Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 1016: Top 10 Wildlife Books to Listen to or Read This Year

Transcript

Ep. 1016: Top 10 Wildlife Books to Listen to or Read This Year · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. Your guide to
0:04
Speaker 1: the White Tail Woods presented by first Light, creating proven
0:08
Speaker 1: versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First
0:13
Speaker 1: Light Go Farther, stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon,
0:19
Speaker 1: Welcome to the.
0:20
Speaker 2: Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on the show, I'm
0:24
Speaker 2: sharing my top ten wildlife recommended books that I'm recommending
0:28
Speaker 2: you read or listen to this upcoming year. All right,
0:40
Speaker 2: welcome back to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I want
0:45
Speaker 2: to read you something a quote that I came across recently.
0:50
Speaker 2: It states Internet brain is making us all profoundly dumber.
0:56
Speaker 2: Digital slop is destroying our attention spans. Study after study
1:02
Speaker 2: shows declines and focus critical thinking and literacy. One of
1:07
Speaker 2: the most counterculture things you can do right now is
1:10
Speaker 2: read a book. Books are the best bargain there is.
1:16
Speaker 2: There is no better place to get a rich distillation
1:19
Speaker 2: of insights and wisdom from great leaders to entrepreneurs, to
1:24
Speaker 2: athletes to creatives. The people we tend to deem wise
1:28
Speaker 2: and discerning all read. That's a quote from a past
1:34
Speaker 2: Wired to Hunt guest, Brad Stalberg. He's also an author
1:39
Speaker 2: and an expert on all things performance and mastery and excellence.
1:45
Speaker 2: And when I ran across this from him, it definitely
1:50
Speaker 2: resonated with me, and it brought to mind the fact
1:54
Speaker 2: that we have not talked about reading on this podcast
1:58
Speaker 2: in several years. Tony and I did an episode discussing
2:02
Speaker 2: book recommendations about two years ago. But this quote, this
2:08
Speaker 2: line reminded me that there's a whole lot more ground
2:11
Speaker 2: there to cover that we have not yet. And I
2:14
Speaker 2: actually personally just finished writing a book. In that book,
2:20
Speaker 2: my second book is going to be coming out in
2:22
Speaker 2: early twenty twenty seven, but I just finished the writing process,
2:25
Speaker 2: and that book was all about wildlife in America. And
2:29
Speaker 2: of course, in putting together that book, I spent a
2:31
Speaker 2: lot of time reading other books about these topics. So
2:35
Speaker 2: many of these are top of mind for me, which
2:38
Speaker 2: got me thinking that, hey, you know what, the folks
2:41
Speaker 2: within the mediator world, hunters and anglers and folks who
2:44
Speaker 2: care about wildlife and wild places, they're likely also the
2:47
Speaker 2: kinds of people who don't always want digital slot, who
2:52
Speaker 2: sometimes would like to dig in a little bit deeper
2:55
Speaker 2: into these topics that fascinate us so much. So that's
3:00
Speaker 2: why today I'm sharing ten wildlife related book recommendations with you.
3:06
Speaker 2: I'm going to walk through ten different books, discuss what
3:08
Speaker 2: they're about, why I enjoyed them, why I recommend them
3:11
Speaker 2: to you, and then my ask is that you pick
3:14
Speaker 2: one or two of these and try them yourselves. Of course,
3:17
Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of physical, hard copy books, but
3:20
Speaker 2: these days, I know that life is busy, and the
3:23
Speaker 2: amazing thing is that there are a whole lot of books.
3:26
Speaker 2: I bet every single one of these books I'm going
3:28
Speaker 2: to talk to you about you can listen to as
3:30
Speaker 2: well as an audiobook. So of course I'd like you
3:33
Speaker 2: to listen to this podcast, but you can also throw
3:36
Speaker 2: on one of these audio books and go deep into
3:38
Speaker 2: one of these topics, learn a lot, immerse yourself in
3:42
Speaker 2: the world of these issues, or these adventures or these animals,
3:46
Speaker 2: and I think you can learn something more. You can
3:48
Speaker 2: have an experience that's enjoyable and educational and maybe inspirational.
3:53
Speaker 2: That's just different, dramatically different than anything you're in fined
3:57
Speaker 2: on social media or the internet at locke or YouTube
4:01
Speaker 2: or wherever most people spend their time these days. So
4:04
Speaker 2: this is my this is my ask to go a
4:08
Speaker 2: little bit old school, pick up a book or give
4:11
Speaker 2: one a listen, and I promise you're going to be
4:13
Speaker 2: reminded that there's something almost magical about a deep immersion
4:19
Speaker 2: in a topic like this that only books can do.
4:22
Speaker 2: So before we get to that, though very briefly, a
4:26
Speaker 2: quick update related to this podcast, I am launching a
4:31
Speaker 2: new show here soon. In a handful of weeks, I
4:34
Speaker 2: will be launching a new podcast. More details about that
4:38
Speaker 2: will come out here in the coming weeks. But with
4:40
Speaker 2: that new podcast that I'm be coming out with, I
4:43
Speaker 2: am going to be cutting back on how many Wired
4:45
Speaker 2: Hunt episodes that I host, so there are some changes
4:49
Speaker 2: coming to this show. I will still be hosting Wired
4:52
Speaker 2: to Hunt episodes every other week. Tony will continue doing
4:56
Speaker 2: his Foundation episodes every single week. Joining us on those
5:01
Speaker 2: off weeks will be Jake Hoefer, who last year you
5:05
Speaker 2: saw on this feed hosting our Retfresh episodes and then
5:08
Speaker 2: doing the Back forty mini series. This year, he's going
5:12
Speaker 2: to continue doing the ret Fresh series in the fall,
5:15
Speaker 2: he's going to bring back the Back forty at least
5:18
Speaker 2: once a month. We're going to be doing Back forty
5:20
Speaker 2: episodes that might possibly increase in the future, and on
5:24
Speaker 2: the off weeks he will be doing regular interview shows
5:27
Speaker 2: like we have historically done on Wired Hunt. So you're
5:30
Speaker 2: going to see the three of us, Me, Tony and
5:33
Speaker 2: Jake all throughout this year, all bring you top of
5:36
Speaker 2: the line whitetail related information through most of that period.
5:42
Speaker 2: This new show that I'll be launching is going to
5:44
Speaker 2: be a home for my non whitetail stuff. So a
5:47
Speaker 2: conversation like we're having today where we're speaking a little
5:50
Speaker 2: bit more broadly about wildlife in the future that might
5:53
Speaker 2: live on this new show today, you're going to get
5:57
Speaker 2: it here. Stay tuned for those future details in the
6:00
Speaker 2: weeks and months to come. So all that said, let's
6:03
Speaker 2: talk books. Let's talk my top ten wildlife related books.
6:07
Speaker 2: As I mentioned, if you want hunting or phishing books,
6:10
Speaker 2: me and Tony did a podcast about that two years ago.
6:13
Speaker 2: That episode is episode seven seventy seven, Twelve books every
6:18
Speaker 2: hunter and anglis should read. So you can go back
6:20
Speaker 2: and listen to that if you're more interested in specifically
6:23
Speaker 2: hunt and fish topic books. But today we're gonna go
6:27
Speaker 2: a little bit farther out and talk wildlife of all types.
6:29
Speaker 2: There are some deer recommendations, but then a whole bunch
6:32
Speaker 2: more and We're going to start with an audiobook actually,
6:35
Speaker 2: so I'm not gonna have a physical book to show you.
6:38
Speaker 2: The first book i'm gonna recommend is a series of books,
6:41
Speaker 2: and this is a homer I'm gonna be in a
6:42
Speaker 2: homer here. I'm gonna promote something that my colleagues are making.
6:45
Speaker 2: But man, it is great. I'm gonna show you here
6:48
Speaker 2: on the app I'm going to recommend to you Mediator's
6:53
Speaker 2: American History, which you can download on Audible or wherever
6:57
Speaker 2: you get your audiobooks, whatever your app of choice is.
7:00
Speaker 2: Spotify also has them. There are three parts to this
7:03
Speaker 2: so far. There is at the beginning the Long Hunters.
