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 Wolverines, the iconic mascot of the high school turned quote partisan group in the nine four classic red down to the gruff x men character to the gruffer and perhaps more iconic milverine for you Milwaukee residents, is well a character, and no matter how much fun you have watching movies, the real thing is much better. Recently, two people in Washington, one on a logging road and one on a beach a few days later about forty miles away, got to experience a first hand encounter with a real life wolverine. The wolverine is the largest member of the weasel family Mustello Day outside of the giant otter. Of course, Male wolverines can grow to a little over thirty or forty pounds, and females will grow to typically under thirty. In contrast, the sea otter will weigh in over one hundred pounds at times, and the least weasel on the other end of the Mustella Day family weighs only about a half a pound. You thought you had a strange family. Wolverines are known to be solitary, even angry animals that go it alone unless you were called. The book The Wolverine Way by Doug Chadwick about a study conducted in Glacier National Park by Jeff Copeland and Rick Yates. This study used Chadwick as a volunteer and radio telemetry backed up by human tracking through Glacier. Chadwick was part of the team that verified what the telemetry was saying and what that data in human scrambling miles said was in Glacier National Park at least the solitary wolverine spent quite a lot of time socializing with other wolverines. A male even traveled with his offspring on occasion, something very uncharacteristic according to popular knowledge. Of course, on Washington, the two sightings involved a singular wolverine, and even though the sightings occurred three days apart, one on the logging road in the Cell, the other north of Surfside Washington, a distance again of about forty miles, the Washington coast is likely not under invasion by the seldom sighted weasels. Both encounters resulted in pictures and reporting, providing verifiable data that suggests that the two wolverines are likely one and the same and a female, according to the Chinook Observer. The lucky citizen that captured the photo of the wolverine on the beach as it fed on a carcass of a marine mammal said, the wolverine quote almost seemed to emerge from the carcass, which is pretty cool. It may not seem like a lot, but this is a good case of citizen science. Two verified sightings provide a lot of information. The wolverine is elusive and biologists can't be everywhere. The citizen science data can help patch in gaps and wolverine movements, or help with population data. The first time I ever saw wolverine way back about the same time the wolverine study was going on in Glacier National Park, I had gone on a fishing trip with some of the guys I guided with. We packed into the Middle Fork to the Flathead and got about a day of fishing in when a storm started building. As we floated through a turn in the canyon, we heard rocks falling from the river right side and out popped wolverine. The wolverine looked at us in our boats, walked into the river, swam across in front of us and climbed straight up a rock wall that was beyond vertical in some parts. The animal then sat on top of those cliffs, snapping its jaws and thoroughly cussing us out. I videotaped the whole thing. Watching a wolverine swim an ever, is nothing I ever thought i'd do in the lower forty eight. Anyway, turned out that wolverine crossing was a bit of an olman, both for us and the footage. I guess. The storm the wolverine proceeded built up into something fierce. The tempts dropped forty degrees wind, blue rain sheeted. We ended up drinking wet and unproductively under a tarp until we woke the next morning to more of the storm and a frigid wet row all the way out of there, no more fishing. Then buddy of mine kicked over the hard drive I had been storing everything on, and away went the wolverine footage, unless, of course, have a mini DV tape somewhere still. Anyway, I missed my chance to contribute as a citizen wolverine scientist, who, just like these folks on Washington, was just in the right place at the right time. According to a variety of estimates, there could be as few as three hundred wolverines in the lower forty eight. However, due to the huge, huge range of these animals, and when I say huge range, one famous wolverine M fifty six was tagged with a radio transmitter and caller outside of Grand Teton. That male wolverine traveled into Colorado. At the time, he was the only documented wolverine in the state. Then he wandered what turned out to be a bit too far and was shot in North Dakota. At least he was shot as the only wolverine in North Dakota. Remember that rule, always be sure of your target and beyond well. In the North Dakota incident, I think it was more of I don't know what that is, I'll shoot it and have a look. This was legal, mind you, as the animal was reported as harassing cattle. Again, being