Cal In the Field

MeatEater's Ryan "Cal" Callaghan joins Idaho Fish and Game in an exclusive and extremely rare behind the scenes look at the science of grizzly population dynamics. As Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho optimistically ready themselves to assume full management of the species, Cal sets out to learn how trapping, collaring, and handling a mature boar grizzly might give us the insight we need to make a difference. There's no better time for all of us to truly understand how to live with (and avoid) these bears.

Cal joins Idaho Fish and Game as they tag rainbow and cutthroat trout on the South Fork of the Snake River as part of an effort to give native Yellowstone Cutthroat trout a fin up on the biomass ladder. Catch a rainbow, earn a $1,000!

Cal joins Captain Gjuro Bruer to take part in a little citizen science by catching and tagging Atlantic tripletail. He then rolls inward to meet up with Jared Serigne to hunt hogs and "cajun pheasant" while getting a locals' look at the effects of land loss and saltwater intrusion.

Cal heads out to Maine to check up on Shiloh Pond and see what "access" means in Maine. He hunts grouse and woodcock in the nasty, thick regenerative growth of Maine's Northwoods with Brent West of the High Peaks Alliance.

On this episode of Cal’s Week in Review: In the Field, MeatEater’s Director of Conservation Ryan Callaghan heads to the Zumwalt Preserve, which is 37,000 acres of bunch grass prairie that look like heaven at first glance. Owned and operated by the Nature Conservancy, bow and rifle hunting are used as tools in the elk management plan. Hunters move elk around the prairie to prevent overgrazing and mitigate the presence of invasive weeds. Although Cal is the only hunter on the preserve with a bull tag—open terrain and large wary herds make hunting these elk more like hell. In the end he puts the pieces together and earns it the hard way.

In this episode of Cal’s Week in Review: In the Field, MeatEater’s Director of Conservation, Ryan Callaghan heads to Tennessee to see how the recent addition of invasive Asian carp to the ecosystem is affecting fishing, recreation, and the environment. With the help of the TWRA, he meets with biologists, commercial processors, outfitters, and even tries his hand at noodling for flathead catfish. When it’s all said and done, they put this invasive newcomer up against two southern favorites—crappie and flathead—tune in to find out which fish wins the taste test.

In this episode of Cal’s Week in Review: In the Field, MeatEater’s Director of Conservation, Ryan Callaghan and Eric Siegfried of onX navigate around the crowds and into a hard to access piece of public land in Montana for a mule deer rifle hunt. Eric uses his E-scouting expertise alongside Cal’s river savvy to get to a spot that would be unknown and possibly forgotten without the public land data provided by onX—also a canoe, they’ll need a canoe.