Tooth & Claw: True Stories of Animal Attacks - White-tailed Deer Attack - Feeding Animals Could Cost You Deer-ly

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

Mike leads a subscription episode all about two men's fight to the death with a hormone-supercharged 9-point buck. The guys wrap things up with The Big Wild Bucks for Charity quiz. ~~ To advertise on the show, contact us! ~~ Tooth & Claw is brought to you by QCODE. Support the show and get access to an extensive library of exclusive episodes like this by supporting the show on Patreon or joining the Grizzly Club on Apple Podcasts. For the latest updates on the show and all things wildlife, follow us at toothandclawpod.com and social:  Instagram: @ToothandClawPodcast Twitter: @ToothandClawPod Wes: @GrizKid Jeff: @jefe_larson Mike: @mikey3ds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shut up, Mike. I'm recording. Hey, Tooth and Claw listeners, it's Wes. I just wanted to let you guys know. We're going to go ahead and release one of our subscription episodes wide this week. We just have a lot of fun over at our subscription channels. A lot of those episodes are led by either Mike or Jeff. They're a little bit more off-kilter than some of our normal episodes, but they're really fun, and we really like doing them,

and we want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to hear them every once in a while. And if you like what you hear, we release two of these episodes, every month for our subscribers. So you can join us over at the Grizz Club on Apple or on our Patreon feed for more and more of these bonus episodes or subscriber episodes, excuse me. They come out again twice a month. We're never going to stop.

And when you subscribe, you get access to the whole back catalog as well. So it's hundreds of hours of content that you're going to get immediate access to plus new episodes twice a month. Anyway, I'm rambling. Here's one of our favorite bonus episodes from the last few months. right now. Hello, subscribers. Welcome back to Tooth and Claw.

You know who we are. We got one ear west. That's what you wanted me to call him. Mike. Oh, yeah. Who do you think I am? That's you. Mike and Jeff.

Why are you one year west? Only one of my... Who do you think you are? I am. I am. Only one of my AirPods is working. I don't know why. And you tried to troubleshoot the same way

that I usually do it, which is just pop it out, put it in the case, pop it back in, didn't work. Maybe it didn't charge, I don't know. You got to pop them both back in there. Yeah, I did that. I've tried it every. You did.

I popped them both. He put them in the toilet. He put them in the garbage can. Nothing works. Yeah. Look at this. It's working. Well, oh, a knife.

That's not a knife. This is a knife. Our oldest brothers started giving us just presents from dental patience he gets. And this year I like it. He got he got us knives from a South Africa or guy who lived in Africa forever who makes knives. Oh cool. Yeah. Huh. I was thinking about it. So I look like it goes on your belt and I've been carrying around on my belt sometimes. I was thinking like for like defense how rare it would be for me to ever pull out a knife.

What do you mean? Like for me how often you're going to have to pull it out? For like against a person. or something, or like in self-defense. Because if a guy pulls a gun on me, I'm not pulling out my knife, right? Yeah. If a guy pulls a knife on me, I'm not pulling out my knife. Really? Why not? Because it's like a 50-50 chance that I die.

Well, you might as well think. And like, I've never stabbed someone. If they're pulling knives on people, they probably stab someone, I assume. But beginner's luck could really carry you. I would think like I'm faster than the average person. I think I would just run away or just give them my money. You might as well, you might as well pull out your knife when you run away, though.

I mean, if you're going to carry a knife around Jeff and someone challenges you to a knife fight and you still won't pull it out, you might as well just leave that knife at home, pal. Right. Put it through the shredder. It makes me feel cool. And then if they're just trying to fight me with like fists,

I don't want to like kill them. Yeah. So I can't think of a situation. where I'm going to like pull about my knife. When I, yeah, when I worked in Yellowstone and I didn't have a knife on me, like days that I forgot to carry my knife, without fail, every single one of those days I needed a knife. So I like, I don't think there's certain jobs where you really use a knife all the time. That was one of them, just for cutting stuff.

But never once in my entire life, do I feel like I have needed a knife or wanted a knife for self-defense? That's what I'm saying. For self-defense, it's, like, hard to think of a scenario where I'd pull out my knife on someone. Like, if someone pulls a knife on me, I'll give them my money. I'll give them what they ask for. I'm not going to try to stab them. But if someone pulled a knife on me and, like, ran at their stomach.

Then they'll have two knives at you. Then what? If I'm carrying a knife, like, daily and someone then pulls out a knife and runs at me, I'm going to pull out my knife at least. You know? I think you'd have a better chance if you just tried to run away. What if they're faster than me? I still want my knife then. I'm going to get in my hands at least.

What if they're better with a knife than you? Then I'm going to die. But I'd rather at least get a couple of steps in. They're going to kill you either way. That's Simpson's episode where they have pocket knives and like everyone with a pocket knives just like saving lives and stuff. That's what that reminded me of you saying how you do you pull. Does anyone here have a knife on you? Yeah.

one. Yeah. Don't think me. Think this knife. But I mean, I think I'm just using it more as like a fashion statement. Cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you got the cowboy hat to match right now. So, yeah. Well, that's enough knife talk. Why don't we cut in? Why don't we slice into this episode? That was knife of you to bring up a titillating conversation topic. What a cutting joke.

Did you, yeah, thanks. Did you ever come across like a deer stuck in a fence that you had to cut out or something? That probably happens at Yellowstone. Yeah. Can I actually tell a, can I tell a quick story? With a knife, you cut it up? So once elk or deer, they're in the deer family. Once they're, like when the elk are calving in Yellowstone, they just, I've told this before

on the podcast, they just dropped their calves everywhere, especially in Mammoth because dropping them near cars and stuff provides some protection for predators. and one day we went out and there was this new elk calf that had fallen into a fence was budded right up against this wall so it had fallen off the wall into the fence and it was like in this like probably eight inch gap between the fence and the wall and it couldn't move it was completely like stuck in this fence and then to like get back over the wall it was like a 10 foot fall or something so this elk calf was like completely stuck within this fence and me and my buddy had to go cut the fence

and pull it up with clippers, with fence clippers. Yeah, that's what I thought. And it was a chainline fence. You got to carry clippers with you, Jeff. Forget the knife. But the whole time the female was there and she was like charging in.

