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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 man, has been fired from his job after

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Speaker 2: he says he saved a moose calf from a black bear.

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Speaker 2: Thanks to everyone who sent me this story. British Columbia

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Speaker 2: resident Mark Skage told the Canadian Broadcasting Company that he

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Speaker 2: was traveling in the northern part of the province when

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Speaker 2: he noticed the female calf alone on the side of

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Speaker 2: the road. He says he didn't see an adult moose

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Speaker 2: anywhere in the area, and the calf was nearly hit

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Speaker 2: by several cars. Skage decided to pull over and try

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Speaker 2: to scare the moose off the highway, but when he

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Speaker 2: opened his car door, the moose trotted up and hopped in.

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Speaker 2: Was this baby moose on a whirlwind hitchhiking tour to

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Speaker 2: escape her overbearing parents and find her true self? Maybe?

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Speaker 2: Probably not. Skage says he saw black bear about fifty

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Speaker 2: yards off the road, and the moose apparently decided that

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Speaker 2: the strange man in the metal machine looked safer than

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Speaker 2: the predator in the woods. Kind of a devil you

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Speaker 2: don't know is better than the devil you do scenario. Anyway,

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Speaker 2: Skage waited another few minutes for the mother moose to

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Speaker 2: show up, but eventually decided to keep driving and give

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Speaker 2: the BC Conservation Officer service a call. He took a

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Speaker 2: video of the moose riding shotgun, and she looked surprisingly calm,

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Speaker 2: almost like she'd been waiting her entire life to break

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Speaker 2: away from her small town existence, spread her wings and

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Speaker 2: learn how to fly. But her Kelly Clarkson fantasy was

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Speaker 2: not to be. Skage transferred the caf to conservation officers

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Speaker 2: and she was taken to a rehab facility several days later.

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Speaker 2: Skage said he knows that it's usually best to let

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Speaker 2: nature take its course, but he doesn't regret his decision. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: his employer, AfD Petroleum, Inc. Didn't see it that way,

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Speaker 2: they said in a statement quote. Instead of reporting the

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Speaker 2: situation to a conservation officer, the individual made the independent

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Speaker 2: decision to transport an uninjured moose a wild animal in

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Speaker 2: the front seat of his company vehicle for many hours.

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Speaker 2: This not only put the employee and other road users

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Speaker 2: at risk, but also potentially cause distress and harm to

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Speaker 2: the moose. Skage was fired from his job and may

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Speaker 2: have to pay a fine pending a Conservation service investigation,

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Speaker 2: but he still maintains that he did the right thing.

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Speaker 1: I'll admit I didn't sit there for half an hour

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Speaker 1: going over every scenario.

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Speaker 2: Who led upset or I just went you came for help.

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Speaker 1: I gotta give you help now.

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Speaker 2: Making the mistake of helping the calf moose is very human.

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Speaker 2: But the big question is should he have been fired

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Speaker 2: for doing this right calf moose freaks out in the

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Speaker 2: cockpit of the big rig and sends it kreening off

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Speaker 2: the road. You know, certainly an argument there. Let me

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Speaker 2: know what you think at askcl at the meat Eater.

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Speaker 2: This week we've got pandemic Arkansas access win and survey says.

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Speaker 2: But first I'm going to tell you about my week.

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Speaker 2: In My week was real interesting. Old Chat and I

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Speaker 2: put the hurt on the walleye in the morning, after

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Speaker 2: a spirited debate of whether or not we'd regret not

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Speaker 2: taking an additional five minutes that morning to purchase nightcrawlers,

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Speaker 2: we found ourselves with nobody else around consistently putting fourteen

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Speaker 2: inch walleyes on ice. I've mentioned these folks before, but

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Speaker 2: a Colorado company called Biobait makes a bunch of fantastic,

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Speaker 2: fully biodegradable spbs or soft plastic baits, only they're not plastic,

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Speaker 2: and the walters were hammering them, mostly in the earth

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Speaker 2: tone three to four inch swim bait category. Then, after

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Speaker 2: cleaning the catch and the boat, I rounded up some

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Speaker 2: friends and family and met the crew of a C

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Speaker 2: one thirty j gunship when they landed here in Bozeman.

