From the Teton Valley News
An 11-year-old boy killed a bear at point-blank range last Wednesday night after it wouldn’t leave his family’s porch. The boy was at home with his younger sisters and after seeing the bear on the front porch and not being able to get it to leave, the boy retrieved a gun and killed the animal.

Fish and Game Conservation Officer Doug Peterson said the black bear had been a problem in the area. . . .

The boy and his family are not in any trouble, and Peterson said he issued them a permit to keep the bear. [ Read Full Post ]

Just back from a wild adventure in the Everglades with my buddy Al Keller.  We not only caught the backcountry slam--tarpon, snook and redfish--from kayaks... I also came away with what has to be the greatest camp meal of all time.  

Fresh-caught snook fillets, slow-grilled over a smoky buttonwood fire (the wood is key).  A little olive oil, salt, pepper, and at the very end, a spritz from a fresh key lime.  

Serve with a side of rice (boil-in-bag rice is a staple on any camping trip), and some dried mango.  

Cold beer and hot sauce optional. 

This displaces my former number one greatest camp meal of all time... fresh elk backstrap, grilled medium rare over an aspen fire... with potatoes, and a nice full-bodied cabernet.

Which replaced my other favorite... fresh yellowfin tuna sushi, shaved thin shashimi style, drizzled with sea water (forget the soy sauce)... accompanied with cool watermelon slices and Coca-Cola from a glass bottle.

(Can you tell I like to eat about as much as I like catching fish?)

I'm telling you... the snook trumps all.  Not only is Keller the "fishin' magician," he's a chef.  

So what earns your vote... [ Read Full Post ]

So say you're stuck in the woods, the temperature's dropping fast and you need shelter and fire, quickly. There are trees all around but you have neither saw nor axe. All you have is your knife. It's not even a big Rambo-inspired, serrated-edge survival sword with a picatinny rail, but a twelve-dollar plastic-handled mora with a little four-inch blade. Hey, no problem.

I admit, I'm a knife junkie just like the rest of you. Customs, semi-customs, high-end production models, even plain-jane knives speak to us with their seductive blend of form and function and we respond by purchasing them without regard to reason or budget.

But in terms of absolute bang-for-buck, is there anything out there to compare to the lowly mora? These simple, inexpensive wonders aren't made of the latest super steel, they aren't a quarter-inch thick and there's nary a tactical, special ops-inspired doodad on them anywhere. They just work when you need them to. If you shop around you can find them for about the same price as a super-sized extra-value meal. And if you want to make your... [ Read Full Post ]

On Tuesday, October 27, two coyotes mauled 19-year-old Taylor Mitchell on a hiking trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia, Canada.  Although Mitchell was hiking alone when the daylight attack occurred, two nearby hikers heard the commotion and called 911. Officers responded in time to shoot one of the coyotes.  Airlifted to a Halifax hospital, Mitchell died of her injuries the next day.

Mitchell, a 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award nominee, leaves behind grieving family and fans, a shocked wildlife community, and a public wondering whether coyotes are animals to fear.

The consensus among wildlife professionals is that a fatal coyote attack on a human is a freak occurrence. “If I had to guess what animal would be responsible for a fatal attack in eastern Canada I would have guessed black bear, never coyote,” says Mike O’Brien, the Nova Scotia DNR’s Manager of Wildlife Resources. O’Brien says coyotes first appeared in Nova Scotia in the 1970s, and there have been very few attacks on humans since that time. Incidentally, eastern Canada’s coyotes are significantly larger than their western relatives, often weighing well over 40 pounds, perhaps due to interbreeding with wolves.

“It’s very abnormal,” says Ron Andrews, Iowa DNR Fur Resource... [ Read Full Post ]

What would it take for you to summon Search and Rescue? Lost for a day? Mauled by a bear? Fell out of your treestand? How about, tasted some salty water?

From the Associated Press:
Last month two men and their teenage sons tackled one of the world's most unforgiving summertime hikes: the Grand Canyon's parched and searing Royal Arch Loop. Along with bedrolls and freeze-dried food, the inexperienced backpackers carried a personal locator beacon — just in case.

In the span of three days, the group pushed the panic button three times, mobilizing helicopters for dangerous, lifesaving rescues inside the steep canyon walls.

What was that emergency? The water they had found to quench their thirst "tasted salty. . . .”

Because would-be adventurers can send GPS coordinates to rescuers with the touch of a button, some are exploring terrain they do not have the experience, knowledge or endurance to tackle.

Rescue officials are deciding whether to start keeping statistics on the problem, but the incidents have become so frequent that the head of California's Search and Rescue operation has a name for the devices: Yuppie 911.

