Following what the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife is calling a “years-long court process,” 43-year-old Shane Philips of Johnson, Vermont must hand over his crossbow, $2,877 in fines and restitution, three years of hunting and fishing privileges, and even the keys to his 2011 Buick Regal for poaching a fake deer at night in October 2020.
A VDFW press release published on Friday detailed the attempted poaching, which took place in the town of Johnson in northern Vermont. On the night of the incident, game wardens saw the driver of the black Buick using lights to illuminate two deer in the dark. Eventually, the driver shot the buck—a dummy wildlife officials often use to catch would-be poachers—with a crossbow.
When game wardens confronted the suspect, he fled the scene. They eventually tracked him down and seized his vehicle. Upon executing a search warrant, they found his Bear Saga crossbow, which had been fired. Phillips was then cited into court.
He pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the incident in April 2021. Two years later in May, Phillips was found guilty in Lamoille County Court of five wildlife- and shooting-related charges; taking big game by illegal means; taking big game in a closed vehicle; shooting from a motor vehicle; shooting from a public highway; and possessing a cocked crossbow in a motor vehicle. His sentencing took place in August, and was updated on Oct. 2 to include that he hand over his car and his bow.
This is not Phillips’ first brush with law enforcement. In 2013, he was held on $530,000 bail after pleading not guilty to a variety of assault and other charges that stacked up from incidents in 2002 and 2012. He’d been on the run from police for over a decade during that time.
“Prosecuting law violators takes time,” Vermont game warden Lt. Carl Wedin said in the press release. “Catching a deer jacker in the act is one thing, seeing justice served is an entirely different operation. Vermont hunters can be gratified to see this poacher forfeit his vehicle and weapon, in addition to his fine and loss of his hunting privileges for the next three years.”
“Deer jacking” is a casual term for shining light on a deer at night and shooting it. It’s another phrase for spotlighting, although spotlighting doesn’t always involve actually killing the deer.
At 28, Landon Kirby is an experienced hunter with several good bucks to his credit (including his first buck, a 150-class deer he tagged at age 12).
“I have some small leases for deer hunting, mostly near where I live [outside] of Cincinnati,” the nurse and father of two tells Outdoor Life. “I’ve got eight bucks on my walls, but nothing like the buck I got the evening of Oct. 7.”
Kirby runs cell cameras to keep tabs on what’s happening at his farmland hunting spots.
Kirby had never seen the buck until it appeared on trail camera Oct. 6. Courtesy of Landon Kirby
“I have a camera on a small 75-acre farm, and I’d been monitoring the place since July,” he says. “I had photos of other bucks there but the evening of Oct. 6, a giant buck showed up that I’d never seen. I decided I’d try to get him the next evening.”
Kirby contacted his buddy Chris Wheeler, who agreed to accompany Kirby to film his hunt. Kirby climbed into his lock-on stand around 3:30 p.m. while Wheeler settled into a saddle to film. Kirby had never hunted the spot until that evening, but he was optimistic.
The two sat for about an hour before they spotted an eight-point feeding in the beans. It looked about 140 inches and it never presented a shot, though Kirby wasn’t hoping for one.
“I never would have taken the 140-incher that evening, knowing a much larger buck was around,” Kirby says.
At 5 p.m. that big buck stepped into the bean field at 70 yards. Kirby couldn’t see the buck well through the leaves between them. But Wheeler, hanging in the tree above Kirby, could see the buck just fine. He filmed it feeding and eventually disappearing into cover. That’s when does began pouring into the field.
Another view of the buck. Courtesy of Landon Kirby
“Does were everywhere, 15 to 20 of them,” Kirby says. “We had five does close within bow range, and a pair of small bucks were butting heads right in front of us.”
Just before dark Wheeler saw the 15-pointer reappear at 70 yards, this time heading toward the hunters.
Right then one of the does in front of their stand started blowing. That got the buck’s attention. He stopped, watching the alert doe. The buck was inside 30 yards now, standing broadside.