So one of us had to kind of play Matador with her while the other one pulled the L-Cath out of the fence. I had a knife on me, but I did not get it out to try and stab her. Okay. Anyway, so yeah, Mike, I have. And I've cut, I've cut deer just out of like barbed wire fence before two and stuff like that. With what?

I have not with a knife. I would never, I'm just going to tell you right now, I would never use a knife for any kind of wire fence. Yeah. Okay. That's fair. What if someone pulled clippers on you, Jeff? What would you? How would you feel any different?

I think I would maybe pull my knife on that or like a baseball bat. I'd pull a knife on them. See, I'm a little more scared of clip. Have you guys seen exercise? is three, you got to be a little afraid of clippers. Yeah. Clippers are the scariest if you're like tied up and then the person who tied you up, pull something out. Clippers are like, oh no, you know you're about to lose some appendages.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want that. Wait, I have a question. You just hope they look at your hands and not at your crotch. Isn't that kind of confusing? I know you're right.

But like, isn't it kind of confusing to say elk or deer because like deer is the name of deer? No. I don't think it's a little confusing to me a little. Okay, well, yeah, I guess I shouldn't say that it's not confusing. But what I'm saying is like, for example, let me think of another example of that. Like, there's lots of sharks that have the name shark in their actual name, but then there's some that don't. Like the Wabi Gong is a type of shark that doesn't have like Wabagong shark in its name,

but it's still in the shark family. And you're saying with the deer family. Like meal deer and white tail deer. White tail deer. Moose, moose, elk. There's a lot of deer in other countries, too, like brocket deer. Some of them are going to have deer in their actual name and some aren't, but they're all still in the deer family. Is it kind of like when people in the South call any soda a Coke?

Yeah, kind of. That's like another, I guess, you can't say that. Yeah. You got to, yeah, you should go talk to the South about that. In Guatemala, they would even call water. Coke in some places. Really? No way.

What? Man, that's some good marketing by Coke. Yeah. That's amazing. Wow. Okay, should we, I feel like we've done our time. We've been in the opening banter prison

for enough years now. We're talking about deer. I know, this is great. It was a great, I just don't want to delay the inevitable, you know. And I am inevitably going to tell this story. All right. So, dear listeners.

Nothing can stop it, not even a knife. Yeah, exactly. Maybe the clipper is an Exorcist 3 in the hospital, but not a knife. So we're obviously talking about, specifically today we're talking about white-tailed deer. So I don't know, this probably didn't pop up on your radar. It was an obscure little moment on the internet last year. There's a fake news story on a Facebook page called Arkansas Game Fish, which is like, like one of those names that's just close to like being official enough that it could trick like,

you know, a reader that wasn't locked in. Yeah, most people. 90% of people. Like a Jeff Larson. Yeah. Yeah. If there was like say a Jeff Larson on Facebook, this would get them. So there's a fake news story about a woman that was raising deer in her home on meth and she was teaching them to basically take revenge on deer hunter out in the wilderness.

So, like, the story was basically that deer need to be taught that hunters are dangerous and that you should take care of them, you know? But what these readers didn't realize is that there are a lot of deer out there that neither need meth nor further instruction to take care of some of these hunters, you know? I'm sure you've heard some stories about hunters getting messed up by deer. I've seen some videos. Yeah. I think most readers realized that deer didn't need meth. Again, I'm approaching this from my perspective where I don't know anything about anything when it comes to outside my house. Meth can never hurt, though, right?

I mean, you might as well always add some meth to the equation. Yeah. I mean, the Hollywood scripts write themselves, meth deer is coming next summer. Oh, yeah. Before I get into the story, I just, I can't tell you how many times I played and replayed this little clip. This is where I got. So the story I got is from an episode called Surviving a Dangerous. steer attack from a show called Fight to Survive.

This is season one, episode five. And I just want to play you like a five second clip. And I'm probably going to play it for you a couple of times, just because how much I love it. I would guess what it is. But let's see. Okay. A hormone fueled buck attacks a fisherman. I was dead.

A hormone fueled buck attacks a fisherman. I was dead. Just that? A hormone fueled buck attacks a fisherman. I was dead. You see that? Yeah. Okay.

I was dead. What'd you see? I was dead. And here. Yeah. So, old Ron Smith, this guy is a former Marine. Do you want to describe just a little bit what he looks like real quick, Jeff? You probably got, you had like three frames to see him.

He's old. Yeah, he's an old guy. He doesn't have like any hair that I remember. Maybe eyebrows, but not a lot of eyebrows if there is. Yeah, just like an old kind of wiry. Watching this video, it made me think of like a happy curmudgeon kind of. He's a former Marine. He's a real tough guy. He's got cleanly shaven bald head, clean shaven face. But there's something, there's a twinkle in his eye. And I just immediately fell in love with this guy. He's a guy that would pull a knife on someone. Yeah, he'd have no problem pulling a knife, no matter what weapon the other guy's got. So, on a chilly Halloween morning in Central. Texas, former Marine Ron Smith and his nephew, Eric Alvarez, went out to the river to do what they like to do best. And Jeff, you know, you've been to Texas recently. You know what, like,

they like to do down there, right? Down at the river? Noodland. Yeah, two-stepping. They weren't two-step in. Nood for Texas. Noodle for catfish. They were doing a lot of rowing. I was surprised. Just did they go down to like row competitively? Like a doubles team? No. They were going fishing as what they were doing. And this guy, again, like, I love this guy, Ron. From the moment I first laid eyes on him, I was like, this is a guy I could, I could watch talk about whatever for forever. He's a very active outdoorsman, Ron Smith, but he wasn't much of a thrill seeker beyond just fishing and hunting. And he specifically stated that, for instance, he was not into skydiving or anything like that, as he is, quote, not a full-blown idiot. But as long as he had the money

to cover the price. I heard. Yeah, all you skydivers out there. We appreciate you and support you. Ron's, well, we'll get to what Ron's up to these days. But as long as he had the money to cover the price of gas to get there, he'd go fishing just about anywhere. And one place that was within their radius was a river that feeds into Eagle Mountain Lake just northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. When they got to their spot, Ron decided to use a smaller rod since the fish that day, they were small croppy, is what they say they were, kind of in the spot for. And he wanted to enjoy the fight a little bit, since a bigger pole apparently means less of a struggle. Is that a thing for fishers? Okay.

