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Speaker 1: From Mediator's World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is

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Speaker 1: Kel's we can review with Ryan kel Kelly. Now here's

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Speaker 1: kel murder hornets. They're huge and their sting crazy. Just kidding,

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Speaker 1: but they are in Washington State. The Asian giant hornet,

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Speaker 1: or more headline grabbing murder hornet is non native and

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Speaker 1: invasive and a threat to the US's honey bees, which

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Speaker 1: is where the murderous nickname comes from. The hornets will

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Speaker 1: destroy honey bee colonies, not your children. I'm gonna say

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Speaker 1: that again for David Cromwell. They're after the bees, not

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Speaker 1: your kids, So quit writing in Loka bears. The Washington

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Speaker 1: State Department of Agriculture has been actively hunting the hornets

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Speaker 1: since two thousand nineteen, when they were first reported in

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Speaker 1: British Columbia. If you recall previous episodes regarding Washington State

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Speaker 1: and murder hornets, the murder of honey bees and mass

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Speaker 1: would potentially cripple the state's pollinator dependent cash crops, such

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Speaker 1: as the ninety percent of red raspberries in the US

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Speaker 1: seventy nine point three percent of our hops, which is

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Speaker 1: near and dear to my heart. Scent of spearmen oil.

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Speaker 1: I'm talking directly to you, fans of dr brown or soap.

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Speaker 1: Seventy one point seven percent of our apples, fifty point

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Speaker 1: one percent of Concord grapes of Niagara grapes, which is

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Speaker 1: our number one green table grape, scent of sweet cherries,

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Speaker 1: and forty of our pears of our pears, what will

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Speaker 1: we do? The Moira rose routline line would come to

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Speaker 1: an ant one that papers its fruit like its own babies.

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Speaker 1: As well as the obvious real world implications that would

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Speaker 1: come from a pollinator crash, you could say we'd be

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Speaker 1: up Ship's creek. In order to avoid that unfortunate sitcom scenario,

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Speaker 1: Washington State Department of Agriculture organized a murder hornet task

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Speaker 1: force led by entomologist spin Eric Spickager. The team located

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Speaker 1: free roaming murder hornets and attached radio transmitters to them

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Speaker 1: in hopes of tracking them back to the nest. Despite

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Speaker 1: losing several transmitters, a few hornets were eventually tailed to

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Speaker 1: a cavity inside a tree, a perfect hangout. When the

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Speaker 1: state team closed in, about eighty of the hornets were

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Speaker 1: vacuumed out of the crack. Several more were cotton nets

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Speaker 1: as they returned to the nest. The tree was eventually

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Speaker 1: cut open to reve you more hornets developing eggs to

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Speaker 1: fully developed queens, and two pounds of meth amphetamines. Uh sorry,

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Speaker 1: I got my reports mixed up. Just hornets in this bust.

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Speaker 1: The Washington State Department of Agriculture has declared the sting

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Speaker 1: operation a success. At least that's the buzz around here.

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Speaker 1: Be on the lookout. We don't often get the opportunity

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Speaker 1: to get ahead of a potentially devastating invasive specie before

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Speaker 1: it gets out of hand. If you find a large

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Speaker 1: two inch long hornet with a three inch wide wingspan

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Speaker 1: that just doesn't belong, be sure to call your state

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Speaker 1: Department of Agriculture or Natural Resources. This week we've got politics, octopus,

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Speaker 1: and a quick stop at the crime desk. But first

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you about my week. I'm going on vacation,

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Speaker 1: as in getting off the grid. In fact, I'm getting

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Speaker 1: so off the grid i cannot bring a reliable, dependable,

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Speaker 1: lightweight steel bad to repower chainsaw with me ahead for

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Speaker 1: the wilderness with the capital w and looking at the forecast,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna wish I could stack up firewood fast, getting

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Speaker 1: primitive on public land where all are welcome as long

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Speaker 1: as you are willing to walk or ride something non

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Speaker 1: mechanized like a horse, mule burrow that sort of wilderness.

