WEBVTT - Ep. 094: Female Hunters 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:13.320 This is me eat podcast coming at you shirtless, severely 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:18.360 bug bitten and in my case, underwear listening podcast. You 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:24.480 can't predict anything presented by first light. Go farther, stay longer. 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:36.280 So Carmen, Uh, what have you been doing? Are you 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:40.519 still a biologist? That's a good question. Really, it's like 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:42.519 up in the air. No, it's not up in there 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.600 at all. That's never been up in the air. But 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:50.559 as usual, I am just still patching things together. And um, 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:54.400 let's see, since I was last year, since you were 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:58.160 last in this studio, in this studio, I spent a 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:05.039 winter um helping on a new project that is happening 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:10.360 in Washington State. It's a big predator prey interaction project. 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:16.160 So I'm already interested. Well. Um, so wolves have been 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:21.880 returning to Washington on their own, walking in um, just 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:27.160 like regular old animals, Just like regular old animals. Not ino, No, 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:29.720 not in the back of trucks. Uh. They have four 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.080 legs and they can travel real far. Can you tell 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:37.600 peop where they're coming from? And my part of the state, 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:41.119 in the Cascades, they're probably coming down from BC, whereas 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.240 over in the northeast of the state they're probably trickling 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.640 over from from Idaho, which are trickling over from the 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:52.440 Yellowstone re interduction right and yeah, or and south from 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:57.360 from Canada. Um Oh, so you think that some so, 0:01:57.600 --> 0:01:59.200 but if you think it's fair to say that if 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:01.600 you took if you look at Washington State, do you 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.320 think it's fair to say that some is definitely fair 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:06.120 to say that some wolds are coming out of Canada 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.760 and would becoming regardless of the Yellowstone work from the nineties. 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:14.000 But is it fair to say that some are coming 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:19.040 from the reintroduction work that happened in Yellowstone in the nineties, 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:23.640 from them going into Idaho and then flowing over into Washington. Yeah. 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.880 So anyway, this has raised questions about what might be 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:32.880 happening to um our ungulate populations. There's a big mule 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:37.200 deer heard in the Cascades in the Menhou Valley where 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:39.600 I live. Um and so that's one of the steady areas. 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:46.040 They're also looking at possible cougar wolf interactions, other interactions 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:48.519 with other like what happens when a wolf and a 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:54.000 cougar get together? Yeah, what happens when they're sharing the landscape? Um? 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.200 And then over there's another study area over in the 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.639 northeast area, and there they've got a lot more white 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:03.040 tail and elk, and so they're looking at interactions with 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:06.360 with um white tail and elk, and then also with 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:10.880 cougars and wolves over there and another smaller carnivores too. 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.520 But to do all this, these animals need collars on. 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:17.359 So UM. Anyway back to what I did this winner, 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.280 I helped put collars on cougars and then we did 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:25.320 a deer capture effort so UM. So that was a 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.800 lot of fun. And then over the summer. Right now, 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.480 how how is she? How you put them on? There? 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.640 This is a good time for that. On what how 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:36.840 you got the collars on the wolves and the cougars. 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.360 The wolves already a lot of them already had have 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.560 callers on. The state does a continual monitoring, so the 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.760 state's putting collars on. There was also some callers left 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.800 over from a project I was on a while ago 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:58.400 out of Washington State University UM looking at wolf predation UM, 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.640 and so there were already some callers on from that 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.880 project as well. So the wolves were that's kind of 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.680 an ongoing thing. UM. The cougars UM. A woman out 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.440 of University of Washington. A PhD student is heading that 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:16.359 up and she's um working in both study areas, and 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.719 there's houndsmen in both study areas. Actually Bart George is 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:25.839 the one from the northeast with that guy. Well, I 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:29.160 haven't um, well, no that's not true. Worked with him 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:33.640 on the deer captures. But all right, I'll tell him 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:41.039 you got you got a problem with him anyway, houndsmen 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:46.160 that were incredible and their dogs that were really incredible 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:50.760 to work with. Um. So they we'd just go out 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.600 when there was um, you know, it was all snowy. 