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Speaker 2: A friend I met through backcountry hunters and anglers, his

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Speaker 2: son is actually one of the pilots. They invited myself

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Speaker 2: and filled the engineer. I got to bring my sister

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Speaker 2: and brother in law and the niece and nephew over

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Speaker 2: super fun four forty six hundred horsepower turboprop engines, one

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Speaker 2: hundred and five millimeter howitzer, a thirty millimeter cannon, hell

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Speaker 2: fire missiles, laser guided bombs, one hundred and seventy five

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Speaker 2: thousand pound max payload, which by the way, is the

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Speaker 2: equivalent of roughly thirty five f one P fifty trucks.

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Speaker 2: And on top of all that, just the sweetest crew

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Speaker 2: you could ever imagine, which is really awesome. On top

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Speaker 2: of being hunters and anglers, these guys took almost two

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Speaker 2: hours at the end of a ten hour day to

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Speaker 2: answer a bunch of questions and corral little kids as

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Speaker 2: they crawled through and on everything in the ship. Super cool,

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Speaker 2: Very proud to have guys like that around for a

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Speaker 2: lot of reasons. Thank you, guys. A couple of fun

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Speaker 2: facts for you. That thirty millimeter cannon can fire high

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Speaker 2: explosive rounds which are about the equivalent to a hand

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Speaker 2: grenade two hundred times a minute. Actually more than that,

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Speaker 2: but the barrel will melt down. And the C one

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Speaker 2: thirty j is the home to the only flying one

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Speaker 2: hundred and five millimeter field artillery piece, which launches fifty

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Speaker 2: five pound shells, the recoil of which moves the plane

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Speaker 2: ten feet, and they can fire six to eight rounds

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Speaker 2: per minute. It's just wild to think about, it really is, Fellas.

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Speaker 2: If you're listening, we'll get some fishing in next year.

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Speaker 2: On top of that, if you are dying of heat

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Speaker 2: and escaping by dreaming of ducks, flying geese, honking cranes,

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Speaker 2: and snows faint on cold morning breezes, snort, and I

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Speaker 2: are right there with you. It's officially too hot right now.

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Speaker 2: If you want to transport yourself away to Magic Fall scene,

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Speaker 2: we're gonna help you do that by dropping some of

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Speaker 2: the brand new twenty twenty three first Light Waterfowl line

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Speaker 2: on the website here shortly and shortly after that, we'll

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Speaker 2: be using the stuff. It's gonna be great. Oh. You

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Speaker 2: know what I should say here is it hasn't happened yet,

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Speaker 2: but you will be hearing this on the back end

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Speaker 2: of the Ohio Muster in the Marsh event for Ohio

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Speaker 2: backcountry hunters and anglers. So I'll just say, hey, thanks

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Speaker 2: for attending, showing up, rallying for conservation, spending some hard

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Speaker 2: earned cash, the great conversations, and you know, hopefully some

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Speaker 2: big old smallmouth pass or something like that. Anyway, moving

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Speaker 2: on to the Pandemic Desk. It's been a while since

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Speaker 2: we had an update over at the Pandemic Desk, but

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Speaker 2: listener and biologist Brian Peterson wrote in to tell me

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Speaker 2: about a new study that sheds light on one of

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Speaker 2: our favorite questions from the past few years. Can deer

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Speaker 2: spread COVID to humans? The study published last week in

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Speaker 2: the journal Nature Communications, analyzed eighty eight hundred and thirty

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Speaker 2: samples collected from wild whitetailed deer across twenty six states

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Speaker 2: and Washington, d c. They concluded that humans transmitted COVID

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Speaker 2: to deer at least one hundred and nine times, and

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Speaker 2: deer transmitted COVID back to humans at least three times.

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Speaker 2: They reached these conclusions by analyzing the strains of the

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Speaker 2: COVID virus found in these samples and comparing them to

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Speaker 2: publicly reported samples from databases of human infections around the world.

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Speaker 2: Scientists clarified in a press release that whitetail deer do

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Speaker 2: not play a major role in spreading the virus to humans,

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Speaker 2: but they still want to study deer because they worried

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Speaker 2: that the animals could act as reservoirs for the disease.