“I only saw the buck for about 30 seconds headed toward us before I drew and shot,” says Kirby. “He covered 70 yards fast, and I didn’t have time to get nervous or start shaking. … After the shot I saw him run, I noticed his front legs buckled, and a few seconds later I thought I heard him fall in the timber. That’s when I just lost my mind.”
Kirby and Wheeler were pumped, and they contacted friends and family while they waited 30 minutes before climbing down. They found blood at the hit site, and a good trail leading into the woods.
“We were right on the [field] edge looking at the blood trail, and Chris said he thought he saw a deer laying just inside the timber,” Kirby says. “I told him no way, that’s just a stump. But it was my dead buck. … The deer only ran 20 yards. It’s the shortest distance I’ve ever had to track a deer I shot by bow.”
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The hunters were able to drive a truck through the farm and near the buck, which they loaded and drove to a processor. There it was skinned and caped.
The buck has 15 scorable points, says Kirby, with an inside spread of 21 4/8 inches. It has a green gross score measurement of 172 inches. Its G2s each measure 7 6/8 inches, and one G3 measures 8 4/8 inches. Kirby says other bucks on the farm have similar rack configurations.
Wheeler has some good video footage from the hunt, which he’ll post to his YouTube channel WheelsUp Outdoors soon.
Kirby’s hunting season is just beginning, he says, with trips planned to other states further south. And he’s not done deer hunting in Ohio, either.
“I don’t think I’ll do much better than my 15-pointer, but there are plenty of does around,” he says. “They’re good meat for the freezer.”
A family from Rural Retreat, Virginia, is offering a $1,000 reward for information on a missing bear hound who was taken from the side of the road by three women in a maroon van with Florida license plates on Saturday. Rocky Deel and his 11-year-old son Charlie had collected five of their six dogs after an unsuccessful day of bear hunting in Speedwell around Hale Lake when they realized the sixth dog, a “blue English” coonhound named Ringo, was nowhere to be found. Then they got a call from a family friend and fellow hunter.
“He said [Ringo] was out on Route 21,” Rocky tells Outdoor Life. “By the time we get down off the mountain and get to where he was at, we can’t find the dog but we’re still picking up the signal from the collar. Well, we end up finding the collar laying in the ditch.”
The hunter who had called Rocky had actually spoken with the women on the side of the road, who had sworn they would drive Ringo into cell phone service and call the Deels using the number on Ringo’s collar. So the hunter drove away, leaving Ringo with the women. But Rocky never heard from them. Now, he and his family suspect the women thought they were “saving” Ringo from a neglectful home where he was forced to hunt.
The red minivan that drove off with Ringo was seen at a grocery store in Speedwell earlier that day, Rocky says. Gail Deel / Facebook
Meanwhile, the Deels are reeling—especially Charlie.
“This just broke his heart,” Rocky says. “He loves the dogs. He would help me do the feeding, but now he’s telling me he can’t help me feed without Ringo being there. It just didn’t feel right.”
“Around here, everybody hunts. It’s a hunting community,” Deel says. “And for the most part you don’t have any trouble. We’ve never had any issues with anyone. But [the other hunter] did say [the women] were going on about how they think hunting is cruel, and that we make these dogs hunt. So I don’t know if they thought I was being cruel to the dog, but these dogs are bred for this. You don’t make them hunt.”
Ringo is one of the Deels’ six bear hounds. They’ve raised him since he was a puppy. Rocky Deel
Surely these women didn’t consider the legal implications of their actions. Stealing a dog in Virginia is a Class 5 felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Additionally, removing a GPS collar from a dog is a Class 1 misdemeanor, which could get them another year in jail or a $2,500 fine. Interference with lawful hunting is a Class 3 misdemeanor, which might tack on an additional $500 fine.
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The Deels made a Facebook page where they are collecting information on Ringo’s whereabouts. They have also filed police reports, contacted law enforcement in multiple counties, and have reached out to every dog rescue and shelter in the area.