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:58.000 So you're using this snow tracking snowmobiling around looking for 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.520 for cougar tracks. And then and um, if you find 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:06.000 cougar tracks that seem fresh, they load the dogs up. 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:10.680 They had these cool little trailers stowmobile trailers to pull 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:12.640 the dogs out there and set the dogs on them. 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.159 And they would just work and and find those cats 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.440 and tree them and then set up nets around the 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:21.760 tree and and dart. They can really to catch it 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:24.040 because they don't want it to get hurt falling out right, 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.480 So you can set up these huge nets. Well net 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:29.360 isn't quite the right word. It's like a big canvas 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:31.240 thing and it's um, it's two of them, and so 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.920 it's it's around the circumference of the tree. And then 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:38.000 you stretch it out. It's probably a I don't know, 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:40.920 ten or fifteen foot diameter. You've got a clear a 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.520 lot of brush for you string this net, probably if 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:45.520 there's brushing the way. Yeah, and then then you're pulling 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.719 it out and tying it off the trees um and 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:49.720 you're trying to guess, you know, where where it might 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.719 fall and and block any dangerous things like rocks stuff 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.159 like that. Yeah. So anyway, the idea is that the 0:05:56.200 --> 0:06:00.880 cougar falls into the net as it falls. But if 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:04.839 it doesn't, if it gets hung up, then um, the 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.440 w df W biologist who was heading up the capture 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.719 would put on climbing hooks, climb up there and and 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.440 lower the cat down. So but usually it seems like 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:19.200 they fell out. That's easy from there. No, when you 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.240 hit the cougar with the tranquilizes are dark, how long 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:24.040 has it take before he dozes off? As long as 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:25.840 it was a good hitt and it got a good 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:30.039 dose and it got enough I don't know, maybe ten minutes, 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:33.280 ten fifteen minutes, and this whole time the dogs are 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:35.760 just going nuts and you got to restrain those dogs. 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:40.719 He'll tear it at you to restrain them. Yeah yeah yeah. 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:45.120 Is that done by like a rifle? Yeah, tranquilizes a gun, 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:51.720 yeah yeah. Um and then the um So for capturing 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:55.080 mule deer, that was actually really fun. And one of 0:06:55.120 --> 0:07:00.159 the techniques for catching deer is to set up on 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:05.200 their winter range huge um nets, so hundreds of feet 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.880 of nets, um, and you set them up in topography 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:12.680 that might sort of funnel them towards your nets. And 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:19.280 then um people hide in snow forts or whatever little 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.840 fort they can make amongst these nets are kind of 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.120 set up in in in rows and in various places, 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:29.160 so his hiding. Meanwhile, I gotta understand the nets are 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:31.960 laid flat. No, No, they're standing up there probably I 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.640 don't know, ten feet tall and maybe strung together, so 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:36.840 they might be a couple hundred feet. Why they're like 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.880 if you had drift drift nets or something, so you 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:42.560 might have um, sort of layers of them like a 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:46.680 like a stadium going down a drawer or something. So 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.240 you're hiding amongst the nets snow fort, maybe a white 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:54.360 sheet over your head or whatever, and um, meanwhile there 0:07:54.400 --> 0:08:00.280 are helicopters or a helicopter driving around and they they 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:04.520 pick up deer and sort of slowly gently pushed them 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:10.840 towards the nets and the helicopters going and you're in 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:13.640 your fort and you hear the helicopter and your heart 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:15.680 starts beating really fast, and all of a sudden, there's 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:18.560 deer just running right at you. They run into the 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:23.400 nets and you had big giant box. They avoided that. 