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The MeatEater Podcast
Ep. 834: Dr. Crayfish, Fox Collars, and Blue Tarps | MeatEater Radio Live!
01:09:12
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- [00:00]
Maggie Hudlow
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:09]
Phil
Smell us now, lady.
- [00:11]
Spencer Newhall
Welcome to meat eater trivia.
- [00:13]
Dr. Zach Graham
Meat eater podcast.
- [00:31]
Spencer Newhall
Welcome to Meat Eater radio live. It's 11am Mountain Time. That's 7pm for our Olympians listening in Italy on Thursday, February 12th. And we're live from Meat Eater HQ in Bozeman. I'm your host, Spencer, joined today by Seth and Maggie. On today's show, we'll interview Dr. Zach Graham about some of the world's rarest crayfish. Then we'll have a hot tip off about wall tents and duck breasts, followed by an interview with Emily Davis about collaring predators and the Grand Tetons. And finally set and Maggie will compete in meat eaters prices. Right. But first, Maggie Hudlow, our director of web content has a few important updates for us out of Minnesota and Florida. Maggie, the floor is yours. Where are we starting, Minnesota or Florida?
- [01:16]
Maggie Hudlow
Let's kick it off with Florida. Okay, so anglers, health advocates and First Amendment advocates are all fighting against a provision that's in Senate Bill 290 and House Bill 433. And what this provision does is it expands on existing food libel laws, which basically were set in place to protect perishable goods from being, you know, spoken poorly against to. It was a protection for agriculture.
- [01:52]
Spencer Newhall
Okay.
- [01:52]
Maggie Hudlow
And so now what's happening is that this is being expanded to cover non perishable perishable goods, agricultural practices, and it throws on one way, attorney fees. So sort of what could happen with this is if you are like an influencer and you make a post about how you don't like glyphosate on your food, okay, you could be sued by whatever ag company for making a claim about this if you don't have like scientific studies that you're citing. So it, it sets this tone of like not wanting public critique and conversation. It's sort of this like muzzling of public input.
- [02:40]
Spencer Newhall
And how does this affect hunters and anglers though, in Florida?
- [02:44]
Maggie Hudlow
So the organization Captain for Clean Waters has been sort of battling against Big Sugar. That's, you know, it's ag, but it's an industry. And they've, there's been studies that were released, I believe in 2022 that directly correlated Big Sugar with Lake Okeechobee, the red algae blooms that were coming from that. And you know, these Florida captains were seeing this. The algae Bloom started in 2018. But they were, you know, they were raising the alarm for this in 2018. But if they didn't have that study, they could have been sued. They would have had to pay all of the attorney fees for the defendant and the plaintiff. So it's just like it would remove the ability to have those conversations to bring up that kind of stuff because people would be so afraid of the legal fees and just, you know, the hassle of being taken to court for. Yeah, using your First Amendment right already.
- [03:48]
Spencer Newhall
A challenging thing to do even when there's not the threat of legal action like that. And so this just makes it even more crippling for hunters and anglers and conservationists in Florida. Maggie has covered this story very well on the meat eater.com she recently had an article, florida bill threatens public advocacy for land, Water and Wildlife. Where does this bill stand right now?
- [04:10]
Maggie Hudlow
So, yeah, read that because that's a better overview than what I just gave you right now. But currently the. The Senate stripped the provision, but it still exists in the House bill. So orgs like Captains for Clean Water are keeping the hammer down, keeping the pressure on, hoping to get that provision removed from the House version of the bill as well. So it's good progress, but the fight's not over on that yet.
- [04:40]
Spencer Newhall
Okay. You'll see more updates, you know, on our website, the mediator.com you'll hear them on this podcast. Then we also have a new social channel called Meat Eater News that is meant to cover things just like this. So hunters and anglers are just more informed in general. All right, let's talk about Minnesota. What's going on there?
- [04:57]
Maggie Hudlow
Yeah, the. The vote on the Boundary Waters, HJR140 has been delayed in the Senate until February 23rd. I think everybody here is probably pretty well versed on what's happening in the Boundary Waters. You know, no one. No one here wants to see the mining happen there. But the reason that was delayed is because people are raising their voices. They're being heard. That's why this was paused. You know, if you don't live in Minnesota, if you don't live in Florida, like, these issues impact everyone because they set a tone. You know, if. If this bill gets passed in Florida, it could easily be copycatted for passing the same thing in a mining setting where it's like, okay, we're doing this and you can't speak out against it. If this. Oh, my gosh, I'm blanking on what it is. The Congressional. Sorry, I'm having a brain fart.
- [06:04]
Spencer Newhall
You were making the observation before we turn on the mics, there are two unrelated bills that are very related.
- [06:09]
Maggie Hudlow
Yes.
- [06:09]
Spencer Newhall
Especially right now in this, like, time and moment.
- [06:12]
Maggie Hudlow
Yes. And. And it impacts conservationists across the country. And the more that we can have this, like, unified voice, the better we chance we have at protecting these wild places. Even if it's not your home, even if you don't recreate there often, like, raise your voice because it could be in your backyard next time.
- [06:34]
Spencer Newhall
Yeah, a lot of ways to stay updated on this. One of the best that I found is BHA emails. It seems like the minute something happens or is about to happen, if there are rumors circulating that seem to have some legs, they will send out an email and tell you what's going on and how you can act on behalf of yourself and fellow hunters and anglers and conservationists. So BHA newsletter is a great thing to watch again, as well as the meat eater news theme, eater.com and our future news podcast that's coming in about a month from now. All right. Joining us on the line first is ecologist Dr. Zach Graham. He's here to talk to us about his new book called Crayfish Crawfish Crawdad the Biology and Conservation of North America's favorite crustaceans. Dr. Graham, welcome to the show.
- [07:21]
Dr. Zach Graham
How you doing? Yeah, thank you all for having me. Very excited to be here. Talk about these animals.
- [07:26]
Spencer Newhall
Thanks for joining us. Our first question, what do you call them? Crayfish, crawfish, crawdads, or something else?
- [07:33]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, I call them crayfish. Generally, it's kind of like a regional dialect. So I'm from the Northeast, I'm from Pennsylvania. And so most people around Pennsylvania are calling them crayfish.
- [07:43]
Spencer Newhall
Okay. We, we've talked about on the show in the past how when you hear coyote versus coyote, hunters tend to call them coyotes, non hunters tend to call them coyotes. Is there anything like that when it comes to crayfish? Like what, what does that tell you about a person? But when you hear them call it a crayfish versus crawfish versus crawdad.
- [08:05]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, it tells you a little bit about where they're from because it's kind of like a regional dialect, whether you call them crayfish, crawfish, or crawdad. The other thing, you know, there's kind of like a saying with, among crayfish biologists where we say if you're studying them, you call them crayfish. So like, the scientists call them crayfish. If you are eating them, you call them crawfish. And if you're fishing with them, you call them crawdads. So sometimes makes sense. Or calling them different names based on their interaction with them. But Most scientists will call them crayfish.
- [08:38]
Spencer Newhall
And we are looking at a heat map here of what parts of the country call them different things. The hottest spots on that map look like deep south. Louisiana calls them crawfish. And then like the Minnesota, Wisconsin border crayfish. Part of Pennsylvania is hot for crayfish. And then the pnw, it looks like they prefer crawdad. A very interesting visual you can see on The Mediator Podcast YouTube channel during this interview. Dr. Graham, about 70% of the world's 600ish crayfish species are found in the United States. What is it about these animals that make them so uniquely American?
- [09:19]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, so this is something that's really cool is that crayfish are kind of like an American group of animals. There's crayfish around the world, but most of them are in the eastern United States. And so the reason that primarily as we think, is that the eastern United States has amazing freshwater biodiversity, primarily because of the Appalachian Mountains, which are very, very old, hundreds of millions of years old, even compared to the Rocky Mountains, which are surprisingly relatively new, even though they're much higher. So it all has to do with the development of the Appalachian Mountains over hundreds of millions of years. That's split up waterways and led to a lot of really unique freshwater biodiversity.
- [10:01]
Spencer Newhall
Love that. All right, let's talk about some of the more unique species of crayfish. Tell us about some of the varieties that spend most of their life on land.
- [10:09]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, these are some of my favorite, because when we think about these animals, the crayfish or the crawfish, you think about them living in water like a lake or a creek or something like that. But there's a lot, about 30% of crayfish species that they're called burrowing species. And what they do is they essentially live on land, but then they dig down deep into the mud until they hit the water. So they're kind of like terrestrial animals. They live on land, but they dig down to the water and they make these little chimneys. We call them. They're called chimneys. Very common throughout the Midwest and the Southeast. You're seeing these little of piles of mud. And that's what the crayfish are doing, is that they're going down, getting a little pile of mud and then putting it at the very top of their burrow. And then they live down there pretty much their entire life. And most people never get to see one. But they're really unique.