“I’ve been out every day from daylight to dark searching for him,” Rocky says. “That’s what I’m actually doing right now. I’m just trying to find the van, or hoping they would have let him out somewhere. But with the reward, I’m hoping somebody will talk sooner or later.”
Austin Shepherd still remembers the giant 10-point his dad killed when he was just a kid growing up in Carrollton, Ohio. They entered the 175-inch buck into a local contest, and Shepherd bragged about the deer to any schoolmates who would listen.
“I thought it was a huge deal back in the day, and I remember going to school and telling all the kids, ‘My dad killed a monster!’” he tells Outdoor Life. “But I never imagined that I’d actually kill something bigger than his buck.”
On Oct. 21, the 26-year-old bowhunter finally did just that. After chasing his target buck for more than a year, he killed the tall 10-pointer in the same Ohio county where his dad took his 175-inch buck so many years prior. The following day, Shepherd took his buck to a taxidermist, who gave it a green score of 185 inches.
A trail cam photo of Shepherd’s buck that was taken over a year ago. Courtesy Austin Shepherd
Shepherd says he first caught the buck on camera last July. It was easily the biggest deer he’d seen on the piece of private land he hunts in Carroll County. The buck disappeared just as quickly, however, and Shepherd wouldn’t see it again until near the end of the season in early January.
“The last time I got him on camera was on Jan. 3, and I hunted the last day of muzzleloader season,” he says. “I sat all afternoon and when I heard a shot right before sundown, my heart sank. I thought he was dead.”
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Around 1:45 p.m. on Saturday, Shepherd watched a smaller five-point come into range and let it walk. Roughly 20 minutes later, the big 10 showed itself on the edge of a nearby cornfield. The buck slowly worked along the field edge, stopping every now and again to feed. It made a scrape at 40 yards and then worked even closer to Shepherd’s stand.
The buck was still feeding when it got to 20 yards. Shepherd let an arrow fly, hitting it a little high and behind the shoulder. The buck fell in its tracks.
Shepherd’s two-year-old son walks up to the 10-point buck. Courtesy Austin Shepherd
“I might’ve gotten him in the spine because he died right there in the grass,” Shepherd says. “I climbed out of that tree and took off running back to the house. I knew he wasn’t going anywhere.”
Shepherd came back to recover the buck along with his brother, mom, and fiancé, who brought along their two-year-old son. And while the boy might be too young to ever remember seeing his dad’s buck that night, he’ll surely recognize its antlers on the wall as he grows up. If nothing else, it’ll give the young hunter something to strive for.
One of the disgraced pro fishermen who was convicted of multiple felonies for stuffing walleyes with lead weights at a tournament on Lake Erie last year has now been accused of poaching deer in Pennsylvania. On Oct. 23, Chase Cominsky was charged with eight counts of wildlife crimes, according to Mercer County Court records. These charges stem from accusations that Cominsky killed several whitetail bucks while hunting without a license, after legal hours, and out of season, The Herald reports.
A criminal complaint filed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission Northwest and secured by The Herald says that game wardens were contacted on Nov. 25, 2022, by someone who knew Cominsky. They reported that Cominsky had harvested several deer illegally between 2013 and 2021.
Wardens followed up on these accusations and searched Cominsky’s home in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. They discovered five mounted bucks that had either been tagged in another person’s name or killed at night during that timeframe, according to NBC-4. All five of the deer would have been deemed illegal harvests anyways because, as wildlife officials pointed out in the criminal complaint, Cominsky has been banned from hunting in Pennsylvania since 2008 due to prior game-law violations.
Cominsky is scheduled to be arraigned in Mercery County Court on Nov. 14.
The poaching case only adds to Cominsky’s pile of legal woes, as they come on the heels of forgery charges that were filed against him in February. According to the criminal complaint in that case, which is still ongoing, Cominsky and his 18-year-old son tried passing off counterfeit bills at a bowling alley in Hermitage.