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Speaker 1: The other thing that my vacation will not have is

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Speaker 1: internet or cell phone coverage, meaning this podcast you are

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Speaker 1: listening to was recorded prior to learning what the election

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Speaker 1: results are. However, I do know what they are, and

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Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, they're they're not good. Imagine if you will,

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Speaker 1: we were to shake up the entire United States, so

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Speaker 1: all the residents got mixed around and evenly distributed. So

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Speaker 1: when if you're listening to this podcast as you're driving

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Speaker 1: down the road, every other vehicle you pass voted for

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Speaker 1: the person you did not vote for. Every other person

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Speaker 1: in the checkout line wanted the other person to win.

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Speaker 1: I don't know the final numbers or the future president

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Speaker 1: of the United States, but I do know that the

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Speaker 1: math doesn't exactly say that the whole of America has

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Speaker 1: chosen its leader. The math doesn't exactly say that my

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Speaker 1: grocery store line scenario is correct either, But we don't

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Speaker 1: like to see fifths or eighths of people it would

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Speaker 1: be very messy. If you'll remember one of the greatest

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Speaker 1: lines and Ghostbusters too, you know, the River of Slime

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Speaker 1: and walking Statue of Liberty. Ghostbusters. Allen, New York City

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Speaker 1: is going crazy as usual. The Ghostbusters are freed from

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Speaker 1: jail to be marched in front of the mayor, who

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Speaker 1: is demanding to know what's going on. The line dan

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Speaker 1: Ackroyd or Ray delivers is something a lot of politicians

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Speaker 1: should be hearing. First of all, Mr Mayor, it's a

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Speaker 1: great pleasure to see you again, and we'd just like

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Speaker 1: to say that almost us voted for you in the

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Speaker 1: last election. Inspiring. So what does this mean for conservation? Well,

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Speaker 1: as per usual, you need to be an active participant

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Speaker 1: because the difference between the hunting, fishing, outdoor recreating line

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Speaker 1: at the store and the previously described blue red split

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Speaker 1: is we all really want the same things. Like if

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Speaker 1: you ask the folks in the grocery store line to

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Speaker 1: vote on the issue of food or no food, they

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Speaker 1: are in the grocery line, so it stands to reason

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Speaker 1: they are pro food. There is a clear majority who

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Speaker 1: want access to public lands, a clear majority who want

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Speaker 1: well maintained, healthy habitat in clean waters full of fish.

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Speaker 1: We want our children and our children's children to have

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Speaker 1: access to not only the same things, but often the

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Speaker 1: same opportunities. In the aim for us lakes and wilderness

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Speaker 1: areas that have been formative of our lives, we outdoors

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Speaker 1: people have some serious strength in this room divided, the

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Speaker 1: power of the outdoors unites people. Chances are if the

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Speaker 1: House and Senate want to get something done while they're

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Speaker 1: in off us, they will have the best chance at

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Speaker 1: getting conservation minded bills and amendments passed, just like we've

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Speaker 1: seen in the latter half of the Trump presidency. Your

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Speaker 1: job and my job is to make sure our elected

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Speaker 1: officials know where to put their efforts and what issues

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Speaker 1: they shouldn't touch. I know none of you expected it,

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Speaker 1: but we, as conservation minded people, will not have four

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Speaker 1: years off to hunt, fish and relax. We wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: if the other guy won't either. We need to be

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Speaker 1: on top of our game, paying attention to city council

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Speaker 1: and town hall meetings and legislation. We need to make

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Speaker 1: the time available to pick up the phone right and

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Speaker 1: occasionally show up, make a compelling case to keep the

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Speaker 1: things we hold dear in good shape and hopefully even

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Speaker 1: get more of it. Now, after my week or so

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Speaker 1: off the grid exploring our communal inheritance of public lands,

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Speaker 1: I'll be refreshed, even when it's not asked for. I'll

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Speaker 1: be ready to help our elected officials make good decisions.