That's true. Fights kind of the fun part, you know? So sometimes you want that lightweight rod. Well, that's what he's doing. Yeah, he went to smell. Yeah, I know. That's what I'm saying. Ron, he's a fighter.

Yeah. But what they didn't know is that the small strip of dry land on the side of the river that they've settled on would soon serve as the stage for a much, bigger fight than they were initially expected. That's why I used those like Disney princess rods you can get at Walmart. Those you can really fight with them. Yeah.

Tie in a knot. So when it came time to. Sorry. No, go for it. I saw this video. This guy caught like a record huge fish on one of those princess rods. And like it was just such a cluster F to like bring the fish in because like the rod was like, broken in four places.

He was just like using his hands to bring in the line at the very end. But anyways. So when it came time to dig into their pre-packed lunches, Ron cracked open a beer and took a swig. And just as he's doing that, he notices across the 30-foot river, a big nine-point white-tail buck raking its antlers over a tree and then approach its side of the river and look over in their direction.

So, Wes, what do you think? This deer's rubbing its antlers. What's that indicative of? It can be a lot of stuff. Like when they're losing their velvet, they'll rub them on trees. That's the main thing I would think is that it's like trying to get its velvet off. But then they also use them just to, they do that to mark in the rut. Sometimes they do that just because they got all those sex hormones pumping and they just like need to get some aggression out.

So it could be a lot of things. I feel that. Yeah. I always thought they were trying to cut the trees down. No. So thinking there was no danger. Ron and Eric felt content just to admire the deer. And even when the deer started swimming across the river towards them,

they once again took note, but didn't think anything more than just, hey, that's kind of cool. That's interesting that a deer would be swimming at us rather than away. So they're like kind of appreciating a rare moment. Yeah. In his retelling of the story, Ron said that if they knew what this deer had in mind, they would have acted differently.

But since Ron, you got to understand this about Ron. He isn't like a telepathic deer druid wizard guy. So he didn't know what this deer was thinking. Huh. I was picturing him as that. Yeah. Okay. So once again, they just stood by as the deer reached their side of the river and began to

slowly walk in their direction. In fact, once it got close enough, Eric reached out and gave the deer a couple of headpats. Wow. The deer. This deer was playing a real cool, though. It was like a very devil-may-care kind of deer. So it didn't react at all. Just let Eric.

Get a couple of pets in there. Really quick here. Before you get to the climax of this story. There's so many deer in Missoula and Lolo, like in the area where I live. Like we see deer every single day. And the only times that I ever get nervous is when a deer is acting really strangely like this deer is. So if you're ever approached slowly by a deer or like a deer is acting like very much out of the norm of what you typically see in deer behavior, That's not a deer that, like, wants to be your bud.

That's a warning sign. You should have the opposite response as, like, what they had when you're approached by a deer. Yeah. Maybe it liked being pet. We'll see. Lots of places can expose you to identity theft. Oh, no. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity,

which is way more than anyone can do on their own. If we find anything suspicious, like new loans or changes to your financial accounts, we alert you right away. All through text, phone, email, or the LifeLock app. Get the alerts that could make all the difference. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash special offer. Terms apply. This deer was so docile, this big buck, that Ron, too, got in on the action, kind of reached out and started rubbing the side of the buck.

I mean, if your friend pets a big buck, like you... You got to try it too, you know. That makes sense. Right, Wes? No, I don't agree with that. So, again, this deer is playing his hand. He's, you know, strategizing right now, unbeknownst to them. And it wandered off into a nearby grove of trees.

So crisis averted, right? Sounds like it. Not so. This was such a singular experience for Ron that he actually thought the deer must be someone's pet. Because in all the time that he had spent outdoors around deer, he had never seen one to act anything like that and that they would always just run away at the first sight or sound of a human.

But this being Halloween day, what does that mean specifically for the wild deer population, Wes? What season? What season is in their rut? Oh yeah, they're Randy. And it's hunting season too. Suddenly, the deer burst back out from the trees

directly at Ron. And deer, they're fast. Deer can run, like, 35, 40 miles an hour. And this thing was halting. directly at Ron and Ron had just enough time to register the gravity of the situation and thought to himself that he was dead but Ron we know Ron's not dead yeah we heard him say that yeah yeah he can't be he said he was dead maybe I'm thinking he dies and gets brought back maybe that was AI Ron that we saw in the interview club actually is dead it's kind of like

Tupac at that concert oh that's a good point a hologram Ron yeah yeah So the deer singled out Ron and knocked him over and pinned him to the ground. Now, this is kind of a weird part of the story that I'm not really sure how to visualize perfectly, but Eric, his nephew, in a scramble to help, he was searching the ground for any kind of weapon that could be used against this deer because it was really going at Ron at this point. But instead of using the stick that he finds on the ground, all he does is hand it to Ron so that Ron can use the stick to fight back at the deer. And if you'll remember, Ron's flat on his back pinned to the ground by the deer.

So Eric is just like, here you go, bud. Good luck. And then he kind of just backs off. And Eric's like way younger too, right? Way younger. Yeah. But like still a young adult, you know, not, he's not a child. Listen, though, I respect it.

That's Texas. You don't gang up in a fight. It's a one-on-one. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So he hands from the stick and then he just stands there evidently and watches his uncle fight a deer while pinned on his back on the ground.

Before we continue with the story, I just wanted to get into a little bit of biology as to just how much trouble Ron was in this situation. So when a buck is in the rut, we've already kind of covered it a little bit. But what kind of behavioral changes are we talking about, Wes? Pretty drastic ones, actually. This is the one time of year that they're going to breed. So dominant bucks are going to do whatever they can to defend. females from other bucks and to defend their breeding opportunities.

