00:00:10 Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Calahan. Here's cal For the. 00:00:21 Speaker 2: Last three weeks, residents of Erie, Pennsylvania have been searching for an alligator that was allegedly spotted in Lake Erie earlier this month. The gator first appeared on August fourth, about twenty to thirty yards from shore, according to a timeline of the gator hunt published on goerie dot com. Officials were notified the beach was closed and a trapper was sent out to capture the prehistoric reptile. I like to think this trapper has an Australian accent and has been in witness protection since faking his death in two thousand and six. But if that's the case, mister Irwin has lost a step or two. Tracks turned up on the beach a few days later, but the trapper's efforts have so far proved futile, and locals haven't spotted the gator since August seventh. Where this gator came from is an even bigger mystery than where it's currently hiding. The American alligator has a native range that only goes as far as the southern portion of North Carolina and northern Arkansas. They aren't known to be great travelers, as you can probably guess from their stubby little legs, so this isn't a juvenile dispersal situation. The best guess of local lake Erie experts is that this is an exotic pet that escaped or was released into the lake. The gator is unlikely to survive the cold PA winter, but that's small comfort to lake Erie beach goers, as temps won't drop for some time. This week, We've got the crime desk, bad shooting, and dispersal. But first I'm going to tell you about my week, and my week has been spent packing. I have a heck of a September planned, and if you are listening to this, then you know September is here. Checklists are good things. I have a checklist for my archery gear, my optics, my truck, came camp, my backpack, camp, sub lists for sleeping gear, cooking gear, food, rifle, hunting checklist, A list for things to fix and replace in the camper. The old must get this done before I lose connectivity. Work checklist, headlamps, tent steaks, pea cord, freeze, dried perfect bars, water bladders which I finally got around to dumping a little bleach into. Was well needed, first aid kit, toilet paper, cow calls, bugle reads, diaphrams, hearing protection, what boots to wear, how many socks to bring, what rifle to bring? How much ammunition? Rain gear or no rain gear? Stove or no stove for fifty. 00:02:43 Speaker 1: Yea, that's all I need. 00:02:47 Speaker 2: So much to do. On top of that, there is a checklist of national importance that just does not leave my mind. Initiative ninety one in Colorado will be up for a vote in November. That's the proposal to ban lion and bobcat hunting, where individual voters in the state of Colorado have the ability to tell the state game agency how to manage game. That is a threat. Just recently, Governor Ron DeSantis and his cabinet just proposed the development of State of Florida parks, basically a state park Disney World crossover where instead of boat ramps, beaches, camping, and nature there could be golf courses, pickleball, and five hundred bed hotels. This is a threat. Utah state lawmakers just made the decision to sue the United States for control of eighteen and a half million acres of federally managed land in that state. Utah has sold fifty four percent of its state owned lands since statehood, netting around two billion dollars for roughly four point one million acres, which sounds like a good payday, but that's only five hundred dollars an acre, which is basically freeland in the west, factoring in current market rates. This situation and way of thinking is a threat. Firearm laws that restrict or hinder the freedoms of law abiding, tax paying citizens in an attempt to regulate the misdeed's misuse or sickness of others is happening on many levels of government. This is a threat. The list goes on and on. I recently put up a ranting post about the Utah and Florida situation on the old Instagram Utah and Federal Land, Florida and state land. It's an amazing political blunder to have both of these situations occurring at the same time because the extreme profitization of state held lands at the expense of wildlife and access, and the ultimate sale of state held lands is a huge driving factor behind the opposition to state ownership of federally managed or as I like to call them, public lands. Lots of comments happening in the comments section. I just want to address one which is relevant to the threat list. One fella commented that, yes, this is a threat, but I want to focus on one thing at a time, and my thing is guns. I get it, I understand, But as you all know right now, we have a lot of stuff that matters to us that we can affect if we wade in and do so. In any given legislative session in any state, there is never just one thing, one threat. It all comes at us at the same time. So if your attitude is to divide and conquer, I just want to remind you that's the exact strategy the folks are using to strip us of access, access to wildlife, access to land, access to firearms. It's predator swamping. Put enough out there that we can't effectively kill it all. If you give a crap, you need to weigh in on all of these. All of these