- [11:03]
Spencer Newhall
Are there any other animals that use those chimneys that they make, or is that. That's exclusively for those burrowing crayfish.
- [11:10]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, so they build it for themselves, but it essentially is like a nice little climate controlled environment. And so tons of animals love to kind of hijack the burrow or use it after the crayfish passes away. So snakes, frogs, salamanders, there's a lot of animals that like to use these burrows.
- [11:32]
Seth Morris
Dr. Graham, I got a question for you. Are those crayfish that are making those burrows, are they coming out to feed at like certain times, like at night or something? Or are they just like in there all the time?
- [11:45]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah. So the kind of general consensus is that most of them are feeding down in the burrow, feeding on little bugs that are crawling into their burrow, feeding on the root matter of the plants. Some of them, though, we have observed and studied how they sit at the very top of their burrow and they'll wait for like a slug or a spider or a snail to crawl around and then they'll pounce on it. So they kind of do. They kind of sit at the top and wait as a predator, but then they also probably forage in the immediate area, but they almost never are found, like out in the open.
- [12:22]
Spencer Newhall
Tell us about some of the species that live in caves.
- [12:26]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, so crayfish live in streams, creeks, these burrows that I'm talking about. And then they can also live in caves. And so cave adapted crayfish, they're completely translucent and white. They often have no eyes whatsoever. And they live in caves. And adapted to these caves, they can be found throughout Appalachia, primarily throughout Kentucky, Tennessee. Alabama has cave species. The one photographed here is called a spider cave crayfish from Florida. They're very small and they kind of look like spiders. They're about an inch long. So very unique adaptations and very unique kind of form that they come in.
- [13:10]
Spencer Newhall
Yeah, I think when most folks picture a crayfish, they envision one that's red and like 4 inches long. But you know better than anybody that they come in all sizes and colors. Tell us about some of the crayfish species that break the mold and might be really big or really small or very colorful.
- [13:26]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, so crayfish are very diverse. They're not just this boring brown or red bug that many people think they are. They can be at adult size, absolutely massive. So maybe you have all seen Jeremy Wade go to Tasmania and find the giant freshwater lobster. That's a crayfish. So that's the type of crayfish and they can get, you know, absolutely massive. Whoa. Two, three feet in Length. Oh, goodness, they're huge. They can also be really small. And so there's this group called the dwarf crayfishes, where they kind of max out at about an inch. So, you know, they come in all shapes and sizes. And then you also asked about the colors. They can be wildly colorful. They can be almost any color that you can imagine. Reds are very common. Blues are very common. Oranges, reds kind of everything in between. They're. They're very beautiful. Many of them aren't appreciated for their beauty, but, you know, this is what a lot of the work that I try to do is to teach people about how cool and unique they are.
- [14:32]
Spencer Newhall
You mentioned the three footers in Tasmania. What are the biggest ones that we have in the United States?
- [14:38]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, I would say that the biggest species, they're called bottle brush crayfishes. It's one of the images that you showed a few slides back. But they're these really big ones that are like the size of a big textbook, so, you know, maybe 10 inches or so long. And they can be found in only a few streams throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Pretty rare, but quite large species. They only live under massive rocks that are like the size of your car hood.
- [15:13]
Spencer Newhall
Damn. Now, it's estimated that about one third of the world's crayfish species are at risk of extinction. What are their top threats in the United States?
- [15:24]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah. So many of these crayfish, they require a clean, nice environment to thrive. And so anytime that gets disturbed, you know, there's some issues for the crayfish, whether it be local extractive industries like mining, timber industries that can kind of clog up the streams nearby. There's also a lot of invasive crayfish. So I know you all probably talk and know about invasive fish that are brought in, travel around the world because humans put them there. The exact same deal has happened for crayfish. So invasive crayfish actually hurt native crayfish populations in many cases. So there's a lot of threats that they face.
- [16:08]
Spencer Newhall
Dr. Graham, somebody who's watching this live in the chat asked a question about heavy metals that are found in crayfish. We always talk about mercury levels in fish that we catch and eat. Is that something we need to worry about with crustaceans like the crayfish?
- [16:24]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, it's less well studied in crayfish. It is well studied in smaller, other aquatic invertebrates like stone flies and mayflies. And so that's what people, you know, try to mimic flies for fly fishing. But presumably, the exact same thing is happening with the crayfish, where they're kind of absorbing it through their environment and consuming it throughout their environment as well.
- [16:49]
Seth Morris
Dr. Graham, I got. I got another question for the states up north and, like, you know, eastern state states that get snow and ice once those lakes and rivers freeze, what are the crayfish doing that time of year?
- [17:04]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, so crayfish are kind of like, most dominant in these types of temperate areas that have pretty serious winters. And what they do is they just burrow. So even the species that live in the stream, they'll dig down maybe six inches or one foot beneath the frost line, and they will kind of do like, a little hibernation, more or less is one of the best ways to put it. They'll sit there and just wait out until it's warmer and there's food available for them.
- [17:33]
Seth Morris
And is it a water temperature thing that makes them do that, or, you know, and if. If so, what is that water temperature generally?
- [17:40]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, it's. It's probably a lot. It's probably a lot of factors. I wouldn't know the exact water temperature that they will start to do that, but I know, you know, in the northeast, for example, or really anywhere that's temperate, once it starts hitting, you know, air temperatures of 40 degrees or so, the crayfish in the water, whatever the correlated water temperature would be, they start to be less active.
- [18:07]
Seth Morris
Gotcha.
- [18:08]
Spencer Newhall
Our listeners like to catch and cook crayfish, so give them some tips, as a doctor who has studied crayfish behavior, on how we can catch more of them.
- [18:18]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah, I think some of the best tips that I would have are to put your traps. Most people are going to throw out traps with, you know, really any type of bait works. The smellier the better, though. I've used chicken livers and bacon and have great success with that. You need to put those traps out, though, wherever there's habitat. And so the crayfish like to hide under rocks and in little crevices and under logs. So you need to put it where there's a lot of habitat. And also, if you get it during a specific time of year, look up when the crayfish around you are breeding. Once you get the breeding males, those are the ones with the biggest tails that are, you know, the best eating, Essentially, in many cases, those ones, you know, you want to look at when those are coming out. So it depends on where you're at.
- [19:06]
Spencer Newhall
Okay, good notes. Now, our listeners also like to imitate crayfish when they're fishing for bass and trout. Give us some Tips on how we can make those presentations look super lifelike. Yeah.
- [19:19]
Dr. Zach Graham
Well, the crayfish, they're typically on the bottom of whatever body of water you're fishing. And obviously they're, you know, living on the stream bed or the riverbed. And so it's hard to kind of present a lure that stays down there where the crayfish normally reside. But what I often would suggest people to do is what crayfish will do is they'll also do something called a tail flip escape response. If you've ever tried to catch a crayfish with your hand in a creek, you know that they dart backwards, and it's like one very quick movement. And so you can try to mimic that by doing, you know, specific type of jigging where you just, you know, yank on your bait a little bit or your lure to try to mimic that, and that can sometimes trigger the fish to go after them.
- [20:05]
Seth Morris
Do you find that, let's say, a smallmouth, when he's feeding, if he sees a crayfish with one claw, is he happy, or is it. Or does it not matter to them?
- [20:16]
Dr. Zach Graham
It does not matter that much. I've seen, but they will. I have seen bass when I'm snorkeling, for example, and I catch a crayfish, they'll come up and take the claws off and just eat those. Oh, really? Yeah, I've seen that a few times. Like, they'll follow you around if you're catching crayfish, the bass will follow you around. Because I often snorkel, so I'm underwater with them, and it's really amazing. But, yeah, I think they'd probably prefer to not have the claws, but I don't think it bothers.
- [20:45]
Seth Morris
Yeah, there's been times when I've been using baits that mimic crayfish that I'll, like, cut one of the claws off just to make it seem like it's different. Yeah, it's just safer. Yeah, a little safer to eat.
- [20:57]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah. I don't. I don't think they mind too much, but, you know, that'd be something really interesting to look into.
- [21:03]
Spencer Newhall
Our listeners have one more question that I want to call out. They want to know if Dr. Crayfish eats crayfish.
- [21:09]
Dr. Zach Graham
So, funnily enough, I am deathly allergic.
- [21:12]
Spencer Newhall
Whoa.
