By Chad Love

Move over mountain lions, there's a new cat in town, and yesterday it received its own Rhode Island-sized piece of ground to roam in...

From this story on scientificamerican.com: 

Jaguars, the third-largest cats after lions and tigers—and the biggest in the Western Hemisphere—used to live here. During the 18th and 19th centuries they were spotted in Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas. Sometimes the cats roamed as far east as North Carolina and as far north as Colorado. [ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

The brilliant cyberpunk novelist William Gibson may, or may not (it's attributed to him, anyway) have once said, "the future is already here - it's just not evenly distributed yet." Why, you may ask, am I leading off this ostensibly hunting and/or fishing news blog post with a quote from a semi-obscure cult sci-fi novelist? Because the future of game camera technology is here - it's just not evenly distributed, nor is it quite tailored for hunting...yet.

From this story in the Boston Globe:
They are better known as stealthy killing machines to take out suspected terrorists with pinpoint accuracy. But drones are also being put to more benign use in skies across several continents to track endangered wildlife, spot poachers, and chart forest loss. Although it is still the ‘‘dawn of drone ecology,’’ as one innovator calls it, these unmanned aerial vehicles are skimming over Indonesia’s jungle canopy to photograph orangutans, protect rhinos in Nepal, and study invasive aquatic plants in Florida...Relatively cheap, portable, and earth-hugging, the drones fill a gap between satellite and manned aircraft imagery and on-the-ground observations, said Percival Franklin at the University of Florida, which has been developing such drones for more than a decade.

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By David Draper

A rutting buck antelope is ready to go to blows the moment another buck so much as looks at one of the females in his harem. Luckily, that hubris can work in a bowhunter’s favor. Play into his jealousy by popping up a pronghorn decoy nearby, and the buck you’re after might close the distance from 300 yards to 30 faster than you can imagine. When he starts charging, you had better have an arrow nocked.

Find a Spot: Your first job is to locate a secure position. You’ll want to look for terrain with some contours—such as the down-sloping side of a hill or a coulee—that will allow you to get close without being seen. In my experience, an antelope buck responds to decoys best if you can get within 200 to 250 yards. Any farther and he’ll likely gather up his does and run. Get into that hot zone by crawling as close as possible. From this point on, things happen very quickly, so be ready to react.
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By David Draper

When you live in the sticks like I do, it can sometimes take a few years for culture from either coast to reach you. That’s my excuse for not knowing about Meatopia, a carnivorous food fest that has apparently been going on in New York City for the past several years. Normally, I would never encourage anyone to visit NYC, especially in early September when hunting seasons are getting underway, but I’m going to say, if you happen to be free on September 8, this might be one event worth attending.

Meatopia is the work of noted food author, host of Ozersky TV and admitted carnist, Josh Ozersky. The event is just what it sounds like: a celebration of all things meat related with nearly 40 teams of chefs and cooks creating a vast array of dishes, all for sampling. This year, the theme is City of Meat, and Ozersky has broken up the Randall’s Island Park site into eight neighborhoods, including one called the Meatopia County Game Reserve. Here, booths will offer New Yorkers a taste of the wild—or as wild as domesticated game can taste. One of these teams will be made up of active Navy SEAL Team Six members grilling up some venison steaks and marinated tenderloin. Other game dishes on the extensive menu include squab rilletes and smoked duck neck gumbo.
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By David E. Petzal

Although I have no earthly business buying guns anymore, I still surf the Internet looking for interesting stuff, and a little while ago I came across a very fine dangerous-game rifle chambered for the nightmarish .458 Lott. The gun was built by a maker for whose work I have the utmost respect, but what interested me most was the owner’s notation that the rifle had been fired only five times to sight it in.

There is something desperately wrong with that. Oxen and wain ropes would not hale me on a safari with a dangerous-game rifle I had fired only five times. If you are going to mix it up with an animal whose idea of a good time is ramming a horn up your fundament, it’s highly recommended that you be sure your rifle functions, and you can’t make sure of this in five shots. Fifty is a good start.

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By Scott Bestul

To most archers, elk hunting means rutting bulls bugling to estrous cows. But in many states, the archery opener precedes peak breeding by weeks. “You can wait for bulls to start bugling in earnest, but you’ll miss out on a lot of hunting at a time when bulls are comparatively unpressured,” says Chad Schearer, Montana elk expert and host of the popular Shoot Straight TV show. Schearer, a world-­champion elk caller, offers these five tips for arrowing a pre-rut trophy. [ Read Full Post ]