Check out the full article and tell us your reaction. [ Read Full Post ]

Sometimes you read something that - to be perfectly honest - leaves you feeling hopeless and doomed. Something so depressing it makes you want to throw up your hands, shout "to hell with it all!" and head straight to the nearest bar. Something like this, from the LA Times.
 
The latest figures from Nielsen have children's TV usage at an eight-year high. Children's health advocates warn of adverse effects.
 
More than an entire day -- that's how long children sit in front of the television in an average week, according to new findings released Monday by Nielsen.

The amount of television usage by children reached an eight-year high, with kids ages 2 to 5 watching the screen for more than 32 hours a week on average and those ages 6 to 11 watching more than 28 hours. The analysis, based on the fourth quarter of 2008, measured children's consumption of live and recorded TV, as well as VCR and game console usage.

"They're using all the technology available in their households," said Patricia McDonough, Nielsen's senior vice president of insights, analysis and policy. "They're using the DVD, they're on the Internet. They're not giving up any media --... [ Read Full Post ]

From The Modesto Bee:

A study published this month in the Journal of Mammalogy shows bears break into minivans more often than any other vehicle. The study suggests minivans often are owned by families with children who spill food and drinks.

And, quite often, there's a stash of food in the vehicle.

"In my own family, we have a minivan and we have two children, so I understand how food gets into the vehicle," said Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman. "But it's not just food that attracts the bears. It's the odors, too."

[ Read Full Post ]

Earlier this week, Chad Love blogged about a 6-Year-Old Cub Scout who was suspended from school for bringing a folding camping utensil to the cafeteria to eat his lunch. If you missed it, click here. This time it’s an Eagle Scout and a 2-inch knife that never left his car.

From Albany, New York’s WTEN News:

There's a reason 17-year-old Matthew Whalen is smiling after all the attention his suspension is getting.

The military academy he's wanted to attend since first grade has told Matthew not to worry.

[ Read Full Post ]

From the Appeal Democrat:

A . . . bear turned the tables Monday on an 83-year-old hunting party member in the Tahoe National Forest near Camptonville, severely mauling the man's arm and shoulder, authorities said. . . .

The victim, Orval Sanders . . . and six other men were hunting with dogs near Alleghany in Sierra County when they treed three bears. One of three bears came down from the tree after being shot and attacked Sanders. . . .

Another member of the party shot the bear in the head, killing it, he said.

  [ Read Full Post ]

Courtesy of Joe Cermele, I got to read “Patriots, a novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse,” by James Wesley, Rawles (no, I don’t have a clue why he uses a comma). It is not so much a novel as a series of survival scenarios and lots of information pertaining to same, strung together loosely by a sort of story line. Mr. Comma Rawles is a survivalist, runs a blog (SurvivalBlog.com) which is full of fascinating intel, and, despite his limitations as a writer, has put together a long and very interesting book.

The USA, it seems, has suffered a cataclysmic economic collapse (his description of this will not help you sleep better at night.) and, as Tommy Lee Jones said, “Anarchies will reign!” A group of survivalists who have seen this coming forts up to survive the breakdown of society, and each is required to buy four firearms. They can get whatever else they like, but they have to have these four:

A Ruger 10/22

A Model 1911 (any make) in .45 ACP

A Remington 870 modified for combat

An AR-15 in .223 for the women, or an H&K Model 91 in .308... [ Read Full Post ]

From PoliceNewsLink.com:

Two Houston men [were] swept by waves into the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Brazos River [Sunday], officials said.

The men. . . are ages 28 and 30 and were last seen by an uncle wade-fishing near the mouth of the river. . . .

Coast Guard crews recovered the body of one of two fishermen . . . between 7 and 8 p.m. Sunday. . . . His identity is pending an autopsy. [ Read Full Post ]

OK, I have to admit that I sometimes (sometimes, I said...) found the "Jackass" guys amusing. It was only an occasional lapse, and I soon recovered. But of all the innumerable "Jackass" spin-offs, the weirdest one had to be  "Wildboyz" with Jackass alums Steve-O and Chris Pontius.
 
In a nutshell, the show featured these two nitwits traveling the world perpetrating Jackass-like stunts on various and sundry members of the animal kingdom. The only problem is, wild and dangerous animals have neither a well-developed sense of humor nor much tolerance for being the butt of a joke.

Just ask the lions in this clip:

On a purely juvenile, reactionary level, yeah, it's kind of  amusing, and a perfect example of the mindless and purely visual nature of modern entertainment.
 
But here's the question no one seems to  ask: what would have happened if those lions (or for that matter any other  animal featured in these videos) had been deadly serious? How many  professional hunters with guns were standing around to make sure things  didn't get out of hand? And if things did... [ Read Full Post ]