WEBVTT - Ep. 417: Backwoods University - Lost Stories 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:06.840 Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on wildlife, 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:10.160 wild places and the people who dedicate their lives to 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:13.280 conserving both. Big shout out to Onyx Hunt for their 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:17.040 support of this podcast. I'm your host, Lake Pickle, and 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.239 we are officially in February now. Now, I don't know 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.560 about y'all, but for us here in Mississippi, February was 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:25.759 always this kind of month where you would catch yourself 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.760 looking around and wondering what to do. He can't deer hunt, 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.280 that's over. He can't duck hunt. That ended in January two. 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.040 I suppose you could dream about spring turkey season, but 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:37.800 that doesn't start till March. Well, I'll tell you what 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:40.360 I'm gonna do. Over these past few months, you and 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:42.720 I have had the privilege of listening to some pretty 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:47.600 incredible and fascinating folks. Grizzly bear specialist and marine biologists, 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.840 botanist and beekeepers. We have heard from a wide spectrum, 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:53.720 and that's one of the things that I've come to 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:57.600 love about doing this show. One drawback that I have found, however, 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.840 is that if you haven't noticed, Backwoods University is a 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:03.640 pretty stick to the point kind of show. We don't 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.560 really go down any rabbit holes, which I think is 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.440 overall good. But sometimes in these interviews I will hear 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.440 a real hum dinger of a story, but it's just 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:16.800 slightly off topic and I'm left scratching my head wondering 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.880 what to do with this incredible piece of content. Well, 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.520 I found the solution. In this episode, We're going to 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:26.600 go through some of the interviews from past BU episodes, 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:29.720 and here's some pretty awesome tales that didn't quite make 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.240 the original episode. I am supremely confident that you'll be 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.479 glad we found somewhere to put these. Let's dive in. 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:47.840 Our first story is gonna set the tone for this 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.680 whole episode. From the time that I first heard it 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.800 sitting across from Tom Parker and his cabin in Western Montana, 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.320 I knew I had to find a way to share it. 0:01:56.320 --> 0:02:00.880 It's simply too good. Y'all remember Tom from the Grit episode, 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.000 and his story is about getting run up a tree 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:06.280 by an angry grizzly bear. In his decades spent guiding 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.880 in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Mission Mountains. I still 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.080 maintain the opinion that Tom is one of the most 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.359 interesting humans I've ever had the pleasure of meeting Well. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.600 In the midst of that grizzly conversation, Tom also mentioned 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.200 that he once was charged by bull bison while he 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.480 was working on a mountain lion research project in Yellowstone. 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:28.360 I told y'all, this guy is interesting. Well anyway, I 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:31.200 was so intrigued that I asked Tom to share the story, 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.120 and luckily for me and for y'all, I was still 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:35.440 recording when he did. 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.720 Going back to the bison and Yellowstone, most people do 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:46.399 get to enjoy all those experiences seeing those big animals 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:50.240 on the landscape, But there are some people that have 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:54.600 what I'm gonna call an inappropriate and ill informed perspective 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.960 about you know, there's just kind of act like cow's. 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.000 I mean, they must be fairly safe to be around. 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:04.720 I'm here to tell you that the closest calls of 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:09.320 my career have been with bison and in Yellowstone. You know, 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:13.240 I work there on research projects, and I'm here to 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:17.520 tell you that a rogue bull bison surprised at close 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:19.040 range they're. 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:19.440 Coming for you. 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:21.119 Would you mind telling those stories? 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:26.280 Yeah, there was. This was in ninety I want to 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:30.080 say ninety nine. I was working on the Lions Study 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:37.600 in Yellowstone, and we were doing what's called a predation sequence, 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:44.080 which is where we follow a known lion, one that's marked. 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.920 You know, we've caught it, it's got a collar on it, 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.840 and we're following that thing through the landscape wherever it 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:55.680 takes us. And what you do is you don't get 0:03:55.840 --> 0:04:00.320 close enough to this animal that you impact or effect 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:06.240 it's behavior. In other words, you gauge your distance, you know, 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:10.360 out of sight, out of sound, stay far enough back 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:14.960 on the track, but you follow it through three large 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:19.640 prey kills and whatever small prey kills may occur in 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.839 that time. And I was following a female that had 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:27.240 been injured by a cow elk and she had two 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:31.920 offspring and they were forty to fifty pound offspring with it. 