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.240 They avoided that. It was winter so they didn't have 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:30.040 their antlers. But um, we were just coloring doughs like 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:34.000 you just wanted the dosh. Um. They leap into the net, 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.960 they get stuck, You hop out of your fort and 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:44.920 um spoon them basically. So you you run up and 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.600 you start spooning them. Yeah, you straining up, big spoon, 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:55.080 big spoon, um, and I mean you're latching yourself onto 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.120 the back of the deer. Yeah. So they're they're probably 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.160 kind of down on the ground, you know, tang in 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:02.520 the net, and you come behind them. You don't approach 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.680 from the front, right right, you don't want to get clovered. 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.960 You come from behind and sort of just give them 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:15.720 a big spoon hug thing, uh with your legs as well, 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:17.880 and you want I learned the hard way. You want 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:22.880 your your weight towards the back, um, because otherways they 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:24.760 can get their back feet under them again and they 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:29.640 can buck you. But um it actually I'm making it 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.240 sound harder than it was. No, I don't. I don't 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.600 think they No, I don't get that sense. I mean 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:38.240 it's like it's a strong animal. It's a strong animal. 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:41.800 How how hung up in the fence are they? They 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.360 can get pretty hung up. So you so you spoon them, 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:48.480 you've got them, You're you're grabbing their their legs so 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:52.920 that they're not kicking once you've got it restrained people. 0:09:55.600 --> 0:10:00.480 Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. Yeah, yeah, just sort 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:02.360 of depending on the deer and how worked up they were, 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.080 I guess. So do you have your face just like 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.320 really tucked into the side of like the neck so 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.240 you're not yeah, or kind of in the shoulders so 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.560 you're not getting headbutted. Yeah, and so you're just you're 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:19.000 just yeah, it's like extremely cuddly with with this deer. 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:23.760 How hook in one in one set where we were 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.679 we were, um, they were pulling in small groups of 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:32.400 maybe four four or five deer. Um. But we had 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:34.800 a lot of people and so dar it hit the nets. 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:39.960 Designated tacklers like myself, that was my job tackle the deer. 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.160 Then other biologists come put a face cloth on or 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:45.559 not like an I cover. They just chill right out. 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:48.000 Then right, they chill right out. And if they aren't 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.000 getting calm, and you know, they're monitoring their vitals that 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:54.000 their vitals seem a little higher or whatever, they can 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.199 be tranquilized to just help ease them through that where 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:01.679 your goals are not tranquiliz them. Um, it's a pretty 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:03.720 fast recovery if you don't, you know, because then they're 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:05.720 just going to jump up and hop away. It's pretty 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.920 fast recovery even with this particular drug. But um, it 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.480 was pretty easy to just restrain them really quick, slap 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.120 a collar on, take some measurements, and then they just 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:18.760 go on their way. And what's their attitude when they 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:24.080 jumped back up again? M hmm, bewildered. I don't know. 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.400 It looked like a little like whoa yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:29.160 but then they quickly pull it together and get out 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:37.560 of town. Ye exactly. Yeah. Have has anybody have any 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.600 of that? Have you guys been checking on any interactions 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:44.839 yet there's it too soon. Um. I'm not really a 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:46.880 part of that project right now, so I'm not completely 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:49.040 up to date. But you're just you were part of 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.640 the collaring but not part of the monitoring. So um. 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.240 Well yeah, basically so they as of the end of 0:11:56.360 --> 0:12:00.240 this summer, none of them had died from anything. My 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.720 husband actually almost hit one in his giant work truck, 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:10.199 but almost one, yeah, exactly. Um, but otherwise as of 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:11.959 the end of the summer, they were doing Okay, I 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.440 talked about this before. They did a big collaring study 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:22.040 one time, um up near Juno, and they had a 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:26.280 collard moose I believe it is a moose, not a caribou. 