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Speaker 1: From Mediators World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is

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Speaker 1: Cal's weekend review, presented by Steel. Steel products are available

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Speaker 1: only at authorized dealers. For more, go to Steel Dealers

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Speaker 1: dot com. Now here's your host. Ryan cal callahan.

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Speaker 2: A Canadian hunter, bagged a three legged boil class month

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Speaker 2: that probably meant more to him than it would have

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Speaker 2: to most. That's because Brock McDonald of British Columbia is

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Speaker 2: also missing a leg. McDonald told local media that he

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Speaker 2: lost his right leg working on an oil rig after

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Speaker 2: it got caught in a chain. He was lifted twenty

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Speaker 2: five feet in the air and the leg was ripped

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Speaker 2: from his body. Looks like me back on my menu. Boy,

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Speaker 2: that sounds like just about the worst way a fella

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Speaker 2: can lose a leg, But it doesn't seem to have

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Speaker 2: slowed him down all that much. His Facebook page shows

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Speaker 2: him out in the woods with his family, and he's

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Speaker 2: posted photos pos with elk, whitetail, mountain lions, and moose.

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Speaker 2: But his latest elk seems like it was destined for him.

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Speaker 2: He says the elk's back right leg had been removed

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Speaker 2: at the joint, but that it was totally healed. Real

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Speaker 2: random because I am missing a leg as well, he

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Speaker 2: posted on Facebook. You know how they say that dogs

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Speaker 2: and dog owners start looking like one another after a while.

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Speaker 2: I wonder if the same is true of hunters and

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Speaker 2: game animals. If I'm going after an old, grumpy white

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Speaker 2: tail that doesn't like to leave, it's bad. Maybe I

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Speaker 2: should start acting grumpy and lazy, just to you know,

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Speaker 2: get in his head. You know what I'm saying. This week,

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Speaker 2: We've got tigers, black bears, lions, and elk. But first,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you about my week. In My week

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Speaker 2: was great. Hitched up the old tin tepee aka the

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Speaker 2: Black Series camper and hit the snow and ice covered

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Speaker 2: road to deer hunt with my girlfriend. Tents were in

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Speaker 2: the single digits and a lovely fifteen mile per hour

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Speaker 2: breeze was blowing, which always makes me grateful for good gear.

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Speaker 2: I've been in product testing twenty twenty four first Light apparel, jackets, pants, gloves,

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Speaker 2: plus a couple of special items I can't talk about.

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Speaker 1: All right, then, keep your secrets good.

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Speaker 2: I feel like I get colder easier these days. Trend

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Speaker 2: that started after I came down with limes disease about

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Speaker 2: five years ago. And I just can't recommend the current

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Speaker 2: first light lineup enough. We're kicking butt on this stuff.

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Speaker 2: Catalyst foundry pant is definitely worth a look, and if

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Speaker 2: you're spending time behind the spotting scope, you just can't

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Speaker 2: leave home without the uncompagraate puffy pants. This is a

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Speaker 2: synthetic insulated overpant for insulation at the glassing knob. Stay comfortable,

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Speaker 2: find more deer, which we did. However, when the one

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Speaker 2: mule deer buck that sauntered within two hundred and forty

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Speaker 2: yards of us stopped beautifully broadside, the girlfriend declared, he's

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Speaker 2: really good looking. I want to shoot him next year,

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Speaker 2: to which I replied, you know that two track we passed,

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Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I can get the truck really close

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Speaker 2: to that deer if you were to shoot it. But

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Speaker 2: the mind was made up. Lastly, before we hit the

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Speaker 2: long and a lonesome road back home, I took a

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Speaker 2: little pheasant walk with the old Snort, thinking for sure

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Speaker 2: our rooster luck would be amazing with the fresh fallen snow.

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Speaker 2: But these Montana birds are sly and extra wild now

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Speaker 2: they've been pressured, and when they get up, if they

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Speaker 2: get up, they do not cackle. So it's got to

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Speaker 2: be a clear visual identification of the bird. And when

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Speaker 2: they do fly, they are already at high gear. There's

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Speaker 2: no slow rise anymore. What about breakfast, I've already had it.

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Speaker 1: We've had one. Yes, what about second breakfast?

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Speaker 2: So after covering a couple of square miles and a

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Speaker 2: cat's cradle of on X tracks, we flushed one rooster.