7:08
Speaker 2: So the first book of this three part series explores
7:12
Speaker 2: the Long Hunter era of our wildlife history in America,
7:17
Speaker 2: when folks like Daniel Boone took to the field exploring
7:21
Speaker 2: the frontier at that time, which was kind of the
7:23
Speaker 2: Midwest Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, that region, and we're discovering what
7:29
Speaker 2: wild places and wild animals were there and then beginning
7:33
Speaker 2: a hunting economy around those animals. And so this entire
7:38
Speaker 2: series of books, this media or American History explores wildlife
7:43
Speaker 2: but then also explores how Americans engaged with wildlife from
7:47
Speaker 2: this kind of market hunting perspective, and there's incredible stories
7:52
Speaker 2: of adventure, there's incredible stories of what wildlife populations used
7:55
Speaker 2: to be like in America. Inspiring in that way. You're
7:59
Speaker 2: also going to learn about what these you know, people
8:02
Speaker 2: went through living out there alongside those animals. And then
8:05
Speaker 2: in all three cases, you're also going to learn about
8:08
Speaker 2: the tragic history in most cases in which we overexploited
8:14
Speaker 2: these wildlife. And I think a really important part of
8:17
Speaker 2: the history of wildlife in our country and hunting in
8:20
Speaker 2: our country is this consistent pattern in which we discovered
8:27
Speaker 2: wildlife in abundance and then changed that, destroyed that, over
8:35
Speaker 2: exploited that abundance. And so Book one is about the
8:39
Speaker 2: long hunters. That's like the seventeen hundreds where we experienced
8:43
Speaker 2: that with deer and black bears and different different stories
8:48
Speaker 2: on those lines. The second part of this series, Book
8:51
Speaker 2: two is about the mountain men. This is the early
8:53
Speaker 2: eighteen hundreds of eighteen oh four ish inuntill eighteen forty,
8:57
Speaker 2: give or take, and that's when you had this second
9:00
Speaker 2: wave of folks heading farther west. Now we're getting to
9:02
Speaker 2: the Rocky Mountain West and the beaver trapping era and
9:07
Speaker 2: that entire economy and then eventual over exploitation. And then
9:11
Speaker 2: the third part, which just recently came out, which has
9:13
Speaker 2: showed you on my phone, is the hide hunter's era.
9:16
Speaker 2: So this is the story of the American buffalo and
9:19
Speaker 2: the hide hunters that came out and eventually nearly wiped
9:23
Speaker 2: out this incredible wildlife species. So this three part series
9:26
Speaker 2: is both fascinating and interesting, but also damning in a
9:31
Speaker 2: certain way in which hopefully all of us today that
9:34
Speaker 2: engage with wildlife maybe is hunters or anglers or even recreators.
9:39
Speaker 2: I think these books will be a very important reminder
9:41
Speaker 2: to all of us that wildlife is incredible and there
9:45
Speaker 2: are ways to enjoy that wildlife. Sometimes that means actually
9:49
Speaker 2: taking some of that wildlife. But there is a very
9:52
Speaker 2: very fine line, a very careful line we need to
9:54
Speaker 2: walk to make sure we don't go too far with that,
9:57
Speaker 2: because our predecessors did and we very nearly lost these
10:01
Speaker 2: animals because of it. So an important history to base
10:04
Speaker 2: ourselves in, especially if we partake in the modern day
10:08
Speaker 2: version of hunting or fishing. That all brings me to
10:12
Speaker 2: my second book, recommendation, which is another history. This is
10:16
Speaker 2: Wild New World by Dan Flores, The Epic Story of
10:20
Speaker 2: Animals and People in America. Dan is one of my
10:23
Speaker 2: favorite wildlife writers. This book and a second of his
10:27
Speaker 2: called The American Serengeti, are just a tremendous, fascinating deep
10:35
Speaker 2: dive into the history of our wild animal populations and
10:40
Speaker 2: in the history of the natural history of those animals here,
10:43
Speaker 2: but then also what happened when we entered the picture.
10:46
Speaker 2: So in this book, it starts a long, long time
10:48
Speaker 2: ago with the first peoples coming down into the North
10:52
Speaker 2: American continent and what wild animals were here at that time,
10:55
Speaker 2: and then it goes through this like nearly ten thousand
10:58
Speaker 2: year period in which of American populations lived alongside these
11:02
Speaker 2: vast populations of animals and relatively coexisted. And then it
11:07
Speaker 2: gets into what happens once, you know, European colonists moved
11:11
Speaker 2: across the country and we slowly, you know, did the
11:14
Speaker 2: things that I just mentioned in the American and the
11:16
Speaker 2: media's American History series where we uh, you know, trapped
11:21
Speaker 2: beavers nearly to extinction, and then we hunted the buffalo
11:24
Speaker 2: nearly to extinction, and we persecuted so many other animal species.
11:28
Speaker 2: So this story is full of you know, of again
11:31
Speaker 2: kind of similar things, inspiring stories of the past, this
11:35
Speaker 2: incredible abundance of wildlife, but then also these really challenging
11:40
Speaker 2: periods where we where we lost the sense of balance
11:44
Speaker 2: and long term view that is necessary to keep these
11:47
Speaker 2: animals around. So read this if you want to understand
11:50
Speaker 2: how amazing it used to be, also how bad it
11:53
Speaker 2: used to be. And then finally, also towards the end
11:56
Speaker 2: of the book, you also learn about many of the
11:58
Speaker 2: ways that we stopped before as too late on how
12:00
Speaker 2: we helped recover these species. So that is also really
12:04
Speaker 2: inspiring and encouraging and I think shows us again how
12:08
Speaker 2: you know, any of us who care about wildlife can
12:10
Speaker 2: be a part of the next generation of stewards that
12:13
Speaker 2: stand up for these things and make sure we continue
12:16
Speaker 2: to have wildlife around us and around our families and
12:19
Speaker 2: friends for many, many generations to come. So highly recommend
12:22
Speaker 2: this one or American Serengetti by Dan as well that
12:26
Speaker 2: one's focused on the Great Plains, this is more broadly
12:29
Speaker 2: the entire country of America, and maybe even the content
12:35
Speaker 2: it talks a little bit about Canada. I think as well.
12:36
Speaker 2: If I remember, the next book on my list is
12:42
Speaker 2: going to be a whitetail deer focused book. This is
12:47
Speaker 2: Whitetail Nation, and this is one that's kind of under
12:51
Speaker 2: the radar. Not a whole lot of people know about
12:53
Speaker 2: this book. It came out maybe fifteen twenty years ago.
12:56
Speaker 2: And this is a story of one man's journey to
13:02
Speaker 2: better understand white tail deer across the country and better
13:06
Speaker 2: understand the culture of hunting that he was a part
13:09
Speaker 2: of to a degree but had never gone deep into.
13:12
Speaker 2: And so this is both a fascinating and fun hunting
13:16
Speaker 2: story as the author travels the country hunting in New
13:19
Speaker 2: York and Texas and Montana and some other places, you know,
13:23
Speaker 2: trying to finally understand the culture of diehard deer hunters
13:28
Speaker 2: and many different versions of deer hunting and maybe someday
13:31
Speaker 2: get his big buck. But then also you know the
13:35
Speaker 2: impact and the meaning of this animal two Americans in general.
13:39
Speaker 2: So a fun book, an illuminating book about whitetail deer.
13:43
Speaker 2: It's not one that allow of deer hunters know about
13:45
Speaker 2: or have read, but it's one I would definitely recommend.
13:48
Speaker 2: A second book that I'm just going to mention related
13:51
Speaker 2: to deer is one that I have not yet read,
13:54
Speaker 2: so I can't recommend it, but I'm very intrigued by it,
13:58
Speaker 2: and so I'm going to throw it out there as
13:59
Speaker 2: a thing to keep on your radar to maybe check out.
14:02
Speaker 2: I'll get back to you guys with a review on this.
14:03
Speaker 2: But this is a relatively recent came out last year
14:06
Speaker 2: book written by a non hunter called The Age of Deer,
14:11
Speaker 2: Trouble and Kinship with Our Wild Neighbors. So this, similar
14:15
Speaker 2: to the other one, is a deep dive into deer
14:18
Speaker 2: across America and the cultural connections we have deer and
14:23
Speaker 2: the ecological connections we have to deer and hunting deer
14:26
Speaker 2: and managing deer and all of the great things that
14:29
Speaker 2: that brings to the table, but then also some challenges
14:32
Speaker 2: that brings to the table. As I understand it, this
14:35
Speaker 2: book explores all of that in a fair minded, level
14:40
Speaker 2: minded way. But again, the author is not a hunter herself,
14:44
Speaker 2: although as I understand it, some of her community friends
14:47
Speaker 2: and family are, and so I think that is a
14:50
Speaker 2: perspective that she shares, so might be one to check out.