These forgery charges made a bigger splash than they would have otherwise because Cominksy was already in the spotlight for his role in a highly publicized cheating scandal that rocked the professional fishing world in October 2022. On Sept. 30 of that year, he and his teammate Jacob Runyan were caught red-handed stuffing their walleyes with lead weights to increase their overall bag weight.
Video footage from that day shows the outrage that ensued. The two anglers were on track to win the tournament, and they likely would have been named Team of the Year on the Lake Erie Walleye Trail after having what tournament directors called a “curiously unprecedented run of success.”
Cominsky and Runyan pled guilty in May to felony charges of cheating, attempted grand theft, possessing criminal tools, and unlawful ownership of wild animals. Their ultimate fall from grace culminated in a Cuyahoga County courtroom, where they were handcuffed and taken to jail to serve 10-day sentences. The two men were also fined, put on probation, and had their fishing privileges suspended for three years.
During the whitetail pre-rut and rut, hunters should worry less about the type of weather that will “get deer moving” and focus more on weather conditions that will help us hunt more effectively. That’s one of my takeaways from interviewing Dr. Grant Woods, a renowned wildlife researcher and diehard deer hunter. Woods and his crew publish excellent informational hunting content on his website, Growing Deer TV.
I interviewed him on Halloween just as a spectacular cold front was sinking into the heart of deer country. But if you didn’t kill your target buck during that front, don’t worry. The hunting is still getting better, Woods says. You can listen to my full interview with Woods in the podcast episode below. And read on to learn Woods’ other tips for understanding the rut, weather, and deer activity.
Cold Fronts Don’t Speed Up the Rut
Recent research has found that fronts, even big cold fronts like we just experienced, don’t increase whitetail rutting activity, Woods says.
“The research says that weather is not much of a [factor in regards to deer rutting activity],” he says. “And that’s caused a bit of an issue in the last few years between hunters and researchers in a lot of online chatter.”
“I’m going to tell you, during our cold front, we went from high 70s to 30 and under in 24 hours. And on my trail cameras, when that cold front hit, I got a big spike… So what I’m saying is there’s some miscommunication going on,” Woods says. “Putting my scientist hat on now, typically I can’t publish something unless … 95 times out of 100 it’s going to happen. Well there’s a lot of conflicting things [concerning weather and deer activity]. When did the barometer rise? How much of a temperature was it? What phase of the rut was it? There’s a lot of noise. And when there’s a lot of noise a good biologist that’s doing really good work is going to say ‘I can’t say X because there’s too much noise.’ They’re going to be a little more conservative if they’re doing honest science.”
So what’s the takeaway for the hunter? It’s important to know that in the pre-rut deer usually don’t go running far outside their home range, even on a big cold front. However, they might walk around more within their home range.
Also, it’s important to understand what the pre-rut really is. Woods defines the pre-rut as the time period during which less than 25 percent of does are receptive. Bucks are seeking or moving more. Every day, a few more does become receptive and that brings a frenzy to the bucks. All of this happens regardless of weather.
Rut Activity Will Continue Even When the Weather Warms
Yep, deer will keep on rutting even when the weather warms.
“The rut is a bell shaped curve and we’re definitively climbing up that curve [right now]. We’re increasing in intensity. So even if it’s 80 degrees, but the prom only happens once where you hunt, it’s still going to happen [during a warm front],” Woods says. “Now hunters sometimes debate that but if you look [at spring fawning season], fawns are born at the same time in the same place every year. There’s going to be some early fawns, a big cluster of fawns, and then some late fawns. [That’s because] especially up North, if they’re born too early, they’re going to fall into a snowbank and they’re not going to make it. And if they’re born too late they’re not going to gain enough weight before the next winter and they’re not going to make it. So the system is pretty refined over a long time. The rut is going to happen at the same time [locally, every year].”