- [21:14]
Dr. Zach Graham
I cannot have snail fish. Yeah. It is a plot twist. I spend my entire life and day thinking about them. But if they get in my mouth, my throat swells, and I will go to the hospital.
- [21:25]
Spencer Newhall
Okay.
- [21:25]
Dr. Zach Graham
So I do not eat them, but I condone eating Them. I cook them for my friends when we go camping and whatnot. So it's a great way to kind of learn about them. For sure.
- [21:36]
Spencer Newhall
That's a good threat. I like that they have that power over you that they could kill you if they just make it in your mouth.
- [21:43]
Dr. Zach Graham
It's very ironic. I think it's kind of meant to be.
- [21:46]
Spencer Newhall
All right. Dr. Graham's crayfish. Crawfish crawdad dropped last month, and it's available wherever books are sold. Dr. Graham, thanks for joining us.
- [21:53]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yep. Thank you all. Appreciate it.
- [21:54]
Seth Morris
Thanks, Dr. Graham.
- [21:55]
Maggie Hudlow
Thanks.
- [21:56]
Spencer Newhall
Before the show, Seth was telling me about a theory he has on a certain body of water where he thinks the crayfish are making the walleye fishery much better that time of year. Tell us about. You don't have to tell us the body of water.
- [22:09]
Seth Morris
Yeah, no, I just. I just found certain times a year when the water hits a certain temp, these fish are staging on rock. And I got to thinking and I got to doing some research and found out that, like around here, that same water temp that I'm finding where these fish are staging is like, potentially the same water temp where crayfish are coming out of hibernation.
- [22:31]
Spencer Newhall
Okay.
- [22:31]
Seth Morris
So that made me think that maybe that's why these bigger walleye are. Are staging on these rock. On this rock to target crayfish coming out. So I don't know if that's accurate or not, but I feel like it is.
- [22:43]
Spencer Newhall
I bought my first crayfish fly last summer. Did not catch a trout on it, but I sure tried a lot of trout. Looked at it, and they thought, now that guy's an idiot. He has no idea.
- [22:53]
Seth Morris
Cut a claw off of it.
- [22:55]
Spencer Newhall
I will next time.
- [22:56]
Maggie Hudlow
There. I want to know. I want to know why bottom feeders are so delicious. Crayfish, crabs, lobsters, carp, burbot. Yeah, this is something. I was doing some research. There's. I wasn't satisfied.
- [23:12]
Spencer Newhall
Research by tasting them.
- [23:13]
Maggie Hudlow
Tasting and. And actual, like, Google Googling.
- [23:17]
Spencer Newhall
Sure.
- [23:18]
Maggie Hudlow
But I want to know why all.
- [23:20]
Spencer Newhall
Of our listeners now are going to be better at catching crayfish and catching fish that eat crayfish.
- [23:26]
Narrator (iHeartRadio Winter Games Promo)
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- [23:58]
Spencer Newhall
All right, our next segment is hot tip off. Let's all do a hot tip. H o t T I P r let's all do a hot deb Hot tip off is where two listeners go head to head with competing pieces of advice. And after we hear each tip, we'll declare which one is hotter. If you have a hot tip, take a one minute video on your phone and email it to radio themed eater.com with the subject line hot tip off. This week It's Austin Rines versus Mark de Groot and they are competing for a 100 meat eater store gift card. Take it away, Phil.
- [24:41]
Phil
Mark de Groot.
- [24:46]
Mark de Groot
Hey, meat eater. Coming at you today with a hot tip off. My hot tip is to use a carport instead of a wall tent. I picked up a carport on clearance for 150 bucks and we brought it into the shop here and we did some retrofits to it. We permanently connected some of the joints. We labeled and made quick attach fasteners for the other joints did using bolts and wing nuts and some of the pieces of pipe. We eliminated them all together and replaced them with some PVC conduit to make.
- [25:17]
Dr. Zach Graham
It a lot lighter.
- [25:19]
Mark de Groot
So now we take a carport up to bear camp with us every year and in about 15 minutes, we've got the whole thing thrown up and installed. It's rigid, strong. It's a good place to keep our gear nice and dry. And sometimes it's just a good place to get away from the mosquitoes. So that's my hot tip, is to use a carport instead of a wall tent.
- [25:47]
Maggie Hudlow
That's pretty sweet.
- [25:48]
Phil
Austin rhymes.
- [25:52]
Austin Rines
Hey, meat eater crew. This is Austin from Arkansas and I got a hot tip for y'.
- [25:57]
Mark de Groot
All.
- [25:57]
Austin Rines
I'm preparing some goose for this weekend that we killed this season. I got some cubed up right here that we're gonna put on some kebabs. And then I got some whole breast that I'm gonna pan sear and roast in the oven with some potatoes and some carrots and stuff. And man, I just love to leave the skin on my goose. My duck, it just makes it more flavorful, more moist. You get a little crisp on there. I just think it's all together better. The only problem you run into is you get all these. These pin feathers on here. I mean, and they are just a headache to take off. And there's all sorts of methods. I see people that burn them off. I see people that pluck them by hand. And all that just takes time. Burning them stinks. It just gets meticulous. So what I thought of, I went down to the dollar store, buy old cheap razor, just the cheapest one you can find. And you just take this. Take this goose right here. Just give them a little shave. Shave goose, little shave, just all over. He don't need no shaving cream. He don't care anymore.
- [27:00]
Phil
You just shave them.
- [27:01]
Austin Rines
Don't worry. I have to worry about nicking them. And then, I mean, this thing gets clogged up. You just rinse it off. I mean, look at that. I mean, they're just coming off, and it is just. This one's already done. I mean, not a pin hair on that thing. Look at that. So that's my tip for y'.
- [27:19]
Maggie Hudlow
All.
- [27:20]
Austin Rines
Hope y' all like it. Y' all have a good one.
- [27:23]
Spencer Newhall
Okay, the live chat is going to decide who wins the $100 meat eater store gift card. Phil is going to put up a poll between Mark the carport wall tent man and Austin the duck breast razor.
- [27:37]
Phil
Poll is. Poll is live. Give you a minute or two here.
- [27:40]
Spencer Newhall
Maggie, what do you think? Who would get your vote between Mark with the wall tent and Austin with the razor man?
- [27:47]
Maggie Hudlow
Wall tents are expensive. I've been looking into wall tents, and, like, now I'm going to start looking at Facebook marketplace for. For carports. But also, I want to try shaving a duck or a goose. Now, I like them both. I think they're both good tips.
- [28:05]
Spencer Newhall
You got to vote for one.
- [28:06]
Maggie Hudlow
I'm skeptical of the shaving okay, so I'm going carport.
- [28:11]
Spencer Newhall
All right.
- [28:11]
Maggie Hudlow
I'm skeptical until I try it.
- [28:13]
Spencer Newhall
He showed us some evidence there on the cell phone video that certainly had some feathers that the razor caught, but we'll see. Seth, what do you think? Mark or Austin?
- [28:24]
Seth Morris
Personally, I think this is the closest one.
- [28:26]
Spencer Newhall
Like, these are hot tips.
- [28:27]
Phil
Yeah.
- [28:28]
Seth Morris
Typically I'm like, I know I'm going with this one for sure.
- [28:32]
Spencer Newhall
Yeah.
- [28:32]
Seth Morris
But this one, I'm like, man, I had to think about both. But at the end of the day, I like being frugal. And the carport wall tent, I think, takes a W for me just because it's simple, it's. It's cheap, and seems like it would work.
- [28:48]
Spencer Newhall
Two votes for the carport wall tent. I'm going to give it to the duck breast razor. That. That did look pretty effective to me. And that's a situation that it'd be nice to have a very effective way to get those. Are they pin feathers? What, what are they called to get their small feathers out of the fat of a duck breast? Mark's carport wall tent. Extremely well done. That looked to me like some buddies who wanted to get together for, you know, like six nights in a month and drink some bush lights and have a little project to work on. And that's a lot of fun. I love that Mark did that and I trust that that gets some good use at bear camp. Both very hot tips, though. On that note, we are going to empty the clip on hot tips for our very last episode. We may have five or six or ten of these matchups. So you only have a couple weeks left to send us your hot tips@radiothemedeater.com Again, it should be a one minute video on your phone. Shoot it vertically for us. And then if you have a good one that gets submitted, we're going to use it in that very last episode. So get those sent to us. Phil, what does the chat think?
- [29:56]
Phil
I'm going to give him 30 more seconds because it's close enough that the tide could turn in that amount of time. So if you have not voted in the live chat, get your votes in. You have a few more seconds left.
- [30:05]
Spencer Newhall
Okay. Where does it currently stand?
- [30:07]
Phil
Currently still. I'll tell you the split, but I'm not going to tell you who's winning. The first place contested is only at 52%.
