wildlife

The 30 Best Field & Stream Reader Photos of May 2011

Online Editors — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:45:32 -0400

Each month our readers send us hundreds of great photos of the fish they've caught, the game they've killed, the sights they've seen, and the unusual events they've witnessed while enjoying the great outdoors. And each month, our editor's look through all the entries to pick their favorites. These 30 shots are the ones we liked the most out of all the great images submitted to our Trophy Room in May. Check them out, then enter yours!

Photo Gallery: Stalking a Hartebeest

fieldandstream-editor — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:00:00 -0500

First Shot Wallpaper: Down Time

fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 04:20:00 -0500

Down Time: "Max is kind of a goofball--every once in a while, he'd snap at a feather going by," says Don Banducci, whose springer spaniel had to be at the center of this marathon plucking session after a Saskatchewan goose hunt last October. Banducci and his friends have made a tradition of the big annual bird cleaning. "We bring some lawn chairs and some six-packs and go to it. And we'll toss the dogs the livers and hearts, so they're pretty interested."

Click here to check out more of Denver's photos on his web site, www.denverbryan.com

Click here for a 1024 x 768 sized photo (fits 1024 x 768 monitor resolutions)

Click here for an 800 x 600 sized photo (fits 800 x 600 monitor resolutions

Instructions for downloading wallpaper (Windows users):
1.) Click on either 800 X 600 or 1024 X 768 to open the resolution you prefer.

2.) Right-click on the opened image. You may then choose to download the image, or select "Save As Wallpaper" (or "Set picture as...," "Set as Wallpaper," or "Set as Desktop item," depending on your system.)

3.) If you chose "Save As Wallpaper," you're finished! If you chose to download the image, go to your "Control Panel," select "Background," and browse to locate and select the downloaded image.

Instructions for downloading wallpaper (Mac users):
1.) Click on either 800 X 600 or 1024 X 768 to open the resolution you prefer.

2.) With your mouse on the opened image, hold down the mouse key until a menu appears, then choose

3.) "Download Image to Disk," select a folder, and save.

4.) Under the Apple menu, open "Control Panels," then "Appearance."

5.) Under "Appearance," open "Desktop," then "Place Picture." Browse to the folder in which you saved the image and select the image. Click "Open" and choose "Set Desktop."

New Photos from Dusan Smetana

fieldandstream-editor — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 04:10:00 -0500

Outdoors photographer Dusan Smetana was raised in a small village in the Carpathian Mountains, where he spent his boyhood following in the footsteps of his father in a quest for trout, red deer and wild boar.Â¿Â¿

He studied both forestry and photography in Presov, Slovakia.Â¿Â¿ Mesmerized by stories of cowboys and Indians in the American Wild West, he eventually escaped the Communist regime of his homeland andÂ¿Â¿ today makes his home in Montana.

View this photo gallery by clicking here.

Exclusive Interview: H. Dale Hall, Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

fieldandstream-editor — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 04:05:00 -0500

F&S:Should hunters be expecting more or less access to public land?
Hall: One of my concerns is the future of hunting and the ability to recruit young hunters. With the cost of leases going up, public lands become extremely important, and we need to do everything possible to open up all opportunities for hunting so that we can make sure that it's not an elite sport 50 years from now.

F&S: On that topic of hunter recruitment, what can be done at the federal level?
Hall: Our role is to work with the major hunting and fishing organizations, and arms, ammunition, and fishing tackle manufacturers, and also with the state game and fish agencies. It's critical to reach the next generation and have them understand the aspects of hunting that go beyond shooting a gun. To a lot of people, the outdoors is a cathedral; it's their place to commune. Hunting is just one avenue for that to happen, but it's one that we can't afford to lose. If we get young people interested in hunting, then we can preserve more natural habitat in the United States.

F&S: As you assumed the directorship, what was No. 1 on your agenda?
Hall: I have priority issues in each of our programs. For example, in fisheries, the National Fisheries Habitat Initiative is super important to us. In endangered species, finding some clarity and consistency in how we approach the law and getting some better definitions. In refuges, getting some better guidance out on our policies to make sure that we give every opportunity to hunters and fishermen.

But the most important thing that I'll want to do is to strengthen our roots in conservation. The Fish and Wildlife Service for over 130 years has been a conservation organization. And I really appreciate the hunters and fishermen of the United States as being staunch conservationists. We are where we are today because of them. They're the only group I've known to ask to be taxed so that they can contribute to natural resources. They started off asking for the duck stamp, then they asked for sport fish and wildlife restoration programs that now generate up to $700 million a year.

F&S: What's a typical hunting season like for you?
Hall: Well, it fluctuates, but let's go through the fall of '04. I started off dove season in Arizona having those little birds embarrass me. Then I had a wonderful duck hunting trip in Oklahoma. My favorite way to hunt ducks is to wade out about waist-deep and behind a tree, put the decoys out there. After that I went quail hunting in New Mexico. Actually right before that I killed a 274-pound wild boar. The last thing was an elk hunt. Now, I scheduled three turkey hunts in there that got cancelled because of business. But this past September, I killed an oryx down on the White Sands Missile Range. Then in October I went pheasant hunting in South Dakota.