14:55
Speaker 2: I'll get back to you for sure, but I want
14:56
Speaker 2: to throw that out there because I have it, I'm
14:58
Speaker 2: interested in it and want to throw it into the
15:01
Speaker 2: pool of consideration. Next up we are going to move
15:06
Speaker 2: on to book number or This is a big pivot
15:14
Speaker 2: from the last topic, which was whitetail deer. Of course,
15:17
Speaker 2: we talk about white tail deer a lot here on
15:19
Speaker 2: Wired to Hunt for good reason. They're an animal we hunt.
15:22
Speaker 2: They're an animal we eat. They're an animal we love.
15:26
Speaker 2: They're an animal that almost all of us see in
15:29
Speaker 2: our backyards or our neighborhoods, or our local farm fields
15:33
Speaker 2: or park or woodland. The next book or two is
15:38
Speaker 2: going to be about an animal that most of us
15:41
Speaker 2: rarely see, maybe have never seen, but I still think
15:45
Speaker 2: that it stands within all of our psychology, maybe as
15:52
Speaker 2: looming large. And this animal I'm speaking about, of course,
15:56
Speaker 2: is the grizzly bear. The grizzly bear is at as
16:00
Speaker 2: wild an animal as we have in this nation. It's
16:05
Speaker 2: about as iconic of a species. It's so representative of wildness.
16:11
Speaker 2: I think we all have some kind of fascination with
16:14
Speaker 2: it to one degree or another, even though we all
16:17
Speaker 2: have some different kind of connection. Some of us are
16:19
Speaker 2: so so far removed from them. Some of us live
16:22
Speaker 2: closely to them or have had real in person run
16:25
Speaker 2: ins with him. This book, Grizzly Years, is one of
16:29
Speaker 2: the best books I have read about the animal, and
16:31
Speaker 2: it's from a very first person, close connection type perspective.
16:36
Speaker 2: Grizzly Years is written by a man named Doug Peacock.
16:41
Speaker 2: He was a Vietnam vet who came out of his
16:45
Speaker 2: experience during that war severely traumatized, broken, and in a really,
16:52
Speaker 2: really bad place. But when he returned to the United
16:54
Speaker 2: States and was seeking out how to move forward and
16:58
Speaker 2: how to live in this new reality that he existed in,
17:01
Speaker 2: he found himself turning towards wild places. He headed out
17:05
Speaker 2: into the desert of the Southwest, and then the Wind
17:07
Speaker 2: River Mountains of Wyoming, and then eventually some of the
17:10
Speaker 2: national parks of the Upper Rocky Mountains like Yellowstone and
17:13
Speaker 2: Glacier National Park, where he came face to face with
17:17
Speaker 2: grizzly bears, and in those moments, coming face to face
17:21
Speaker 2: with an animal like that that is so powerful, that
17:27
Speaker 2: is so able to look at you and confront you
17:31
Speaker 2: with the fragility of your life and kind of put
17:35
Speaker 2: you down a wrung or two on the food chain.
17:38
Speaker 2: That instantly, I think creates a sense of humility that
17:42
Speaker 2: instantly helps you kind of have a different perspective on life.
17:45
Speaker 2: And what Peacock experience then was for the first time
17:48
Speaker 2: since coming back from Vietnam, you know, feeling like he
17:51
Speaker 2: was in a life or death type situation where things
17:54
Speaker 2: seemed real and concrete in a way that the rest
17:58
Speaker 2: of civilized life no longer did for him. And so
18:02
Speaker 2: once he experienced that, he realized he needed more of that.
18:06
Speaker 2: He wanted to encounter these animals, learn more about these animals,
18:09
Speaker 2: live out there among these animals as much as he
18:11
Speaker 2: possibly could, and so Doug then continued to return to
18:15
Speaker 2: these wild places where grizzly bears lived in the nineteen seventies,
18:19
Speaker 2: over and over and over again, studying them, watching them
18:22
Speaker 2: from afar, living out there for extended periods, camping, and
18:27
Speaker 2: eventually he not only found peace with these animals, but
18:31
Speaker 2: he also recognized that they were struggling as a species.
18:45
Speaker 2: In the nineteen seventies, grizzly bears reached about as low
18:49
Speaker 2: of a point as they have ever been in our country.
18:52
Speaker 2: At one point, there was something like fifty thousand grizzly
18:55
Speaker 2: bears in the lower forty eight states, right, you know,
18:58
Speaker 2: probably right around that Lewis and Lark time frame or
19:00
Speaker 2: before that, and then the subsequent you know, one hundred
19:04
Speaker 2: and fifty, one hundred and seventy years, Grizzlies were persecuted
19:09
Speaker 2: and pushed out of their native habitat. They used to
19:11
Speaker 2: be all over the plains. No longer they used to be,
19:14
Speaker 2: you know, stretching from north to south, from Mexico to Canada,
19:17
Speaker 2: all the way to California, out into the you know,
19:19
Speaker 2: the Central Prairie, and settlers and ranchers and hunters and
19:25
Speaker 2: all sorts of people. Government officials shot and persecuted and
19:29
Speaker 2: poisoned and drove those populations down to the ground. To
19:32
Speaker 2: the point of the nineteen seventies, there were grizzlies almost
19:37
Speaker 2: nowhere in the country except for tiny remnant populations in
19:41
Speaker 2: Yellowstone National Park and Glacier and maybe a couple tiny
19:46
Speaker 2: isolated regions elsewhere. But they were down to maybe two
19:49
Speaker 2: hundred some bears left after reaching you know, after coming
19:52
Speaker 2: from fifty thousand, we were down to maybe two hundred
19:55
Speaker 2: ish bears. That's where Peacock entered the story, and when
19:58
Speaker 2: he realized that these bears were in trouble and in decline.
20:01
Speaker 2: He decided he wanted to try to find ways to help,
20:04
Speaker 2: and the idea he stumbled upon from a friend was
20:08
Speaker 2: to film them to help other people see them and
20:11
Speaker 2: learn about them and understand, you know, that there were
20:13
Speaker 2: bears out here still, but they weren't doing so well.
20:16
Speaker 2: And so Peacock ended up getting an old video camera
20:19
Speaker 2: this is a long time ago, and filming grizzly bears,
20:22
Speaker 2: and he was one of the first people to have really,
20:26
Speaker 2: you know, real up close in the wild natural history
20:30
Speaker 2: footage of grizzly bears in Yellowstone and Glacier National Park
20:34
Speaker 2: in that region, and you know, he kind of became
20:36
Speaker 2: famous for that. And so this book follows his experiences
20:41
Speaker 2: both out there in the wild, just watching them, learning
20:44
Speaker 2: from them, having these up close, crazy experiences with them,
20:47
Speaker 2: and then ultimately filming them and trying to better understand
20:51
Speaker 2: them while also trying to understand who he was and
20:55
Speaker 2: his relationship to wildness and the rest of the world.
20:59
Speaker 2: The book follows those adventures, but then also flashes back
21:02
Speaker 2: and forth between those encounters with grizzlies and then experiences
21:07
Speaker 2: in Vietnam, some traumatic or formative events during his war
21:11
Speaker 2: years in which we bounce back and forth, you know,
21:14
Speaker 2: through this kind of psychological roller coaster he personally experienced.
21:18
Speaker 2: So it's it's a hell of an adventure story. It's
21:21
Speaker 2: illuminating about the reality of these bears, what they're actually
21:25
Speaker 2: like on the ground. There's so many stories, there's so
21:27
Speaker 2: many myths, there's so many ideas about grizzly bears that
21:32
Speaker 2: come from a place of fear and come from a
21:35
Speaker 2: place of disconnection to them. Doug Peacock brings a perspective
21:41
Speaker 2: that is very connected to them. I think that this
21:45
Speaker 2: is a story and a set of perspectives that's more
21:48
Speaker 2: important than ever right now as we are entering a
21:51
Speaker 2: new phase in the grizzly bear story. Grizzlies have recovered
21:56
Speaker 2: dramatically since the nineteen seventies, since that low point of
21:59
Speaker 2: two some bears. We're in the lower forty eight states,
22:03
Speaker 2: probably well over two thousand bears, and they're expanding the
22:06
Speaker 2: range once again. They're coming back to areas that they
22:09
Speaker 2: have not been in more than one hundred years, and
22:11
Speaker 2: so from a wildlife recovery perspective, this is very exciting.