- [30:15]
Spencer Newhall
Ooh, that is close. Couple boats could swing it.
- [30:18]
Seth Morris
Tight race.
- [30:19]
Spencer Newhall
You should see that carport wall tent. You can. You can see that on the Meat Eater podcast YouTube channel. Mark was gracious enough to show it in action at Bear Camp.
- [30:28]
Seth Morris
I wonder how it does in the wind.
- [30:29]
Spencer Newhall
I was wondering that too. You know, it's not going to function just like a wall tent, but you know, a good place to maybe cook in or store gear out of the.
- [30:37]
Seth Morris
Rain and I guess just gets totally demolished by the wind. You could just go buy another one for 100 whatever dollars.
- [30:44]
Spencer Newhall
Start another buddy project in your garage.
- [30:46]
Phil
It is now tied.
- [30:48]
Spencer Newhall
Oh, no.
- [30:48]
Phil
Oh, boy. As soon as I see someone jump up 1%.
- [30:52]
Seth Morris
Oh, and in the poll.
- [30:53]
Spencer Newhall
All right, what do we got?
- [30:54]
Phil
It was meant to be because this person was in the lead for the entire thing with 51% of the vote. Just barely. I think by maybe one vote. The winner is Austin with the goose shaving. Okay. That's right.
- [31:06]
Spencer Newhall
He is going to get the $100 medieval gift card that is the closest hot t we've ever had. Seth identified it that way, and the chat agreed. Two very hot tips from Mark and Austin. All right, let's take a break for some listener feedback. Phil, what's the Chad have to say?
- [31:22]
Phil
Yeah, this is from Spencer. Question for the crew. I have an alligator Euromount skull which is drying and splitting up the nose. Is there something I can put on this skull to keep it from drying or cracking up the snout? Thank you.
- [31:35]
Seth Morris
Hi.
- [31:36]
Maggie Hudlow
Maybe like some beeswax or something.
- [31:39]
Spencer Newhall
Beeswax would be good. I have no idea.
- [31:43]
Seth Morris
You know, we were talking about earlier, there's this group of dudes that hunt or dig for fossils in Montana. Dinosaur fossils. And they use that paleo glue. It's when they. When they expose a bone, they hit it with that, like, right away so it doesn't, like, dry out and crack. I wonder if something like that would work.
- [32:02]
Spencer Newhall
Yeah, on a lot of, like. There's some fossils I find that come out of the ground very moist, and then they take a lot of time to dry, and in that time, they will kind of like get warped. Like, they'll. They'll. If they were straight before, now they're shaped like a U. I hit a lot of those with lacquer right at the beginning. I don't know if I'm doing it good. I've seen other paleontologists do a similar thing like Seth is talking about. So we don't have the perfect answer for you there, Spencer. You're going to have to experiment and. And find out for yourself. But beeswax, lacquer, paleo glue, those are the three recommendations from us. What else you got, Phil?
- [32:39]
Phil
Master chief John Halo himself asks, are y' all doing Trivia@ the NWTF afterparty Again this year?
- [32:45]
Spencer Newhall
We are. We will be there. That after party is on Friday night. It will be me, Giannis, Clay Newcomb, Brent Reeves. We will be hosting the afterparty, and there will be some trivia that is done by the audience. That means you guys are answering, answering questions about yourselves at the game we call meat pole. So we will have trivia there. And if. If that's not enticing enough to get you out there again, come shake Clay Newcomb's hand and tell him a bear hunting story.
- [33:14]
Phil
Tines lines has a simple question. Do you guys have some summer fishing trips planned that you're excited about?
- [33:20]
Spencer Newhall
What do you got, Seth?
- [33:23]
Seth Morris
Well, just hitting local stuff here, of course, for some bass and walleye, and then heading out to Saginaw Bay to do some fishing. What time of year that'll be in June.
- [33:37]
Spencer Newhall
Okay.
- [33:37]
Seth Morris
That'll be a little film thing, too.
- [33:39]
Spencer Newhall
That'll be fun.
- [33:39]
Seth Morris
So you'll be. You guys will be able to watch that at some point in time.
- [33:42]
Spencer Newhall
Maggie Fishing trips.
- [33:44]
Maggie Hudlow
I'm taking my niece on her first backpack in backcountry fishing trip.
- [33:48]
Seth Morris
How old? Nice.
- [33:49]
Maggie Hudlow
She'll be five.
- [33:50]
Spencer Newhall
Five. Is she ready?
- [33:52]
Maggie Hudlow
She's ready.
- [33:52]
Spencer Newhall
Okay.
- [33:53]
Maggie Hudlow
She doesn't know anything about fishing or backpacking, but perfect. She'll have a good time.
- [33:58]
Spencer Newhall
Any other big trips this summer?
- [34:00]
Maggie Hudlow
Not planned. I'll get up in the mountains, we'll take the boat out. I'm bad at planning ahead, but there will be fishing.
- [34:08]
Spencer Newhall
Okay, cool. My two big fishing trips this summer. I'm going to go to the Columbia river in Oregon and catch some white sturgeon. I've never done that before. Metafella at a donut shop in Oregon a few years ago. And he said, if you ever want to come catch our big old white sturgeon, hit me up. And whenever someone offers me something like that, I say, don't offer that unless you're willing for me to take you up on that offer, because I'm going to do it. And I did it. I'm going to go visit him in June. We're going to catch some big old sturgeon. The other one is I'm going to go to the Boundary Waters this summer as well. I spent a couple days there last year, just passing through on my way to Isle Royale, and I loved it so much I started planning my next trip right away. So I'm gonna make a solo trip out there with my kayaks, try to get into some bass and walleye and some panfish.
- [34:55]
Seth Morris
Sounds fun.
- [34:56]
Spencer Newhall
Cook them up while I'm there. Phil, let's do a couple more.
- [34:59]
Phil
Yeah. Free crank asks can we still get radio live like once a month or once a season, maybe special events, maybe for deer season or elk season or spring turkey.
- [35:07]
Spencer Newhall
What do you think, Phil?
- [35:09]
Phil
Yeah, we can do that. We'll do it a few times a year.
- [35:11]
Seth Morris
See, why not?
- [35:12]
Spencer Newhall
We flirted with the idea of maybe doing some primetime radio lives, you know, maybe like a 6pm show a few times a year. We don't have anything set in stone yet, but radio live. We've talked about it as it's sun setting, not dying, so, you know, the sun rises again.
- [35:31]
Phil
That's what they say about people with Alzheimer's.
- [35:34]
Spencer Newhall
I didn't know that one.
- [35:35]
Phil
Let's see.
- [35:36]
Spencer Newhall
That's less fun.
- [35:37]
Phil
Just found out. This is from Nate. Just found out that Unit 2 goose season in South Dakota goes till February 14th. Do I take a trip to chase honkers on Valentine's Day or keep my marriage intact? What would you do?
- [35:49]
Maggie Hudlow
Take your sweetheart with you?
- [35:50]
Spencer Newhall
Yeah.
- [35:50]
Seth Morris
Take your wife.
- [35:51]
Phil
Obvious answer.
- [35:52]
Maggie Hudlow
Duh.
- [35:53]
Phil
Unless she absolutely hates it, it's probably not how she wants to spend her Valentine's Day if she has other interests.
- [35:58]
Maggie Hudlow
South Dakota's for lovers, right?
- [36:01]
Spencer Newhall
That's what they say. Is it Virginia that actually has.
- [36:05]
Phil
I've heard Ohio. I don't know.
- [36:07]
Maggie Hudlow
I saw somebody ask on there about javelina hunting tips. Phil, I don't know if you saw that question.
- [36:13]
Phil
I can find it. But if you want to, you know, summarize the question.
- [36:17]
Maggie Hudlow
No, I just want to let him know to keep an eye out that we got an article about that from Jim Heffelfinger coming on the site.
- [36:27]
Spencer Newhall
Okay.
- [36:28]
Maggie Hudlow
Should be live today or tomorrow, depending on how much work I get done after this.
- [36:33]
Spencer Newhall
You can now get in the record books with a big old javelina.
- [36:36]
Maggie Hudlow
Uh huh.
- [36:36]
Phil
We'll do one more here. Well, let me see if. Yeah, we've got our next guest waiting, so I'll do one more here. This is for Seth from Garrison. Question for Seth. I'm studying forestry in college and I'm realizing that it's not really something I want to do for a living. How did you go from your forestry degree to breaking into another industry?
- [36:54]
Seth Morris
Well, what I'm doing now is just kind of a hobby. So it's a long term hobby that.
- [37:01]
Phil
You'Re getting paid for.