as M fifty six was the only wolverine in North Dakota and over a hundred and fifty years, I have a hard time believing the rancher wanted to put an end to that. But anyway, on top of this huge home range, and wanderlust to boot. If I hadn't said it enough, wolverines are elusive, making an accurate population number hard to guess. I'm lucky enough to spend an incredible amount of time in the woods, and in all my time, I have only seen that one in the lower forty eight. In the book The Wolverine Way, Chadwick wrote, if wolverines have a strategy, it's this go hard and high and steep and never back down, not even from the biggest grizzly and least of all from a mountain climb. Everything trees, cliffs, avalanche, shoots, summits, eat everybody alive, dead, long dead, moose, mouse, fox, frog. It's still warm heart or frozen bones. Um, that's badass. This week on Col's Weekend Review, it's bear season, the Bob Marshall and a couple of reminders. But first, I'm gonna tell you about my week. I threw together my raft, which is a double D by Air which is out of Meridian, Idaho. The double D is in reference to an outer tube design that diminishes the bow and stern tube, So you know not what you're thinking. I used to paddle and row a bunch of different airboats when I was guiding, or even packed out a moose on a mediator episode, and one when I was in Idaho. I went raffless for a long time, and when I decided to move back to Montana, I said to myself self, you'd better get a boat and a dog. I've been dogless for a long time. I had a string of incredible yellow Labs for about twenty or so years. Eventually, in very selfish ways, they all up and diet on me. So now, in addition to the boat, I'm getting back into the dog life. Have a yellow Lab female coming my way about mid June out of Riverstone Kennels all the way over in Wisconsin, so I'll have to break her of a Midwest accent and probably a strange obsession with sitting in trees for white tails. Lots of work ahead, and it's been a while since I lived the puppy life. Now that you know all of that. This past weekend it was the first overnight raft trip of the year, and you know, I packed the steel battery power chainsaw. Didn't end up using it, of course, but it just makes an outdoors type person feel like they're ready to take on whatever a weekend will bring, so I brought it. I was all rigged up for pike, but all I could coax out was several very nice brown trout. But being as I was convinced the pike would eat, I wound up once again with no fish in the cooler. And those browns have several extra piercings than they would have if I had just been looking for them. Also on this trip, I had my bear spray handy. The grizzlies have been active, one mountain bike related incident just outside of Bozeman in Big Sky, where a mountain biker startled the grizzly while riding on a trail, and another in a similar boating situation to myself this past weekend, but on the Sun River, where a sow grizzly attacked man who had stepped away from his boat and campmates to relieve himself. In both instances, bears were surprised and the humans survived. The boater stayed a couple of nights in the hospital. The biker will be dealing with the physical trauma for a while longer, as he'll need cranial facial reconstructive surgery, face and head injuries are consistent with grizzly attacks, which is why the method of laying down with hands clasped behind your neck was adopted. The victim is harder for a curious bear to roll over with their elbows out. But again in the Big Sky incident, it doesn't sound like the biker had the opportunity jumping over to an area recently discussed the Apennine Alps over in Italy. I think everyone has seen the video of a young boy cautiously walking toward the voice of his father that came out this week. Behind him in the video is what appears to be a large grizzly bear, which, if all of this susses out, is exactly what it is, the Apennine brown bear, which of course you knew because you listen to this show, A real deal grizz three hours from Rome. That idea is pretty darn cool, and this footage is amazing. I've been getting two questions related to this video. Is this real? And two you should talk about bear safety what these people should have done? Okay, one, I don't know if it is real, but I will tell you it is a heck of a lot more fun to think it is. Several major and respected news outlets have covered this, so let's just say yes. The other bit of media everyone sent in this week about old trapper and Canada having a near uh forced sexual encounter with a larger than average beaver, that, my friends, is fake. Question number two what should they have done? Let me set the scene again. Families out on a hike. The young man is wandering about as he returns to his father there and mother. He is followed by what looks like a curious grizzly bear. The father gently talks with his son as he moves very cautiously and slowly towards his father and away from the bear. The sun has his back to the bear and his walking