So yeah, if they see other bucks or anything they really see as like a threat in their vicinity, they're going to do whatever they can to like to defend themselves. And that like pretty much holds true for all deer species. Like in their rut, they're going to be a much more aggressive, much more difficult to deal with animal than they will like typically. So you just really have to treat them differently. And like, I know we've made a lot of these jokes recently, but like it is kind of interesting with us if we get super horny. There's ways we can take care of ourselves. You know, like an animal, they just have to deal with that, right?

Like at least some animals. Yeah, but there's, I mean, like, I just a thought I just had. In the right, you'll see. What would they do if they don't have a mate and they're super horny? No, but they'll like hump other things too. Like they'll hump other deer that maybe like other males like other females that they can like get close to. But maybe they're not going to be able to mate with like they'll do whatever they can to like relieve that pressure. And so yeah, it's like not the exact same way that you'd see a human or like a primate do it.

But you'll still. There are ways that they'll relieve that pressure without a mate. Yes. Okay. Good to know. Or sometimes it just happens like because they get too worked up. Like I had an elk in my yard in Yellowstone that did just like. it just like, I'm just going to say it, like, it just started ejaculating, you know, because it was

like so worked up from the rut. So it does happen. Yeah. Not even dreaming? No. Daydreaming, wet daydream? Anyway, who knows what's going on there? We'll talk a lot more about that later.

Not really. I think we're done. Unless we circle back around. No, I think like, we might. That was actually really interesting, you know? No, definitely. That's like something I just had never really thought to. much about so thank you west for knowing that all.

Totally. So more than just kind of behavioral, temperamental, and sexual changes, there are actually some physiological changes that deer undergo while they're in the rut as well. Apparently their necks, they swell up, like to double and sometimes almost triple the size of their regular necks to help brace for impact because they get into those head budding matches with competitors. Like Steve. There's no cold.

Steve Austin did that too. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't know that it was that, like, that dramatic. But I will say, like, even if you live in a place with deer, with mule deer, or whitel deer, and you look at them in the summer, like, take a good look at a deer in June or July, and you're going to see a really lith, kind of tawny-looking animal that there's not, like, a huge difference between the males and the females. But then if you look at that exact same animal, the exact same animal, the exact same

animal in the fall, the males are just built a lot differently. They're bigger, they're stronger, they're like very swole, and they're a different color even. It's pretty impressive the changes that happen to these guys, both in anticipation for the winter and for the rut. So the antlers, obviously, are the big concern for Ron at the moment. But later on in an interview, Ron says that he was actually a little more worried about the deer's hooves, since they can be razor sharp. They're made of keratin, which again is like fingernail material, just super thick and strong on these deer's hooves. And they're usually much stronger and sharper and kind of more accurate of a deployed weapon in a deer's arsenal than their antlers are. So not only is he pinned to the ground with

like these, this big nine point set of antlers, he's also dealing with, you know, hooves kind of just like drumming around him while he's on the ground. Yeah. Yeah. That's their main weapon. Like when they're dealing with potential predators or whatever, they really, they use their hooves much more than they use anything else. And they can just be razor sharp. And you'd be surprised the amount of power a deer can put behind their legs. Well, and that's like, that's why it like charged them is to knock them over it so it could trample. Right. Right. And if you think about it, like these big bucks, they can be, I don't know, 200 plus pounds at their biggest, maybe more. So like when they rear up on their hind legs and bring down full force with their front hooves and their razor sharp hooves,

it's obvious why these deer can kill when things get ugly. How heavy do they get? Do you look that up? I saw anywhere from like 150 to 200-ish pounds is kind of the standard range. This was a white-tailed deer? Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, and it really depends on...

I would assume they were heavier than me. It depends on the part of their range, too. White tail can be a lot smaller in like, say, Texas. than they may be in Texas. Idaho or something. What are you talking about? Not necessarily. Texas is a big old state west.

It really depends on where they live. So it, but yeah, I would say like that's a pretty good average weight for a white-tailed deer. Let's say 175 split the difference for this deer. Okay. I could kick this deer's ass. Let's get back to the story. So Ron, with his newly acquired stick, with his newly acquired stick from Eric, takes a huge swing and bongs the deer right on the noggin and hits it so hard actually that the stick just explodes and breaks.

Oh, nice. Wow. But this made the deer. It only made the serve to make the deer. That's my Instagram moment in the category. We can have a category for that. But this only served to make the deer more angry and it started thrashing the 160 pound Ron around like a ragdoll. A ragdoll. Not like a truck. Like a ragdoll. So as the two Ron and the deer continued to wrestle, they moved closer to and then eventually into the river, causing the buck to finally disengage. So Ron, thinking he finally was safe and out of this nightmare, started gingerly wading back through the water up onto the shore, when all of a sudden he feels a pair of antlers jab him right in the butt, kind of lifting him up and tossing him back up on the dryway. I bet it's the deer.

You think? Well, yeah, we'll find out soon. The buck hopped up alongside him, so you're right, Wes. It pushed him over again with its antlers. And once again, Ron found himself flat on his back pinned to the ground. But this time, the antlers found purchase in Ron's gut and chest. So this deer finally got him with the antlers. Eric realized that he needs... That must feel so good if you're the deer. Finally. Yeah. You think it... How hard would it be to puncture skin with those antlers, Wes? Like, go through the skin. Not hard. I actually just saw... Um, video of some guy that was out shed hunting looking for, you know, antler sheds. And he stepped on one accidentally, and it went, like, all the way into his foot.

Oh, wow. They can be pretty sharp, and those deer can put a considerable amount of force behind them. So especially a soft place, like your gut, it wouldn't be hard for them to puncture. Did he have clothes on, Mike? No, he was completely naked from the start of the story. Oh, so that's even easier than. Yeah, nope. I don't think Ron ever owned any clothes.

That's what he was saying. I don't think that's true. But the reason... He's wearing fishing gear. When people are, you know, when this kind of thing does happen, people often get a lot of little puncture wounds, but the reason you don't just generally see people like disemboweled is when a deer uses its antlers as a defense mechanism, when they're fighting other deer, they're just

kind of trying to lock those antlers up. So they do a lot of like head twisting and stuff. It's not like it's just like running at you at like high. speed trying to impale you with its antlers. It's more like dragging them across you and kind of like using them as as like a way to lock you up more than it's like trying to impale you. Like the clown. Yeah, kind of.