Temperature Changes Don’t Need to Be Dramatic for Increased Deer Activity
Most deer hunters love to focus on the big fronts, but small changes in temperature can make for productive hunting, too. Woods uses a rough temperature change rule when deciding when to hunt vs. when to work.
“When it’s been warmer than normal, I get excited when there’s a 10 percent temperature decrease.”
So if it’s been 80 degrees and the forecast is calling for a drop down to 72 degrees, Woods will plan on hunting. During the late season, when deer are moving during warmer periods, Woods will hunt during a 10 percent increase in temperature. That means a small bump, like from 30 to 33 degrees.
When the rut is increasing in intensity, like it is right now, typical and stable weather makes for great hunting days, too, Woods says.
“Normal days are great days,” he says.
If the conditions are hot and not favorable, it’s probably not the time to skip work for an all-day sit. But Woods suggests making a short evening hunt and sliding in closer to bedding areas (assuming you can do so without bumping deer). This is because deer are likely to move only a few minutes before the end of legal shooting light during hot days. So there’s a chance you could catch a buck just leaving his bed at the end of the day.
Bucks Move Less in the Rain, Does Move More
Don’t be fooled by that one trail camera photo of a buck you have moving during a rainstorm. Bucks actually tend to move less during a steady rain.
“Researchers, again using GPS collared deer, have seen that bucks tend to move less when it’s raining,” Woods says. He thinks this could be because they have a harder time detecting predators in the rain, with blowing leaves and other disturbances in the woods.
Strangely, however, does tend to move a little bit more in the rain, Woods says. No one is quite sure why.
Focus on Predator Weather
Instead of worrying about how weather impacts deer, hunters should consider how weather affects our potential success as predators. Woods mentions barometric pressure as a good example. During high pressure and low humidity, hunters tend to see more deer. But that’s not necessarily because deer are moving more on high-pressure days (data say they don’t). Instead, it’s likely because high pressure days favor the hunter so we’re not getting busted by deer.
“On high-pressure days, our scent is actually rising. So we’re able to get closer to deer without them detecting our scent,” Wood says. “We’re not talking [enough] about a hunter’s ability to hunt. We’re totally focused on the deer and what’s making them move. We need to accept that they’re feeding and drinking and avoiding predators every day of their lives.”
“I don’t have any data on this, but understanding the science and being a diehard hunter, I believe the biggest problem is that we often don’t include the human element and we are alerting way more deer than we think we are.”
Pay Attention to Wind Speed and Consistency
A whitetail buck lives by his nose. John Hafner
Wind is the biggest factor in our ability to hunt whitetails effectively—we all know this. But Woods says to analyze not just wind direction, but also wind speed and consistency. Hunters have the advantage during a strong (but not gusting) wind that is consistent in direction and speed.
This is one of the reasons why hunters tend to have success during cold fronts, Woods says. He suggests using NOAA’s Wind Roses page, which shows predominant wind direction and wind strength. This will help you get a better idea of how to set stands in your area.
Considering that deer live by their noses, Woods has a logical theory about why deer are most active at dawn and dusk. The temperature changes during morning (warming) and evening (cooling), often cause the wind to shift and swirl. A swirling wind helps deer detect predators from all directions, which makes them feel safer while moving and feeding.
“At night and full daytime deer only get nasal protection, if you will, from about 180 degrees —just throwing a number out,” Woods says. “But at sunrise and sunset, because the Earth is warming the Earth is cooling, thermals are shifting, they’re getting protection from a much greater area.”
One tactic Woods employs is executing very short hunts in the evening. The less time you’re out there, the less time there is for your scent to disperse and for that big buck to potentially bust you. —A.R.