as if this were a game of tag, where the rule is he can't run, you gotta move in like slow motion. As we've covered with grizzly bears. The child could have laid face down with his hands over his neck, which is exactly what our river after did when attacked on the Sun River here in Montana. The difference, of course, is the bear attacked the man on the river. The boy could have stood tall and acted agitated and bigger than he is, trying to bluff the bear. This is not recommended behavior for grizzlies, although if I am being honest, I have done this with a charging grizzly bear and that time it worked. But in this case, in the Appenning the bear was not charging, so to not play too far, and the could haves or would haves or should have this family, under extraordinary circumstances did what they should have done. The end result is no human scratched and no bear dead. Every situation is so different in the bear woods, be they the bear woods of Comchoca, Montana, or the Appenning region of Italy. The father instructed the son to be calm. He slowly moved away. They were framed from triggering either a fight or flight response or a chase and eat response. They did great moving on, but sticking with bear attacks. This one happened in April in Michigan, Crawford County, to be exact. A woman had led her dog out to relieve itself in the yard before turning in for the night. After several attempts called the dog in, the female dog eventually returned in frenzy to the porch with a large black bear on her heels. Once the dog was safely inside. The owner had to bravely push past this brazen bruin to move the dog and herself into the vehicle to get off to the vet. The dog's wounds were extensive and according to Michigan One, it may never run again. I found this last part funny, the need for the news to put a human spin on this dog bear encounter, as I am sure if you asked the dog somehow as to how it felt about fighting a bear which was supposedly three hundred pounds, but I mean realistically any size bear and living through the ordeal, what that dog thought about surviving that but having to live at a trot type of pace versus a run type of pace, It would probably say, uh, wolf? Next up on the bare blotterer. Missouri residents will likely be able to participate in that state's first bear hunt. Fall of the proposed hunts would be quota based, meaning that the state will set goals for each BMZ or Bear Management zone. The hunts in those zones, except for October, will last ten days or until the quota is filled. Prospective bear hunters will have to apply for the specific BMZ they wish to hunt, and the tags will be distributed through a standard tag lottery system. Black bears in Missouri were essentially wiped out by the eighteen thirties due to both the demand for bear products such as bear hams, bear bacon, and bear grease, as well as habitat loss with the elimination of market hunting and the passing of such notable market bear hunters as Daniel Boone. Boon once killed a hundred and fifty five black bears in just one year. Right now, Missouri's bear population is somewhere between six hundred and eight hundred bears, so you can see why the bears didn't last too long. With market hunting and market hunters like Boon around, habitat loss and conflict are the two largest adversaries of the black bear. Now, instead of wholesale forest destruction for railroads, mines, and settler camps, the bears face a fancier term encroachment, the creep of subdivisions that incorporate wildlife corridors, which alone are pretty good for animals. However, these corridors lead to humans leave an open garages and full bird feeders and full trash cans out, or you know, maybe even a dog trying to relieve itself in the middle of the night. Black bear conflict almost always results in the death of that bear. Black bears have an incredible homing instinct, and relocation often just results in the bears coming right back to where they've been fed. Don't feed the bears, and remember the public comment period ends June five. If you are a Missouri resident and you care about black bear hunting, go to MDC dot MO dot gov, forward slab bears and let the Missouri Department of Conservation know what you think. Coincidentally, here in Montana, the comment period for the Grizzly Bear Conservation and Management Advisory Council regarding the eventual state management and hunting of grizzly bears. Another conservation success story is still open. That one ends August thirty one, and you can find it at f WP dot MT dot gov. One more from Missouri, this one from opening day of turkey season. A hunter sounded so turkey like a male bobcat attacked him, landing on his head and neck. The cat attempted to subdue what he may have thought was a turkey, but turned out to be a man. Kind of an odd point of pride for a turkey color. Really. The hunter fought the cat from his head and when he turned the cat was still standing just a few feet away, at which point the hunter shot up. He then called the Missouri Conservation