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:32.640 A collared moose fell into a crevass. It was scavenged 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:38.319 by a collard grizzly that fell into the crevasse and 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:43.600 died too. And then those carcasses were scavenged by a 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:50.839 collared wolverine. That's lots of collars, lots of stuff with 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:57.439 collars commingling. Yeah, that's very cool. That's kind of stuff 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.800 you'll be looking for the study. Yeah, but are there 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.439 issues in coloring these deer in because you're you're picking 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:10.640 them up and really like family groups. Right. Well there, Um, 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.480 it's on their winter range, so they're pretty dense on 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.920 the range anyway. But that was one of the reasons 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.560 they were bringing in small groups. They pick off a 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:21.360 couple from a group because we didn't want to get 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:23.880 a bunch of callers in a group that's hanging out. 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:27.600 I had this very I've changed the story slightly because 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.640 I don't want to give away information to anybody, but 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.840 who were having a very hard mule deer season in 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:43.839 Idaho and we all, yeah, and pure curiosity. Everybody knows 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.400 a bunch of biologists and uh. A friend of mine 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:51.719 had called and the information that he got was, there 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:56.440 are only four color deer left in your unit. I 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:00.199 went out the next day and found three colored here 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.040 in one group. I was like, huh, what are the 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.760 odds of that? That's like a thing doing this poorly 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.480 because I found all three in one spot at the 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:13.720 exact same time. But Carmen can speak to this better 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.439 than I can. But that's, you know, the survey strategy 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.400 called mark and recapture. We'll be like, let's say you 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.240 in Karmen craping where I'm wrong or add color to 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.680 this after I exp playing my understanding of mark and recrapture. 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.040 But let's say you have a lake and you're like, 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:32.840 how many while I are in here anyway, okay, and 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:36.440 you're going pull the scene through the thing and catch 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.280 a hunter walleye and put a tag in each walleye, 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:44.480 and then over the course of the weekend, you know, 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.560 guys catch three hundred fish, including ninety walleye with a 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:51.480 tag in them. You'd be like, I have a pretty 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:53.960 good sense of how many wallye. Or in this lake 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.440 where we're catching in a sample size of three hund 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:01.840 we've got the collared ones. Or imagine you you tag 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:04.840 a hundred walleye and then people fish for three years 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.040 and pull hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of wally out 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:08.520 of the lake and no one ever finds one of 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.440 the tag in it. They're like, man, this shipload a 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:15.160 wall in this lake. Sure. So if you know there's 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.040 in the whole unit, right, there's four deer left with 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:21.440 collars and you go find three, I'd be like, amy 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:25.320 deer in this unit, yes, which was based on is 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.000 the case? How's that? Was that a good job? Oh? Yeah, 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.040 that's a good description of that. The only thing I 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:31.280 was going to say is that it might not have 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:33.360 been a Mark re capture that. I mean, there's a 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:38.520 lot of just thinking along the lines of migration corridor. Um, 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.600 how these deer moving. Not all the deer moved from 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.560 one spot through one area to the next spot. So 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:50.080 I was like, it seems odd to me that of 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:54.720 the colored deer left are in this very small little 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.360 hillside that I picked out. I want to clear, I 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:00.920 didn't mean that. I don't want you think I'm a dumbass. 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:03.320 I didn't mean that as Mark catcher. I just meant 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:04.800 like as a way to say, like if I knew 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:08.640 there was four right, yeah, no, yeah, I get what 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.120 you're saying. I don't think you're dumb. I totally follow 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:13.440 that made total sense. I think this is just a 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:17.680 different situation. In my mind, it was probably a different question. 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:19.920 Who knows what the question was that they were putting 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.440 callers out there for. But so, no, they weren't doing 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:28.640 a bad job. I don't know. So because I'm like 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:33.160 trying to follow your career now, um, as a as 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.360 a budding is not the right word, as an up 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:41.240 and coming field biologist. You're right, now, not like you're 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.800 not what are you doing right this second? I mean, 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:46.440 I know you're right right the second, but where are you? 