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:38.559 And you know, we often spell each other on those 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:43.320 predation sequence work because you know, it's a lot of 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:47.720 long distance and you're on snow in the mountains. And 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:53.400 my field partner Mike had said, you know, the other day, 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:57.560 I was tracking this cat and she went down into 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:02.080 the stage. It looked like she had you know, stalked 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:05.520 close enough to make what we call the rush and 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:09.800 take down on some elk, and actually there weren't many 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:11.800 deer in that country, but there had been a deer there, 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.920 and he said she just seemed to like change her 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.120 mind and not try to take any prey. And she 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.720 hadn't killed prey in quite a while. But he said, 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.919 you know, there was the remains of a coyote in 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.839 there that she went in and investigated, which I found 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:32.240 very strange. She could have killed that coyote. You never know. 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:36.919 She's desperate. So I'm following this cat a few days 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:39.080 later and I went way up on a ridge we 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:44.600 called Mom's Ridge, and it's a big, you know, fairly 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:49.360 steep ridge full of big bowlders that are some the 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.280 size of this room. Many of them the size of 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.719 the truck are smaller the size of a Volkswagen, but 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.760 a lot of them roughly bison sized. And this is up, 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.359 you know, a steep mountain slope. I hadn't seen a 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.320 bison track in a mile, you know, And there was 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:11.680 some bison down in the bottom, and that we'd had 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:15.920 a storm and the wind had blown off this ridge 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.360 for this lion that I was tracking from way up 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:21.400 on top of that mountain where she was hunting the 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:25.400 day before she had started down that ridge, and you know, 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:29.680 you're supposed to stay with that track or at least 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:32.080 try to piece it together where it's blown out so 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:35.800 that you don't miss some prey kill that you're going 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:40.120 to document. And so I was really having trouble in 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.360 this one area and all the boulders, you know, there's 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.960 quite a few of them with snow. Particularly, I was 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:50.800 on what I'm going to call the leeward side of 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:55.320 the boulders. So I was on a fairly narrow ledge 0:06:55.320 --> 0:07:00.360 on this ridge contouring trying to pick up where this 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:04.919 cat had crossed so that I could verify, you know, 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:10.000 it's track, and it was headed down right ahead of 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:13.680 me on this ledge. This boulder was a snowed under 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:18.640 rogue bull bison. And this what happens is these bulls 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:24.560 that are injured, old, not breeding anymore, they tend to 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:29.240 go off from the other bison herds and groups and 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:31.760 will go off up fairly high in the mountains to 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:34.920 kind of die and be by themselves. And these old 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:37.960 bull elk, I've seen him do the same thing. 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:39.960 I thought about it when you said that it sounds 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:40.840 like an old bull elk. 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:42.600 Yep, they just kind of get off. 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:43.120 They do. 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.720 They don't want to be around the others. And what 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.480 I thought was a boulder on this ledge I'm on 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:53.240 and it's a fairly steep drop off about ten twelve 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:57.800 feet to the earth below me off this ledge all 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.440 this sudden there's an explosion of no, and it isn't 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:04.800 much further than the corner of the room. 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:06.600 Oh goodness, Oh yeah, this I mean. 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.440 And a bison, I mean, they're like a rocket. 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:11.960 Yeah, they're fast, They're relivingly. 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:15.400 Fast, deceivingly fast. And this is a big bull and 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.960 here's this explosion. And I realized, I'm like, this bison's 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:22.520 gonna take me out. I just jumped right off that ledge. 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.240 Oh gosh, Oh I did, and I land you know, 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:27.560 I know how to land, and I landed, and I 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.000 rolled quite away, and I didn't hit any rocks or 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:35.920 trees on the way down. And he couldn't come down 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:38.480 there for me. It was quite the drop off, and 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:43.520 he ran out on the contour there, and it was 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:48.040 as close to dying as I've ever come, right there. 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:51.400 More so than any grizen counter. Oh yeah, let's think 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.200 about that last statement for a bit. Tom has been 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.600 guiding the Bob Marshall Wilderness and the Mission Mountains since 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.600 the nineteen seventies, and he's spent the better part of 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.880 his life in Grizzly Bear country. And yet the closest 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.760 he ever came to dying was during an encounter with 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:12.400 a rogue bull bison in Yellowstone wild I guess think 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:14.320 twice before you go trying to pet one of those 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:24.840 things I know Tom would advise against. For our next story, 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.280 we're gonna have to go way back back to the 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.480 very beginning. Y'all may remember the first ever episode of 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.800 Backwoods University. We studied the history of bison in the 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:37.640 eastern United States, and in that episode you heard myself 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:41.440 and Jeremy French from the Southeastern Grassland Institute hiked down 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.760 to see a still very visible remnant of a bison 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.240 trail that crossed a river. This conversation picks up while 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.160 we're still standing at that river in bison trail, and 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:54.640 at that time Jeremy shared with me a fascinating piece 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:58.439 of American history. This story is short, but it's definitely 0:09:58.520 --> 0:09:59.160 worth sharing. 