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Speaker 2: Just prior to this, a pair of high flying sharp

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Speaker 2: tail sword overhead en route to destination unknown. With the

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Speaker 2: new twenty gage weather beside by side, I pulled up, swung,

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Speaker 2: found my lead, and folded the first bird with the

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Speaker 2: first trigger, the second bird with the second trigger, and

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Speaker 2: Snort retrieved the deader than a wedge pair two hand,

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Speaker 2: at which point I felt as if I was a

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Speaker 2: master shotgunner on like some driven bird hunt somewhere. The

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Speaker 2: beauty of that pair of birds and pair of shots

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Speaker 2: would surely be recounted by all hunters in front of

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Speaker 2: a roaring fireplace that evening, at some estate that we

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Speaker 2: would have been at. Then back to reality, when we

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Speaker 2: walked no more than forty yards farther, Snort working her

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Speaker 2: fuzzy little ars off bird dogging an invisible track. She

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Speaker 2: put up a rooster right in my face, and I

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Speaker 2: shaved his tail feathers with the first trigger, adjusted my lead,

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Speaker 2: and still managed to miss far behind the bird. With

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Speaker 2: my second trigger, the warm lodge thoughts disappeared and the

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Speaker 2: cheek stinging, nose, dripping e stream Montana wind remained. That's reality,

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Speaker 2: and it still hurts.

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Speaker 1: Folk in those stories had lots of chantzes are turning

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Speaker 1: back warily. They didn't.

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Speaker 2: They kept going.

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Speaker 1: Because they were holding onto something.

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Speaker 2: Well, better get on with the news by the time

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Speaker 2: you hear this, Just so you know, I'll be beat

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Speaker 2: up from another mule deer hunt full of steep frozen

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Speaker 2: mountains and you know, another year older. Good luck out

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Speaker 2: there in the bird deer in elkwoods. I'll need it too.

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Speaker 2: Moving on to the accident desk. We cover hunting accidents

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Speaker 2: pretty frequently on this here podcast, not because hunting is

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Speaker 2: especially dangerous, but as a kind of educational exercise. One

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Speaker 2: of the things I've noticed about many of these stories

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Speaker 2: is that the accident doesn't happen in the field. It

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Speaker 2: happens back at the car, or in the hunting lodge,

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Speaker 2: or while packing out an animal. We let our guard

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Speaker 2: down and that's when tragedy strikes. For example, a fifty

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Speaker 2: year old Minnesota man was shot in the rear end

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Speaker 2: last month by a ten year old girl. He'd taken

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Speaker 2: deer hunting. They weren't successful, and when they returned to

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Speaker 2: the truck, he instructed the girl to unload the rifle.

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Speaker 2: He turned his back on that situation, and when he

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Speaker 2: did so, the girl accidentally pulled the trigger. The gun

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Speaker 2: sent a two to seventy Winchester round through both of

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Speaker 2: the man's buttocks. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources,

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Speaker 2: the man was transported by ambulance to a hospital in

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Speaker 2: Bumigi before being airlifted to a hospital and Fargo due

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Speaker 2: to the seriousness of his injuries. Another incident took place

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Speaker 2: in Minnesota last month that also involved a juvenile. A

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Speaker 2: forty five year old man was shot by his twelve

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Speaker 2: year old daughter after the girl shot a deer. The

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Speaker 2: DNR doesn't offer much additional detail, but I'm guessing there

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Speaker 2: was some kind of celebration after the girl's successful shot

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Speaker 2: on the deer, which is a wild guess. She was

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Speaker 2: probably just unloading her rifle too. At the very least,

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Speaker 2: I'm sure everyone was excited and maybe not too concerned

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Speaker 2: about following the four rules of gun safety. During that time,

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Speaker 2: the girl pulled the trigger again and shout her father

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Speaker 2: in the leg. They called the other family members for help,

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Speaker 2: and one of them put a tourniquet on the leg

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Speaker 2: while they waited for first responders. The man was taken

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Speaker 2: to the hospital for treatment. I have not seen any

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Speaker 2: update on his condition. That also reminds me if you

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Speaker 2: go out into the field with the firearm, be sure

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Speaker 2: you've taken some kind of medical training for treating gunshot wounds.