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Speaker 1: Chasing big mule deer does that for a person. Moving on,

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Speaker 1: but we're gonna take quick stop the snort. Report that

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Speaker 1: little girl is now six months old and only about

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Speaker 1: forty pounds. She's a pocket sized labrador. We had a long,

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Speaker 1: long walk this weekend. No birds, just feathers. Snort. Not pleased,

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Speaker 1: but tired. Now she's heading to Grandma's for some time,

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Speaker 1: dedicated to being a puppy. I'm hoping to get real

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Speaker 1: serious about the birds upon my return from big mule

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Speaker 1: deer country. Jumping over to the law enforcement desk, we

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Speaker 1: the quick update on the biggest wildlife crime bust in

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Speaker 1: Nebraska state history. As you recall, over one hundred people

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Speaker 1: from twenty one states were somehow involved in wildlife crimes

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Speaker 1: involving Hidden Hills outfitters. One couple who had hunted numerous

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Speaker 1: times with h h O has come forward, pleading not

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Speaker 1: guilty to all offenses and in part of their defense

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Speaker 1: have taken to attacking the Lacy Act. The Lacy Act

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Speaker 1: was established back as a way to define wildlife crime,

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Speaker 1: specifically the act of trafficking wildlife for sale. The couple

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Speaker 1: in question made headlines years ago on an ethical situation,

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Speaker 1: so I won't bring them up now because all are

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Speaker 1: innocent until proven guilty. Correct. So what I would like

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Speaker 1: to focus on quickly is the Lacy Act and why

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Speaker 1: I believe if you hunt or fish, you should not

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Speaker 1: disparage this federal layer of wildlife crime enforcement of protection.

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Speaker 1: This is a pin to be clear. If you think

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Speaker 1: back on all the wildlife crime we report here on

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Speaker 1: the Weekend Review, it is very, very seldom, if ever,

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Speaker 1: that we think, wow, the penalty should have been left

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Speaker 1: for that wildlife crime. That is because we have to

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Speaker 1: contextualize an animal into dollars. What is the dollar figure

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Speaker 1: that best represents this scenario to the state. When you

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Speaker 1: stack up the life of a doe deer, for instance,

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Speaker 1: against that of the actions of a drunk driver, let's

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Speaker 1: say the drunk is going to cost more. The Lacy Act,

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Speaker 1: when violated, can be used to bring additional reparations for

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Speaker 1: wildlife to the table. Again, when we see wildlife crime

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Speaker 1: pop up on the blotter, the usual reaction from the

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Speaker 1: hunting and fishing public is resounding that is too low,

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Speaker 1: The punishment is not enough, not odd geez, poor folks.

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Speaker 1: Let them off. It was just a buck. But according

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Speaker 1: to states, oftentimes these wildlife crimes carry the same gravita

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Speaker 1: us as a speeding ticket a misdemeanor, which is the

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Speaker 1: stance this couple is taken. And keep in mind again

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Speaker 1: they could be totally innocent, but you need to take

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Speaker 1: into account the situation at Hidden Hills Outfitters was loose,

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Speaker 1: as in the place had a stink to it from

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Speaker 1: all the illegal activity. It would be very hard for

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Speaker 1: someone to hear an attack against the lazy act from

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Speaker 1: people who frequented this operation, which, according to Deer and

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Speaker 1: Deer Hunting, the couple in question did frequent this operation

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Speaker 1: three to four trips per year for four years. The

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Speaker 1: thing to remember with wildlife crime is the victims cannot speak.

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Speaker 1: We don't see situations where rabbits on the stand pointing

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Speaker 1: a shaky finger at the perpetrator. They witnessed killing a

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Speaker 1: buck out of season. Right, You can't handle the truth,

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Speaker 1: So the onus is and always has been on the hunter.

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Speaker 1: If you are in a situation that doesn't seem right,

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Speaker 1: you are expected to back out and self report. If

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Speaker 1: you don't, it is then up to the investigators the

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Speaker 1: wardens to try to step into your shoes and see

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Speaker 1: what you see and interpret the intention of your actions.

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Speaker 1: We'll be hearing much, much more about this one. Please

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Speaker 1: check out Sam Longren's in depth article at the meat

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Speaker 1: Eater dot com. Next up, the Better Late than Never Desk.

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Speaker 1: This one's going to bring you the perfect Halloween story

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Speaker 1: just as your kids might be finishing that very last

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Speaker 1: package of Neco waivers. Quick side here, Why do people

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Speaker 1: even hand out neco waivers? Is there anyone out there

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Speaker 1: who actually likes them? Anyway? Cemetery in the Belgian city

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Speaker 1: of Antwerp has recently been overrun by zombie marbled crayfish.