Read Next: Aaron Warbritton on How to Hunt the Rut on Public Land
A Better Way of Tracking Deer Activity (Sponsored)
The Moultrie Mobile EDGE Pro Moultrie
Moultrie Mobile is the most comprehensive cellular trail camera system on the market for capturing and tracking deer activity and planning your hunt. The new EDGE Pro cellular camera is packed with features that make it reliable and easy to set up. However, what’s most impressive about this very capable trail camera is the app that comes with it. First, Moultrie Mobile’s system uses A.I. to tag buck images so that you can select the most useful data—and not get bombarded with hundreds of images of squirrels and turkeys. The app also provides deer activity charting which tells you which camera locations have the highest traffic based on the time of day, temperature, and moon phase.
The Moultrie Mobile app just released an industry-first buck-movement prediction tool called Game Plan. Unlike other predictive models that focus on the moon phase, Game Plan uses recent, local trail camera data, along with upcoming weather info to help calculate the best time to be in the stand. The app also rolled out a new and improved mapping feature that allows you to view a variety of layers—including property lines and topo lines—and set more than 70 pin types on your hunting property map.
The exciting part about this technology is that if you run a handful of Moultrie Mobile cell cams on your property, you’ll quickly learn deer activity patterns. You’ll see when and where deer move in relation to different weather factors. If you run cameras consistently year after year, you’ll gain long-term historical data (which the app stores) that will help you make predictions about deer movement. But here’s the key: The data will be specific to the place you hunt, which makes it all the more valuable. —Outdoor Life Brand Team
Any hunter worth their salt knows habitat destruction is bad for deer for a variety of reasons. These include loss of quality food sources, disruption of migratory corridors, and overcrowding on nearby remaining habitat. But a collaborative research effort involving the University of Minnesota, Northern Michigan University, the University of Manitoba, Voyageurs National Park, and the Voyageurs Wolf Project has recently published new evidence that human alterations to forested ecosystems might also tip the scales in favor of one of a whitetail’s biggest predators.
The study, published in the October issue of research journal Ecological Applications, found that wolves prey on more whitetail fawns in areas where humans have impacted historically forested landscapes. Areas with clear-cuts, recently constructed roads and trails, urban sprawl, new human infrastructure, and other anthropogenic changes actually seem to create hotbeds for deer. And in the Upper Midwest where wolf populations are strong, wherever deer go, their canine predators aren’t far behind.
“When we put all of the pieces together, it is pretty clear that the cumulative effects of all major aspects of human activity in the Northwoods—logging, infrastructure development, and road and trail development—have fundamentally changed where and how wolves hunt deer fawns here,” said Sean Johnson-Bice, a University of Manitoba Ph.D. candidate and co-lead author of the study, in a University of Minnesota press release. “The rules of this predator-prey game change when people alter ecosystems, and it’s possible we have created conditions that may have tipped the scales in the predators’ favor.”
Some of these human impacts to landscapes in the Northwoods have actually drawn more deer in. Clear-cuts catalyze thick understory regrowth, which deer love to feed on and bed in. Does will often birth fawns in old clear-cuts with a few years of forest regeneration to protect them. But wolves prey on fawns at shockingly higher rates in these areas compared to elsewhere, the study shows. This could mean the apex predators are learning to expect deer on these human-impacted landscapes.
It’s not just logging that’s having an impact, either. The study points out that wolves gravitate to the forest roads, power line corridors, and UTV trails that cut through our forests. This is because the predators, like humans, like to travel in these straight-line corridors where it’s easier to walk and navigate. The authors also found that wolves kill a higher than expected number of fawns near man-made structures like cabins and barns, since deer are drawn to the available food that’s often found there.
“The premise is really quite simple: human activities change where deer are on the landscape, and wolves go where the deer are,” said co-lead author Thomas Gable, a University of Minnesota postdoctoral researcher and Voyageurs Wolf Project leader.
Northern Minnesota and Isle Royale were the only parts of the Lower 48 with viable wolf populations in the mid-20th century before recovery efforts began in the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Great Lakes region. Minnesota is currently home to 2,700 wolves. Meanwhile, hunters there harvested over 172,000 deer in 2022. But even if they aren’t the primary culprit of what feels like shrinking deer numbers in the Upper Midwest, hunters swear that wolves at least partially contribute to that squeeze.