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Speaker 2: A Stop the bleed class is very short and it

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Speaker 2: will teach you how to use a tourniquet and about

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Speaker 2: other ways to keep as much of that red stuff

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Speaker 2: inside you as possible. It's not a long class, like

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Speaker 2: I said, but it can come in handy if God forbid,

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Speaker 2: your daughter accidentally shoots you in the leg or the behind.

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Speaker 2: In another accident that occurred in the field, that eighteen

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Speaker 2: year old Joe Salmon was shot last month while hunting

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Speaker 2: waterfowl in northwest Iowa. While the incident is still under investigation,

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Speaker 2: local media reports that Salmon was shot in the back

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Speaker 2: of the head and he was put into a medically

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Speaker 2: induced coma because two of the beebi's were too deep

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Speaker 2: to safely removed. Fortunately, according to an update on his

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Speaker 2: GoFundMe page, Salmon has started his long road to recovery.

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Speaker 2: He was taken off sedation on October twenty two, and

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Speaker 2: doctors have observed him moving his legs, hands, and eyes.

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Speaker 2: A head X ray came back showing no signs of

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Speaker 2: brain aneurysms, but he's still unable to breathe on his own.

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Speaker 2: If you live in the Okoboji area, you may have

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Speaker 2: heard of Salmon's name before. He's a member of the

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Speaker 2: Okoboji High School football team. But he was also in

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Speaker 2: the news earlier this year when he saved the life

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Speaker 2: of an eighty three year old man and his dog.

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Speaker 2: He was ice fishing with his mother on East Okoboji

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Speaker 2: Lake when he saw a jeep break through the ice

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Speaker 2: and start to sink. He was able to shatter the

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Speaker 2: car's back window and get both the man and the

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Speaker 2: dog to safety. Moving on to the bear desk, employees

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Speaker 2: at a nature center in North Carolina are scratching their

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Speaker 2: heads after two of their white tailed deer were killed

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Speaker 2: by a wild black bear. Ashville's WNC Nature Center announced

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Speaker 2: on Facebook that Becca and Curly, a doe and a buck,

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Speaker 2: were found dead in their exhibit. Quote, though there are

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Speaker 2: still some unanswered questions, it would appear that a wild

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Speaker 2: black bear entered their exhibit and either directly or indirectly

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Speaker 2: caused their passing. It's unclear how bear could have killed

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Speaker 2: the deer indirectly, but it's safe to assume it wasn't

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Speaker 2: by telling them jokes, I don't.

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Speaker 1: Know half of the office as well as I should like,

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Speaker 1: and I like less than half of the office well

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Speaker 1: as you deserve.

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Speaker 2: The Nature Center says black bears have been observed in

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Speaker 2: the vicinity of this exhibit prior to this, so presumably

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Speaker 2: the deer were at least somewhat acclimated to seeing bears

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Speaker 2: through their fence. Employees also told local media that they're

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Speaker 2: taking actions to deter wild animals from breaking through the fence,

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Speaker 2: so the bear was clearly in the enclosure at some point.

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Speaker 2: The perimeter fence has been improved and secured, as have

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Speaker 2: the barn doors. The animals are also being housed in

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Speaker 2: the barn at night as an extra precaution. If you

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Speaker 2: ever wonder where deer are taken after they're scooped up

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Speaker 2: as fawns are rescued from dog cages. It's often to

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Speaker 2: places like this. Yes Becca was ten years old and

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Speaker 2: was brought to the center as a fawn because she

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Speaker 2: was too young to survive on her own. Curley was

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Speaker 2: eleven years old and he came to the center in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty after being kept as a pet. The center

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Speaker 2: says this is the first time anything like this has

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Speaker 2: ever happened. Thanks to listener Spencer Cook for sending us

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Speaker 2: this story. A California condor was treated for lead poisoning

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Speaker 2: last month after wildlife officials say at eight from the

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Speaker 2: carcass of an elk that have been poached using lead ammunition.