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Speaker 1: You heard that right, zombie stations eating anything they can

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Speaker 1: get their claws around under a full moon in Europe's

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Speaker 1: most sinister graveyard. While not technically zombies, these crayfish are

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Speaker 1: not truly undead. Corpses come to feast on the flesh

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Speaker 1: of the living. They are, however, feasting on some flesh

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Speaker 1: and not a species found in nature, but rather mutated

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Speaker 1: variants of the crayfish you might find in the southeastern US.

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Speaker 1: For those of you have never seen a crayfish, picture

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Speaker 1: a lobster shrunk down to about, you know, four inches long.

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Speaker 1: Scientists believe that German pet sellers altered the genetics of

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Speaker 1: standard crayfish to make them parthenogenetic, meaning that the females

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Speaker 1: can reproduce without a male mate. You just keep one

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Speaker 1: or two females, and then those individuals have babies, and

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Speaker 1: then their babies have babies, and soon you have very

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Speaker 1: very very healthy inventory of pets to sell. I guess

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Speaker 1: thinking goes, if you can make an unlimited number of

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Speaker 1: a thing people want, you can get rich from selling that.

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Speaker 1: What could go wrong? Regular listeners to this long podcast

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Speaker 1: will be able to predict exactly what went wrong. One

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Speaker 1: of those sellers, or maybe a pet owner who wanted

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Speaker 1: to make room for a newer, more exciting pet in

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Speaker 1: the aquarium, dumps some of those genetically altered crayfish into

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Speaker 1: a canal or storm drain, and so without any natural predators,

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Speaker 1: and without the complicated process of male and female crayfish

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Speaker 1: trying to find one another and make little crayfish. The

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Speaker 1: population exploded because asexual reproduction produces offspring with the exact

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Speaker 1: same genetic makeup as the parent. All of these crayfish

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Speaker 1: are exact clones of each other. I guess the lead

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Speaker 1: for this story should have been clone crustaceans instead of

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Speaker 1: zombie crustaceans. But you know, zombie gets a lot of

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Speaker 1: buzz these days. Maybe clone apocalypse, the gun the wars anyway, shoot,

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Speaker 1: sohof Cemetery and Antwerp has become ground zero for the

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Speaker 1: cray apocalypse, and the ecosystem in the park has taken

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Speaker 1: a beating as these mutant mudbugs burrow up to three

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Speaker 1: and a half feet into the earth to find food

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Speaker 1: and shelter. I'm not sure what the average deceased body

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Speaker 1: depth is in Antwerp, but let's hope it's a little

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Speaker 1: bit deeper than three and a half feet. In any case,

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Speaker 1: they're disrupting the soil and habitat for other species who

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Speaker 1: live there. Biologists and city officials aren't sure how they're

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Speaker 1: going to try to control the outbreak. Is they can't

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Speaker 1: poison the crayfish without you know, poisoning everything else. It

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Speaker 1: seems that the only upside here would be to ship

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Speaker 1: a load of zat trans seasoning over to Belgium Little

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Speaker 1: Tony Seas maybe make lemons into lemonade or lemons into

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Speaker 1: enormous pot along with corn, potatoes and other things that

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Speaker 1: make a crawfish boil really great. Moving on to our

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Speaker 1: every popular Florida desk, researchers recently published a study in

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Speaker 1: the journal Environmental Science and Technology that sheds light on

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Speaker 1: why Florida's great egrets, the large white birds that look

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Speaker 1: like swans with a stiletto for a beak, have been

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Speaker 1: having so much trouble uh copulating getting it on. Over

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Speaker 1: the last twenty years, egrets and the Everglades have suffered

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Speaker 1: a fifty decline and breeding events. Scientists have been studying

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Speaker 1: several problems with e grit reproduction, including fewer eggs laid

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Speaker 1: and fewer hatchling egrets surviving to reproductive age. That's called recruitment,

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Speaker 1: but the problems might start even earlier, with adult birds

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Speaker 1: just never getting in the mood to woo each other.

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Speaker 1: The main ingredient of this awful Avian anti aphrodisiac seems

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Speaker 1: to be mercury. And we're not talking Freddie home tonight.