issues will affect you. Write those emails, sign the petitions, make the phone calls. Also, beware of the co opting of terms. Right now, the Utah folks have literally stolen the backcountry hunters and anglers byline of keep public lands in public hands, making it so you have to ask what do you mean by that. If it's BHA saying it, you can be damn sure that what it means is public land available to all for hunting and fishing, right BHA, the voice of public Lands, waters and wildlife. If it's this Utah coalition saying it, what they mean is to take all of those lands that we collectively own and are held in trust and managed by the federal government under state control so they can dictate how they are developed, how they are sold, and what we can and cannot access and what we can and cannot access those lands for. In Florida, the DeSantis administration said this in a defense of state park development. Quote Teddy Roosevelt believed that public parks were for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, and we agree with him. That was from Press Secretary Jeremy Redford. He goes on, but it's high time we made public lands more accessible to the public. Do you see what he's doing there. He's making this an access issue and implying that giant RV parks, golf courses, pick a ball, five hundred bed hotels complexes are what makes the outdoors accessible to people. Old Teddy Roosevelt tr would be rolling in his grave. The guy who had the foresight to establish national parks and the United States Forest Service with Gifford Pinchip as chief Forrester, did not say, Hey, we need national forests to conserve resources for the future. To protect these resources against businesses that want to destroy them, and ensure the United States public has a right to those resources. Oh and pickleball and golf courses. Moving on to the crime desk, and Idaho man is being charged with five felonies and fifteen misdemeanors for a host of wildlife crimes that cover everything from harassing wildlife with a helicopter to improperly tagging trophy elk, to wounding and keeping a live antelope buck in the back of his truck, to illegally buying and selling big game tags. Believe it or not, that's just a partial list. We don't have time here to cover every crime alleged in the sixty seven page Affidavid, but I do want to zero in on that last one I mentioned. Forty three year old Carl Stuter is being charged with four misdemeanors four quote solicitation to or market landowner appreciation tags. Landowner appreciation tags are given to landowners in Idaho via a lottery, and it's illegal to sell or market those tags for sale. The idea behind the program was to give landowners some extra incentive to protect wildlife habitat, and, as the name implies, to express appreciation for all the work farmers and ranchers do for conservation. The program is not supposed to make landowners rich, but that appears to be what's happening in Idaho. Meet eaters Jordan Sillers spoke with Idaho hunters who report that there has been an active illegal market for landowner tags for years, and I can confirm I've seen the same in the time I've been hunting in the gym state. The stuter Fella was probably more active than most. According to the affidavit, he spent over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in twenty twenty three purchasing landowner tags, and he likely planned to flip some of those for profit. These tags give the designee access not only to the private property of landowner, but also to the entire game management unit in which that property resides. This means that legal public land hunters in Idaho not only have to compete with other public land hunters and local landowners, but also with wealthy folks who can afford to purchase landowner tags that have been illegally sold or marketed. As I told Jordan for his article, which you can read over at the meat Eater dot com, and you really should, this is a great example of open secrets and corruption of good intent. Idaho's Landowner Appreciation Program or LAP, was created to incentivize good stewardship of natural resources resources. We all get to benefit from landowners who are trying to make a living in agriculture have it tough skyrocketing property values and the associated taxes, fragmentation of fertile crop and grazing ground from development, beef from South America, land from New Zealand. Most hunters would agree that in order to maintain the North American model of wildlife management, where free roaming gamelo belongs to the people, not the landowner, landowners who make a living off of the land, who provide habitat for game species and livestock alike through the stewardship and management of land should be considered for certain types of compensation through the state. However, when corruption takes place like this case in Idaho, the public trust is violated. We can understand the ask for reduced herd numbers when crops are decimated, but we can't understand or support a system that increasingly looks like it was designed for individuals to skip the line and predate solely on monster bulls like mister Stuiter did. If the LAP isn't a population control program, if it isn't a program to relieve pressure on crops or pasture land, if