“Deer and wolves evolved together,” Minnesota hunter, fishing guide, and outdoor writer Stu Osthoff told Outdoor Life contributor Patrick Durkin in 2022. “They’ve always coexisted in northern Minnesota … but when you combine wolves with harsh winters and declining habitat anywhere, deer struggle.”
Jian Wu Huang, 50, and Qiu M Huang, 44, recently pled guilty to one count each of taking over their daily limit of 15 crappies apiece while fishing the Enid Lake Spillway west of Tupelo, Mississippi. The two men from Lakeland, Tennessee, were apprehended with 171 crappies, or 141 fish over their combined limit, on Jan. 1.
An Oct. 30 press release from the federal U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi details the violation. In addition to possessing nearly five times their legal daily limit of crappies, the two men also were also caught using oversized hooks and exceeding the number of hooks allowed per fishing line. (From Dec. 1 until the end of February, that limit is one rod per angler with no more than two single hooks sized #2 or smaller.)
The violations will be costly for the two anglers. U.S. Magistrate Judge David A. Sanders ordered each defendant to pay $1,000 in fines and an additional $4,275 in restitution to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. The defendants were also placed on probation for one year. During this time, they are reportedly prohibited from fishing anywhere in the world, although it’s unclear how the U.S. Attorney’s Office plans to enforce such a ban. They are also banned from all properties owned by the Army Corps. of Engineers in the Northern District of Mississippi.
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Officers from MDWFP and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service joined forces to arrest and prosecute the two poachers.
“We are committed to working with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats,” USFWS law enforcement agent Stephen Clark said in the press release. “The illegal take and interstate transport of a species is a violation of federal law and will be investigated and prosecuted. We will continue to work closely with our state partners to conduct these criminal investigations.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until the end of November to decide whether wolverines in the Lower 48 warrant protections under the Endangered Species Act. In an updated assessment released in September, the federal agency re-addressed some of its concerns surrounding the species and whether or not it should be listed as “threatened” due to the effects of climate change and habitat loss. This is the latest in a back-and-forth debate surrounding the species, and it’s a distinct change of tune from the agency’s last assessment.
This potential listing would only pertain to wolverines in the contiguous United States, as their populations remain stable in Alaska. It could affect how certain states manage the species, although the regulations differ from state to state. Wyoming, for example, manages wolverines as a “species of greatest conservation concern” and prohibits trapping or hunting them.
On a bigger scale, the ESA listing could change how alpine forests are managed across the West. Because so much of the wolverine’s core habitat exists on what is already federal land, it wouldn’t cause much of a stir among private landowners. But it could have implications for logging, mining, and public land recreation.
The USFWS identified large pieces of core wolverine habitat across the Western U.S. in their latest assessment. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
When it comes to a wolverine’s ability to survive and adapt in a fast-changing West, the rugged creature is surprisingly needy. They can’t reproduce properly without the presence of spring snow. They need large swaths of untouched, high-alpine wilderness to hunt and breed. They don’t like human disturbance, and they don’t like dispersing across low-elevation areas to interact with other populations or find other chunks of functional habitat. But climate change, urban sprawl, and America’s obsession with high-alpine winter sports aren’t slowing anytime soon.
Aside from the hard-to-access terrain they inhabit, wolverines are elusive critters with expansive territories, which makes it difficult for wildlife biologists to estimate their populations. Their management has also been complicated over the last decade by a series of petitions, assessments, proposals, and withdrawals.
Gathering data about wolverines is complicated by their low numbers and elusive behavior. Idaho Department of Fish and Game / Flickr
In 2013, the USFWS proposed to list wolverines in the contiguous U.S. as a threatened distinct population segment. The agency withdrew that proposal in 2014, but a court order reinstated it in 2016 following lawsuits from wildlife advocacy organizations.