22:15
Speaker 2: But from a human perspective, there's also challenges that come
22:18
Speaker 2: with that. There's new ways of living that have to
22:22
Speaker 2: be adjusted to when you live in grizzly bear country,
22:25
Speaker 2: but never did before. Right, The people that are out
22:27
Speaker 2: there with these bears bear a set of costs now,
22:31
Speaker 2: whether it be you know, actual dollar cost and dealing
22:34
Speaker 2: with damage from bears, or psychological costs, which was trying
22:38
Speaker 2: to deal with the different things you need to think
22:42
Speaker 2: about when living alongside these animals. So all of that
22:45
Speaker 2: has led to a lot of questions and controversy around
22:47
Speaker 2: grizzlies and now also there's a lot of debate and
22:51
Speaker 2: discussion around if grizzly bears should be removed from the
22:54
Speaker 2: endangered species list, and if so, should they be managed
22:57
Speaker 2: by state wildlife agencies? And should hunts be allowed for
23:01
Speaker 2: grizzlies in the lower forty eight states as well? So
23:04
Speaker 2: there are many, many different takes on that topic. There
23:07
Speaker 2: are many different perspectives and reasons to think about on
23:11
Speaker 2: all sides. But that's a conversation for another day and
23:14
Speaker 2: another podcast. But I would recommend you read Grizzly Years
23:18
Speaker 2: by Doug Peacock in Search of the American Wilderness for
23:22
Speaker 2: one of those important perspectives to consider as we go
23:26
Speaker 2: down that road. And I'm going to give you one
23:29
Speaker 2: more bear, kind of a bonus bear recommendation. This is
23:32
Speaker 2: a book written by my friend Bjorn Dila. It is
23:34
Speaker 2: a Shape in the Dark, Living and Dying with brown Bears,
23:39
Speaker 2: really really great book. A different kind of book but
23:43
Speaker 2: also similar in some ways. The Grizzly Year's Book is
23:46
Speaker 2: really about lower forty eight grizzlies, and this book is
23:50
Speaker 2: about Alaskan brown bears, which are also grizzlies, but they
23:54
Speaker 2: live there closer to the coast. And then of course
23:57
Speaker 2: there's also interior grizzlies that Bjorn talks about as well,
24:00
Speaker 2: And so this book is an examination of his personal
24:02
Speaker 2: experiences with bears. He lives in Juno, Alaska. He's been
24:06
Speaker 2: a guide for bear viewing and bear filming. He's spent
24:11
Speaker 2: a tremendous amount of time in very high bear density
24:15
Speaker 2: areas and done some wild wild things out there with him.
24:18
Speaker 2: So this is a collection of his stories with these animals,
24:22
Speaker 2: going deep into the wilderness on some wild transsects, some
24:26
Speaker 2: wild trips across southeast Alaska or interior you know, on
24:29
Speaker 2: the Bricks Range of Alaska, while also exploring some of
24:33
Speaker 2: the history of these animals across the several hundred year
24:36
Speaker 2: story we have as an American nation with these animals.
24:40
Speaker 2: So interesting history and memoir. And that's a little bonus
24:45
Speaker 2: Grizzly bear book to add to your list if this
24:47
Speaker 2: is your kind of topic, that's your kind of wildlife.
24:51
Speaker 2: Moving on another hard pivot, this is a book by
24:57
Speaker 2: a guy named Thorhanson, All Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid.
25:04
Speaker 2: The fraught and Fascinating Biology of Climate Change. Now some
25:09
Speaker 2: people hear climate change and immediately want to shut off
25:12
Speaker 2: the news, want to shut off the article, want to
25:15
Speaker 2: you know, not see anything about it because of all
25:17
Speaker 2: the politics around it. Right, It's become kind of a
25:20
Speaker 2: politically coded topic. But it doesn't have to be. It's
25:24
Speaker 2: something that you know, many scientists and biologists and folks
25:28
Speaker 2: living out there on the wild landscape are seeing happen
25:32
Speaker 2: on the ground and they don't have any kind of
25:33
Speaker 2: a political allegiance. They don't have any kind of dog
25:35
Speaker 2: in that fight. And that's where this book comes from,
25:38
Speaker 2: and that's how kind of my perspective on the whole
25:40
Speaker 2: topic comes from as well. I'm not interested in the
25:42
Speaker 2: politics of any of it. I'm simply interested in, like
25:45
Speaker 2: what's actually happening on the ground and how is it
25:48
Speaker 2: impacting wildlife, fish and the ability to hunt or fish
25:52
Speaker 2: or see these animals, whatever your thing is that you
25:54
Speaker 2: like to do with wildlife, what do these changes mean
25:57
Speaker 2: for that? And that's exactly what the spoke is about.
26:00
Speaker 2: This is a very interesting non political look at not
26:04
Speaker 2: like hypothetical things like you know, there's so many hypotheticals
26:08
Speaker 2: this model says this is going to happen, or this
26:10
Speaker 2: you know, talking head in the news says that this
26:12
Speaker 2: other thing is going to happen. This book is actually
26:15
Speaker 2: about things happening right now. How climate related changes across
26:19
Speaker 2: the world and across the last twenty years or so
26:22
Speaker 2: is actually impacting in wildlife in what ways is it
26:26
Speaker 2: actually right now changing you know, the situation in the
26:29
Speaker 2: ocean for fish, or the situation in rivers for trout,
26:33
Speaker 2: or the situation in a jungle or a forest in
26:36
Speaker 2: impacting amphibians or birds or large mammals. There's a lot
26:40
Speaker 2: of different examples of how that's already happening. I think
26:43
Speaker 2: a lot of people think this climate stuff is like
26:45
Speaker 2: some way off in the future thing, and there's actually
26:50
Speaker 2: many concrete examples of stuff happening now and it's impacting
26:54
Speaker 2: animals that we know and we can see and we
26:57
Speaker 2: can feel these changes ourselves or knowing where to look.
27:02
Speaker 2: So Thor does a really great job of exploring that
27:05
Speaker 2: without any of the political stuff that's controversial, and he
27:10
Speaker 2: does it in a pretty darn interesting way because he
27:12
Speaker 2: goes out and sees these places and sees these animals himself.
27:17
Speaker 2: He takes you on these adventures with him. He introduces
27:20
Speaker 2: you to these different scientists and researchers and biologists out
27:23
Speaker 2: there learning about these specific animals and seeing in real
27:27
Speaker 2: life what's happening. So a fascinating kind of look into
27:31
Speaker 2: this wild world and a different perspective on the climate
27:35
Speaker 2: change topic that, as I've said already, can be exhausting,
27:39
Speaker 2: can be depressing, or can just be a political annoyance
27:42
Speaker 2: that you don't want to pay attention to it all.
27:44
Speaker 2: This is not that. This is a unique and I
27:46
Speaker 2: think refreshing take on that. So if you've not engaged
27:50
Speaker 2: with the topic in the past, I would actually suggest
27:53
Speaker 2: maybe this is the book you need to read more
27:55
Speaker 2: than anything else. It's something to consider that maybe was
27:57
Speaker 2: outside of what you thought you were interested in engaging with.
28:01
Speaker 2: I think that's a really important thing books can offer.