it isn't an accessible access program, then it shouldn't be an Idaho Fishing Game Department or State of Idaho program. The public does not support another avenue for trophy for the well healed. Now, this is the first case that I've heard of, first one that I can point to anyway of anyone being charged with violating the rules about landowner tags in Idaho. Hopefully this case signals that the Idaho Fish and Game Department is taking this problem seriously and we can expect to see more prosecutions in the future. For the whole story head on over to the meeteater dot Com. The Sheriff's office in Morrison County, Minnesota is searching for the person who killed a white tailed deer from the roadway on the night of August thirteenth. Deputies responded to the scene and found a dead deer with what looked like a wound from a twelve gage shotgun. They also found that whoever had shot the deer had also hit several street signs, mailboxes, and electrical boxes with the scattergun to round out the mental image of this suspect or suspects. The Sheriff's office press release notes that the only details they have about the vehicle are that it is quote an older truck and notably loud. If alcohol wasn't involved in this little night time shooting spree, I'll eat my mustache. Anyone with information on this case is being asked to contact the Morrison County Sheriff's Office. Three two zero sixty three to two nine two three three to Montana men, one of whom was a longtime guide an outfitter in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, have been indicted on federal charges for illegally killing and transporting a brown bear in Alaska. The indictment documents indicate that forty six year old rich mctee and fifty one year old Arlen Franz went hunting in the Alaska Peninsula at National Wildlife Refuge in May of twenty twenty two. The documents don't say who killed the bear, but they say that one of the men violated a rule that requires non resident hunters to hunt with a master guide. The indictment also alleges that the bear was shot and killed before the legal season to hunt brown bear and occurred the same day that the hunter had been airborne, in violation of state and federal laws. It also says the pair violated the LASIAC because they transported the height out of a federal refuge to a local hunting lodge and from there to Port Mooler, then to Anchorage. I'm sure there's a long and complicated story behind this case. By given their experience in the field, they'll have a tough time pleading ignorance. If convicted, each man faces up to five years in prison and one hundred thousand dollars fine. Thanks Maddy for sending that one in. The poacher who killed a famous buck in Richmond Virginia. Has been sentenced to four months in prison, a thirteen thousand dollars fine, and a twenty five year hunting licensed suspension. Thirty six year old Jason Walters made national news when he killed the Hollywood Buck, named for its frequent sightings in the Hollywood Cemetery in downtown Richmond. Walters claim to have shot the buck in Prince Edward County, Virginia, using a muzzleoder, but he made the mistake of posting images on social media. Richmond residents immediately recognized the buck's non typical rack, and from there things went downhill quickly for the thirty six year old. Speaking of ill advised social media posts, Oregon State Police are searching for two men suspected of taking an oversized sturgeon within a protected breeding sanctuary in Umatilla County. A video posted on Snapchat shows one person holding a fishing rod hooked to the fish as another person enters the water and wrestles the sturgeon to shore. The man then lifts the sturgeon vertically by shoving his hands through the gills and out the mouth. According to the OSP the injuries to the sturgeon's gills were almost certainly fatal. All sturgeon angling is closed in the breeding sanctuary from May one to August thirty one to protect the stock, but this incident allegedly occurred around May ninth. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Oregon State Police. Moving across the pond, French conservation groups are sounding the alarm with sharp increase in the number of wolf poaching cases. Much like we've been covering in Washington State and other areas, France has been dealing with an increasing number of wolves, mainly in the southeastern parts of the state. There are about one thousand wolves right now in the country, which is just a little smaller than Texas. Though the population dropped slightly last year, it's been steadily increasing over the last ten years. Not surprisingly, not all French residents appreciate the change. Though no official estimates exist on the true amount of poaching, several high profile incidents over the past few years have shown a light on the issue. In June twenty twenty three, three people were indicted for poisoning a wolf, one of whom was an employee with the French Office of Biodiversity. This person admitted to having infiltrated the agency to obtain information on wolf packs. Two wolves were found poisoned in a national park a year earlier, and a year before that, wolf was found hanged in front of a town hall in a small village. The country does allow about nineteen