Wildlife Management

On November 5th, Colorado voters delivered a victory for science-based wildlife management by rejecting Proposition 127, which sought to ban mountain lion hunting. But this wasn’t just about mountain lions; it was an attempt to politicize wildlife management and shift control from scientists to...

It’s not “weights in fish,” but it’s pretty close. A 27-year-old Arkansas man named Andrew Riels has been cited by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) for poaching a buck and then entering it into a big buck contest. Louisiana officials first got a tip from the Arkansas Game...

Colorado voters have rejected by a wide margin a ballot measure that would have banned mountain lion hunting in the state. Only 72% of the vote has been reported as of Wednesday morning, but the current 11-point spread is wide enough that the New York Times and local media have declared victory for...

An elk hunter is lucky to be alive today after he was forced to use his own hunting rifle to defend himself from an adult grizzly in a remote portion of eastern Idaho. Dylyn Carter, 27, told MeatEater that he didn't doubt the bear's intentions when it appeared in front of him just a few yards away...

A Washington State man will spend nearly four years in federal lockup and be forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and restitution for hunting bald and golden eagles and selling their feathers on the black market. Travis John Branson, 49, of Cusick, Washington, pleaded guilty in...

Halloween is bat season. And tequila season. And the two are connected. Whether you take it straight up, in a margarita, or, like Danielle Prewett, use it to flavor your turkey tacos, if you enjoy tequila, you are in debt to a bat. Hunters and anglers understand that the earth is the source of all...

In less than a week, Colorado residents–nearly all of whom have no wildlife management training–will head to the ballot box to determine whether or not the trusted professionals of Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) may continue to use hunting as a method to manage mountain lion and bobcat...

Three juveniles and one adult have been charged in what law enforcement is calling a “senseless” and “indiscriminate” poaching spree that took place over the course of a year and resulted in over 100 deer being shot and killed. In addition to the reckless killing, the suspects are also being charged...

*Editor’s note: The man in this article—Andrew Johnson—called MeatEater a week after this story was originally published to clarify several points. The mountain lion attacked his 11-year-old dog, not the other way around, as the CPW press release implied. The “campground” the incident occurred in...

The echoes of Ancient Rome continue in our government, engineering, and the way we count Super Bowls. But Romans also sparked a less savory phenomenon: fake hunting. Today, “canned” hunts for captive animals are regarded as violations of fair chase principles. But not so in ancient Rome, where...

A Pennsylvania father and his two adult sons are being accused of poaching dozens of trophy bucks over several years, according to law enforcement officers with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Carl Nelson III, 70, Carroll Nelson IV, 44, and Mark Nelson, 40, have been hit with 71 charges for...

A 19-year-old duck hunter in Wisconsin shot and killed a wolf last weekend as several other of the wild canines surrounded him and his hunting partners. Chase Melton told local outlet WJFW that he and his friends had set up their blind and decoys at a spot near St. Germain and were waiting for the...