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Speaker 2: California condors are an endangered species of vulture native to

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Speaker 2: North America. The birds became extinct in the wild in

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven, but many organizations have been working to

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Speaker 2: restore the animals to their historic range. One of those

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Speaker 2: organizations is the Urrok Tribe, and they say a routine

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Speaker 2: health check revealed five birds that had concerning levels of

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Speaker 2: lead in their blood. One of those birds had ingested

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Speaker 2: enough lead to warrant treatment. While that bird is set

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Speaker 2: to be released into the wild again soon. Tribal officials

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Speaker 2: say they believe an elk poacher is to blame for

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Speaker 2: the incident. They say the elk was shot sometime in

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Speaker 2: early October, but from what I can tell, the hunt

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Speaker 2: in this area ends on September twenty eighth. Not only that,

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Speaker 2: but California ban the use of lead ammunition for hunting

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Speaker 2: across the entire state. Biologists were unable to find any

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Speaker 2: large fragments of lead in the bird's digestive tract, but

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Speaker 2: they say it's possible the bird consumed dust sized particles

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Speaker 2: left behind by the bullet. To add insult to this injury,

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Speaker 2: this was apparently this bird's first ever meal in the wild.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the real world, kid, it's tough out here.

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Speaker 2: As for the lead versus non lead projectile debate, California

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Speaker 2: condors is where the rubber meets the road for US hunters.

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Speaker 2: This is the species where if one dies, that can

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Speaker 2: be a population level effect, and we don't want that

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Speaker 2: to happen from a hunter's bullet. And I'm sure you

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Speaker 2: don't want to be forced to choose non toxic hunting

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Speaker 2: ammunition in your state, which is why we got to

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Speaker 2: follow the rules or else we can stand to lose

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Speaker 2: our choice in certain situations. Moving on to the elk desk,

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Speaker 2: another grizzly scene played out last month in Wyoming, where

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Speaker 2: a pickup truck plowed into a herd of elk and

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Speaker 2: caused what one official described as a Sunday morning elk massacre.

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Speaker 2: The incident occurred on Highway one twenty near Matitzi. The

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Speaker 2: heavy duty RAM thirty five hundred pickup truck slammed into

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Speaker 2: the herd around seven am and may have killed as

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Speaker 2: many as seven elk. Four were dead on the road

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Speaker 2: and another three had to be euthanized due to their injuries. Incredibly,

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Speaker 2: the driver at the truck was unharmed, though the truck

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Speaker 2: is likely totaled. The driver was unable to stop or

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Speaker 2: miss the animals because he was coming around a curve

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Speaker 2: with guardrails on both sides of the road. The herd

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Speaker 2: stretch from guardrail to guardrail, so it was either hit

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Speaker 2: the animals or plow into the guardrail and down the embankment.

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Speaker 2: While Wyoming has several new and ongoing wildlife crossing projects

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Speaker 2: in the works, officials told The Cowboys State Daily that

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Speaker 2: they don't have any plans to build on along that

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Speaker 2: stretch of road. That's unfortunate, because they also admit that

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Speaker 2: it's a well known spot for wildlife collisions. They usually

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Speaker 2: aren't quite as bad, but a collision with even a

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Speaker 2: single animal can be deadly for humans and of course

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Speaker 2: the critters too. Wyoming Game and Fish reports that they

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Speaker 2: are in the average of six thousand vehicle collisions with

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Speaker 2: big game every year in the state, resulting in twenty

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Speaker 2: three million dollars in wildlife costs and twenty nine million

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Speaker 2: dollars in personal injury costs. Massacres, aside elk aren't actually

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Speaker 2: the main culprits. Eighty five percent of the vehicle animal

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Speaker 2: collisions are with mule deer, and vehicle collisions are responsible

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Speaker 2: for up to four percent of the entire population every year.

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Speaker 2: This is especially bad news for the Wyoming mule deer

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Speaker 2: heard on this type of year because it's a recovery

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Speaker 2: year in the western part of the state. The herd's

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Speaker 2: been on a sharp decline in recent years. In general,

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Speaker 2: hunters don't usually take much more than cars do. In

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, for example, about nineteen thousand mule deer

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Speaker 2: were harvested from the total estimated population of three hundred

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Speaker 2: and thirty thousand, or about five point eight percent. In

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Speaker 2: other words, be careful on the roads for you, your car,

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Speaker 2: other drivers, and the critters who still can't figure out

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Speaker 2: why we like riding around those giant metal machines. Moving

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Speaker 2: on to the crime desk. A few weeks ago we

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Speaker 2: covered several cases of cocaine being discovered by fishermen in

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Speaker 2: the sea. But now I'm here to tell you about

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Speaker 2: another illicit trade, something called cocaine of the sea. The

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Speaker 2: difference might sound subtle, but it's really not. Cocaine of

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Speaker 2: the sea isn't actually cocaine. Instead, it's endangered fish organs,

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Speaker 2: specifically the swim bladders of Totoba, which is a type

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Speaker 2: of drum endemic to the Gulf of California and Mexico.