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.679 Actually, a really cool historical story here too. Of this 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:09.680 creek is called Caleb's Creek, and Caleb was the son 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.800 of one of the early settlers in Nashville. And they 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:17.079 came up these waterways and I can't remember which settler was, 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:20.320 and they found this area and they picked this area 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:24.400 and they were like, hey, Caleb, you know, I don't 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:26.680 know if you're a parent, but I always say I 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:29.880 think about this when I become a parent. We like 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:31.560 this area. We want to settle this, but we need 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.400 to go back south to go pick up supplies. Why 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:37.640 don't you live in this cave until it comes back? 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.840 And they don't come back for like a year, and 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.480 he this is pre settlement, right, So this is like 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:47.959 the wilderness. There's tribes here, there's like, you know, probably 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:51.320 still bison extent. And he goes and he lives in 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:55.520 this cave. That's just that way if the water wasn't 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:57.679 so high. Sometimes it's pretty low and you can just 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:02.040 hop rock across it. But and he lives in his 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:04.760 cave for like a year until his group comes back 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:06.800 and gets him. He's gotta hunt all his own food. 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:12.199 He's gotta avoid getting murdered, like in like sixteen. 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:16.839 Maybe there's not a lot of details to go along 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.320 with this story, but what is known other than what 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:22.120 Jeremy shared with us can be found through researching the 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:26.560 history of the Wessington Plantation. The boy's name was Caleb Winters, 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.439 and he was known as one of Robertson County, Tennessee's 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:33.360 earliest settlers. And to give this some contexts, Robertson County 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.880 is just north of Nashville, and this took place back 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.720 in the late seventeen hundreds, back when there was still 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.360 a few bison roaming around and the entire place was 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:46.840 truly wild. As Jeremy stated, Caleb spent about a year's 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:49.960 time living in a small cave. It was said that 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.800 he was an outstanding hunter, and he lived the entire 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.480 year off of wild game. After his family returned, they 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.040 built a cabin. It was just across the creek from 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.160 the entrance of the very cave that he'd lived in. 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.959 In his honor, they named the creek Caleb's Creek, as 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.120 well as the cave Winter's Cave. I don't know about y'all, 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:11.480 but if my parents left me to survive in a 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:13.880 cave in the wild for a year, I would be 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:16.040 telling them that naming a creek in a cave after 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:20.160 me was the least they can do. Just imagine what 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.560 all kind of wild stuff that boy saw during the 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.480 year spent living in that cave. I would wager he 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:29.320 saw that bison trail in action. Heck, maybe he even 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.200 hunted a bison there. Who knows. What I can tell 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:34.840 you is it was pretty crazy to hear that story 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.760 as I was standing there looking at the entrance of 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:43.000 that cave. Wild random fun fact before we move on, 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:45.319 did y'all know that several of the roads that run 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.200 through Nashville, as well as other roads in North Tennessee, 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.160 were originally bison trails? Crazy? Right, Use that one next 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:56.040 time you need a conversation starter. Moving on for our 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.240 next story, We're going to keep the action level high 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:00.600 as we turn our attention back to eight big and 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.920 Wild animals. Y'all will probably remember Casey Anderson from the 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:07.679 second Grizzly episode that we did. Casey's a lifelong outdoorsman. 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.240 He's a naturalist, a hunter, and he's a person who 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:14.320 has spent his career explaining nature to the world. We 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:17.480 heard all kinds of wild tales from Casey in that episode, 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.760 and he told me several more, including this one about 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.200 an experience he had on the cat My coast that 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.320 I've not been able to stop thinking about. 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:30.240 First off, the historic relationship with humans. So the bears 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:32.960 on the cat My coast almost have never been hunted. 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.800 They see very few people, so they haven't learned to 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.839 fear people at all. In fact, it's actually one of 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.360 those things like is it that they haven't learned to 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.400 fear people, or isn't that they haven't learned to do 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.560 anything with people, Like, you know, they have no feeling 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.199 for people at some level. In fact, it's so bizarre. 