00:00:09 Speaker 1: From Mediator's World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Kel's we can review with Ryan kel Kellan now Here's Kel. Recently, in Kiowa Island, South Carolina, a client awaiting her appointment at a hair and nail salon ended up being drugged into the water by an alligator and drowned. Yes, you heard correctly, a lady waiting for her nail appointment was drug into the water by a gator and drowned. The proximity of your nail salon to alligators may very well be a factor in your Google reviews. The fifty seven year old woman was apparently getting too close to the reptile in an attempt to take a picture. The owner of the salon screamed at her to get away, as the gator had taken a deer from the same spot. The woman refused. The proprietor's husband began running to the woman, assumedly to remove her from the water's edge and danger. At this point, the gator made its move by grabbing the victim by her leg and dragging her into the water. A rope was thrown to the victim by a neighbor drawn to the scene by the screams, which she was able to grab. Now she had help on one end and the gator holding her leg on the other. The proprietor's husband began beating the gator on the head with a shovel. Eventually, the gator performed a death roll, which caused the victim to lose her grip on the rope and be drug under. Just moments before being taken below the surface, the victim apparently looked at her potential rescuers and said, in a very calm voice, I guess I won't do this again. She got that right. Deputies arrived to a calm pond and surveiled the scene for at least twenty minutes before the body surfaced. An attempt was made to retrieve the victim, but the gator still had a hold of its meal. Eventually, the alligator surfaced in an area that allowed a deputy to kill the reptile with his nine millimeter pistol. Both the body of the victim and the gator were retrieved and sent to respective facilities for autopsies. There have only been twenty three reported alligator tax in the state of South Carolina. Beaufort County, in which Kiowa Island is located accounts for more than half of them. In fact, Hilton Head, the famed golf destination, is also located in Beaufort County, South Carolina, and it would appear that playing golf dramatically increases one's odds of being bitten by an alligator. Golfer was bitten on the calf by five foot gator on Port Royal Plantation. Another calf biter on Shipyard Plantation golf course, this time a female golfer two thousand five. Landscape around a golf resort two thousand nine, seventy seven year old golfer loses an arm and likely as game on Fripp Island to a ten foot gator. In addition to landscape work and golf walking, your dog proved to be both near fatal and fatal on Hilton Head as well. Despite being occasionally problematic at the nail salon or the golf course, the American alligator is a conservation success story. Their status is now threatened as opposed to their once federally endangered species listing. Alligators can be found from North Carolina through Texas, with a general proximity to the coast, but as a US fish and wildlife employee in Florida once told me, if you have water from a bird bath to a swimming pool, you could have a gator. A female gator can lay between twenty and sixty eggs, and when hatched, the young will grow between three and eight inches a year. These won't be considered adults until they hit six ft in length. That's roughly nine years from egg to adult. Although many of the threats the American alligator have been eliminated, the two major factors that continue to threaten them is the fact that they have an incredible instinct to return to their home locations. Relocated gators have been documented to return to the scene of capture after being dropped over a hundred miles away. The other is humans. Of course, we keep expanding into gator territory, and when we do, we set up little golf communities complete with water features and nail salons. Apparently you know places where gator wants to hang out. If you can't relocate an animal, the animals typically put down shop guilt. Considering this inability to relocate a gator after it becomes a nuisance, it is up to us to keep them from becoming a nuisance in the first place, don't feed them, and don't go for a touch up on the nails, and ignore that. Don't get too close to gators. Warning signs this week three toes, wildlife contest, tiger sharks, and so much more. But for I'm gonna tell you about my week, I took off on yet another turkey adventure. Actually managed to locate some birds Friday night after a four and a half mile walk of no birds and a mix of old sign and no sign. Just before dark, I had a possible ambush scenario on a three package Jake's, but as I rounded the corner to cut the birds off, four bull elk stood in my way. Hello the so I went back, camped in the back of the truck, set the alarm for four am. I walked into the zone about four twenty am, trying to beat any hint of daylight in the open terrain. I coyote, howled, crow called, owl, hooted, and could not get a gobble. Eventually I broke and gave a yelp, to which I got a half hearted gobble in response. Of course, I wasn't where I really wanted to be, but there was a good tree, so I set up the two hen decoys that had been packing around. I set them up for the most likely line of sight to the bird, not some at a social scenario. The bird started gobbling three in front of me, the jake's one above in one way below. Of course, my mind started turning and imagining the very far off bird as the wise old gobbler. Then I heard the trio of young birds fly to the ground. I gave a yelp, yelp. At about five fifty am, the Jake's walked up to one hand decoy about twelve yards away and gave her the cold shoulder as they walked to the other hand. The difference between the two I do not know, but the bird they settled on is that Dave Smith decoy, So the Jake's must just like you know, expensive fake women. At five fifty three I took the biggest of the three, and at six am I was back changing at the truck. Then, fueled by quick success, I decided it prudent to go to another region in