- [37:01]
Seth Morris
What's your hobby? Yeah, no, I planned on doing forestry stuff for most of my life and then would picked up a camera and started shooting photos on the side and kind of one thing led to another and here I am so not really in your. I didn't experience what your experience. I kind of wanted to be a forester all through college, but I don't know. It's not too late to change one thing.
- [37:30]
Spencer Newhall
I'd say to Garrison, we've talked about this before on trivia. We had a trivia question about this profession in the United States has the happiest people. This was a stat that polled. I don't remember how many dozens of different careers and the number one happiest profession was foresters. So Garrison, maybe think about how happy that would make you versus doing something.
- [37:53]
Seth Morris
I will say on day one of forestry school, our professor said, how many? Raise your hand if you guys would like to make a decent amount of money someday. And like everyone raised their hand. She goes, you've chose the wrong Major.
- [38:08]
Maggie Hudlow
That's what they say to all the fun majors.
- [38:11]
Spencer Newhall
You know what?
- [38:12]
Maggie Hudlow
That's what.
- [38:13]
Seth Morris
But you're outside all the time, so it's great.
- [38:16]
Spencer Newhall
There you go. All right, we're going to do our next interview now.
- [38:21]
Maggie Hudlow
All right, we got Emily Davis. She's a PhD student at the University of Wyoming, currently studying how wolves, coyotes, and red foxes coexist in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Emily, welcome to Radio Live.
- [38:41]
Seth Morris
Hello.
- [38:42]
Emily Davis
Thanks for having me.
- [38:43]
Maggie Hudlow
Glad you're here. Are you currently out and about in the field?
- [38:48]
Emily Davis
Yeah, we're out digging out traps because it snowed a foot over the night last night, so.
- [38:55]
Seth Morris
Wow.
- [38:56]
Emily Davis
Wouldn't have allowed any foxes to get in. But those are all the people doing the real work over there. They just got dumped on by snow from a tree, too. So perfect for the camera. But, yeah, we're out. Finally able to ski. They drug this trap in yesterday over dirt, so it's nice to have a foot of snow on the ground.
- [39:13]
Maggie Hudlow
Makes it a little easier, huh? Well, tell us a little bit about your research and why you're trapping foxes.
- [39:19]
Emily Davis
Yeah, so this project has kind of been coming into itself for a long time. The park has historically monitored foxes across the landscape because foxes are really cute. People have learned to feed them. That, in turn has allowed foxes to become pretty habituated and learn how to sit for food in a lot of cases. And so actually, my previous lab mate, Emily Burkholder, also my best friend, actually studied the red fox population in Grand Teton and looked at how they used human areas. But this project specifically includes coyotes and wolves to kind of expand on this idea of trophic interactions from the large predator to the smallest predator to see how they interact on the landscape, how they share space, time and food. There's this historic understanding that, you know, wolves reintroduced 30 years ago and this idea that when wolves come in, they decrease the meso predator population, or coyotes, through competition. And prior to that, anecdotally, there was a lot more coyotes on the landscape. But through wolf reintroduction, the coyote population has anecdotally been limited, which has allowed the red fox population to rebound. And so while that's a really beautiful story and I think it's awesome to think about, it's probably way more nuanced than that. So we are finally at this time where we have enough technology to get really fine scale data on these animals. So we have collars on wolves, coyotes, and red foxes, hence the trapping that are all synced up at the same time so we can actually get where they are. At the land where they are on the landscape. We also are doing backtracking to collect their scat to get DNA metabarcoding done on their diet to see how often they share resources or don't share resources across the park and the greater landscape. We're using anonymized cell phone data to get at human pressure on these animals because the park, although beautiful and seemingly serene, obviously has a lot of visitors and very heavy visitation in the summer. So I'm sure that makes an impact on how they share the landscape. And we're just incorporating a lot of cool technology that hasn't really been available before to ask these questions. And a lot of the questions have previously asked are very coarse and just like, where are wolves in this area? Where are foxes in this area? But we're really diving deep into it.
- [41:38]
Maggie Hudlow
That's awesome. And your research is pretty much conducted during the winter months, right? You guys aren't out here trapping in the warmer months of the year?
- [41:48]
Emily Davis
Yeah, we trap foxes in the winter because bears are out in the summer. And I think it would be. And we use really smelly lure, gusto and which is skunk lure and red fox lure. But the bears would probably be keyed into that pretty heavily. And we don't want a little fox stuck in a trap while there's a bear around. That would be pretty horrible. But, yeah, they. It's also their breeding season right now, so we've caught six this year so far. We have 14 more collars to put out. We caught 15 last year for callers, and so we're hoping it picks up and we're hoping they're starting to seek their mates out. The snow was a bit of a change, so hopefully they'll come out tonight because the snow's a bit heavy. But, yeah, most of our. Most of the fun works in the winter, and it's been pretty awesome to ski around out here. We do have some summer work checking cameras and stuff, but most of it's in the winter.
- [42:35]
Spencer Newhall
Emily, in July, there was a lot of coverage of the park and a specific fox there. The New York Times, among other places, had a headline, beware of swiper. A Florida fox at Grand Teton park who steals shoes. Are you familiar with that fox and can you tell us more about him or her?
- [42:53]
Emily Davis
Yes, we are familiar with that fox. That was the second fox we trapped last year. Our name for him is actually Leroy, or in joking terms, Leroy, because he was trapped up near Lizard Creek Campground. And actually, two of the people that are here right now went and found, I think three shoes for him, but he's. He's collared and he's actually a pre trap happy fox. So we caught him this year, recallered him. But yeah, I heard that. I heard a trivia question from you guys about him. And my boyfriend was like, call them up, tell him his real name. And I get Swiper's like a pretty good name for him. But we call him Leroy.
- [43:34]
Dr. Zach Graham
And he's.
- [43:34]
Emily Davis
He's a pretty funny fox to interact with. But the people would ask me questions about like, what's it about? Like, do they cash and stuff? And we just think he's got a fetish for shoes because they didn't find like a pile of shoes or anything. We think he's just messing with people and they're kind of, you know, funny in that way. We've seen some interesting behaviors out of that we actually had. He's not the only fox to steal something. Our tech Jess had makes her own Kinko gloves with like pictures on them. And we usually set them on the ground to put our phone on to get awesome videos of their release. Yeah, this is the fox. And she. That fox got released, immediately went to Jess's phone, stole that Kinko glove, ran off. We have an awesome video of us all slow mowing, running off after this box. Couldn't find the mitten the project bought Jess Moore loves. But I like to think, we like to think that she had it up in her den as like artwork. So. But yeah, they're weird little animals.
- [44:35]
Maggie Hudlow
Great stories about Leroy. But before your PhD work, you did some really cool research with your master's degree as well with bears.
- [44:46]
Dr. Zach Graham
Yeah.
- [44:46]
Emily Davis
Yeah.
- [44:47]
Maggie Hudlow
Can you talk about some of the stuff you did with bears for your master's?
- [44:51]
Emily Davis
For sure. I've been really lucky to have two really awesome projects and through the University of Wyoming with my advisor, Joe Holbrook. So my PhD works in collaboration with Game and Fish, is mostly primarily with Grand Teton National Park. And then my master's work was collaborative with Wyoming Game and Fish. And so the reason that project came about, we collared black bears and we looked at their movements. But the reason that project came about was actually, shockingly, hunters came to the American Bear foundation founder Joe Condylas and Game and Fish and were like, you know, we can't get large males over bait sites, so it'd be awesome if you guys could figure that out for us. And of course, hunters know tons about bear behavior. So what we found, when I talked to hunters, they're like yeah, no crap obviously. But that project started in conjunction with American Bear foundation to kind of understand male behavior around risk taking and bait sites. But it also started because Wyoming wanted to understand population dynamics of black bears across the state because there that hasn't been done. And so they started collaring females I think in 2015 to get their home range size to put hair stinger work out to do demographics on them. And then I got attached onto the project mainly primarily for the collar data. And so we are, we have one chapter published which is awesome. That chapter is pretty nerdy and not super fun to talk about with anyone besides people that like want to nerd about how cool bears are and how individually varied they are. But our second chapter is currently in review and that chapter is looking at how bears take risk around bait sites. And it's a pretty cool way to ask this question because obviously bears are hunted so there's risk, there's mortality risk on the landscape for this large carnivore obviously. But they bait creates this unique dynamic where this, there's this high reward area too. And so what we actually found was males did avoid baits more than females and both sexes actually shifted to using bait sites more at night. Males also shifted more at night. So we kind of found that there is this difference in mortality risk across the black bear population. And those the bait site information was from the Bighorn Mountains and the Laramie range, specifically the other chapters on the whole state. But we found that males probably handle mortality risk a little differently than females and younger bears probably because, you know, hunters don't want to shoot young females even though they're hard to tell sometimes unless you have a really, really knowledgeable hun that's over a bait with you. But yeah, so it's pretty interesting to see that young female bears are interacting with that high reward food source more than males. And we also found that obviously hunting pressure varies greatly in the, from the spring to the fall, especially in the Bighorn Mountains where people can't sometimes put out baits differently. And Wyoming has a female quota system. So it kind of depends on if how many females are getting shot at that time, if people are going to shoot the first bear they see. But we found that bears are actually more likely to engage with baits during fall, during hyperphagia, when they want more food, which we had originally hypothesized that you'd take less risk when you have more fat, more food, more resources. But bears are always doing things differently than we expect, which is why I love Them, they're kind of a pain to study, but they actually engaged more with bait sites, which makes a lot of sense when you think about a fat bear eaten all the time, prepping for denning, which is what we got to do too. But yeah.