I'm not explaining this very well, but it's not like a dead on charge where it's just trying to impale something. It's like a high stakes thumb wrestling match. Exactly. That honestly is like a great way to explain it. Can you imagine having like a nine point buck at a camping trip? and you could just have like nine marshmallows going all at the same time. Oh, man.

On a campfire. That'd be great. That's what shed hunters are looking for, just the perfect marshmallow roaster. Right. Okay. So, Eric, at this point, Ron's on, again, I feel like I need to reestablish what's happening in the story again.

So Ron, flat on his back for a second time. Antlers in the chest in the stomach. I know. Man, you need a raise, Wes. I'm realizing. So Eric at this point, he realizes that he needs to get involved or he thinks for sure Ron is going to be killed. So Eric's opening Gambit is a running double stomp jumping kick, which actually does knock the deer off of Ron. So as the three of them are getting back up onto their feet, and Ron and Eric both grabbed one side of the antlers each and tried to yank the deer down to the ground.

And they kind of bring the head closer to the ground. But the deer's knees, its front knees, just don't even bend or buckle at all. And it actually starts kind of lifting them back up. So this is like two full-grown men just getting lifted up by this deer. Yeah. And it's like they're kind of like, oh man. Because his neck size. Yeah, triple neck size.

Stone Cold, Steve Austin. Corey Taylor from Slipknot. He did that once, I think. His partner is knocked out. But then the other two people, he took them both at the same time, lift them both up. So Eric at this point. The Northman. What's his name again?

Sparvgard. Svalbard. I forget his name. Scarsgard? Scarsegard? Yeah, but which one? Alex, that's right. Yeah.

Okay, sorry. Go back to your story. What's the It one? Is that Will William? Bill? Bill Scarsguard? Yeah. They're all.

Oh, they're brothers. Yeah. Yeah. And then there's the, well, we don't need to get into the older. Stirling. We like Stalin around here, though. He's my favorite. it. Eric, he was a little conflicted at this point, which I think is kind of to his credit,

since obviously he was in a fight for his survival, he was realizing, but he also was kind of dreading what he might have to do to this deer in order to get out of the situation, because he's realizing it's a killer be killed kind of thing now. And just when that thought occurred to him, Ron told him to grab the fish fillet knife from out of his hip, sheath, and slice its throat. No way. Ooh, he's carrying a knife. Good for him. So he's carrying a knife. Good for him. So he's carrying a knife.

Dude, I can't believe, like, I just randomly brought up that I've been carrying a knife on my hip at this time. I was really excited you did that. But I don't know what it is about these guys giving their weapons to the other guy. Why aren't they just, like, doing it themselves? But I guess that's what, yeah. Ron thinks this is the best to do. I think with an animal, like a deer where there's, like, this obvious weapon that you're trying to control on the deer, it's antlers, you know. you're probably so hyper-focused on just not getting gourd that that's all you can really think about, you know?

Sure. Like maybe for him, the thought of like using one of his hands that he's trying to control these antlers with to grab that knife, makes him realize like, I'm going to get gourd if I do that, you know? Yeah. So Eric grabbed the knife, but he too was so full of adrenaline that he had to take a moment to steady himself before making his next move. since Ron's face was so close to where he was thinking you would have to cut. Ron says that there was about a four-inch gap. Later on, Ron says this.

There's about a four-inch gap where Eric could get at the throat of the deer to kill it without also slicing it Ron. And this, you know, this deer was like thrashing all over the place. So you can kind of like imagine the- Yeah, so it's not just like a quick slice. It's like, it's like Star Wars when Luke shoots into that hole again, Jeff. But the hole's like moving this time, you know. I thought of that, but they're not.

I was like, I just use that. I can't. Yeah. But this is even harder since the hole would, like, be moving in this metaphor. Yeah, I should have done that. Yeah, I used the, what's it called? The Jets versus the Sharks. What's that called again?

West Side Story. West Side Story, just like their knife fight, how precise they got to be with it. Yeah. Or the Michael Jackson music video. When you're a jet, you're the, I don't remember the song. That was great. Thanks. But Eric,

He steadied himself, he took a breath, and he clutched it out. And he got that knife right through the deer's jugular vein. Kobe. Kobe did. Yeah. I hope Ron, like, struggling with the deer was like, ugh. Kobe. But even for a while after that, this deer stayed standing.

It was kind of like white beard in one piece. I won't spoil it, Wes, but you'll understand if you ever get there. But finally, he collapsed in a heap. It was only when Ron tried to get to his feet that he noticed that the deer had pierced straight through his own hand and into the ground, keeping Ron pinned to the dirt. No, wow. So he slid his hand free of the antler and hopped back in the river to wash it clean while Eric prepared to transport him to the truck and back to a hospital. Like he had a hole in his hand? Yeah, I was like, I don't know.

I'm not sure exactly like where or how it happened, but it was all the way through his hand into the ground. Like you could like hold your hand in front of his eye and look. at you still? Yeah, exactly like that. Wow. The emergency room personnel treated Ron and a game warden came by to talk to Eric about the events of the day. And while Eric told the story

truthfully, he was actually just honestly afraid that he'd be taken to prison for killing a deer while out of hunting season. That's crazy. It's kind of a funny, like, I don't know, it kind of reminded me that's like totally something my mom would be worried about rather than like, no, there's like bigger issues here

happening. Yeah. But the Warden ended up giving him a pass since it was out of self-defense that they killed it. Yes. And that there had actually been reports of a man in the area feeding a deer that matched this buck's description who had grown accustomed to human interaction. So again, we always say this. Keep it in mind that feeding wild animals isn't just a threat to your life. It's probably going to end up being a huge threat to that animal's life. And in Ron and Eric's case, a threat to other people's lives.

So just don't. Yeah. That's going to be my motto from now on. I think like, don't. Yeah. I'll take my third feeder down. Yeah. The number one thing when you're feeding an animal that you're not allowed to feed is like you're almost certainly killing that animal.