Montana where I have valid turkey tags, Knowing that now that I had so easily bested three birds and put one on ice, I'd be able to collect two more before the weekend was out well four and a half hours later, I was in a new spot anticipating turkeys, which I could not locate for roughly seven hours. The bird singular that I did locate actually walked past my truck, gobbling as I was staring at my on X maps trying to figure out my next move. At seven thirty PM, I followed this bigger rope dragging Boss Tom Gobbler for another mile down to his roost, marked it on the map, and even laid my track on the app so it would know exactly where to be. In the morning again, I camped in my truck with the alarm set for four AM. Began to plan, this time for a big old Tom. I was gonna bring the whole spread both hands in a very sharp looking jake decoy. Obviously, what would happen is the old Tom would get down, see the young Jake inspecting beautiful hens right in his landings trip, and run into the waiting shotgun. This bird was as good as in the pot. The next morning, I'm in the spot, quietly and gently setting my decoys before even a hint of light. The old Gobbler is calling. He doesn't even know he's as good as dead. Yet I'm fiddling with my camo on my phone, when all of a sudden I hear wings. He's flown down, and I don't even think it's legal shooting light. Yet on top of that, he's flown to an opposite ridge. I fumble for my call, here him in response, and he starts to circle back around. I relax, knowing that old Tom is now back on my program. Then he gobbles continually from roughly my right elbow, across my back to my left elbow, and over the ridge to the left. I reposition and square up to his last gobble and scratched my slate call. Then there he is, standing tall on the little ridge, only about thirty yards away, looking down on the hen decoys. I should have shot him right there, but I had packed all this stuff with me in the dark for the purpose of him putting on a show getting sucked into the hand decoys, cautiously approaching until he sees the jake, at which point he loses his little bird mind and raises in. But what happens is he is quickly out of the shooting lane. He circles again, eyebawling in a way that if looks could kill that little jake decoy would have burst into flames. He continues to gobble. As I realized that this is his last pass of the morning. I grab all my gear and pursue him until I'm covered in ticks and sweat. Counted six of the nasty little blood suckers on me at one time. That's a lot for our neck of the woods. I wander back to the truck, watch the rain clouds boil, make an elk tongue sandwich, packed my gear and start heading home. On the road in front of me, that little storm knocked over three fire killed poe lines, which, of course was no match for the world's most perfect little truck companion, my steel m s A two d C battery power chainsaw. Bet you long time listeners were wondering how I was going to get that steel plug in. Huh. Well, I want to take a second to thank all of you long time listeners, in one in particular, Megan in Utah. And you know we should thank your dad and mom as well, who gently nudge you towards the out of doors. I agree with them, by the way, which you probably hate to hear because you're sixteen. So anyway, thank you, Megan, Thank you so much for listening and watching our shows and supporting Steve and jan Us and myself and the rest of the crew at meat Eater. And you are correct. Finding ways to do what you love and what matters is a good way to go about life. So far, so good, anyway, So get healthy. And while you are working towards health, remember there are a lot of things you can do from the indoors to appreciate the out of doors, like starting a bird journal or studying up on the stars, so when you finally get outside, you won't get lost. Alright, Moving on with a quick stop the corrections desk. Be careful hunting with sticks. It may not be illegal means of take. Always look at your state and sometimes federal regulations as to what is a legal means of dispatching an animal in the area you are hunting. For instance, as the writer Ben Long is soon to point out on an article at the meat eater dot com, if you hunt grouse with a stick, or, as the state of Idaho puts it, a hand thrown missile, you are legal if you do so in the state of Montana. However, you are not using a listed in the regulations legal means of take. So pay attention. Next, Ovi Paris, you lay eggs viviparis, you give birth to lie of young. But some of you, like the shark, lay eggs inside your body that then hatch inside of you and then are birthed. Some snakes do this as well. You just can't make up your minds and you are called Ova over Paris. Moving onto the shark desk, oh search recently tracked a female ten foot tiger shark from Africa to nearly Indonesia and nearly four thousand miles swim across the Indian Ocean. This is the longest tiger shark migration ever documented. And the question is what was her motivation. For those of you who are thinking that the ocean is just one huge body of water, of course fish and sharks swim around, well I get it, but that's not typically how a lot of these species work. In fact, that's what makes the ocean so difficult to understand. We don't really know how connected it is or isn't. When you talk about blue fin tuna imperiled, that is true in some populations, but in other populations they're doing just fine. At least that's what we think. But tagged fish or sharks like this ten footer may tell us that one population may be visiting another or actually be part of the same population. Moving on, Whether you claim to love to hate wolves, you still kind of love them. We all do. Predators have been a huge part of the stories of opening up America, KG grizzly bears, untreatable lions, and the last of the wolves. At the meat eater dot com, Spencer new Heart reports in his latest edition of bar Room Banter on three Toes, the west most notorious livestock killer. Three Toes the Wolf was a tri state agent operating in Montana and North and South Dakota from nineteen twelve to twenty. The unmistakable print of three