- [48:22]
Seth Morris
Emily, back to the fox trapping. I'm a trapper myself, so I'm really interested in this. What kind of sets are you using? What kind of traps are you using? And I, I know you mentioned Gusto, which I'm real familiar with. What other stuff, like what other types of baits and lures are you using?
- [48:40]
Emily Davis
Yeah, we use. So we use Tomahawk traps. We trap in the park, so we're restricted to box traps. Okay. They're. They're bobcat traps from Tomahawk, you know, the, like, real skinny ones, because foxes are real skinny.
- [48:52]
Seth Morris
Yep.
- [48:52]
Emily Davis
We use gusto, which we think pulls them in pretty good. And I just want to shout out to my field team here, Austin, Lindsey and Jess, because they're the ones doing the real work. But you know, they've, they've been out there sticking their hands in Gusto and red fox lure, which is that disgusting, sweet smelling lure. But yeah, without snow, it's been harder. But we've been, we know, set the traps up, we put pine boughs around them to create a cozy little home for them. And we use roadkill, ground up roadkill, and little bait balls to try to entice them. But we hope that the bait entices them to go in the back of the trap and then really the lure is what's pulling them in from afar. But so far it's been pretty successful. They had a lot of success with it when Emily was first trapping here. Obviously we've got a bigger crew and we have skis, so we're able to get a little bit further away from areas off the roads in the park. Oh, and one big thing for trapping is we've noticed that fox urine is really helpful. We actually just have a giant gallon of it that we refill in little sauce bottles that you buy at Target and we spray it around and we're always talking to each other about like, oh, we need pee, and our, the people that come out with us.
- [50:04]
Seth Morris
Another question. Are you catching bobcats at all in those sets?
- [50:07]
Spencer Newhall
No.
- [50:08]
Seth Morris
Really?
- [50:08]
Emily Davis
No. And we, we don't. We've never seen a bobcat on camera. We actually, this year, first time, we actually had two different mountain lions coming to do different traps and eat a little bit of food up front. So that's a, that's surprising. It's been a weird winter, though. Usually we're not getting anything but foxes and a ton of martins. Martins are problem children of the park, so we catch them a lot. But this, it's been a weird winter, so it's just been hard to predict. But no, we don't get. We don't even get bobcats on cameras really, at all.
- [50:37]
Spencer Newhall
What about wolverines? Do they ever interact with your sets?
- [50:41]
Maggie Hudlow
No.
- [50:42]
Emily Davis
I think all of us would be so excited if we saw wolverine on camera. And actually our helicopter crew that flew for us last year because they, they helicopter fly and capture for wolves and coyotes, they actually saw wolverine from above. But none of us have been lucky enough to get that on camera, so.
- [51:02]
Maggie Hudlow
Well, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us, Emily. I hope you guys catch some foxes tonight and look forward to seeing when those next few interesting chapters of your research get published.
- [51:17]
Emily Davis
Awesome. Thanks. And Maggie, you gotta come out with us. You gotta work up a fox with us. They're pretty fun.
- [51:22]
Maggie Hudlow
Will do. I would love to.
- [51:24]
Emily Davis
Awesome. Okay, thank you. Thanks, you guys.
- [51:26]
Spencer Newhall
Thanks, Emily.
- [51:27]
Seth Morris
Thanks, Emily.
- [51:28]
Spencer Newhall
Maggie, you gotta take her up on that offer.
- [51:30]
Maggie Hudlow
I know. I want to.
- [51:31]
Spencer Newhall
That was a real offer.
- [51:32]
Maggie Hudlow
It was.
- [51:33]
Seth Morris
That sounds like a fun job.
- [51:36]
Spencer Newhall
Beautiful scene that she was in there today. Just fresh snow on the mountains, which.
- [51:40]
Maggie Hudlow
Is surprising because she's about an hour north of me, and it's been mud season. Winter. It is. We have not had a foot of snow on the ground.
- [51:50]
Spencer Newhall
Yeah, it's about, like, wonder if those.
- [51:52]
Seth Morris
Bears like out and about with this weather.
- [51:55]
Phil
If they're.
- [51:56]
Seth Morris
They just go in and, you know, even though it's warm. I should have asked for that.
- [52:01]
Spencer Newhall
Next, next, next time we talk to Emily. All right, moving on. Our next segment is Meat Eaters Price is right.
- [52:11]
Phil
Here it comes from Bozeman, Montana. Meat Eater radio's most exciting 10 minutes. Yes, it's the Price is Right. Chef Morris. Come on down, Maggie. Hublo. Come on down. You're the next two contestants on Meat eater radios. The Price is Right. Now here's your host, Spencer Newhall.
- [52:37]
Spencer Newhall
Phil always brings it. All right, this game is really simple. Phil is going to tell you about a product from the meat eater universe in you need to guess its price. The player with the closest answer without going over will be declared the winner. If both players go over, then you'll both be told to try again. And the chat should play along as well because whoever has the closest answer to the correct answer will get a shout out. All right, there are three products up for bid today. Phil, get us started.
- [53:07]
Phil
Our first item up for bid today is a blue tarp from Harbor Freight. At 11ft by 11ft, this iconic cobalt colored tarp gives you 121 square feet of coverage. It's waterproof and weatherproof. Laughing in the face of rain, snow and wind. Hahaha. What will you do with yours? Cover a grill, maybe keep firewood dry. Build an emergency shelter or let it blow into your neighbor's yard. The possibilities are tarpless.
- [53:31]
Spencer Newhall
But they won't be tarpless any longer if your price is right. Seth and mega, what does that 11 foot by 11 foot blue tarp from Harbor Freight cost? Don't watch the chat too close because the chat likes to cheat.
- [53:48]
Maggie Hudlow
I can't hardly read that far.
- [53:49]
Spencer Newhall
They're not good students. So Phil is going to keep an eye on the chat though and see who can get closest. Seth, when's the last time that you brought that you bought a blue tarp?
- [54:03]
Seth Morris
Trying to think.
- [54:03]
Spencer Newhall
Within the last year?
- [54:06]
Seth Morris
Not within the last year.
- [54:07]
Spencer Newhall
In the last two years?
- [54:10]
Seth Morris
No, I wouldn't even say in the last two. I have several but I bought them several years ago and they just keep. There's. I have a couple that I need to replace actually. So maybe I'll be buying one in 2026 actually. I'm sure I will be.
- [54:23]
Spencer Newhall
When's the last time you bought a blue tarp?
- [54:24]
Maggie Hudlow
A blue tarp?
- [54:25]
Spencer Newhall
Blue tarp.
- [54:26]
Maggie Hudlow
They just exist in the garage. You don't buy blue tarps. There's just an endless pile of blue tarps that you grab from.
- [54:35]
Spencer Newhall
That's right. Of all different sizes. And some of them have paint on them.
- [54:39]
Maggie Hudlow
Yeah.
- [54:40]
Spencer Newhall
Some are missing the little rivet, you know where you tie things down. Yeah. Everyone's garage just has a blue tarp portal that produces them. So we're going to see who knows the price. It's 11 foot by 11 foot. Are you two ready?
- [54:54]
Seth Morris
Ready.
- [54:55]
Spencer Newhall
Go ahead and reveal your answer. Set says 9 95. Maggie says 22. $22.
- [55:02]
Maggie Hudlow
11 plus 11.
- [55:04]
Spencer Newhall
The correct answer is 999.
- [55:08]
Phil
Seth Morris.
- [55:10]
Spencer Newhall
Four pennies off. Well done Seth. That is going to be hard to beat. How did the chat do, Phil?
- [55:16]
Phil
Pretty well. We had several correct answers right on the money from Harrison, Mike, JS co Ryan, Daniel. Great job everybody.