There's a very, very good chance that that's going to result in its death sooner later. Whether it's like something like this or it gets hit by a car while it's trying to access food or you're giving it stuff that's not nutritional enough for it to survive. The challenges that it has living outside. it's just really bad for it. And then on top of that, you're endangering other people. Just don't do it ever. What's the Michael Scott quote? Don't ever for any reason ever in any way do anything to anyone at all.

Or what's something like that. So the deer's head ended up being taken to a lab to be tested for rabies. But the rest of the body, he actually, so there's a homeless family living on the riverbank that since Ron couldn't legally keep the body of this deer for meat or for any person. This homeless family was like, hey, can we have this deer? And Ron was like, sure, it's all yours. So I guess, you know, one party. So he could give it away, even though he couldn't keep it? I don't know.

That's how it works. I'm not sure. I actually just heard a story on our trip with my dad's best friend, Wes, who I mentioned. He said he hit a moose in Alaska, and he, like, loved moose meat. And his truck was all, like, messed up and stuff. But then another truck came, and they, like, towed it out. And he was like, so do you want to split this moose 50-50? And the guy's like, I work for like fish and game.

We can't do that. And then they went and gave it to like a needy family, they said. Oh, interesting. That's cool. Yes, I think that's kind of, yeah. It depends on the state because a lot of states you're allowed to salvage roadkill. So if you hit a deer in a lot of states, you're allowed to keep it. Yeah, that's like a starting in more states.

It might be that you're not allowed to hit it yourself and keep it. because then people would go out. It would just like junkers and try and target deer. The thing that surprises me with it is that like, so in Montana where my parents, where our parents live, sorry, Wes, I'll include you. And I think you're there. I live here too. I also live in Montana. I'm saying where our parents specifically live in Missoula.

There's a golf course like right below the hill. And there was this one huge buck that was like walking up to golfers. And like, we could like see. it from their house. Like, these, this buck would, like, go up to, like, golfers and they would, like, touch it and stuff. So then that went on for, like, two days until Fish and Game got called. And they went there, and in the parking lot of the golf course, in the middle of the

day, they just took this buck by the antlers and shot it in the head. Yeah. And the owner of the golf course was like, why did you do that or something? And they were just like, yeah, I mean, there's just a risk that it has, like, some. type of disease or something because it's behaving this way and like there's so many deer here we just aren't going to risk it so like that was like their relocation they said as a joke yeah we'll relocate it for you and they just shot it but like I'm sure they didn't give that buck to people because like it could have had right like if it's acting so weird like there could be rabies or

I don't know whatever totally not rabies but probably something else I don't think they can care. Maybe they can. I don't know. So just to tie this up with a neat little bow, Ron said that this encounter with the deer... He was dead. I was dead. I was dead. This is what he said? Ron's ghost. Said.

So Ron said that this encounter with the buck made him all the more interested in the outdoors since the right, since the experience taught him that for good or for bad, you never knew exactly what would happen and that he would continue hunting and fishing until the day he died. And his fate would have it shortly after sharing the story with Fight to

survive in 2013. Ron passed away. So thanks Ron. Never skydived. All right. He's a great, great old guy. I love. He's just a gregarious, but kind of like a grouchy old guy. He lived a good life if he hunted and fished all life, you know. All the time. Got some good stories. Yeah. This episode is brought to you by Netflix. Most valuable promotions in Netflix are hosting a blockbuster triple headliner Saturday, May 16th.

Rhonda Rousey returns to face fellow woman's MMA pioneer Gina Carrano in the main event. Plus co-main's Nate Diaz versus Mike Perry and the best heavyweight in the world, Frances Ngano versus Felipe Lins. Watch Rhonda Rousey versus Gina Carrano, live only on Netflix. Saturday, May 16th at 9 p.m. Eastern Center Time, 6 p.m. Pacific Time. So just real quick, I wanted to, since this is like a very singular event, well, not singular. I'm sure this has happened. Rarely this happens. but the danger that deer pose by and large aren't from attacks, but of course from vehicular collisions with deer.

Yeah, that's the stupid stat where people are like, deer kill more animals or more humans than any other animals. Exactly. Because we hit them with a car. Yeah, and I wanted to cover just like some very basics. But go ahead, Wes. No, no, you do it first and then I'll talk about it. Go through your basics.

I got all this information from an article from the Washington Post. entitled Crash Data Illuminates America's Deadliest Animal, and this was compiled by Andrew Van Dam. And basically just the superficial data points are that between 200 and 400 people die every year in car collisions with deer, and around 60,000 people are injured by vehicle collisions with deer. And then some data from more than like a million animal vehicle-related collisions compiled by Kalem Cunningham, Laura Prue, and some fellow researchers at the University of Washington,

for their 22 paper, 22 paper published in current biology shows that collisions with deer peak just before Thanksgiving when you're about three times more likely to hit a deer than at any other time of the year. And this is for a couple of reasons. So it's rutting season. So they're kind of out and about and a little more, I don't know what the word would be, but kind of like. Spiced up. Yeah.

In the streets, raising hell, having sex, you know. Maybe that's not exactly what's going on. But so it's rutting season, so they're a little more courageous and like where they're willing to go and be. And also, this is daylight savings when daylight savings changes. And so insofar as the deer are concerned, all of a sudden, humanity's schedule shifts back in hours. So they've kind of had this like schedule in their brain. They figured out when to go on roads and stuff.

Yeah, when roads are safe and when they're not. And that's really interesting. We got to get rid of daylight or like just keep it daylight savings. time by now. Right. Which ever the good one everyone likes is. Yes. So just another couple of quick highlights.

