Wildlife Management

Anti-hunting organizations have launched a campaign to ruin Florida’s black bear hunt by flooding the lottery with entries in the hopes of winning a permit and sitting out the hunt. But state officials tell MeatEater that their efforts may well backfire: if this year’s harvest goals aren’t met, bear...

A new study quantifies the impact of poaching in the United States— the results show that an eye-popping number of wildlife crimes are not being detected, let alone successfully prosecuted. The research comes from the Boone and Crockett Club, which is both a big game record-keeping group and the...

Editor's Note: This article was previously published stating that Patton died from his injuries, however, he is currently still alive. Apologies for the error. On September 3, 72-year-old Vernon Patton suffered serious injuries after being attacked by a black bear in Franklin County. According to...

“Warning: there is the sound of a gunshot in this piece,” announced an NPR host last week, before diving into the story of a new scientific study, claiming to show that wolf hunting doesn’t help ranchers in any meaningful way. “According to their data, hunters would have to kill roughly 14 wolves to...

A hunting influencer has been charged with two felonies and six misdemeanors for, among other things, lying about where he killed a wolf in Idaho and then pocketing the extra reimbursement money. Ryan Lampers, who was known as the StHealthyHunter on now-deleted social media feeds, has been charged...

Winter-range elk feeding programs, like those near Jackson, Wyoming, are a double-edged sword for elk herds. On one hand, the hay and alfalfa handout stations can harbor and spread lethal diseases like CWD through the herds, but on the flip side, they’re also thought to prevent mass starvation and...

Timothy Rawlings of Laveen, Arizona is facing a year in federal prison after getting busted for illegally outfitting hunts in Colorado—and a slew of other wildlife infractions. According to a Department of Justice press release, Rawlings was sentenced by United States District Judge S. Kato Crews on...

At the southern border, a new threat is creeping into the United States—and no wall can stop it. Enter, the New World screwworm: a small fly that lays eggs into open wounds of a bird or mammal, where the larvae feast on live flesh. If untreated, the wound will become infected and likely fatal. The...

It’s official: After signaling their support for a black bear hunt, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) voted this morning to finalize a set of rules for the three-week December season. The 5-0 vote in favor of the hunt is a striking rebuke to anti-hunting groups that have...

This past winter, a Minnesota sheriff allegedly overstepped his bounds by issuing an “elk possession tag” to a farmer who shot and killed an elk after elk herds had damaged his crops and feed. A case report from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) obtained by MeatEater explains the...

Well, this is strange: blue meat has been turning up in wild hogs killed in California. Dan Burton, the owner and operator of Urban Trapping Wildlife Control, first noticed the unusual tissue in feral pigs back in March, when he began trapping the hogs on a commercial farm in Monterey County, a...

In November 2022, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to permanently eliminate the state’s spring black-bear hunt by a 5-4 margin. Now, the Sportsmen’s Alliance is seeking to remove four of the five commissioners who voted against the hunt, claiming that they “demonstrated incompetence...