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:54.040 Sometimes I'll be standing there and they'll walk right by 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.520 me and they won't even look at you, like you're 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.439 a rock, Like you're just not on the radar. They 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:01.320 just don't care that they treat you the same way 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.480 thing with a fox or a raw you know, literally, yeah, 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:04.839 you know. 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:06.720 The thing that stuck out to me is in one 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:09.280 of those videos that kept by, like you're like observing 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.959 this mother and two cubs, and like at home, you're 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:15.240 taught like that's code read that is what you don't 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:18.000 want to see, like mother and cubs, like get away, 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.040 that's the one that's gonna charge you. Like how do 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.360 you even learn to assess that situation? To know like, 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:26.080 I can go watch her and as long as I 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:28.040 keep my distance or whatever it is you do like it, 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:28.720 we'll be fine. 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:29.480 Yeah, it's hard. 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:31.760 It's hard, and especially when you flip flop between the 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.080 two ecosystems. Sure sure, as you are dealing with what 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:38.720 looks like the same animal but completely different mindset. It happened. 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:40.800 It wasn't something that I went and did in an 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.160 experiment with It was actually the other way around, and 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.520 I put myself in the position of being there and 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.440 had mothers with cubs bringing their cubs over to me. 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:54.040 This sounds ridiculous again, and I'm gonna I'm gonna just 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.000 add this on here because there's you know, movies like 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.040 Grizzly Man and stuff like that. Is one thing you 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:02.840 can never do is forget that no matter where the 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:06.480 bear is, it's capable of killing you. And those cubs 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:08.840 and mom, you know, the mom with cubs in Alaska 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:12.960 are certainly capable of killing you. But what they'll do 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.520 sometimes is they'll bring those cubs over close to you 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:20.480 on purpose because they've realized that people kind of act 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.240 of kind of like kind of like the safety net. 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.560 Because there's other bears, particular males who are a little 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:31.120 less apt to be comfortable around people. So if the 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.200 cubs are close to you, then the males less that 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:35.840 have to come near them, and so they start using you. 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.480 And it's so strange and it's very uncomfortable in the beginning. 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.960 I would like man trying to put myself in that situation. 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.200 Like if I saw it, if I saw a mother 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:47.160 and two cubs approaching, I'd be like, I need to 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:48.280 go right now, and. 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.400 Most people would, I mean, and I think that's that'd 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:53.960 be the right feeling to have your instincts. But the 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:55.680 other good thing is that I've spent so much time 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.680 around bears and understand their body language. Is that you 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.320 know when there's ill intent on a bear's face basically, 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.680 I mean, it is a billboard telling you like, I'm uncomfortable, 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.160 and if not, it's vocalizing, it's chomping its jaws, it's 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.880 hoofing at you, it's doing something true. And when they 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.200 come over and their ears are just flat, relaxed, and 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.080 their body language is a really tense and you just 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.320 see this like that, they are actually more getting more 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:19.560 comfortable as they get closer to do It's so strange, 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:22.640 but it's true. Yeah, and so at the same time, 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:24.960 you just realize it's a unique opportunity and it is 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:27.920 a little intoxicating when you're there next to these animals 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:31.440 that are a thousand pounds and you can just go 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:35.360 sit there amongst them and they they just don't care 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:37.280 if you're doing the right thing. I mean, I think 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.080 it's a two way street too. I mean, if you 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:41.840 go in there with bad energy and you're all uptight, 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.480 you're a billboard too. You know, you're showing your intention. 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:46.360 But if you can go in there and just kind 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.800 of relax yourself and realize that they're at a safe 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.280 distance in some level and doing the right thing, and 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.640 it's just so cool to be part of that true world. 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:55.760 I can't explain it, man. 0:16:55.920 --> 0:17:00.200 Yeah, I mean it sounds so crazy, it does. 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.000 And it's why, you know, there's so many times I'm like, 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:04.400 I just gotta I wish I could take people there 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:06.400 and have them experiences. But at the same time, it's 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:07.320 like that's the right. 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:07.800 Thing to do too. 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:10.359 Yeah. Well, the thing is, it's like you're able to 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:14.400 do that because you've spent so many hours around these 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:18.679 animals that you it's like some of the best archery hunters. 