28:04
Speaker 2: I'm going to get on my soapbox here for a second,
28:07
Speaker 2: but it's really easy and comforting to read stuff that
28:10
Speaker 2: you agree with or that you all your friends and
28:13
Speaker 2: family all agree with or say, oh yeah, this is
28:15
Speaker 2: a thing, And so reading that kind of stuff affirms
28:17
Speaker 2: how you feel and how you believe, and what you
28:19
Speaker 2: think the world is and how you think the world
28:21
Speaker 2: should be. I like to read those books too, but
28:24
Speaker 2: I also try to force myself to sometimes read books
28:28
Speaker 2: that are outside of my comfort zone, or maybe that
28:31
Speaker 2: explore a topic that I don't understand or that I
28:35
Speaker 2: don't think I agree with, or maybe that I think
28:38
Speaker 2: I have like a totally oppositional perspective on because I
28:44
Speaker 2: think books can give you this opportunity to intellectually challenge
28:51
Speaker 2: yourself in a way that helps you understand things better,
28:54
Speaker 2: whether or not you agree with the book. In the end,
28:57
Speaker 2: maybe you read this entire book and you're like, I'm
28:59
Speaker 2: still not convivey, I think it's all bogus, And by
29:03
Speaker 2: way of that, it's going to force you to think
29:05
Speaker 2: about what you do believe and what you do know
29:07
Speaker 2: and what you do think and the data or the
29:10
Speaker 2: information that's helped you come to those decisions. It's going
29:12
Speaker 2: to force you to think about that stuff. It's going
29:15
Speaker 2: to force you to challenge that a little bit, to
29:17
Speaker 2: look at that with clear eyes, and that will strengthen
29:21
Speaker 2: maybe your perspective or maybe it's going to open up
29:24
Speaker 2: some questions for you and you're gonna say, oh, huh,
29:27
Speaker 2: I never thought about that way, or you know what,
29:29
Speaker 2: I'd always just thought about it from this one view,
29:31
Speaker 2: and actually there's this other view that, you know, if
29:33
Speaker 2: I were to be honest about it does make some sense.
29:37
Speaker 2: And so you can learn some new things, you can grow,
29:39
Speaker 2: you can come to new ways of understanding the world.
29:43
Speaker 2: It can be very useful too, And so books uniquely
29:46
Speaker 2: give you the context to really have that kind of
29:49
Speaker 2: like deep Yeah, I guess it kind of sounds woo
29:52
Speaker 2: woob or like like you're going crazy, but like a
29:54
Speaker 2: dialogue with yourself almost I don't know, like talking to
29:56
Speaker 2: yourself sounds like a little crazy. But a book is
30:01
Speaker 2: deep enough and media enough and immersive enough that you
30:06
Speaker 2: have something to really sink your teeth into and think
30:08
Speaker 2: about and wrestle with. A social media clip, a quick
30:11
Speaker 2: YouTube video and article you know that usually does not
30:15
Speaker 2: give you enough to really have this like back and
30:18
Speaker 2: forth thinking challenge, but a book does so. Again, so
30:23
Speaker 2: boxing here for books. But if this at first glanced at,
30:27
Speaker 2: I don't know, not in that climate thing, you might
30:30
Speaker 2: want to take a look at this and just see
30:31
Speaker 2: if they can force you to wrestle with things a
30:33
Speaker 2: little bit. Maybe maybe you'll stick with what you think
30:36
Speaker 2: right now. Maybe not, but I think the process itself
30:39
Speaker 2: could be valuable. Next up, Monster of God by David Qualmen,
30:47
Speaker 2: the man Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and
30:51
Speaker 2: the Mind. This one is one of two David Qualmon
30:55
Speaker 2: books that I really really recommend. I'm gonna mention this
30:58
Speaker 2: one as my top one. But his other one, the
31:01
Speaker 2: Song of the Dodo, I'll discuss too, and that one
31:04
Speaker 2: almost might be I don't know, I don't know which
31:06
Speaker 2: one's better, but the Monster of God this is an
31:09
Speaker 2: exploration of our relationship with man eating predators. So charismatic, fascinating,
31:19
Speaker 2: big toothed, sometimes scary animals. And David Kwalman is one
31:24
Speaker 2: of my favorite authors. He is a science journalist and
31:28
Speaker 2: writer who does it better than just about anybody else.
31:31
Speaker 2: He's a Montana guy who has written about these topics
31:36
Speaker 2: for decades now, and this book, Monsters of God, as
31:39
Speaker 2: I mentioned, explores those most dangerous of animals and why
31:43
Speaker 2: and how we have lived alongside them in the past,
31:47
Speaker 2: how we might do so moving forward, and why there's
31:51
Speaker 2: value in having them here, why historically people have found
31:54
Speaker 2: value in them, why historically people have not liked them around,
31:57
Speaker 2: and then ultimately why it might be worth still making
32:01
Speaker 2: sure they can stick around for generations to come. David
32:05
Speaker 2: explores this through four different examples, and so four different
32:10
Speaker 2: kind of adventurous stories going into the wild seeking out
32:13
Speaker 2: these big, crazy, dangerous, fascinating animals and then learning from
32:19
Speaker 2: the people who are out there, studying them, working with them,
32:22
Speaker 2: managing them, engaging with them, hunting them, doing different things
32:26
Speaker 2: with them. So one of these portions goes and explores lions,
32:33
Speaker 2: and gosh, these are lions in India, I believe. One
32:38
Speaker 2: of these examples explores crocodiles in somewhere in Africa, I
32:47
Speaker 2: guess it was. I can't remember exactly where, but these
32:49
Speaker 2: are saltwater crocodiles, manating crocodiles, and those examples there. Another
32:54
Speaker 2: example is bears in Romania, brown bears in Romania. Then
33:00
Speaker 2: the fourth example are Siberian tigers in Russia. I guess
33:04
Speaker 2: it would have been or somewhere in that far East region.
33:08
Speaker 2: And all four you get this fascinating history lesson, a
33:14
Speaker 2: fascinating set of insights into you know, what's happening currently
33:17
Speaker 2: on the ground. This was written a while back. It
33:20
Speaker 2: was published in nineteen nineteen or early two thousand, two
33:25
Speaker 2: thousand and three. All right, so this book was written
33:27
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, so we're about twenty years out.
33:29
Speaker 2: But still it's one of the better books for wrestling
33:31
Speaker 2: with our place alongside these big animals, and so many
33:34
Speaker 2: of the controversies around wildlife today involve animals like this,
33:39
Speaker 2: grizzly bears, mountain lions, wolves. Every one of these animals
33:45
Speaker 2: can make walking through the woods a little bit more worrisome.
33:52
Speaker 2: All of those animals can sometimes you know, kill livestock
33:58
Speaker 2: or a pet dog. All of them make you know,
34:02
Speaker 2: living out there alongside them a little more challenging. They
34:04
Speaker 2: might knock down game populations. They might make you know,
34:10
Speaker 2: things a little bit more economically difficult for people that
34:13
Speaker 2: live alongside of them. So there's real challenges with having
34:16
Speaker 2: these animals out there on the landscape, but there are
34:19
Speaker 2: also real benefits to it as well. Holding both of
34:22
Speaker 2: those facts at the same time in your mind is
34:25
Speaker 2: a hard thing to do, but being able to do that,
34:28
Speaker 2: I think is really important for hunters. For anyone who
34:34
Speaker 2: cares about wild animals. You whether your favorite deer, your
34:37
Speaker 2: favorite animals a deer or an elk or bear, or
34:39
Speaker 2: a wolf or a rainbow trout. If you care about animals,
34:43
Speaker 2: it's important to think about how we can live with them.
34:46
Speaker 2: And I think big predators are a particularly useful set
34:52
Speaker 2: of animals to think about this question, because if we
34:54
Speaker 2: can figure out how to live alongside grizzlies or wolves
34:58
Speaker 2: or saltwater crocodiles, if you can and figure that out,
35:01
Speaker 2: then it's a whole lot easier to figure out how
35:03
Speaker 2: to make room and live alongside spotted toads or sage
35:08
Speaker 2: grouse or white tailed deer. So I really enjoy wrestling
35:12
Speaker 2: with these kinds of books like Monster of God, where
35:15
Speaker 2: that conversation forces you to think about the toughest of
35:18
Speaker 2: circumstances and then you can you know, you can take
35:23
Speaker 2: that and apply it to so many other things as well.
35:25
Speaker 2: So David does that you're going to think a lot,
35:27
Speaker 2: You're going to learn a lot about these specific animals.
35:29
Speaker 2: But then I also think you will also pick up
35:31
Speaker 2: things from this book that will better help you understand,
35:34
Speaker 2: you know, many different wildlife relationships that we have here.
