. Potentially shady Department of the Interior dealings aside. This is ultimately a food question. Is it better to divert water into fields to feed and employ people through agriculture, or is it better to reinvigorate a wild food source by continuing to limit that water to the fields by letting it flow to the ocean. Balance is tricky, especially when jobs are on the line. Moving on to some potential good news, Pennsylvania hunters might soon have a reason to celebrate, particularly those who work a standard Monday through Friday schedule. The State House Game and Fisheries Committee approve Senate Bill one four seven, which would allow hunting three sundays. To see them. Sunday hunting is currently banned in Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts, and Delaware, and restricted in six other states. These restrictions are remnants of the Blue laws imposed on our Puritanical colonies to encourage church going. And while I have no problem with piety, I prefer to conduct my worship in the woods. Representative Bill Courts lobbied hard for the bill when it's passage came under threat from added amendments, saying, quote, this bill has taken three hundred and thirty seven years. We're asking for three days. Since we started the show talking about raptors and owls, I thought i'd bring it full circle here at the end. While using raptors to hunt sharp tailed grouse over the sage brush flats and cuts of the Missouri River breaks feels like something that hasn't changed in several thousand years. Using raptors to hunt seagulls over the boardwalks and spray tons of the Jersey Shore seems uniquely ma Ocean City, New Jersey, is a beach town that depends on the roughly one and fifty thousand visitors they get each year, But in recent summers, the flood of summer tourists has encountered another less welcome infestation, seagulls. The seagulls have figured out that Ocean Cities boardwalks offer a seasonal feast of French fries, pizza, and soft serve. The goals have become so plentiful and so brazen that they've started literally attacking people to get them to drop their food. So this year, city officials decided to do something about it and the words of the New York Times quote. Deciding it had had enough, Ocean City turned to an army of wind bouncers. The city unleashed a posse of raptors, four hawks, to falcons, and an owl to take on the unruly goals. Using birds of prey to control unwanted avian pests. Isn't a new concept. Airports have been doing it for years as a non leaf, all on, non toxic solution. Best of all, it works. And though I learned recently that falcons and owls are not friendly with each other in the wilds of Montana, they apparently get along fine on the shores of the East Coast. Since we're still on the subject of owls, I wanted to close this week's episode with owl herpes. Well, this is probably the first owl story I've heard about New Jersey. It's not the first mention of a case of herpes in a beach town. Oh my God. To clarify what I'm talking about here, a new strain of herpes was recently identified in great horned owls. They can cause pink eye and corneal ulcers. Herpes viruses come in many different strains, and they've been around for more than four hundred million years, since before mammals split off from reptiles. Herpes viruses are thought to have evolved alongside their hosts, leading to what scientists call latency, meaning that animals often carry around particular types of herpes without much in the way of symptoms, allowing the virus to spread widely through the population. For context, the World Health Organization the w h O estimates that sixty of people on the planet have Herpes simplex virus type one. This can present as cold sores or genital warts, but in many cases, people carrying herpies don't display any symptoms at all, which allows them to pass it along over and over and over again. But enough about the sixty Back to the owls. This new strain of owl specific herpies was recently discovered in a couple of captive of great horned owls. Biologists aren't sure how common this strain of herpies is, how widespread it is in wild populations, or if it always shows itself and i ulcers, but they're working to figure it out. According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, though this new report is something to keep an eye on, it's not among their top concerns for owl populations. In fact, it's not even their top owl peace concern. Owls have long been known to fall victim to a different form of herpes that they get from eating rock dubs and pigeons, and that strand is almost immediately fatal for them. So there you go all you ever wanted to know about owl herpes. That's it for this week. Thanks for listening as per usual. If you want to set me straight right into ask Cal that's a s k C a L. At the Meat eater dot com. Leave me a review by hitting that furthest right hand star and be sure to tell a friend if you want to hear more fun and interesting facts. I'll talk to you next week.

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