Insurance claim data from State Farm. This is from State Farm. It shows that a driver in West Virginia had a 1 in 35 chance of hitting an animal between June 2021 and June 2022, making it the most dangerous in terms of deer car collisions. So watch out all you West Virginia folk. DC drivers had only a one in 900. seven chance making the least likely cousins say that animal hitting them yeah we've had a lot of cousins hit hit deer with their cars no they get hit by a deer right right as like going 50 miles an hour

through the deer's home and that's about a lot of times out front in western montana i think there's one other thing that's not included in that is the hunting seasons during that time of year Thanksgiving and like deer and elk have like really learned when those seasons are and there's city limits where you can't shoot deer and elk so i they've like figured out like where they can't be shot a lot of the time so i think a lot more deer and elk like come into cities during hunting season because there's like regulations that you can't shoot them in the city then yeah i buy it um it is It's like kind of frustrating how hard it is to find statistics on like deer actual like attacks on humans.

Because it's rather than these. Because when you, when you Google it, all you get is just like hundreds of hits on how many car incidents there are. And it's like that is that is not an attack. That's the last thing that should ever be billed as an attack. And like it doesn't make them more, it makes it a higher risk than like a shark attack. Like, yes, you have a much higher risk of hitting a deer with your car if you drive than you do of being attacked by a shark. But they're not like the same level of danger when it comes to the animal itself.

It's just a completely different... I don't count as them killing this. No. No. Me neither. It's like hitting a telephone pole and blaming the phone company or something. Right. Right.

We're having a vending machine fall on you and saying they kill more people than sharks. It's so stupid. Oh, man. Maybe during their rutting season, vending machines are a little more. When they're all horrid off. Imagine if you're, like, hoping to get some candy out of a vending machine, it just gives you a big old load instead. I bet you there's something like the horny or the person that doesn't get their candy bar,

they shake it a little bit harder than like a less horny person would. Yeah. We'll have to do that episode later someday. This actually happened to me, though. the thing that happened around. Oh, really? Yeah. Which part?

Exactly. Okay, yeah. But, uh... Let's hear it. Like, when I lived in Provo, when I was in college, I would like walk and this cat would always come up to my leg and just rub its head all over my leg for a while. And I'd just stand there and let it do it and then walk away. And then one day, I let it do it extra long and I decided to give the cat a few little

pets on the head. And it liked it. then it kept rubbing its head on me and then I eventually had to walk away and as I was walking it came up behind me and bit my Achilles tendon. Yeah, that's exactly. So like once I pet it, that's when it came back, charged me and bit me, you know. Toad does that to me sometimes too. It's too bad Ron's dad.

You'd really have some stories to share. I'd be like, that's nothing. Yeah. You can tell his hologram about it. I thought when you were going to show us the video is going to be that ring video of the lady just like walking outside to a buck just like ramming her. I did see that. Yeah, that one's good. A little less incident, all things considered than this one.

I like the one you showed them. Okay. Great. If there's nothing else, you guys want to share, we can go to categories. Can I add a category? Sure, yeah. First category. I want to do the Instagram moment.

Go for it. because I think you got another great one in there. So what was the younger guy's name again? Eric. A-R-I-K. Eric, like, double-foot jump-kicked the buck? Yeah, it was a good move, yeah. Like one of those wrestling drop picks.

Is that a spoiler for your Instagram pick? That's my pick, yeah. All right. Oh, we're doing it right now. Hitting the head of the deer. That's my picture. That would be on all my dating. apps on everything like I ever did.

That's a good one. I think there's probably a lot of girls out there that would be like, who is this asshole? If they just saw a picture, drop kicking a deer. It was trying to kill. I saved my uncle's life. No big deal. Yeah. You'd need to include that little tidbit.

I'm picking where the deer is lifting both the dudes up at the same time off the ground. I think that would be a cool moment to see. Deer's Instagram account. Yeah. If I were the deer, that's what I would pick. for my Tinder profile. I'm just, I'm doing the deer just rubbing its antlers on the tree.

It just sounds nice to see that. It does. Sounds beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Although it's kind of like when you see the aftermath and all the velvet like hanging down, it kind of looks.

Yeah, that's gross. It's pretty visceral and gross. Yeah. But cool. Still cool. Yeah. It's a valid pick, Wes. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

You guys pick the other two good ones. Yeah. Well, there's the other one that when he blows the stick up. on its head. That was a good idea. Yeah, but you already said that too. I already mentioned it. Okay. Yeah. Okay, let's go to another category. This is your favorite deer from pop culture. I'm going to go first this time so I can get through the good one before you guys go. The deer and Tommy Boy, when Chris Farley and David Spade hit a deer and then they put it in the back of their car and it comes back alive while they're driving. That's my pick for sure. That's a good one. You've probably seen mine in like,

a gift somewhere on the internet, or maybe not, you're not in the same corners quite all the time as me, but there's that anime, Nietzschejo, where the principal is wrestling a deer in the school yard and he does, like, the submission move and, like, flips the deer over. It's just, like, a super funny fight between a human and a deer, and just, they're both tossing each other all over the place. I love it. That's your pick? Yeah. Yeah, that's my pick. You remind me of Fargo Season 2 episode one where, oh, what's her name? The actress. in it, like, from Spider-Man and, like, Marie Artenet, super famous, I can't think of it. Oh, Kirsten Dunst?

Kirsten Dunst, when she, like, parks her car in the garage and, like, there's blood all over the place, and Jesse Plemons goes in there and it's like, what happened? And she's like, I hit a deer. And there's just, like, a person alive in their garage trying to get out. She's so good in that show. Oh, it's the best. I mean, I kind of think my answer is more interesting if I go least favorite, but for favorite, I'll just go Bambi because that mother-factor's cute as fuck. Sure.

There's some bleeps for you, Mike. Yep, my God, I might as well look at your timestamp right now. 5753. Baby deer. I just love a baby deer, you know. Yeah, with the spots. But I really hate in horror movies how much deer are used. because like they're supposed to be so scary

and it's like it's a deer like it's deer like we all see this animal all the time I hate when Hollywood doesn't understand like animals or the forest or something and my most egregious example of that is just recently this movie I watched Netflix called Leave the World Behind and like the only reason I watched it

is their little highlight that Netflix does when you're on a movie was like really good of like this huge cargo ship headed straight at him that scene was awesome and like their highlight i was like i got to watch that and that scene was awesome and then the rest of the movie i just didn't like but then like these deer keep getting closer to them and then there's this scene where julia roberts is like surrounded by deer and just like screams and it's supposed to be the like most tense part of the movie and it's just like they're deer they're not going to eat her What are we supposed to be afraid of here?