percent of the wolf population to be called each year to help keep the population and check. Animal rights groups believe this number is far too high, while agricultural groups say that's not nearly enough to limit the number of attacks on sheep and other livestock. Looks like we've got a few more things in common with France, after all. Moving on to the Traveling Animal Desk, it's always interesting when animals show up in strange places. Sometimes this is a good thing. Listener Matt Mann sent me a story about an oslot being spotted in a region of Arizona that hasn't seen one of the elusive cats in the last fifty years. Oslots are wildcats about twice the size of an average house cat. They used to live throughout southern Arizona, most of Texas, and as far north as Arkansas. Now there's only one stable population of the species in the US, which lives in a wildlife refuge in southern Texas. However, they are sometimes spotted in southern Arizona as they come north from Mexico. A spot analysis of this cat confirms that it is new to Arizona and it's the first cat to be spotted in the at Tescosa Highlands region in at least fifty years. The new sighting marks the seventh known oslot to roam around Arizona in the last two decades. Just to go back Asmidge, spot analysis isn't some fun acronym, it's literally identifying cats by the configuration and location of their spots. Biologists are encouraged that continued conservation efforts will create more suit habitat for the species. In southern Arizona. Oslots need dense forests and sprawling grasslands for shelter and protection as they move, but habitat fragmentation has made it difficult for the species to thrive. Biologists will continue to monitor this area to see if this cat is just passing through or might be the first of the country's second stable population. Oslots in southern Arizona are welcome news, but invasive bugs in New York City are not. Local media reports that Manhattan ants have taken over the city, and biologists have finally identified them as an invasive species from Europe. The larger than average black and red ant wasn't recorded in two thousand and nine survey of ants in the Big Apple, but in the years that followed the insects first began appearing in local parks. Now they're one of the most common ants in the city and have been found inside buildings, on six floor balconies, and even in a flower planter in the middle of Times Square. How a new ant species ended up in New York is still unclear, but DNA tests and observ of the colonies have revealed that Manhattan ants are actually Las sue and managinatis, a European species. Go ahead and right in to ask col to let me know how to pronounce that one. Scientists are still trying to figure out what the ecological impact of these large ants might be. They're not what's known as a super colony species that expands and dominates habitat, but they are expanding quickly and entomologous. Scientists who study insects worry that they could negatively impact trees and other native bugs. Fortunately, Manhattan ants have only been in New York City since about twenty eleven, which is actually less time than it usually takes to detect invasive species. But most invasive insects aren't detected until they reach pest status, at which point it's too late to do anything about it. For these ants, they'll be better able to monitor and tract their impact, and they're asking New Yorkers to record their observations of the ants on the app I Natural Yes. Moving on to the gun violence desk, a new study published last month claims to have found a link between deer hunting seasons and an increase in gun related violence in rural counties. The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, looked at shootings reported in eight hundred and fifty four rural counties and forty four states. Researchers found that in the week following the opening of deer season, firearms shootings that injured or killed county residents jumped by an average of forty nine percent. That rate was still forty one percent highed during the second week, but the increase fell close to zero by the third week of deer hunting season. Since most deer harvested in those first two weeks, this indicates a strong connection between hunters going out to harvest deer and gun related criminal activity. If that sounds a little far fetched, not to mention mildly insulting, you aren't alone. Hunters aren't a perfect bunch, as we cover pretty often over at their crime desk, but I have never heard anyone suggests that the deer opener leads to gun crime. These Princeton researchers acknowledge that their findings can't be explained by hunting alone. Firearm accidents in the field are extremely rare, and when they account for those accidents, their results don't change. So how do they account for their findings? Here's the key quote. This evidence leads us to conclude that the most plausible explanation for the increase in shootings the week after the start of deer season is the heightened presence of firearms in public and private spaces. There are simply more guns floating around during deer season, they argue, which by itself leads to more shootings and rural counties, or maybe not. First, it's worth pointing out that