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.680 What are you doing right now? Right now? So? Well, 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:51.920 are you going to be working on another project? Yeah? 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.880 I have another one coming up right now. I'm working 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:59.800 as a baker making coffees for people. And when's your 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:04.200 next project? Come up? In January? Won't be and that's 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:06.280 gonna be another dear, dear thing. I've been doing a 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:10.119 lot of deer things lately. So over the summer I 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:15.840 was doing for the same Predator Prey Project UM coordinating 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:20.520 the capture season for fawns, putting college on fawnds over 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.359 the northeast part of the state as a part of 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:25.960 this to see how what UM fawon survival rate is 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:30.120 over there as a part of this bigger picture predator 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:37.200 Prey project. So did that and then um, yeah, nothing 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:39.760 was was starting up and in the area that I 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:42.880 live right after that, So I've been just working at bakery, 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:47.080 which is great place to be for the fall, and 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:51.080 and then next doing another deer capture project totally different. 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:55.359 This is with UM Department of Transportation because the stretch 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:59.080 of highway that goes through the Mahow Valley apparently has 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:01.760 one of the highest rates of road kill deer in 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.399 the state. So going to be callering deer there and 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:10.000 trying to figure out if there are certain habitat variables 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.840 along stretches of highways where or of that highway where 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:16.840 more deer are getting hit. So they're trying to understand 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:21.600 if there's like some Yeah, it's a habitat study basically 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:25.040 trying to see if we can link clues about the 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:30.480 habitat to hire collision rates on the road. So it'll 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.880 be a state level project. It's just in the Madhouse. 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:37.840 So if you but I'm saying it's conducted by the state. No, 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:43.439 this is Washington State University and Department of Transportation. So like, 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:45.320 what's gonna happen to you in the long Like what's 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.040 gonna what will happen in the long run? As a 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:52.520 biologist in the long run, I'm but you gotta move. Well, 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:54.760 that's the thing that I'm making it hard on myself 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.920 because I love where I live, um and I've worked 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.400 there for so long and on so many different projects 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:07.600 that um, I've gotten pretty um attached to that landscape 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:11.920 and just passionate about it, and that's the landscape in 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:14.800 the wildlife that I want to be working with and 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.120 and trying to improve. Um. My husband has a really 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:20.960 good job there too, so that's a factor. I have 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:24.520 family there, and so I'm I'm making If I wanted 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:26.800 to just move around, which I did quite a bit 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:28.640 when I was younger, Um, it would be a lot 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:32.600 easier to to find a permanent job. But there's you know, 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.680 it's a it's a tiny place. There's no no stoplights 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:38.920 in this valley. It's it's small, so there's not there's 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.280 not a lot of permanent jobs. Yeah, So I'm just 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.760 biding my time until something does come up and just 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:49.000 patching things together. So I'm kind of unusual. And then 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:54.240 I'm almost thirty five and I'm I'm still patching things 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:56.840 together doing field work. But on the other hand, that's 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:59.280 really what I love to do, is is being out 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:03.800 in the field and doing field work. And then what happened, 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.000 because it's the other thing I wanted to check back 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.640 with you in because I'm interested in your in your 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:14.960 beginning to hunt. Mm hmm, Yeah, So what happened there 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:18.040 this year? Yanni said that you said that you had 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:22.760 what how did she say? What'd you say? Long? Argueous, challenging. 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.840 Maybe it was it was a great hunting season, I 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:29.720 mean for home real quick though, this is your what's 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:34.120 hunting season? What? What? Isn't a word? But you get 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.880 what I'm saying. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, um 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:42.479 tenth maybe I think so almost maybe I yeah. So 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:49.680 I started hunting, Um, I started getting really intrigued and interested. Um. 