35:37
Speaker 2: Whether you live in Michigan or Montana. Whether the critter
35:40
Speaker 2: that gives you headaches are groundhogs burrowing under your barn,
35:45
Speaker 2: or wolves in northern Minnesota burn up your deer hunting property,
35:49
Speaker 2: or grizzly bears scaring you when you're camping in the
35:52
Speaker 2: back country of Wyoming, whatever it is, this book has
35:55
Speaker 2: got something that I think we can all take from
35:58
Speaker 2: and highly suggest it for that reason. David's got another
36:01
Speaker 2: book that I really really enjoyed as well. It's called
36:03
Speaker 2: The Song of the Dodo, and that book explores the
36:08
Speaker 2: really fascinating topic of island biogeography. We've talked about this
36:13
Speaker 2: a couple times, but basically, to simplify it as much
36:17
Speaker 2: as the possibly can, what happens on islands when it
36:21
Speaker 2: comes to how long wildlife species can exist on islands
36:24
Speaker 2: and whether they thrive or go into decline is something
36:29
Speaker 2: that has been studied, and a whole bunch of things
36:31
Speaker 2: have been understood based on studying island populations of wildlife.
36:35
Speaker 2: And what people have realized in recent years is that
36:39
Speaker 2: we are creating island habitats, even on the mainland of
36:44
Speaker 2: America and across the world, when we surround wildlife habitat
36:49
Speaker 2: with human development. So maybe you have a backyard it's
36:53
Speaker 2: got a lot of native vegetation and a bunch of
36:56
Speaker 2: birds and bugs and small mammals and stuff. But then
36:59
Speaker 2: if it's surround founded by cement and businesses and other
37:01
Speaker 2: neighborhood parking lots and things like that, you might have
37:04
Speaker 2: a little island habitat there. And so the study of
37:09
Speaker 2: islands and wildlife on islands, that data and those trends,
37:13
Speaker 2: those patterns are replicating all over the world. Now where
37:17
Speaker 2: the Yellowstone ecosystem has become an island, so what does
37:20
Speaker 2: that mean for the animals that live there? Maybe the
37:23
Speaker 2: Everglades ecosystem in southern Florida that's becoming an island as
37:27
Speaker 2: human development surrounds that, what does that mean for the
37:30
Speaker 2: wildlife that live there. This is happening, of course in
37:33
Speaker 2: Central Park and New York. This is happening in dozens
37:36
Speaker 2: and dozens hundreds of other examples all of our nation.
37:39
Speaker 2: Your deer hunting property might be an island metaphorical island
37:43
Speaker 2: of habitat. So what does that mean for your ability
37:46
Speaker 2: to bring back turkeys or deer, to have thriving small
37:48
Speaker 2: game populations or upland birds. Understanding what happens when habitat
37:54
Speaker 2: becomes island, when it becomes disconnected from the rest of
37:57
Speaker 2: the natural ecosystem, comes fragmented, when new roads are built,
38:02
Speaker 2: when new developments are put in, when all that stuff happens,
38:05
Speaker 2: there's a whole series of patterns that happen with wildlife,
38:11
Speaker 2: and that book, The Song of the Dodo, is all
38:14
Speaker 2: about that. It's about how evolution you know, is impacted
38:18
Speaker 2: by those things, and it's about how you know extinctions
38:21
Speaker 2: occur or extirpations occur by way of that. It's fascinating.
38:27
Speaker 2: It's a deep, deep dive. So it's not a book
38:29
Speaker 2: for someone who wants to have some easy reading. But
38:32
Speaker 2: if that set of ideas, like those big wildlife ideas
38:35
Speaker 2: of that intrigues you, the Song of the Dodo is
38:38
Speaker 2: one of the absolute best, but you got to commit
38:40
Speaker 2: to it. It's a big read, it's a thick book.
38:43
Speaker 2: It requires you be willing to do some thinking and
38:45
Speaker 2: some following along. But also David does it about as
38:48
Speaker 2: well as anybody could. So A Song of the Dodo
38:51
Speaker 2: another one worth considering. On a related note, if all
39:05
Speaker 2: that kind of sounds interesting to you, but maybe it
39:07
Speaker 2: sounds like too much to tackle, if it sounds a
39:10
Speaker 2: little bit too heavy, I have two other books that
39:13
Speaker 2: explore that topic, but in a much lighter way, in
39:17
Speaker 2: a much easier to digest way. The first of those
39:20
Speaker 2: is The Spine of the Continent, The Race to Save
39:24
Speaker 2: America's last best Wilderness by Mary Ellen Hannibal. This book
39:30
Speaker 2: is this very interesting example of how to possibly tackle
39:37
Speaker 2: that fragmentation of habitat challenge that I just talked about. So,
39:40
Speaker 2: if the Song of the Dodo is all about understanding
39:43
Speaker 2: what happens when we fragment habitat into little islands, this
39:47
Speaker 2: book is an examination of one possible solution, and the
39:53
Speaker 2: kind of example kind of like a keystone example of
39:59
Speaker 2: one place trying to do this, And this broad example
40:03
Speaker 2: that they're exploring is a big, big, big crazy idea
40:06
Speaker 2: that folks have in trying to create some level of
40:11
Speaker 2: connection all the way from the Yukon down to Yellowstone.
40:14
Speaker 2: This is like our last big wild corridor through North
40:19
Speaker 2: America that has some degree of pretty wild countries still
40:24
Speaker 2: in place, but it's broken up by roads and developments
40:27
Speaker 2: and cities and all different things like that. So there's
40:29
Speaker 2: a number of people, a bunch of different nonprofits, a
40:32
Speaker 2: lot of different groups that are all trying to figure
40:34
Speaker 2: out ways to build more corridors between those fragments. How
40:38
Speaker 2: do we connect more of those fragments. How do we
40:40
Speaker 2: have these cores of big wild places like Yellowstone or
40:44
Speaker 2: Glacier National Park or parks up in Canada, how do
40:47
Speaker 2: we then connect them with corridors, And then how do
40:50
Speaker 2: we make sure that the full suite of species that
40:53
Speaker 2: exists there still exists there and can exist there. If
40:57
Speaker 2: we can do that, there's a lot of powerful opportunities
41:01
Speaker 2: that then present themselves for wildlife and for people who
41:04
Speaker 2: like to hunt wildlife or view wildlife, or people who
41:08
Speaker 2: depend on the land that wildlife supports. And so Mary
41:12
Speaker 2: Ellen Hannibal explores this topic. She explores a bunch of
41:15
Speaker 2: the science that you know that David does, but maybe
41:18
Speaker 2: in a little bit easier kind of lighter way, but
41:21
Speaker 2: she brings in a whole bunch of the scientists and
41:24
Speaker 2: the conservation biologists who are studying the stuff right now
41:27
Speaker 2: in America and kind of brings them to the forefront
41:30
Speaker 2: as characters in the book. Also, one of our favorite
41:33
Speaker 2: voices in the hunting world, Hell Herring, is in here.
41:36
Speaker 2: And there's also some hunting, some elk hunting. There's some
41:39
Speaker 2: considerations of the hunting world in here, and then a
41:42
Speaker 2: bunch of just kind of wild adventures out there in
41:46
Speaker 2: these places, speaking with some true legends in the conservation world,
41:51
Speaker 2: and then exploring the many different ways that you know,
41:54
Speaker 2: the fragmentation of habitat or the connection of habitat will
41:58
Speaker 2: either send wildlife popularly into a questionable place or into
42:03
Speaker 2: a really encouraging better place. So this is a book
42:06
Speaker 2: I read first, I don't know, a decade or more ago,
42:09
Speaker 2: and I'm actually picking a back up and reading it
42:11
Speaker 2: again because this whole topic of fragmented habitat is is
42:17
Speaker 2: so top of mind for so many people right now.
42:21
Speaker 2: You know, we're seeing it. Whether you live in Mississippi
42:24
Speaker 2: or Maine or New Mexico. Right I'm sure you can
42:27
Speaker 2: point to some place that used to be wild that
42:30
Speaker 2: is now being turned into housing development or a highway
42:35
Speaker 2: or a you know, solar panel development or ohudin is weight.