the average number of annual shootings in these counties is five point four per one hundred thousand people. That's total shootings, not just homicides. For comparison, in twenty twenty one, there were six point seven gun related murders per one hundred thousand people across the entire country. In Chicago, that number was twenty nine point six intoenty twenty one. The number of per capita shootings is much higher since not all shootings result in death. Point is, these rural counties have far far lower rates of gun violence than metropolitan areas. Kind Of makes you wonder why Princeton researchers are spending their time looking at areas that, by comparison, are some of the safest in the country. Anyway, getting back to the study itself, if gun violence spikes because hunters are carrying around their rifles and shotguns, we should expect that the rise in shootings is driven by long guns. Correct, right, rifles, long guns, long shotguns. Actually the opposite is true, The study admits, quote we found that the increase in shootings after the start of deer hunting season was more pronounced for shootings with a handgun rather than a long gun, they say in the conclusion quote. This additional evidence suggests the main results may be associated with a broader influx of guns into public and private spaces rather than simply an increase in long guns used for hunting. Sounds to me like maybe these researchers haven't met many actual hunters. They seem to be suggesting that deer hunters cause an influx of guns into public and private spaces because they're toting around handguns along with their deer rifles. Some hunters certainly do carry a handgun in the woods, but it isn't nearly enough to drive higher rates of gun crime. The real hole in this study appears in a single line in the results section. It reads, quote, of the eight hundred and fifty four counties in the sample, three hundred and five had at least one shooting during the study period. In other words, even though they looked at eight hundred and fifty rural counties, they could only find three hundred and five that had even a single shooting in the weeks around deer season. They also don't provide their full data set, so it's not clear how many shootings those three hundred and five counties had. I'm no statistician, but it seems like if you're basing your conclusions on just ten percent of American counties, having a single shooting in the week after deer season, you might have found yourself a random coincidence rather than a ground breaking link between the deer opener and gun violence in America. 00:24:10 Speaker 1: Do you like apples? How do you like their maps? 00:24:15 Speaker 2: Moving on to the mailbag desk, listener Dan Broult wrote in with a great story about what can happen when you engage with your representatives at the local level. Like many towns in North America, the town of Aurelia, Ontario, has a Canada geese problem. The population has grown so large that goose poop has become a major issue in the city's waterfronts and parks, and some of the beaches on Lake Simcoe have been closed due to pollutants in the water. The city council is taking the issue pretty seriously, but they're considering a range of mitigation measures that include naturalizing certain portions of the shoreline to help deter geese. One council member, however, suggested what to hunter, sounds like a more effective and tasty option. Counselor Whitney Smith said during a recent meeting, quote, I'm a waterfowl hunter, and I'd happily take care of that problem as well as dozens of my friends. Her comments were taken as a joke, according to the local media report, but Dan Brolt saw an opportunity to make a real connection with one of his local leaders. He reached out to Counselor Smith then expressed his appreciation for her comments and for her on the record support of hunting. Counselor Smith apparently appreciated the call because she said she'd like to hunt with Dan at some point this season or really. A city council probably won't allow Canada goose hunting within its jurisdiction, but you never know. And now Dan has made a real connection with one of his representatives. That connection might not pay dividends right now on this specific issue, but it may very well in the future. Nice job, Dan, keep up the good work. That's all I got for you this week. Thank you so much for listening, and remember to write in to as case c Al that's Askcal at the meeteater dot com let me know what's going on in your neck of the woods. On top of that, I was dead toot and serious about you keeping your nature journals, your bird watching journals and showing me that you did so, and I'm gonna randomly select one of you for a new Final Rise vest and some col Ammo pouches from FHF Gear, And then I'm gonna select two more Evia just for some cow pouches. Okay, maybe I'll throw something else cool in there too, so remember keep those going this season. October thirty one is gonna be the big day. Okay. Then I'm gonna pull those names from the hat, So you got all of September all October to keep those journals. Get them back to me. We'll pick some big, big winners. Citizen Science kicks a butt, and I know you do too. Thanks again, I'll talk to you next week.