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Speaker 1: When humans burn gasoline and other petrochemicals. One of the

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Speaker 1: by products released into the atmosphere is mercury, which then

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Speaker 1: settles in very thin layers all over the environment. Many

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Speaker 1: kinds of mining also release mercury into our water. Although

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Speaker 1: at first the mercury is very widely diffused, as in

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Speaker 1: spread out, organisms at the bottom of the food chain

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Speaker 1: like algae and plankton begin to absorb it and can't

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Speaker 1: pass it out of their systems. Insects and shellfish consume

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Speaker 1: those lower down species, and in so doing they collect

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Speaker 1: the trace mercury and also can't pass it out of

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Speaker 1: their systems and up the food chain, the mercury travels,

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Speaker 1: going from small amounts and many individuals to greater and

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Speaker 1: greater amounts and the predators who eat all that smaller prey.

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Speaker 1: That is why doctors warn people not to eat too

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Speaker 1: much swordfish or tile fish or king mackerel, because all

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Speaker 1: that mercury has been collected in those top of the

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Speaker 1: food chain fish and can be harmful to us. In

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Speaker 1: so saying, these predatory Florida egrets are not exempt from

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Speaker 1: this kind of mercury accumulation. Once it collects an an animal,

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Speaker 1: mercury disrupts hormone functioning, and hormones regulate biological processes, including

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Speaker 1: the urge to mate. With the urge to mate disrupted,

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Speaker 1: there's less love making, and with less love making, they're

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Speaker 1: fewer young. Fewer young obviously mean fewer egrets altogether, and

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Speaker 1: if this trend continues, maybe there would eventually be no egrets,

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Speaker 1: which would be a colossal shame, but also at a minimum,

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Speaker 1: a great tattoo or maybe a band name no regrets,

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Speaker 1: It's got a ring to it. Watching egrets hunt is

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Speaker 1: a simply amazing experience. They often use a form of

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Speaker 1: what we hunters would call still hunting, keeping their heads

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Speaker 1: almost perfectly still while moving very very slowly through shallow

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Speaker 1: water looking for prey. You'll often then see an egret

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Speaker 1: moving its head from side to side so that it

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Speaker 1: can correct for refraction, which is the way that water

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Speaker 1: bends light and makes it look like something below the

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Speaker 1: water surface is in a different place than it actually is.

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Speaker 1: Any of our bow fisher folks out there, you know

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Speaker 1: what we're talking about. Once the egret has a fix

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Speaker 1: on its target, it strikes like a snake and spears

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Speaker 1: its prey with its beak. In the late nineteenth and

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Speaker 1: early twentieth century, egrets were almost hunted to extinction for

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Speaker 1: their bright white plumage, which was used in making fancy hats,

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Speaker 1: and so their recovery is just another example of the

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Speaker 1: enormous progress we've made in conservation. But this progress, like

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Speaker 1: so much other progress, is anything but secure, and egrets

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Speaker 1: are definitely not the only species suffering from desruption of

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Speaker 1: their hormonal systems due to rising mercury levels. We can't

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Speaker 1: lower the lights and put al green on the high

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Speaker 1: fi for all of the egrets in the Everglades, so

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Speaker 1: we'll have to find ways to lower the mercury that

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Speaker 1: goes into the ecosystem to get these birds feeling a

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Speaker 1: little more frisky. So it's all banded together for more

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Speaker 1: egrets and fewer regrets in New One America. Moving on

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Speaker 1: to the travel desk, specifically ice traveling, you may have

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Speaker 1: been especially surprised to hear about a broken off piece

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Speaker 1: of iceberg the size of Delaware bearing down on South

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Speaker 1: Georgia and expected to smash into the shoreline. They're threatening

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Speaker 1: native inhabitants. Every word of what I just told you

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Speaker 1: was factually correct, But it's not just the presidential election

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Speaker 1: that's prevented this story from getting airtime on the evening

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Speaker 1: news in Atlanta or Savannah. That's because South Georgia is

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Speaker 1: not just the name of the bottom half the Peach State.