Toes was synonymous with livestock killings. Dozens of hunters and trappers failed to kill the notorious wolf. During one pursuit, the wolf even stopped to kill fifteen corraled sheet before carrying on with you know, being chased. Eventually, the long arm of agricultural loss stepped up to put an end to three Toes. The U. S d A brought in a famous trapper to catch a famous wolf which, of course he did, and in true melancholic Western fashion, Three Toes, even though alive at capture, succumbed not to his wounds but from the broken heart caused by captivity. To find out just how much damage three Toes did, go to the meat eater dot com and look up Spencer new Hearst bar room banter. I'll give you a hint. In nineteen twenties dollars, a loss of fifty thou dollars was credited to the infamous wolf. Give it a read. It's a good one. And if you don't like these romantic notions of the West and it's terrible wolves and bears, just think of where poor old Leonardo DiCaprio would be without the grip. He couldn't very well win an oscar by grunting and dragging himself through the British Columbia snow, trying to outcrawl some undulate chewing on its cud, moving on to the Colorado Desk. April, Colorado Parks and Wildlife have voted to eliminate wildlife contests dealing with prairie dogs, coyotes, and all fur bearers. This vote is to amand an earlier rule that basically eliminated just coyote killing contests in two thousand nineteen. Colorado is not the first state to do this. California, Vermont, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Arizona have all done this. Partial bands are in place in North Carolina, Utah, Washington, Montana, and Idaho. Why I say you have to think about the Western spirit of man conquering the wild yet praising the spirit of the wild in our barroom banter story is this kyote and prairie dog contests were not designed with the original intent of folks glory killing for fun and prizes. These contests were designed to draw enough rifles to a single spot, a township or county that was experiencing agricultural and economic hardships, places where food producing ground was being chewed up by prairie dog towns, or a coyote population boom was coinciding with calving or lambing season. The practice just stayed for right or wrong, sometimes right, sometimes wrong. People who did not get a lot of socializing came together with a common goal in mind. They had a meal together and breathe collective size of relief. When coyotes were turned in at the end of the contest relief that the predator would not be taking spring lambs or calves. This occasional happening, of course, morphed into something else. All I can say is don't blame the state. Some of the people who participated in these contests had already done their part in ruining them long before the state got involved. Instead of periodic contest aimed at management, the local communities held them every year in order to get the economic game from the gas and beer buyers. Contestants cheated by bringing in recently killed, are previously killed, and frozen animals from outside of the area in order to win the prizes offered, and on occasion, those same bad apples would go above and beyond and making sure that if anyone were to look at the contest, they would not see an attempt at curbing a spiking coyote or prairie dog population. They would only see bad behavior. What does not get said in these instances is that because of the lack of coyote or prairie dog contest, the result is not a super happy prairie dog town or coyote pack. The coyotes, if they become trouble, will likely be shot from a helicopter paid for in part from the agricultural community. The prairie dog town will be poisoned, if not by the rancher, by the periodic plague that rolls through their communities. The only question I have for CPW is explain why you stop at furbears and prairie dogs. A quick search on American Fishing contest dot Com showed a hundred and forty one phishing contests in the state of Colorado that's just scheduled for two thousand twenty. Why is one okay and not the other? Moving on to the ever popular crime desk, first stop, New York State. Outside of the town at Keysville, located in the Adirondacks, two rock climbers are ticketed for failure to adhere to a route closure on poke O Moonshine, which is a big rock face that has been identified as a peregrine falcon nesting site. Forest rangers and the d C are working to monitor nesting activity and reopen routes that won't disturb the peregrinhs. The last time tickets were issued for a violation like this was back in two thousand, so this doesn't seem like a common issue. In fact, I found where many rock climbing clubs volunteer time to help monitor the falcons. On a side note, I got to hunt with some falconer's last year. Those birds can hit two hundred miles per hour when they go into their stoop or dive. Very cool birds who you know nesting rocks, So stay off of them until the birds are gone. Next up the birthplace of the Blues, Mississippi. Fun fact for you. Mississippi has two hundred and four native fish species and it is the home of the Teddy Bear. It is also home Kenneth Ray, britt Tony Grant Smith, Alan Shelton Morgan and Brianna Janine McKay. These four are not a new pop country band like Georgia Florida Line. They are, however, wildlife violators. They somehow managed to rack up about two hundred eighty wildlife violations in two thousand nineteen. The charges are trespassing and the poaching of almost one hundred turkeys, all in one season. I should note that Brianna Janine McKay only received five of those violations out of the two charged amongst the group, which just means she's doing less bad stuff. Remember, Brianna, it's hard to soar with the eagles when you're surrounded by turkeys. That's all I've got for you this week. Thanks for listening to Col's weekend review. As per usual, if you want to get a hold of me, right in to a s k C. A L. At the Meat Eater dot com that's asked Cal at the meat eater dot com. Tell me what I'm getting right, what I'm missing, and what's happening in your area. Thanks again, I'll talk to you next week.

Save this episode