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Speaker 2: They found that while the omicron variant overwhelmed other variants

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Speaker 2: in the human population, older versions of the COVID virus

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Speaker 2: remained active in whitetail that would be the alpha, gamma,

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Speaker 2: and delta variants you may remember from the early days.

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Speaker 2: Further study will be necessary to determine whether this could

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Speaker 2: result in a resurgence of COVID down the road. It's

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Speaker 2: also worth pointing out that none of the three people

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Speaker 2: who caught COVID from deer said they had any interaction

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Speaker 2: with whitetail. The studies' authors say they weren't able to

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Speaker 2: speculate exactly how that transmission occurred. In other deer disease

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Speaker 2: related news, biologists at the University of Wisconsin Madison believed

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Speaker 2: that TICS could be spreading chronic wasting disease among deer

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Speaker 2: in the Badger State. This study was published in the

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Speaker 2: journal Scientific Reports, and it concluded that TICS can harbor

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Speaker 2: transmissible amounts of the protein particle that causes CWD. Biologists

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Speaker 2: analyzed tics in a lab as well as in the

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Speaker 2: wild and found that in gorged tics harvested from whitetail

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Speaker 2: in Wisconsin carry enough CWD preons to infect other deer.

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Speaker 2: One scientist described the tics as little CWD tic tax

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Speaker 2: than that cute and horrifying by the way. Deer may

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Speaker 2: contract the disease from tics because they engage in something

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Speaker 2: called alo grooming, also called social grooming. This is a

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Speaker 2: behavior in which young high school students in the bleachers

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Speaker 2: and social animals clean or maintain one another's body or appearance.

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Speaker 2: For deer, this means cleaning each other in hard to

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Speaker 2: reach places and biting insects from one another's hides. It

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Speaker 2: is theoretically possible that a white tail could contract CWD

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Speaker 2: from another deer by eating the ticks off its body.

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Speaker 2: I say theoretically because this study did not investigate this hypothesis.

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Speaker 2: It only confirmed that ticks contain enough cwdpreons to infect

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Speaker 2: a deer, not that CWD is actually spread this way. Still,

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Speaker 2: if this theory proves to be true, tick suppression techniques

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Speaker 2: could be another arrow in the CWD mitigation quiver. In

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Speaker 2: that battle, we need all the arrows we can get.

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Speaker 2: Thanks to listener Ryan van Landet for sending this one.

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Speaker 2: In moving on to the public land desk, the Arkansas

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Speaker 2: Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Angler's notched a big win

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Speaker 2: last week with the land purchase that increased access for

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Speaker 2: hunters in the state. Board members Brad Green and Scott

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Speaker 2: Knight led the effort to develop a relationship with the

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Speaker 2: landowner and eventually purchased one acre of land. That single

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Speaker 2: acre surrounds a road and gives the public access to

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Speaker 2: one hundred and three acres of the Cedar Creek Wildlife

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Speaker 2: Management Area. The purchase also gives the public another access

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Speaker 2: point to over one hundred and fifty thousand acres of

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Speaker 2: the Muddy Creek Wildlife Management Area, a cooperatively managed portion

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Speaker 2: of the Wachidah National Forest. After purchasing the acre, the

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Speaker 2: Arkansas BHA will donate it to the Arkansas Game and

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Speaker 2: Fish Commission, which will oversee its management. Prior to this purchase,

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Speaker 2: the public could only access the Cedar Creek WMA by

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Speaker 2: the Muddy Creek WMA to the south. That's a serious hike,

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Speaker 2: and it made accessing Cedar Creek difficult. The current landowner

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Speaker 2: had allowed access through his property on the northern border

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Speaker 2: of the WMA, but previous landowners had not been so friendly.