- [55:25]
Spencer Newhall
Lot of blue tarp purchasers out there. Knowing that they cost ex exactly $9.99. That gives Seth Morris the first point in today's game of price is right. All right, Phil, what's next?
- [55:37]
Maggie Hudlow
Told you I Was gonna be bad at this game.
- [55:40]
Phil
Is your grand foyer feeling a little empty? Well, how about adding this one of a kind piece to it? Our next item up for bid is an entire plesiosaur skeleton.
- [55:49]
Spencer Newhall
Wow.
- [55:50]
Seth Morris
Jesus.
- [55:52]
Phil
This 70 million year old dinosaur was found in the Sahara desert of northern Africa. It measures 18ft and weighs 500 pounds, which actually makes it a small specimen for a species that grows 50ft long. It has an elegantly long neck, streamlined marine body, four dramatic paddle like flippers, and a fierce tooth lined jaw. This isn't just a conversation piece. It's a conservation centerpiece.
- [56:15]
Spencer Newhall
Oh, that was a typo. That's supposed to be conversation.
- [56:20]
Phil
Let's take that again.
- [56:21]
Dr. Zach Graham
Again.
- [56:21]
Spencer Newhall
That's my bad.
- [56:21]
Phil
This isn't just a conversation piece. It's a conversation centerpiece.
- [56:26]
Spencer Newhall
That's right, Phil. And this Jurassic piece of sea life can be yours if the price is right. Seth and Maggie, what do you think it costs to own an entire dinosaur?
- [56:37]
Seth Morris
I was. I was. This. This is like a little hint, I guess, but I was the Hell Creek hooligan Instagram page that we were talking about. I saw they sold T. Rex tooth the other day for like 35. Five grand.
- [56:49]
Spencer Newhall
Oh, wow. Okay.
- [56:52]
Seth Morris
I don't know if that helps you at all.
- [56:53]
Spencer Newhall
Seth has a reference. This is not. It's 18ft long and weighs 500 pounds. And this was priced by the fine folks at the fossil shack in Utah. They do great work. If anyone in our listening audience is looking to purchase an entire dang dinosaur, they have multiple for sale.
- [57:13]
Maggie Hudlow
Good to know.
- [57:14]
Spencer Newhall
Yeah. Maggie and Seth, do you have your answer?
- [57:17]
Seth Morris
Yes.
- [57:18]
Spencer Newhall
Go ahead and reveal your answer. Seth says 4.2 million. Maggie says 3.1 million. The correct answer is lower than both of those. Take another stab at it. So we know it's less than $3 million. They're coming up with their second batch of answers. An entire plesiosaur skeleton. Maggie, are you ready? Reveal your answers. Seth says 1.8 million. Maggie says 1.7. The correct answer is lower than both of yours. Take another swing at it. We have had three tries before in the prices, right? We have never had four. We'll see if we can set a record with Seth and Maggie today. It is less than 1.7 million. Seth has his answer. Maggie, do you have yours?
- [58:11]
Maggie Hudlow
Those are all nice.
- [58:12]
Spencer Newhall
Reveal your answer. Maggie says $1 less than a million. And Seth says $1.
- [58:19]
Phil
Like a strategy.
- [58:20]
Spencer Newhall
The correct answer is $475,000. Giving Seth points and the victory. He was only $475,000.
- [58:32]
Seth Morris
Off.
- [58:33]
Spencer Newhall
But that was good enough.
- [58:34]
Maggie Hudlow
And that was really on opposite sides.
- [58:36]
Seth Morris
That's cheaper. It's way cheaper than I thought.
- [58:38]
Spencer Newhall
That is cheaper.
- [58:40]
Phil
We had several people get pretty close, but the closest without going over, I believe, was Wonder welds with 4.
- [58:45]
Spencer Newhall
49. Well done, Wonder.
- [58:47]
Seth Morris
I'm going to go buy one of those tonight.
- [58:48]
Spencer Newhall
I mean, if we all pitched in, maybe.
- [58:52]
Seth Morris
Yeah.
- [58:52]
Spencer Newhall
Seth has two points. He's wrapped up the victory. We'll see if he can get the clean sweep and get this third one correct as well. All right, Phil, what do we have next?
- [59:03]
Phil
Are you struggling to find the perfect last minute gift for your valentine? Yeah. Yes. Well, how about getting them 60 pounds of live crayfish, which everyone knows is the most romantic of the freshwater crustaceans?
- [59:13]
Spencer Newhall
Of course.
- [59:14]
Phil
These live mud bugs would make our first guest today proud. They are rushed to your door with overnight shipping straight from Louisiana. This 60 pound batch has roughly 1200 crayfish that will feed 10 to 20 people. Order by 4pm today to have them in time for Valentine's Day. Here's the fine print. Due to DNR restrictions, we can't ship to Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, or Minnesota. Oregon law requires crayfish transport permit not included.
- [59:36]
Maggie Hudlow
That fine print reading was so impressive.
- [59:40]
Spencer Newhall
If you don't know on tv, they always speed that up. They hit it like, you know, times 2.25. Speed, Phil. He just did that. All organic.
- [59:48]
Seth Morris
How many pounds?
- [59:49]
Maggie Hudlow
I was gonna ask.
- [59:50]
Spencer Newhall
60 pounds. 60 pounds of live crayfish. I got my calculation getting shipped right to your door.
- [59:56]
Maggie Hudlow
And we're not kidding to beat me.
- [59:58]
Spencer Newhall
We're not kidding about them being the most sexy shellfish in Jamaican culture. Crawdads are considered an aphrodisiac, with local lore saying that eating crayfish will help you get lucky. Phil, can you deliver this next line with a Jamaican accent?
- [60:13]
Phil
Yeah, I'd love to. Here we go. Yeah, man. Going to get my valentine some crawdaddies. One love.
- [60:19]
Spencer Newhall
Oh, man. Couldn't trip up Phil. Phil did not want to do the Jamaican accent. He said that would get him canceled. And Phil is cancelable. What if.
- [60:29]
Dr. Zach Graham
What if, Phil.
- [60:30]
Spencer Newhall
What if I was, like, singing along to Shaggy and I? It was very respectful and honorable, and I'm pure of heart.
- [60:37]
Maggie Hudlow
Can singing along to Shaggy be respectful?
- [60:40]
Spencer Newhall
Yeah, of course. If you're singing, you know, wasn't me. Of course you could do that. Pure of heart. It's a song about cheating.
- [60:46]
Phil
We'll let you do that during the finale extravaganza.
- [60:49]
Spencer Newhall
Oh, okay. All right. So Phil says it's okay. That's. That's when it's fine.
- [60:52]
Phil
Well, we've. We've. We've blocked out three hours for Shaggy karaoke, so thank goodness.
- [60:57]
Spencer Newhall
Now you are bidding on an extra spicy batch, which is their hottest option. The shipping cost is calculated as though they're arriving at Meat Eater HQ. So it's 60 pounds of live crayfish, extra spicy, getting shipped overnight right here to our front door.
- [61:15]
Maggie Hudlow
How are they live and extra spicy?
- [61:17]
Spencer Newhall
I imagine they send you a pack with it that you add to the boil afterwards. I don't think they're pre seasoning the live crayfish.
- [61:23]
Maggie Hudlow
Yeah, I don't know their method.
- [61:25]
Phil
I'm gonna call him out because he's a. I've seen his name in the chat a lot. He watches the show many weeks. His name's Garrett Sprenger. And I know that he cheated. So, Garrett, shame on you. I'm calling you out.
- [61:37]
Spencer Newhall
Okay, you've been identified. So £60. And this. This. Seth, you said you are looking for the perfect Valentine's gift. Live crayfish.
- [61:44]
Seth Morris
Yeah.
- [61:45]
Spencer Newhall
Yeah, that should work.
- [61:46]
Seth Morris
It's not too late.
- [61:47]
Spencer Newhall
It's not. And when I said 4pm that means 4pm tomorrow for our podcast, they will literally get it to you overnight. I don't. I don't understand how they pull that off. But the perfect Valentine's gift is awaiting you. Do you have your answers? Go ahead and reveal your answers. Seth says $360. He got out his calculator. Do his math. Maggie says $240. The correct answer is $648. Twice the price that Seth thought it was, but good enough to give him the point. And the clean sweep.
- [62:23]
Seth Morris
Clean sweep. Sorry about you.
- [62:27]
Spencer Newhall
Price is wrong. $620 for the crayfish and $28 for the overnight shipping.
- [62:35]
Phil
That's right. See, Garrett included the price without the shipping, and he got it right on the money, so that's why I'm calling him out. Maybe he's just incredibly smart. He's Rain man over there, but I see two fs. Guess 625. And we had someone else guess 600.