The USFWS then withdrew its proposal again in 2020, “finding that the loss of wolverine habitat due to climate change and other stressors was not as significant as we found in our 2013 proposed rule” and that “wolverines in the contiguous U.S. were not discrete from wolverines in Canada, and therefore did not qualify as a [distinct population segment] under the [Endangered Species Act].” But that withdrawal sparked another slew of lawsuits from the same organizations and, two years later, the USFWS was back to studying wolverines again.
The results of the most recent study renege on the previous statement from the 2020 withdrawal. According to that assessment, the stresses of climate change are having an impact, and all is not well with wolverines in the Lower 48.
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“Although historical wolverine populations were likely naturally small and distributed among patches of high-elevation alpine habitats in the contiguous U.S., core wolverine habitats are projected to become smaller and more fragmented in the future as the result of climate change and human disturbance,” the assessment reads. “Overall, future wolverine populations in the contiguous U.S. may be less secure than we described in our 2018 [Species Status Assessment].”
The USFWS will submit their final determination to the Federal Register on Nov. 27, USFWS public affairs officer Amanda Smith told WyoFile.
A few days before Halloween, a group of three experienced anglers headed off the southern California coast in search of broadbill swordfish. They left before sunrise on Oct. 27 and returned to Dana Landing in the dark with one the heaviest swordfish ever caught on the West Coast. The fish weighed 520 pounds, which shatters the previous California record of 452 pounds.
“The culmination of countless hours, days, years, a lifetime of hard work and mental dedication. Most see the end result,” Brothers Sport Fishing wrote in a Facebook post. “Few see the commitment and grit that preceded.”
That “end result” has now been certified as an official state record, according to Western Outdoor News. Capt. Ezekiel (Zeek) Cruz shared the full story behind the catch with WON, including their stressful, hour-and-a-half long battle with the giant swordfish.
“It was just incredible that we were able to catch that fish in such a short amount of time,” Cruz told WON. “If the stars had not aligned, we’d have lost that fish a dozen times.”
The three anglers pictured with the swordfish on the same night they landed it. via Facebook
Capt. Cruz went out that day with angler Mason Karafa and Dillon Houston, the owner of Brothers Sportfishing. The arrived at their spot before daybreak and stayed for most of the day, deep-dropping their baits over 1,000 feet to the ocean floor. With only a couple hours of daylight left, they still hadn’t gotten a bite, so the crew ran 9 miles to a new area.
“The bait was down there for less than five minutes when it got whacked,” Cruz said.
Karafa was the first one on the rod. He reeled down on the fish while Houston ran the boat and Cruz cleared all the other gear from the deck. They worked on the fish for the next 45 minutes until they finally saw some color and identified the billfish as a sword. The giant swordfish made a hard run on the surface and then did a U-turn, swimming directly at the boat.
When the fish got to the stern, it started spearing the motor and attacking the boat. Cruz tried sticking the fish with a flying gaff but hit it square in the bill, breaking the pole. The swordfish then looped back around and charged the boat again, where Cruz hit it with a second flying gaff just behind the shoulder.
Cruz stands behind Karafa as he battles the swordfish. via Facebook
The swordfish made a hard run, taking hundreds of feet of buoy line in less than a minute and dragging the buoy across the surface.
“We drove up on the fish because we could see it thrashing on the surface,” Cruz said. “It was kind of just flailing, and it had wrapped itself in that buoy line.”
By the time they unwrapped the swordfish, it had fought itself to death. It was now dark, and they tail-roped the fish and hauled it over the stern.
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Arriving back at Dana Landing, they tried weighing the giant fish but couldn’t find a scale that went over 500 pounds. They eventually brought the swordfish to Chula’s Seafood at Driscoll’s Wharf, where it tipped the scales at 520 pounds.
Although the California Department of Fish and Game has not yet updated its record book, Brothers Sportfishing confirmed with Outdoor Life that the record has been certified by the agency. The previous state record of 452 pounds was set in 2003.