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Speaker 2: Because the WMA lacked any permanent legal access, hunters and

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Speaker 2: anglers were forced to rely on the good graces of

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Speaker 2: whoever happened to own that particular property. As we've covered

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Speaker 2: on this podcast many times before, relying on land owners

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Speaker 2: for access to hunting ground is a dangerous proposition. Property

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Speaker 2: changes ownership all the time, and someone's personal financial trouble

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Speaker 2: can mean hundreds of outdoor folks can no longer access

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Speaker 2: their favorite hunting and fishing spots. Arkansas hunters don't have

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Speaker 2: to worry about that anymore, at least not on the

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Speaker 2: Cedar Creek. WMA BHA Arkansas Chapter board member James Brandenburg said, quote,

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Speaker 2: our chapter is grateful for the opportunity to partner with

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Speaker 2: a willing seller in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

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Speaker 2: Securing this access shows what is possible when we put

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Speaker 2: our minds to solving access problems here in Arkansas. Nice work,

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Speaker 2: Arkansas BHA. That's amazing, It's a dream. Well done. Now

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Speaker 2: get out there and enjoy that land you already own.

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Speaker 2: Moving on to the waterfall desk. Waterfowl seasons are still

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Speaker 2: a long way off in the US, but duck hunting

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Speaker 2: is at top of mine. In the Australian state of Victoria,

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Speaker 2: decades long campaign to ban duck hunting has grown so

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Speaker 2: strong that the province's trade labor unions are threatening to

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Speaker 2: strike if the government bans the sport. Thanks to listener

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Speaker 2: Stu Davis for sending us this story. Yahoo News reported

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Speaker 2: that the Electrical trade union state Secretary Troy Gray all

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Speaker 2: but guarantee to strike. Get it tattooed on your arm.

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Speaker 2: It's gonna happen. It is not a message, it is

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Speaker 2: not a threat. It's going to happen. How's that for

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Speaker 2: a quote. Other trade unions for transport workers, plumbers, and

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Speaker 2: construction workers also said their members are upset about the

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Speaker 2: ban and will stand behind them if they choose to strike.

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Speaker 2: A mass walkout would shut down infrastructure project across the

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Speaker 2: state and would likely be a disaster for the Labor Party,

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Speaker 2: which currently controls the state government. Of course, it's not

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Speaker 2: a great sign when you have to rely on labor

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Speaker 2: unions to fight battles for hunting rights and public access.

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Speaker 2: The campaign to ban duck hunting in Victoria began all

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Speaker 2: the way back in the nineteen eighties. The number of

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Speaker 2: duck hunters has decreased significantly in recent years, and in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, only eleven, five hundred and forty nine

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Speaker 2: hunters took part in the season that stretches from March

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Speaker 2: to July. Meanwhile, sixty six percent of the public opposed

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Speaker 2: duck hunting, and animal rights groups have grown more powerful

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Speaker 2: in state government. None of this is good news for

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Speaker 2: the duck hunting community in Victoria, and they have even

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Speaker 2: more reason to be concerned. Last year, the government decided

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Speaker 2: to shorten the season and decrease the bag limit to

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Speaker 2: just four birds. Government officials described this decision as a

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Speaker 2: quote precautionary approach. They cited concerns about wounding ducks, poor

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Speaker 2: behavior by some hunters, and supposed long term decline of

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Speaker 2: water bird abundance. Wounded ducks are the primary way animal

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Speaker 2: rights groups have changed public opinion about duck hunting. They

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Speaker 2: travel to wetlands during the hunting season and supposedly rescued

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Speaker 2: wounded ducks. They also bring duck carcasses into Melbourne and

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Speaker 2: use them in street demonstrations in front of Parliament. They

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Speaker 2: get lots of media attention for stunts like this, and

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Speaker 2: their tactics are working. We'll see if the labor unions

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Speaker 2: have enough clout to ward off this year's ban, But

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Speaker 2: I don't think anyone is hopeful about the long term

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Speaker 2: future of waterfowl hunting in Australia, which is a real bummer.

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Speaker 2: But these labor unions could also bring ducks into downtown

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Speaker 2: Melbourne along with barbecue grills. That, my friends, is the

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Speaker 2: most effective way to convince people that duck hunting is

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Speaker 2: a good thing. That and pointing out the loads and

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Speaker 2: loads of poop on public property. Good luck down under

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Speaker 2: waiting on my invite. If I can get snort down there,

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Speaker 2: it'd be a guarantee. Moving on to the survey desk,

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Speaker 2: speaking of public support for hunting, the Outdoor Stewards of

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Speaker 2: Conservation Foundation released a survey earlier this month that contained

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Speaker 2: some concerning trendsfer hunters here in the US. It found

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Speaker 2: that seventy seven percent of Americans approve of legal hunting.