42:40
Speaker 2: We're seeing these wild places disappear. We're seeing these wild
42:44
Speaker 2: places be cut apart into smaller pieces, and roads and
42:48
Speaker 2: fences going up and walls going up that are disconnecting
42:51
Speaker 2: these places. So what does that mean? How do we
42:54
Speaker 2: do something about to make sure there's still driving populations
42:57
Speaker 2: of mule deer or salamanders and get from one side
43:01
Speaker 2: of the road to the other, or you know, whatever
43:04
Speaker 2: it is, whatever animal it does you care about and
43:05
Speaker 2: they're excited about. Almost every species in our nation is
43:10
Speaker 2: facing some version of this, and so I am deep
43:13
Speaker 2: into the weeds on both understanding it and then figure
43:17
Speaker 2: out what can we do. There are a lot of
43:20
Speaker 2: exciting positive developments on that front. There's a lot of
43:24
Speaker 2: momentum around developing wildlife crossings, in funding projects to help
43:29
Speaker 2: identify where these connection corridors can be or are right now,
43:34
Speaker 2: really interesting studies around migration corridors and tracking where these
43:38
Speaker 2: deer or elk or other animals are consistently wanting to
43:41
Speaker 2: go and finding ways to protect that. There's biparts and
43:45
Speaker 2: support for a lot of programs like that, which is exciting.
43:47
Speaker 2: So when it comes to migrations and corridors and connections,
43:51
Speaker 2: all these buzzwords, there's some positivity there, there's some hope. There,
43:56
Speaker 2: good stuff there, which brings me to my last book
43:59
Speaker 2: on that topic, which is called Crossings. This is by
44:02
Speaker 2: Ben Goldfarb How road ecology is shaping the future of
44:05
Speaker 2: our planet. So this takes a look at this broad
44:08
Speaker 2: topic we've been talking about, but from the specific angle
44:12
Speaker 2: of roads, how roads are impacting wildlife in many different ways,
44:17
Speaker 2: interesting surprising ways. There's the obvious things like what I
44:20
Speaker 2: just talked about, like what happens when roads cut two
44:23
Speaker 2: chunks of habitat in two and all of a sudden
44:25
Speaker 2: it's hard to get from place A to place B.
44:29
Speaker 2: So he explores that. He explores actual, you know, direct
44:32
Speaker 2: impacts like roadkill. What's the impact of roadkill on wild
44:35
Speaker 2: animals across the country and on us? What's the impact
44:39
Speaker 2: of roads on insect populations? That one was interesting and
44:42
Speaker 2: new to me. Some really interesting stuff there. How about birds,
44:45
Speaker 2: impacts on birds? What about fish? I don't think a
44:48
Speaker 2: lot of us think about or realize how much roads
44:51
Speaker 2: impact fish and the connectivity and ability for fish to
44:56
Speaker 2: move up and down streams or to get to their
44:58
Speaker 2: spawning grounds. All of that is explored here. Ben is
45:01
Speaker 2: another one of those great writers. He wrote another book
45:04
Speaker 2: about beaver's called Eager, if I remember correctly, and so
45:09
Speaker 2: there's another wildlife suggestion for you. Eager explores the role
45:12
Speaker 2: that beavers play in many ways benefiting the ecosystems and
45:17
Speaker 2: many other animals around them. They're these ecosystem engineers. They
45:20
Speaker 2: create new habitats that then support lots of different animals.
45:24
Speaker 2: So that's an interesting one too. But Crossings, I think,
45:27
Speaker 2: is something that you know, whether you are into bugs
45:30
Speaker 2: or birds, or bears or big bucks, there's going to
45:33
Speaker 2: be something in here that is going to be interesting
45:35
Speaker 2: to you. There's some you know, both concerning news in here,
45:40
Speaker 2: but then also some really great encouraging examples of success,
45:43
Speaker 2: examples of ways that things are getting better or can
45:46
Speaker 2: get better. So that's up your alley. Crossing's is a
45:50
Speaker 2: really good one. Ben's a great writer, easy to read,
45:53
Speaker 2: easy to follow. I read this during spring break last
45:57
Speaker 2: year and it was a it was a good pool read.
45:59
Speaker 2: So you're planning a spring break trip coming up, here
46:01
Speaker 2: pretty soon. This might be just the ticket for you. There.
46:05
Speaker 2: I'm going to give you one another one here that
46:07
Speaker 2: I don't have a physical version with with me, but
46:11
Speaker 2: I have the audiobook it's on here. It's called The
46:14
Speaker 2: Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Colbert. This is one of the
46:18
Speaker 2: most iconic high level examinations of the state of wildlife
46:23
Speaker 2: today across the world. This is something that my book explores.
46:27
Speaker 2: My upcoming book explores this, but more narrowly in America.
46:31
Speaker 2: The Sixth Extinction examines this from a worldwide perspective. Scientists, biologists,
46:38
Speaker 2: researches of all types are seeing now that we have
46:41
Speaker 2: a rate of extinction, a decline in wildlife across the
46:44
Speaker 2: world that has not been seen in many, many, many, many, many,
46:48
Speaker 2: many many years. There's only there been five other events
46:51
Speaker 2: in the history of the world where this mass decline
46:54
Speaker 2: in wildlife has occurred. That's not happening again. It's because
46:58
Speaker 2: of people, a lot of questions. It's all related to
47:01
Speaker 2: many of the things we've talked about or these other books.
47:04
Speaker 2: The Sixth Extinction is is maybe one of the best
47:06
Speaker 2: introductions to that topic. So maybe I should have put
47:08
Speaker 2: this at the beginning of the list. You know, as
47:11
Speaker 2: I'm thinking about this, maybe I should have had you know,
47:14
Speaker 2: the American history in the wild world first, as I did,
47:17
Speaker 2: because that gives you some history, and then the sixth
47:19
Speaker 2: Extinction maybe should have gone next, as that's saying, okay,
47:22
Speaker 2: now here's where we are right now. And then all
47:24
Speaker 2: the rest of the books kind of explore pieces and
47:27
Speaker 2: parts of that story with different species or different trends
47:30
Speaker 2: or impacts to wildlife. So anyways, Elizabeth is one of
47:33
Speaker 2: the best. She's you know, she's been a feature writer
47:36
Speaker 2: for The New Yorker and other major publications. And she, again,
47:41
Speaker 2: as David does, goes out into the field, meets with
47:44
Speaker 2: the researchers, meets with the people on the ground who
47:46
Speaker 2: are studying you know, toads in the tropical rainforest, or
47:51
Speaker 2: lord knows what other animals. And it is really trying
47:54
Speaker 2: to shine a light on what exactly is happening with wildlife.
47:59
Speaker 2: Why are so much many different species and decline in
48:01
Speaker 2: so many different areas, all at the same time in
48:04
Speaker 2: such dramatic fashion. This is a great introduction to that topic,
48:09
Speaker 2: and it's won all sorts of awards. It's kind of
48:12
Speaker 2: top of the list for that broad set of of categories. Finally,
48:18
Speaker 2: one last suggestion for you here. This is a book
48:22
Speaker 2: that talks about caribou, and caribou are a really really
48:27
Speaker 2: interesting animal to me. They're an animal that I have
48:29
Speaker 2: had the really good fortune to be able to hunt
48:32
Speaker 2: and then also to visit just to watch. They are
48:35
Speaker 2: a species that you know, they exist at a number
48:40
Speaker 2: and at a scale that's unlike anything else we have
48:43
Speaker 2: in North America. I think so many of us think
48:45
Speaker 2: back on two things when we think about vast abundance
48:49
Speaker 2: of wildlife. We think about how it used to be
48:50
Speaker 2: in America with the buffalo, when there used to be
48:54
Speaker 2: tens of millions of these animals streaming across the Gray Plains.
48:57
Speaker 2: And I don't know about you, but I've found myself
49:00
Speaker 2: in the Great Plains many times dreaming of what that
49:02
Speaker 2: must have been like to see something like that. Or
49:05
Speaker 2: we think about the huge migrations of wilderbeast or antelope
49:09
Speaker 2: or zebras or other animals like that out in the
49:12
Speaker 2: plains of Africa. How incredible that must be. I've never
49:15
Speaker 2: seen that, but it sure looks amazing, phenomenal, just awe inspiring.
49:21
Speaker 2: I think a lot of us forget that we have
49:23
Speaker 2: something like that still in America. Up in Alaska or
49:28
Speaker 2: in Canada, there are still vast herds of cariboo. There
49:32
Speaker 2: are these hundreds of thousands strong groups of caribou migrating
49:37
Speaker 2: back and forth across the tundra in just jaw dropping abundance.