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Speaker 2: The reason I'm talking about this is because of the

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Speaker 2: customs officials in Arizona recently conducted their second largest seizure

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Speaker 2: to date of these swim bladders. They seize ninety one

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Speaker 2: bladders weighing about one hundred and nine pounds, which would

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Speaker 2: fetch between nine hundred and ten thousand dollars and one

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Speaker 2: point four million dollars on the black market. If my

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Speaker 2: math is correct, that means each bladder is worth about

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Speaker 2: fifteen thousand dollars. As with other high dollar animal parts

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Speaker 2: poached from the US, such as bear paws and gall bladders,

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Speaker 2: Totoba swim bladders are used in traditional Chinese medicine. They

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Speaker 2: are high in collagen, and some believe they can boost

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Speaker 2: fertility and improve circulation and skin vitality. This is a

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Speaker 2: serious problem because, unlike black bears, to Toba are endangered.

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Speaker 2: They're on the Endangered species list in the US, and possession, transport,

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Speaker 2: and sale of any part of this fish is prohibited.

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Speaker 2: Poachers were trying to smuggle the bladders in a shipment

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Speaker 2: of frozen fish filets, but they were caught by US

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Speaker 2: Customs and Border Protection officers. Law enforcement has been on

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Speaker 2: the lookout. Just a few months ago, Customs officials made

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Speaker 2: the largest Totoba bladder seizure in Arizona history and the

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Speaker 2: second largest in US history, a haul worth a whopping

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Speaker 2: two point seven million. Officials haven't provided much additional detail

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Speaker 2: on the outfit in charge of this smuggling operation, but

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Speaker 2: it's likely similar to another poaching ring that got busted

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Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen. A businessman in Sacramento was arrested along

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Speaker 2: with a Mexicoli resident who appeared to be the one

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Speaker 2: actually doing the fishing. The businessman acted as the middleman

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Speaker 2: and paid the fishermen to steal and transport the fish.

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Speaker 2: He would then sell the bladders with a significant markup

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Speaker 2: to his overseas customers. I wouldn't be surprised if a

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Speaker 2: similar thing is happening here. Jumping over to the lion desk,

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Speaker 2: a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports has

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Speaker 2: uncovered evidence for the first time that Neanderthals hunted and

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Speaker 2: consumed cave lions. Neanderthals are an extinct subspecies of human

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Speaker 2: that lived between four hundred thousand and forty thousand years

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Speaker 2: ago when Homo sapiens that's us, more or less took over.

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Speaker 2: They lived across Europe and Southwest and Central Asia, and,

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Speaker 2: as your girlfriend occasionally suggests, they are closely related to

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Speaker 2: the folks you see running around today. In fact, your

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Speaker 2: girlfriend will be unsurprised to know that some people have

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Speaker 2: inherited around two percent Neanderthal DNA. Throw yourself in next

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Speaker 2: time in ridless of your stupidity. Anyway, we've known that

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Speaker 2: cave lions and neanderthals overlapped for thousands of years, but

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Speaker 2: until now we didn't know which species was predator and

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Speaker 2: which was prey. The truth is that predation probably went

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Speaker 2: both ways, but scientists recently unearthed cave lion bones that

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Speaker 2: strongly suggest that Neanderthals hunted this apex predator. Cave lions

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Speaker 2: didn't just live in caves. They were the most dangerous

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Speaker 2: animal in Eurasia for two hundred thousand years until they

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Speaker 2: went extinct at the end of the Ice Age. The

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Speaker 2: larger specimen stood about four feet high at the shoulders,

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Speaker 2: which is about as tall as a grizzly bear, and

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Speaker 2: they were likely about ten percent larger than today's African lions.

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Speaker 2: They hunted larger herbivores such as mammoth, bison, and horse,

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Speaker 2: as well as cave bear. I'd also be very surprised

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Speaker 2: if they never added a little Neanderthal to their diet.