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:52.760 And when I was doing my undergrad at humblest State 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:56.399 University in wildlife. Um, I didn't grow up in a 0:20:56.480 --> 0:21:01.600 hunting family. UM, did some fishing with my grandpa. Whatever. 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.360 You then you're going to be a biologist? Yeah, yeah, 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:09.360 I've always known. Yeah, I was in school for wildlife 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.439 biology and I always wanted to do that. Um, So 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:17.280 I was already, um, you know, grew up camping and 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:19.919 backpacking in the out of doors and grew up in 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.080 a rural area and so, UM, I knew I loved 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:26.480 being outside and all that, and I was doing wildlife 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:29.560 work and I, um, yeah, I don't know, it's just 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:31.800 something about it got me and I wanted to start hunting, 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:35.760 and so I just did it. And I took my 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:42.679 hunter safety and where safety on Bambridge Island, Washington in 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:48.960 the Sportsman clubhouse. Um did that and I went. My 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:53.440 first hunting trip was with a family friend in northern 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:58.000 California and the Trinity alps Um and he had been 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:03.960 backup I'm getting not lost, but close to it. So 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:06.840 you're going to school down in northern California, in big 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:11.080 dope smoking country down to home. So you're like, hey, man, 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:12.400 I'd like to get into it. I'd like to get 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:16.280 involved in this hunting. Yeah. So you wind up out 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:19.800 on Bainbridge Island. Sorry, yeah, that is confusing safety. Yeah, 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:23.520 that was the closest place. No, I'm I'm from Washington 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:26.359 over in that area. That was. Yeah, So I was 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:29.720 just it was a convenient time location to take it. 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:33.400 You're living on on Bainbridge Island, but it was near 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:35.520 to where my parents live. I was, I don't know, 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:37.440 home on a break or something like that. So you're 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:40.520 taking a ferry to go do hunter safety. There's a 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:43.560 bridge ocase you're coming from the peninsula side. Yeah. Yeah, 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:47.080 we just had a guest down from Bainbridge. Yeah. The 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:52.240 writer John Mullam heard him. Just check them out. Um, okay, 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:55.200 so I get it now. Yeah, so I was picture, 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:57.440 you're taking a ferry from somewhere to go to hunter Safe, 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:01.720 you're coming from You're coming from the Olympic Price actin anyway. 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:04.879 So I got that and and yeah, I lined up 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:08.679 this trip with UM in California. Back down in California 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:12.679 with a family friend who had been packing. His family 0:23:12.720 --> 0:23:15.679 had been packing into this particular spot for I don't know, 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:22.040 like fifty years or something. UM, and I was the 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:25.639 first woman and I think the only one since to 0:23:25.680 --> 0:23:30.920 ever go to that to that him on the trip. Yeah, Um, 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:34.080 so it was. And that's not by design. I'm guessing 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:36.440 that's just by the fact the only ten percent of 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:40.720 the hunters in America are women. Yeah, basically, No, it 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:45.240 wasn't like no girls allowed, inevitable sign no no on 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:48.919 the clubhouse door. No, Hey, there are a lot of 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:52.199 signs on a lot of clubhouse doors. That's true. I 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:53.800 was at a thing this year. I was at a 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.800 thing this year where like no girls allowed for real 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:02.199 hunting hunting thing. I'm leave it there. Sometimes you know 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:05.280 signs that aren't there, but you can tell they're there, 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:08.960 And there's sometimes just signs that are there. Now, not 0:24:09.040 --> 0:24:11.520 that I condone it's easier for me to understand that 0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:15.320 the signs not there, but it's understood. But it strikes 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:18.080 me as really strange when the sign is there. That's 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:21.679 pretty ballsy in this day and age. Do you think 0:24:22.240 --> 0:24:25.840 in a situation where women come and knocking that want 0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:33.879 please let me read the sign? That's weird. So what 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:36.880 happens on this trip? First and last, first and last 0:24:36.920 --> 0:24:39.679 girl to ever come with these guys. Yeah, yeah, it 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:44.119 was the first time they ever got skunked? Man? Really, 0:24:44.880 --> 0:24:47.600 did they draw a connection? No? But it has always 0:24:47.600 --> 0:24:51.760 haunted me, you know, because you're here. You know, back 0:24:51.800 --> 0:24:53.840 in the old days, no women allowed on the ships 0:24:53.840 --> 0:24:56.399 and stuff like that, So I've always worried that maybe, 0:24:59.440 --> 0:25:02.240 you know, somebody might have How many people were on 0:25:02.359 --> 0:25:05.000