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Speaker 2: That's a four percent decline since twenty twenty one, when

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Speaker 2: eighty one percent of Americans said they either strongly or

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Speaker 2: moderately approve of the sport. However, contrary to some of

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Speaker 2: the coverage you may have seen, this year's mark isn't

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Speaker 2: outside the historical average lower percentages of Americans voice support

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Speaker 2: for hunting in nineteen ninety five, two thousand and three,

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Speaker 2: and twenty eleven. This survey has been conducted ten times

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Speaker 2: since nineteen ninety five, and the average approval rating is

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Speaker 2: seventy seven percent, so exactly what it was this year.

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Speaker 2: What's more, eighty six percent of US residents agreed that

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Speaker 2: regardless of their opinion on hunting, it is okay for

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Speaker 2: others to hunt if it is done in accordance with

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Speaker 2: laws and regulations. Only nine percent disagreed that doesn't mean

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Speaker 2: everything is hunky dory. While approving numbers are down a bit,

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Speaker 2: disapproval numbers are about one and a half points above average.

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Speaker 2: Seventeen percent of Americans said they either strongly or moderately

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Speaker 2: disapproved of legal hunting, which is higher than the average

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Speaker 2: of fifteen point six percent since nineteen ninety five. The

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Speaker 2: survey also showed a drop in support for some of

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Speaker 2: the most common reasons hunters go out into the field.

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Speaker 2: Approval of hunting quote for the meat drop from eighty

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Speaker 2: four to seventy five percent between twenty twenty one and

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Speaker 2: this year. Approval for hunting for wildlife management dropped by

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Speaker 2: five points, and approval for hunting to protect humans from

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Speaker 2: harm drop by seven points. To protect humans from harm,

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Speaker 2: for wildlife management, and for meat are the top three

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Speaker 2: most approved reasons for hunting. I won't bore you with

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Speaker 2: a full rundown of all the data. It's super interesting,

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Speaker 2: but you can look it up for yourself. In an

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Speaker 2: article by Eli Fournier at the Meat Eater dot com,

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Speaker 2: I'll leave you with just a few interesting observations. Deer, turkey, rabbits,

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Speaker 2: and ducks top the list of species that Americans are

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Speaker 2: okay with being hunted, while elephants, lions, and cougars are

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Speaker 2: at the bottom. Strangely, Americans voice to higher approval for

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Speaker 2: hunting black bears than hunting mourning doves, which throws a

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Speaker 2: wrench in the idea that we care more about animals

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Speaker 2: with eyelashes. Sixty four percent of the survey respondents said

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Speaker 2: they consider themselves conservationists, but only fifty five percent of

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Speaker 2: non hunters said they'd ever taken trash that wasn't theirs

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Speaker 2: out of the woods. Among hunters, anglers, shooters, and trappers,

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Speaker 2: on the other hand, eighty percent said they'd picked up

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Speaker 2: someone else's trash and disposed of it themselves. Good work everyone,

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Speaker 2: That's what I like to hear. Don't stop working, you

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Speaker 2: got plenty to do. Moving on to the overseas desk.

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Speaker 2: While Australia considers a band on duck hunting, some folks

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Speaker 2: in the United Kingdom think it's time to start eating

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Speaker 2: more venison. There are more deer on the Bridge Isles

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Speaker 2: than at any point in history, according to experts who

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Speaker 2: spoke with the English newspaper I News between native species

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Speaker 2: such as red deer and invasive species like muntjack. Biologists

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Speaker 2: believe there are over two million deer on the islands.

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Speaker 2: To put that in perspective, Oregon, which is just a

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Speaker 2: little larger than the UK, only has about four hundred

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Speaker 2: thousand deer. Virginia, another place biologists say is overrun with deer,

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Speaker 2: has less than one million. While some deer species are

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Speaker 2: a natural part of the UK's ecosystem, too many deer

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Speaker 2: can threaten woodland landscapes without any natural predators. These populations

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Speaker 2: have grown out of control, which is why about three

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand deer are called every year. Even

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Speaker 2: though three hundred and fifty thousand animals is a lot,

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Speaker 2: it's still not enough, so the Forestry Commission and the

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Speaker 2: government are working on a solution. Right now, it doesn't

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Speaker 2: make economic sense for grocery stores and butchers to stock venison.