- [62:49]
Spencer Newhall
Robert did. So thanks for playing along, everybody. And remember, help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed and neutered. All right, that brings us to the end of today's show. Phil, let's get some final feedback from the chat.
- [63:02]
Phil
Yeah. Jacob asks Spencer, how is your ham special light stash? And when do we kick off the campaign to get it back?
- [63:08]
Spencer Newhall
I have multiple cases Left. Seth was just in my garage and saw them up where they are kept. The problem is they are starting to not taste like ham special lights. So I just had to start rifling through them. I had this very romantic idea about, you know, maybe if I have kids someday when my son is old enough to have his first beard, you know, like 16 years old, give him a.
- [63:29]
Maggie Hudlow
Spooky ass hamster, like.
- [63:32]
Spencer Newhall
But I don't think they can make it. Yeah, if we hatched that baby tomorrow, I'd have to wait 16 more years. That's too long. They're not gonna make it. So in the next year, next two years, I need to get rid of them.
- [63:45]
Seth Morris
Maybe you could share some during the grand finale.
- [63:49]
Spencer Newhall
There is an idea, Seth. Well said, Phil. What else do you have from the chat?
- [63:53]
Phil
Yes, this is from Ryden. He's asking when BLOOD TRAIL Season 2 is coming out. The hit show from Jordan Sillers. And we were hard at work on it. By we, I mean Jordan and Jake are the alumni producer of this show as well. He is the editor of that show and they're cranking out season two right now. So stay tuned. I don't know if there's an exact.
- [64:12]
Spencer Newhall
This year though, right?
- [64:13]
Phil
20, 26, 100%. If Jake pipes in here, he says April 16, I believe so. That's not a firm date, but I think around there is when you can expect it.
- [64:24]
Spencer Newhall
This spring.
- [64:25]
Phil
Yes. Has any of you fished Lake Havasu?
- [64:30]
Seth Morris
Nope.
- [64:30]
Spencer Newhall
No.
- [64:31]
Phil
Okay.
- [64:31]
Spencer Newhall
We had a trivia question about it before where I think the world record shell cracker was caught there though someone was asking about fishing Lake Havasu. Maybe try to catch the next world record shell cracker while you're there.
- [64:46]
Phil
Yeah, that's. There might be some more questions, but Price is right.
- [64:48]
Seth Morris
I'm not.
- [64:49]
Phil
You know, the chat kind of gets taken over, so I don't have many flagged right now. So if you guys want to get questions in here at the end of the show, I will say that we had a. We wished good luck to McCullough on her first javelina hunt during the show last week and she was successful. And we were sent some pictures and I'm gonna.
- [65:10]
Spencer Newhall
We can share those next week. Phil. Convenient.
- [65:13]
Phil
That's fine.
- [65:14]
Spencer Newhall
Okay.
- [65:14]
Phil
Oh, yes, we had some questions about all this. All the sportsman shows happening this season. Is anyone from the crew gonna be in Harrisburg? Is Randall going to Harrisburg?
- [65:23]
Spencer Newhall
I think Randall is going to the one in Utah, the Western Hunt Expo.
- [65:27]
Seth Morris
He's going to Western Hunt.
- [65:28]
Phil
He's going to Western.
- [65:28]
Seth Morris
Brent Reeves was in Harrisburg. I don't know if he's still there, but he was at the case booth.
- [65:32]
Spencer Newhall
Mmm.
- [65:33]
Phil
Okay.
- [65:33]
Seth Morris
He was there.
- [65:34]
Spencer Newhall
That's a tricky show. Cause that one's like two whole weeks, isn't it?
- [65:37]
Phil
It's ten days.
- [65:38]
Spencer Newhall
Ten days.
- [65:39]
Seth Morris
If you are there, though, and you want to check out some meat eater merch and some first light gear, hit up center boot company booth. Say hi to my mom. She's there.
- [65:50]
Spencer Newhall
Did you go to that when you were a kid? Was that like an event on your calendar?
- [65:53]
Seth Morris
Oh, yeah.
- [65:53]
Spencer Newhall
What did you do there? Did you. Were there some trout for you to catch in tanks there Was that.
- [65:58]
Seth Morris
I never did that. But we would just walk around and look at stuff and, you know, like, fantasize. Collector dudes would be there and Lee and Tiffany and. Yeah, you just go look at boats and look at all. There's like a whole call section. You, like, check out the new calls for the year. Just all. Yeah, it's. It's a huge show. I think it's the biggest east.
- [66:19]
Spencer Newhall
It's enormous.
- [66:20]
Seth Morris
It might be the biggest in the country. Definitely. Biggest east of the Mississippi.
- [66:24]
Spencer Newhall
Yeah. If you have a trade show in your neck of the woods, you should go check it out. The. The turkey one that we're going to this week. That one is like the biggest assault on all of your senses. Like just the sounds of all the calls. It's constant. Just the bright lights and all the, you know, the camouflage, everything happening there, the smells, because, you know, there's a lot of cooking happening there. Go check one out. You'll have some tired feet after the day. You'll be happy you saw everything. Anything else, Phil?
- [66:51]
Phil
Oh, yeah, I have to answer this one. I'm so sorry. It's video game related. Brandon is asking if I ever played Guitar Hero. Brandon, I was Guitar Hero.
- [67:04]
Spencer Newhall
That is true. What was your favorite song?
- [67:07]
Seth Morris
It might still be Guitar Hero.
- [67:08]
Phil
That picture I showed during Radio Live either a week or two ago from the band room with a trombone in my hand and the long emo hair. What I didn't say was that after the band, I would throw my trombone in the back of my 97 Geo Metro, drive home and play Guitar Hero and, you know, just beat all my high scores that I set the night before. I never stopped playing Guitar Hero. I played Rock Band. I got every single achievement in Rock Band 2. There's one called the Endless Set List where you have to play 80, like 85 songs in a row without pausing the game. I did it.
- [67:40]
Spencer Newhall
Jeez, how many Hours is that it.
- [67:42]
Phil
Was a long time. But there are some that have instrumental breaks. So that's when I sprint to the bathroom and then come. Or, like, you know, like a drum solo or, you know, where the guitar is. Not. Not happening. I had to plan those. I had, like, a little, like, a notepad, and I was like, take a break during this song. Because there's a long. And just a few months ago, I bought an electric drum kit and a converter so I can play Rock Band with the whole family with a real drum set. I tried to get my family into it. They don't care. It's a very sad. You know, Bill's a solo activity.
- [68:13]
Seth Morris
That's right.
- [68:15]
Spencer Newhall
He's the headliner and the opening act. He's everything.
- [68:18]
Phil
Yeah, it's a fulfilling line.
- [68:19]
Spencer Newhall
What was your favorite song, Phil?
- [68:23]
Phil
How do I choose that? I mean, I really liked. If we're gonna go Rock Band 1. Well, Guitar Hero 1, Hangar 18 from Megadeth. Was that one or two?
- [68:34]
Spencer Newhall
I don't know.
- [68:35]
Phil
Mm, this is tough. That might be two. I might be getting my lore mixed up, but any of the metal songs for Guitar Hero were the most fun. Cause it was just purely guitar, so those are a lot of fun to play.
- [68:44]
Spencer Newhall
Phil is so good that one time, I don't remember what establishment we were at, but there was a Guitar Hero arcade game.
- [68:51]
Seth Morris
Oh, yeah, that was at the top.
- [68:52]
Phil
The Tap House on College there.
- [68:53]
Spencer Newhall
Phil played it, didn't put up a great score, and he said that the machine was broke.
- [68:58]
Phil
Well, no, and I believe you're making me sound. You're making me sound like a sore loser. I can just say from. From literally, from. From two decades of playing rhythm games that I know when a machine is calibrated correct. And unfortunately, the greasy arcade cabinet in the back of the brewery wasn't calibrated correctly. I don't want to be one of those people that says, the controller's broken when I lose, but guess what? The controller was broken.
- [69:22]
Spencer Newhall
That's how good Phil is. I did believe him when he told me that I had no doubt that he was right and the machine was wrong.
- [69:29]
Phil
Okay, well, I'm sorry I took that much time to talk.
- [69:31]
Spencer Newhall
That's okay. That is the end of this week's show. We're going to end right there with, we'll see you back here same time and place next week. Bye now.
- [69:38]
Seth Morris
Later.
- [69:39]
Phil
Oh, no. I didn't play the outro.
- [69:42]
Seth Morris
We're still here.
- [69:45]
Phil
Oh, no.
- [69:48]
Maggie Hudlow
This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.