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Speaker 1: It is also the name of an island off of Antarctica,

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Speaker 1: where looming icebergs are not quite so unusual. However, the

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Speaker 1: effect of an iceberg collision on this slightly less well

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Speaker 1: known South Georgia could nevertheless be newsworthy. This is the

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Speaker 1: time of year when the islands penguin, sea lions, and

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Speaker 1: other animals are protecting the offspring that they recently brought

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Speaker 1: into the world, and if the enormous iceberg crashes into

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Speaker 1: the shoreline of the island, it could cut parents off

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Speaker 1: from the ocean where they get the food they need

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Speaker 1: to feed their young. I think everyone should pay attention

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Speaker 1: to this story if you feel like you've been dealt

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Speaker 1: a raw deal. The sea lions and penguins have literally

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Speaker 1: swum a predator filled gauntlet to raise their young, and now,

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Speaker 1: quite possibly by no wrongdoing of their own, an ice

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Speaker 1: island could come and seal them off from the ocean

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Speaker 1: that provides all of their sustenance and sometimes their security.

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Speaker 1: So despite what you have going on in your world.

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Speaker 1: You may want to put South Georgia on your mind.

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Speaker 1: If you thought that was tasteless, wait until you visit

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Speaker 1: the octopus desk. You may think that you have pretty

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Speaker 1: much nothing in common with octopuses, octopi, octopuses, you know,

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Speaker 1: those creatures with eight legs that are super tasty. Anyhow,

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Speaker 1: I'm wagering that you do not, for example, squirt ink

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Speaker 1: to hide from your enemies, that you don't swim by

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Speaker 1: shooting out a jet of water to propel yourself along,

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Speaker 1: and you don't have suction cups all up and down

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Speaker 1: your limbs. Octopuses also have a nervous system that would

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Speaker 1: be something in common, but it is again quite different.

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Speaker 1: We humans have just one brain in our head, and

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Speaker 1: all the information that comes from our senses, from our

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Speaker 1: noses and skins and toses and ears, travels up through

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Speaker 1: our nerves and goes into that one brain to be

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Speaker 1: sorted out. Similarly, the neurons in our one brain send

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Speaker 1: out all the signals to our legs to move, our

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Speaker 1: hearts to beat and so on. Octopuses, on the other hand,

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Speaker 1: have a much more widely distributed nervous system two thirds

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Speaker 1: of their neurons are located all up and down their tentacles,

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Speaker 1: and each tentacle can operate independently from the other tentacles

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Speaker 1: and independently from the brain the octopus has in its head.

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Speaker 1: Think about that, How must the world seem to a

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Speaker 1: cree sure with brains all over its body. It's crazy

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Speaker 1: to contemplate. It's data overload, But researchers are discovering at

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Speaker 1: least one way that a human and an octopus might

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Speaker 1: not be so different. Both of us have the sense

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Speaker 1: of taste. A team of biologists at Harvard University have

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Speaker 1: been hard at work studying specific cells octopuses have in

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Speaker 1: their suction cups that have the same structure as the

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Speaker 1: cells we have in our tongues, and they've been studying

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Speaker 1: what happens when these octopus cells come in contact with

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Speaker 1: the chemicals that their prey animals release under stress. When

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Speaker 1: the octopus is suckers touched an object that had these

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Speaker 1: chemicals on it, they were much more likely to grab

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Speaker 1: onto that object. That's a lot like how your mouth

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Speaker 1: would close around a strawberry once your tongue detected the

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Speaker 1: sweetness and strawberry nous of that strawberry. How cool would

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Speaker 1: it be to have taste buds on your limbs. You

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Speaker 1: could taste an apple just by whole holding it in

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Speaker 1: your hand, or experience the deliciousness of good whiskey just

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Speaker 1: by touching a few spilled drops, or smell a walleye

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Speaker 1: through your fingers as you gutted it. Well, actually, come

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Speaker 1: to think of it, maybe I'm pretty glad after all

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Speaker 1: that I'm still a little bit different from an octopus

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Speaker 1: in this particular way. However, there's not a day that

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Speaker 1: goes by that I don't wish I had a little

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Speaker 1: extra brain power, let alone maybe seven times the brain power.

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Speaker 1: That's all I've got for you this week. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for listening, and most importantly, let me know

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Speaker 1: what's happening in your neck of the woods by writing

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Speaker 1: in to a s k C A L. That's asked

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Speaker 1: Cal at the Meat Eater dot com. I'll talk to

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Speaker 1: you next week.