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Speaker 2: The health and safety standards are too high. Most venison

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Speaker 2: sales are direct to consumer through specialist butchers and restaurants.

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Speaker 2: But DEFRA that's the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,

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Speaker 2: recently announced a new industry standard known as quote wild

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Speaker 2: Venison Quality Assurance Scheme. This new health standard is safe

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Speaker 2: for consumers, but it will help big grocery stores more

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Speaker 2: easily stock wild British venison. The government also has some

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Speaker 2: pr work to do. Grocery stores can stock all the

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Speaker 2: venison they want, but if the public still believes venison

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Speaker 2: tastes harsh and gamey, they'll still have a dear problem.

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Speaker 2: Changing public opinion can be even more difficult than changing

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Speaker 2: government regulations, but right now it looks like the British

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Speaker 2: government doesn't have much choice. Moving on to the snake desk,

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Speaker 2: a group of python hunters in Florida just bagged what

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Speaker 2: some say is the longest Burmese python ever captured in

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Speaker 2: the US. The giant female snake clocked in at nineteen

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Speaker 2: feet and weighed one hundred and twenty five pounds. The

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Speaker 2: previous record was eighteen feet nine inches. Twenty two year

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Speaker 2: old Jake Wallery found the snake in the Big Cypress

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Speaker 2: National Preserve, and like any self respecting twenty two year old,

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Speaker 2: he made sure someone filmed the catch and posted it

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Speaker 2: to social media. If you want to check it out

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Speaker 2: for yourself, search Glades Boys Python Adventures on the Old Instagram.

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Speaker 2: Here's Jake describing what happened that night.

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Speaker 3: And then around one o'clock in the morning, we stumbled

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Speaker 3: upon this giant snake that I thought was just a

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Speaker 3: good sized snake of first, maybe ten feet, and then

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Speaker 3: we cruised up real close to it and I realized

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Speaker 3: it was an absolute monster. And we wrestled this thing

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Speaker 3: for about three minutes before I got a hold of

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Speaker 3: the head. It was a fight, and it was a

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Speaker 3: good one, definitely want to remember.

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Speaker 2: Jake and his crew are donating the snake to the

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Speaker 2: Conservancy of Southwest Florida so biologists there can learn more

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Speaker 2: about the python population in the Florida Everglades. The invasive

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Speaker 2: species is a huge problem in the area, and despite

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Speaker 2: the best efforts of python hunters, biologists believed the population

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Speaker 2: is not only stable but growing. Still can't hurt to

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Speaker 2: get this giant female off the landscape. The average Burmese

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Speaker 2: python lays about fifty eggs, but they can lay as

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Speaker 2: many as one hundred in a single clutch. In fact,

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Speaker 2: another python record was set in Florida this month when

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Speaker 2: a snake was captured in the Everglades with the nest

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Speaker 2: containing one hundred and eleven eggs. The capture was carried

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Speaker 2: out by a contractor working for the state's Python Action

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Speaker 2: Team Removing Invasive Constrictors, or Patrick for short. If you'd

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Speaker 2: like to catch a record breaking Python of your own,

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Speaker 2: there may be some money in it. The twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: three Florida Python Challenge is running from August fourth to

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Speaker 2: August thirteen, and cash prizes are going to the folks

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Speaker 2: who remove the most snakes from the Everglades and for

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Speaker 2: the longest snake cot To register, just search Florida Python

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Speaker 2: Challenge on the old Google machine. That's all I got

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Speaker 2: for you this week. Thank you so much for listening,

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Speaker 2: and remember to write in to ask cl that's Asscal

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Speaker 2: at the meat Eat dot com and let me know

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Speaker 2: what's going on in your neck of the woods. On

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Speaker 2: top of that, hit up www dot steel Dealers dot

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00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:10,160
Speaker 2: com to find a local, knowledgeable steel dealer near you.

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00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:12,040
Speaker 2: They're gonna get you set up with what you need

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Speaker 2: and they're not gonna 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.