49:43
Speaker 2: And they're just such interesting animals. These these animals can
49:46
Speaker 2: migrate thousands of miles, they can live in the harshest
49:50
Speaker 2: of conditions and survive year after year after year, and
49:53
Speaker 2: they can somehow collectively remember where to go in the
49:56
Speaker 2: winter and where to go in the summer, and where
49:58
Speaker 2: the best food is and where the safest places to
50:01
Speaker 2: have their calves are. And they can do this amidst
50:04
Speaker 2: you know, incredibly difficult weather conditions, and while being hunted
50:08
Speaker 2: by wolves or grizzlies, while dealing with swarms of insects
50:13
Speaker 2: of ungodly numbers. They're just an impressive, unbelievable animal. And
50:19
Speaker 2: it's so wild that we still have that, even in
50:23
Speaker 2: this modern day, when it seems like so much of
50:25
Speaker 2: our wild world has been domesticated. You know, in some
50:29
Speaker 2: kind of way, most of us experience wildlife and small
50:33
Speaker 2: parcels of land in the country or in your backyard,
50:36
Speaker 2: in the neighborhood, or in a park in town. But
50:39
Speaker 2: we still have like big, wild, crazy stuff like two
50:43
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand strong herds of caribou or whatever
50:47
Speaker 2: it might be. In this book, A Thousand Trails Home
50:51
Speaker 2: Living with Caribou by Seth Cantner is a terrific examination
50:55
Speaker 2: of what it's like to still live alongside that wild
50:59
Speaker 2: and asked an unincredible wild herd of caribou what that's
51:06
Speaker 2: like to be with those animals firsthand. Seth was raised
51:11
Speaker 2: in the in the Deep Bush of Alaska by a
51:13
Speaker 2: family that was living off the land, a sustenance lifestyle.
51:16
Speaker 2: He grew up, you know, surrounded by and living right
51:20
Speaker 2: amidst the caribou migration of the Western Arctic caribou herd.
51:24
Speaker 2: And so he tells a story of what that's like
51:26
Speaker 2: to live that life, to live off the land. For
51:28
Speaker 2: caribou not to be just something that is way out
51:30
Speaker 2: there and exciting to know is out there, or something
51:33
Speaker 2: that maybe someday I'll get to go up there once
51:35
Speaker 2: in my life and hunt, but instead what it's like
51:38
Speaker 2: to live with them, to depend on them for you know,
51:42
Speaker 2: major parts of what they needed to live out there,
51:45
Speaker 2: and then how other people utilize caribou, how the native
51:49
Speaker 2: people's there depended on them, how they've incorporated caribo into
51:53
Speaker 2: their lifestyle and their culture and their traditions and their
51:55
Speaker 2: faith and many other things like that. And then finally,
51:59
Speaker 2: what's going on now? How are things changing for cariboo,
52:02
Speaker 2: how's the landscape changing there, What is the future of
52:07
Speaker 2: caribou going to hold? What will the future hold for
52:10
Speaker 2: the people that live with caribou bold Those questions are
52:16
Speaker 2: what are tackled in A Thousand Trails Home. And it
52:19
Speaker 2: is a beautiful books. There's beautiful photography in here, you know.
52:24
Speaker 2: So it's got pictures if you like pictures. It's got
52:27
Speaker 2: great stories if you like that. It's got great information
52:30
Speaker 2: if you just want to learn about these animals. And
52:32
Speaker 2: I think it paints a very clear picture of where
52:36
Speaker 2: things are headed with caribou that I think would be
52:39
Speaker 2: important and useful for all of us to understand, whether
52:43
Speaker 2: you live in Alaska where caribou exists, or if you
52:46
Speaker 2: live thousands of miles away and simply dream of someday
52:49
Speaker 2: seeing caribou. I think it's a species worth wrapping her
52:52
Speaker 2: head around. Because there is some major change underway for them,
52:56
Speaker 2: and if our generation doesn't find some way to get
53:03
Speaker 2: a grip on that and change the current trajectory, our
53:06
Speaker 2: generation might be one of the last to have that chance.
53:11
Speaker 2: I'll leave it at that, but I do think this
53:13
Speaker 2: is an important book, and if you are intrigued by
53:17
Speaker 2: this and would like to learn more, another caribou related
53:19
Speaker 2: book I would also recommend. It is called Being Caribou
53:22
Speaker 2: by Carston Hewer, and that book's like ten or twenty
53:26
Speaker 2: or twenty ish years old, I think. But that book
53:29
Speaker 2: follows a husband and wife duo who decides to try
53:32
Speaker 2: to follow the porcupine caribou herds migration, which is thousands
53:36
Speaker 2: of miles from winter range to summer across the Brooks
53:40
Speaker 2: Range Mountains across the coastal plain. This is up in
53:44
Speaker 2: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and then some neighboring land
53:47
Speaker 2: in Canada. So just an epic adventure story while also
53:51
Speaker 2: learning all about what these Cariboo live through, what that's like,
53:55
Speaker 2: where they go, what they do, why they do it
53:59
Speaker 2: very very interesting. So I think A Thousand Trails Home
54:02
Speaker 2: will help you better understand what's happening today and what
54:05
Speaker 2: it's like to live with them, and then being caribou
54:08
Speaker 2: will give you an interesting glimpse at what it's like
54:11
Speaker 2: to try to follow them and what that world looks like.
54:15
Speaker 2: So there are ten plus recommendations for you for wildlife
54:21
Speaker 2: related books. We've got everything from white tails to caribou
54:24
Speaker 2: to grizzly bears, to from the history of wildlife to
54:28
Speaker 2: the future of wildlife. From you know, adventure stories with
54:33
Speaker 2: wildlife to deep dives into the science of wildlife. Try
54:37
Speaker 2: to give you a little bit of everything, but all
54:41
Speaker 2: all definitely highly recommended reads. Like I mentioned at the top,
54:45
Speaker 2: you can get the hard copy like these are, but
54:47
Speaker 2: also you can get them on your phone. If you
54:49
Speaker 2: like ebooks, go for it. You can do that. One
54:52
Speaker 2: thing I do like about ebooks when I'm gonna really
54:55
Speaker 2: try to research something and I want to be able
54:57
Speaker 2: to go back and look at, you know, facts and
54:59
Speaker 2: quotes and stuff, I do use my little kindle here
55:02
Speaker 2: and I have the note taking function where I can
55:04
Speaker 2: save little excerpts. I like to do that, come back
55:07
Speaker 2: to those things or save quotes. But yeah, hop in
55:11
Speaker 2: the car with an audiobook of one of these, give
55:13
Speaker 2: that a listen, and I think you're gonna I think
55:16
Speaker 2: you'll enjoy it. I think you'll learn something. I think
55:19
Speaker 2: all of these books will give you maybe a little
55:21
Speaker 2: bit more to chew on than your typical podcast that
55:24
Speaker 2: you listen to. So I hope this is helpful. I
55:26
Speaker 2: hope I give you some ideas that you're excited about.
55:29
Speaker 2: And I certainly appreciate you tuning in here to listen
55:32
Speaker 2: to me just run my mouth about books for an hour.
55:36
Speaker 2: As most of you know, that's kind of right up
55:38
Speaker 2: my alley. And love my books and love exploring all
55:41
Speaker 2: things wildlife. So I'm hoping there's a few of wee
55:43
Speaker 2: out there like that too. If you are interested in
55:46
Speaker 2: my book, which is coming out, you know, like nine
55:49
Speaker 2: or ten months from now, you can follow me on Instagram.
55:53
Speaker 2: It's my handle now is at Mark Kenyan Official. I'll
55:56
Speaker 2: definitely have updates there, and then also on my personal website,
56:00
Speaker 2: I'll be posting updates to the newsletter there, and that's
56:02
Speaker 2: Mark Kenyon dot net. So stay tuned. That's an exploration
56:06
Speaker 2: of the state of fish and wildlife in America and
56:09
Speaker 2: where we're headed, and an interesting look at the unique
56:13
Speaker 2: perspective that hunters and anglers bring to that and how
56:17
Speaker 2: we can make sure we keep these creatures around for
56:19
Speaker 2: the long run. So that is it for me today.
56:23
Speaker 2: I appreciate you joining, thanks, thanks for being a part
56:26
Speaker 2: of this community. And until next time when the next episode,
56:30
Speaker 2: as I mentioned that will be with Jake as your
56:33
Speaker 2: host that week talking white Tales. Until then, I appreciate
56:37
Speaker 2: you and stay wired to Hunt.