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.080 I know, they spent so much time because like bohunt 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:22.920 and you gotta be close, right, Yeah, So they spent 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:24.959 a lot of time being close to that animal and 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:28.800 they can just read that animal's body language so well, 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.119 Like they know when they come in and relax, they 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:32.880 know when they're tense. They know, like I can draw 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.560 back now like this this animal is about spook. This 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:38.120 animals chilled out, Like they just spend so much time 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:40.360 close to them, they can pick up on that. And 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.160 you've spent so much time around these bears that you're 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.000 just able to read that. So well, what's going on? 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:47.560 You know? 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:52.119 No, I mean definitely, there's no doubt about it. And 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:55.159 you know, and I've had so many close encounters, and 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.880 I've had some that are obviously not been positive. You 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:03.400 can see it coming right how so just the way 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.120 that they start reacting, their body language starts to change. 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.040 You're always paying attention to the wind, You're always I mean, 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.840 it's just like anything, just like I said, whitetail buck. 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:13.800 If you know whit tail bucks, you've been around all 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:16.160 the time, you get honed into these little tiny things. 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:18.399 Sometimes you don't even know why you're doing what you're doing, 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:21.120 but there are these little subtle hints that they're giving 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:23.000 you and you and you don't even know. It's almost instinctual, 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:25.520 and you just start doing these same same things to 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:29.560 counter the moment. And with bears, man, it's it's the same. 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:30.600 I mean, you just you get. 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:32.920 I've been in such tense situations where a bear is 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.199 looking at me and I know that I need to 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.360 back off slowly and pull my eyes away from it 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:40.399 and then and that'll be the right thing to do. 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:42.239 But I've I've also had time for bears are being 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.440 aggressive towards me. And I looked at that bear. I 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:46.399 don't even know why, and I've locked eyes with it 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.719 and I've charged at it and ran it away and 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.760 it's and I don't even know why, but I know 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.000 that I see something in that bear. It's insecure and 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:57.320 maybe it's it's thinking about it. And I just want 0:18:57.480 --> 0:18:59.480 you know what, No, I'm the boss today and I'm 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.960 going to show you that I am. Sounds ridiculous, but 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.080 it is this subtle game of body language poker that 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:10.639 you're playing out there with all animals. And it sounds 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.119 probably the most crazy because you're I'm playing it with 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:14.639 an animal that can kill you. 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:19.040 I feel like this needs to be said. Casey is 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:21.720 a professional and he's been dealing with bears for a 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.480 long long time. So all the stuff that he talked 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:27.560 about doing, don't try that at home and think what 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:29.840 you will about me. But I don't imagine I would 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:32.000 be holding my ground if I saw Mama Griz and 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:35.760 cubs walking my direction, and I certainly wouldn't charge you one. 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:42.080 Thanks for the wild tales, Casey. For our next story, 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.199 we're going to a very recent guest, mister Jim Cruise, 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:48.800 the lifelong duck hunter. In this story, Jim tackles two 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.080 very common pieces of duck hunter lore. 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:53.000 Video is very telling. 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:53.879 Yeah, I know. 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:58.120 I was looking at one that my wife did last weekend. 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:00.639 She was thinking there were four of us shooting, and 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.639 she was standing behind us working the dog, and a 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:08.760 flight of teal came in right to left. I was 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.240 on the left end, my son was on the right end, 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:13.280 and two guests were in the middle of the line, 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.000 and it was like we had choreographed it. Bam bam 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:21.760 bam bam down the line. This is a teal came across, 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:24.040 and of course, when you're shooting like that. 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.400 You don't. You don't realize it. But that's exactly how 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:27.840 it was. 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:32.040 Bam bam, bam bam, one, two, three, four and three 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:35.040 till fell and then the I guess there were two 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:37.199 ducks left in the flock when I got on my end. 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.720 One of them was a big white shoveler. I picked 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.479 him out at a heartbeat. I couldn't pass him up, 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:48.000 so I shot that one. But it just looking back 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:51.840 at the video, wasn't nearly like I remembered it because 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:53.040 it just happened so quick. 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.240 Oh yeah, yeah. See. Now now I've got to ask 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:58.720 you another question because you said something there that I 0:20:58.760 --> 0:20:59.639 want to ask you about. 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:00.879 I shouldn't say. 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:02.280 I know a lot of folks that do it. I 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:05.160 know a lot of folks that say that they want 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:05.960 shoot a shoveler. 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:12.320 I hadn't met any yet. I know a lot who 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:12.960 say they won't. 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:14.080 But you you've heard that. 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:16.040 I don't know my life. 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.440