Department and provided a picture of the wound to the back of his head. Although attacked, bobcat was not in season, Francis Scalicki, the spokesman for the MDC, said the hunter did everything right by immediately calling the conservation department and reporting the killing of the bobcat. According to the Springfield News Leader, the conservation officer on the scene advised the hunter to contact the Health Department if he would like to get the bobcat tested for rabies. Coincidentally, perhaps I have traveled to the National Wild Turkey Federation Annual Convention in Nashville, where they showcase all sorts of interesting taxidermy. After listening to this story, one of these displays had me thinking it's of a big tom turkey kind of jumping up in flight using his spur to gouge the eye out of a bobcat. Judging from the story just told out of Missouri, this taxidermy display must fall under inspirational not factual, and Lastly, this week the Hungry Horse News, the oldly respectable source of news in the West Glacier and South Fork the Flathead Canyon, not to mention Montana's first and for a long time only Pulitzer Prize winning or should I say earning paper. That's right, Mel Rud and his staff at Hungry Horse News earned the Pulitzer for the coverage of the Great sixty four flood. But I mean you already knew that anyway. The h h N reports on an event that occurred back on May sixteenth on the South fork the Flathead River, on the sandbar where black Bear Creek flows. In two horseback riders and bear hunters, on the return leg of ultimately hundred and sixty mile ride through the Bob Marshall Wilderness encountered a strange scene a Bell four oh seven helicopter complete with people. The helicopter had flown over the riders and their pack string earlier that morning, and the convergence at the landing site was by coincidence. According to The Hungry Horse News, When the riders inquired as to the angler's means of travel, which they did because mechanics travel in a federally designated wilderness area is illegal. They were responded to in uh, let's say, a dismissive manner and instructed to take a picture of the people, helicopter and tail numbers, and they would be happy to pay the fine, so move on. There is more to come on this story. But if this encounter is true, and for the record, I have spoken to one of the members involved, so you know, I'm inclined to believe the guy. I have to say that the person that is a lawbreaker, who is willing to look law biters in the eye and tell them to just move on, We'll pay the fine without acknowledging the efforts of law abiding citizens to get to that far off point on the map, you know, without a three point one million dollar helicopter, is well, just not the type of person I'd be willing to sit down and have beer with. It appears this group literally and brazenly flew directly in the face of Bob Marshall himself, a man who was famous for fifty mile a day hikes, and that was back in the hobnail boot days. But more importantly, they put their interests, which, to be clear, the same as everyone's in the Bob that day literally above everyone else. You want to take your family fishing, darn right, please do, but don't do it at the expense of everyone else's day. Speaking directly to the flight enabled, there were a lot more folks in the woods than just that dirty pair of mule skinners you spoke with. I have a lot of phone calls in with a lot of people right now. I'll pick this one back up as soon as I get the rest of the story. If you happen to have the rest of the story and want to make it easy on me, I'd love to hear it. You know where to find me. Moving on, remember to call your duly elected representatives and tell them to support the Great American Outdoors Act. As a reminder, Mitch McConnell said he is bringing the greatest conservation package we may ever see to the floor at the beginning of the month. Make the those phone lines burn. Don't know who your congressman is. Go to House dot gov. That's h O U, S E dot G O V. In the top right corner of that page, you will see the outline of the United States, and there's gonna be a little box in it. It says find your representative. All you have to do is put your zip code in that box and hitt enter. And one more call to action. If last episodes rant, which some called it and you're probably accurate about e bikes inspired you to send in pictures of your toddler wobbling around on their baby feet with you calling them elite US. I got a laugh out of that, but I hope it also inspired you to contact the Department of Interior as well as the BLM and the National Park Service and the Bureau of Reclamation. Those comment periods are coming to a close as well. Thank you for listening. Have a great week. Remember if you love what you are hearing, tell a friend if I'm missing something in your neck of the Bear Deer, Turkey Woods. Rate mate at a s k C. A L at the meat eater dot com. That's asked Cal at the meat eater dot com. Thanks again, I'll talk to you next week.

Save this episode