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Speaker 2: Neanderthals did the same. According to this study, A towbone

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Speaker 2: was found in a cave in Germany, and the cut

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Speaker 2: marks indicate that the animal was skinned with its claws attached.

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Speaker 2: This suggests to the researchers the Neanderthals used cave lions

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Speaker 2: as a source of goods and materials. They set out

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Speaker 2: to find whether the human subspecies preyed on lions directly.

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Speaker 2: They analyzed cave lion rib bone found in Bavaria, on

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Speaker 2: which they detected some unusual damage. They were able to

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Speaker 2: determine that the bone had likely been damaged by the

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Speaker 2: point of a spear that was thrust into the lion

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Speaker 2: while it was lying down. The rib lesions clearly differs

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Speaker 2: from bitemarks of carnivores and shows the typical breakage pattern

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Speaker 2: of a lesion caused by a hunting weapon. Remarked one

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Speaker 2: of the researchers, I suppose it's possible that an excitable

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Speaker 2: Neanderthal stuck a spear into a lion that had already died,

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Speaker 2: but that seems unlikely ish The study demonstrates that the

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Speaker 2: sphere penetrated deeply into the lion's vital area, which indicates

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Speaker 2: that whoever was wielding the weapon knew where the vitals were.

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Speaker 2: What's more, the tissue fracture exhibits a degree of elasticity

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Speaker 2: that suggests that the damage occurred paramorph them, which means

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Speaker 2: at or near the time of death. Once these Neanderthal

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Speaker 2: hunters killed the lion. Other cut marks on its skeleton

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Speaker 2: suggest that they butchered it for meat. That's right states

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Speaker 2: like Colorado and Washington, when you're talking about people hunting carnivores,

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Speaker 2: it's been going on for a while, and it's good meat.

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Speaker 2: The Neanderthals, with whom we share a common ancestor, would

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Speaker 2: have a thing or two to say about what modern

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Speaker 2: people say we can or can't eat to us. Moving

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Speaker 2: on to the tiger desk, we've covered bears and lions,

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Speaker 2: so you know you saw this coming. Wildlife officials and

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Speaker 2: law enforcement officers in Rowan County, North Carolina are looking

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Speaker 2: for a tiger that may be wandering the area near

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Speaker 2: the town of Rockwell. A grainy trail cam photo shows

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Speaker 2: what looks for all the world like a tiger. It

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Speaker 2: has the right tail and the right stripes, and the

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Speaker 2: local media confirmed that there is a tiger sanctuary in

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Speaker 2: the area. Fortunately for the good residents of Rockwell, the

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Speaker 2: sanctuary says that all of its tigers are accounted for.

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Speaker 2: The Sheriff's office also looked into it, and they say

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Speaker 2: that none of the registered tigers in the area have

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Speaker 2: been reported missing, but they're still taking the potential sighting

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Speaker 2: seriously in what has to be beyond the job description

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Speaker 2: for a local sheriff's deputy. Several officers have walked the

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Speaker 2: wooded area near where the supposed tiger was seen. I

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Speaker 2: can't say I had volunteer to go wandering around a

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Speaker 2: forest where a tiger might be waiting at the top

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Speaker 2: of a tree. But that's why I'm not a sheriff's deputy.

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Speaker 2: Good work everyone, anyway. They said they found no evidence

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Speaker 2: of a tiger. They didn't see any tracks or scat,

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Speaker 2: and they didn't hear any tiger vocalizations. The leading theory

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Speaker 2: is that the picture shows a tabby cat. It's tough

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Speaker 2: to say how large the animal is without any sense

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Speaker 2: of scale, and some domestic cats do have markings similar

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Speaker 2: to tigers. For now, it looks like the residents of

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Speaker 2: Rockwell are safe, but I'll, you know, keep you in

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Speaker 2: the loop if things look differently out there. That's all

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Speaker 2: I got for you this week. Thank you so much

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Speaker 2: for listening. Remember to write into a sk C a

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Speaker 2: L that's asscal at the meat eater dot com and

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Speaker 2: let me know what's going on in your neck of

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Speaker 2: the woods. On top of that, go to www dot

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Speaker 2: steel dealers dot com. Find a local, knowledgeable steal dealer

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Speaker 2: near you. They'll get you set up with what you

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Speaker 2: need and they won't try to send you home with

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Speaker 2: what you don't. Thanks again and I'll talk to you

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Speaker 2: next week