F&S: Not a bad year. What do you enjoy the most?
Hall: I just love duck hunting in bottomland hardwoods.

F&S: Anyone you'd like to hunt or fish with?
Hall: Chuck Yeager. He epitomizes for me the roll-up-your-sleeves-and-earn-your-way-through attitude.

The Interview Outtakes
When we spoke with Dale Hall a few months after he'd been named head of the USFWS, we couldn't fit all of his comments into our March 2006 issue. Here's the balance of that interview.

F&S: What do you think the Federal Government's role should be in the containment of CWD?
Hall: Well, we've been fairly involved with the International Associaation of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, which is the representative group of all the state game and fish agencies. Since the deer, elk, and other animals that tend to be impacted by CWD are really state species, our role is to support each state in any way that we can. How they'd like us to work with them varies from state to state, but we're there to assist them in managing issues within the states that are under their jurisdiction.

F&S: How high is the issue of exploding wolf populations on the USFWS' priority list?
Hall: It's very high on our list. We were extremely disappointed with the Oregon decision where we were moving to down-list and de-list certain populations of the gray wolf, and turn it over to the management of the state where it should be when populations are healthy. That court case stopped all of that, which means that we have to continue to work even harder with the states in the interim to reach a solution.

Finding the proper balance between predator-prey relationships is really important. When you've had a species in the environment that for a long time didn't have one of its predators, then we reintroduce that predator, there has to be a new equilibrium that is reached between predator and prey. If we can't manage and control the predator populations, the prey populations are the first to suffer. So we're very concerned about that, and we're working in every way that we can with the states to get that under control.

F&S:On a related issue, do you see wolves and grizzly bears coming off the endangered species list?
Hall: Well, for the grizzly bear we have proposed a re-classification to make Yellowstone a distinct population segment and to propose its de-listing. And to me, that sends a very positive message that by working in cooperation with all of the groups that were involved in the Yellowstone experience, we can reach a point in the future where we can take the bear completely off the list. I'm optimistic that we can do that. And I'm optimistic about the wolf for the same reasons.

F&S: Growing up hunting and fishing in Kentucky, did you always set out to make a career out of your love of the outdoors?
Hall: You know, no I didn't. After I got out of the air force and went back to college, I was actually pre-dental-I was going to be a dentist. And along the way I took a fisheries course, and realized that that's what I really wanted to do, and I shifted. And I think that it was my background and foundation in the rural environment I grew up in that subliminally told me that that's what I would be happy doing, and it wasn't wrong. I've absolutely enjoyed my entire career.

F&S: Are your kids growing up into outdoorsmen?
Hall: Oh yes, they're pretty outdoorsy. I have 2 daughters and a son. My son probably is-it's kind of hard for me to accept-but he might be more fanatical about hunting and fishing than I am. My daughters enjoy going outdoors, they enjoy fishing, they haven't grasped hunting so much, but they appreciate hunting. And they sure like to eat the game.

It's Time to Hunt Wolves

fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 04:10:00 -0500

A FUNDAMENTAL ASSERTION in support of wolf reintroduction-the almost constantly repeated claim that no documented case exists in North America of a fatal wolf attack on a human being in more than a century-was refuted, tragically, last month.

On the evening of November 8th, two hours after he went for a walk, alone, the torn body of twenty-two-year old Kenton Joel Carnegie, an Ontario geological engineering student completing a work-study program with a mining company in northern Saskatchewan, was found by his co-workers, surrounded by wolf tracks. Autopsy results confirmed animal bites as the cause of death. In the same area, less than a year earlier, another man fought off an unprovoked attack by a healthy wolf, suffering serious injuries. This has shattered the myth of the retiring, no-threat-to-people wolf.

Between 1990 and 2000, almost two-dozen instances of wolf aggression toward humans were officially recorded, including obvious attempts to kill and eat a person. With growing numbers of wolves in the Lower 48, widespread benign misconceptions about their predatory nature, a decline in the species they prey on due to their own highly efficient hunting, and no hunting programs for them as yet in place, such incidents can only continue, if not increase. A hunter or anyone outdoors in wolf country should be aware that any wolf he encounters, that does not immediately turn and run, isn't merely curious or wanting to be petted, but is eyeing him the way a famished ten-year-old eyes a Big Mac.

Past wolf coverage from Field & Stream
Is it Time to Hunt Wolves? (April '01)
http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/fieldnotesnews/article/0,13199,548552,00.html

Return of the Wolf (June '05)
http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/columnists/article/0,13199,575850,00.html

Night of the Wolf (November '00)
http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/columnists/article/0,13199,365973,00.html

Think we should be hunting wolves? Take the poll found near the bottom of our home page and let us know. We'll run your responses in our March 2005 issue.

You can also send us your thoughtson this issue by typing them in the field below.