Yeah. Just to ask Ron. I liked the movie. I read the book, too. I liked both, but I hated the deer scene as well. And you know what? Other movie had an awful deer scene. Awful movie.

The Ring 2, the second ring movie. Yeah. Had the dumbest deer scene. And it was so obviously CG. Anyway. I went on a Valentine's date once to go look at a moose across a river. And as I was driving up there, the girl was telling me how deathly afraid of dear she was. I was like, so like, what about Moose? And she's like, yeah, I hate them. They're so scary.

I was like, oh, I messed this date up. Yeah, you should have turned around there, but. Yeah, but instead I went and dropped it. It got a lot worse. You dropped her in the river. Exactly. Okay. Next category. Your favorite pop culture old guy. You guys, so I'm going Mr. Miyagi. I love that guy. He's always been my favorite old guy. Run her up is Yoda. Mr. Miyagi's so good. He won like the Oscar. for that or something, right? Oh, did he? I'm not sure.

I don't know. Yeah. You should have if you didn't. I'm going to go with Marcus Brody from the Indiana Jones series. Oh, man. One of my favorite scenes of any of those movies is where Indiana Jones is being held. And he's explaining, like, how much of a consummate, like, professional and dangerous person, Marcus Brody is.

And then it cuts to him in, like, a crowded Cairo market. And he's just bumbling around and, like, yeah. I just think he adds such a nice levity to those movies as an old guy. And I wanted, I was going to go with Henry Jones because I also just love Last Crusade. And what's his name? Why can't I think it's Sean Conner's performance. But I just really like Marcus Brody in those movies. So that's who I'm going with.

Sean Connery is less of like, he's still like a capable kind of a dashing older gentleman. Brody is an old man. Brody is just perfect for that category. Yeah. Henry's hooking up with the same girls that Indy is. I know. Yeah. And I don't blame her.

Yeah. I'm going to just go with the very first person that came to mind when you asked this question. And I have no idea their name in the movie or in real life. But the old clerk in no country for old men where he does like the coin flip. And that old person just seems just like the most innocent old dude ever, you know? Yeah. And I don't know. I thought of old person in movies.

and that was the first person came to mind. But I also want to give a shout out to old John Hammond. You got a look normal size if I hold it like right here. That looks pretty big. That's a full-size game. Okay, we're going to do one more category, and then we're going to move on to a game. I think you guys are really going to like.

But for this last category, on a scale of 1 to 10, how good of a roommate do you think this animal would be and why? Probably shared's lasagna. A deer? Yeah. I would say like 10 being the best roommate and zero being the worst. Yeah. I'd say like a one.

Oh, really? See, I'm going like a six or a seven. I'm excited to hear reasoning. When I was a kid, I was on the school bus and I saw a deer jump through someone's window. And then it like kicked around in their house and broke everything and jumped out. Bad roommate. And that's not a great roommate. and it really didn't like being inside.

But I guess that's a nice thing. If the deer always just wants to leave and go outside, then I get the house to myself. So that's pretty cool. Although if you're going to have like a bad roommate, I'd rather have one that like gives me some stories. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Mike, I want to hear your reasoning on why it's so high. So for most of the year when it's not rutting season trying to like kill me, it's going to be pretty human averse. You get all the chicks. Keep to itself.

Yeah. It's going to be scared of me. And like if it ever hears me or sees me, it's just going to like run back to its room and be quiet, you know? And that's perfect. That's like, yeah, perfect roommate behavior.

But for like that rutting season, you're going to have to be a little careful, you know? Yeah, you get the chicks like seven months of the year, though. There you go. See, Wes? Yeah. Rebuttal.

I don't. I don't have one to that. Okay. Yeah. Figured. Okay. So let's, this is, we're in the final stretch here. Always thinking about who gets the checks.

So I prepared a little game for you guys, and I called it the big wild bucks for charity quiz. And this is how it works. So this story took place in 1993. I don't know if I even mentioned that. That's when this story happened, 1993. Oh, the year Jurassic Park came out. So I'm going to give you a clue about a 1993 person place or thing. and if you answer correctly, I'm going to donate $25 or bucks, because we're talking about bucks,

to the Bimini Shark Lab charity. If the other person has to steal it and they get it right, I'm only going to donate 20. If I get it right after you guys both get it wrong and then I get it right, I'm going to donate 10. So if you guys like charity, you're going to get all these questions right. And if you don't, that means you're not one with the cause, you know? Okay. Okay. You ready? These are going to start easy and get a little harder as we go. Also in 1993, we're starting with Wes. This is the politics category. The comeback kids storms back from a polling slump and is sworn in as the 42nd president of the United States. Who am I talking about? In 93? Yeah. Bill Clinton. All right. That's 25 bucks to Bimini Shark Lab.

Jeff, this is the sports category. This is a sports category. This is. athlete who most intelligent people consider to be the greatest of all time, wins their third championship in a row and then shocks the world by retiring. Who am I talking about? Got to be Steph Curry, I think. All right. Michael Jordan. Yeah, it's Michael Jordan. Who's your goat? Your goat's, Steph? Yeah, I've convinced myself of that somehow. All right. So, mine's Michael Jordan. Yeah, it's MJ. So we're up to $50 for Bimony. West, this is the movie. category. This movie is released and becomes the highest grossing film to date, eventually making just over a

billion dollars worldwide. In 93, it's the movie Jurassic Park directed by Stephen Spielberg. Yeah, with music by John Williams. Hans Zimmer. Yeah. Can you believe that Schindler's list beat it at the Oscars that next year for Best Picture, Wes? I can. I remember watching those Oscars hoping for a clip of Jurassic Park. Which movie do you think is more important?

To me personally, I'm not going to answer that question, but I will say that I was very happy that Dresc Park at least won the, what's it called? The special effects category. Like best visual effects and stuff? Yeah. Yeah. All right, Jeff, to you. So I'm up to $75 for Bimini.

Jeff, television. 12 million people tuned in to watch the very first episode of this sci-fi drama starring two FBI agents, won a believer in the parents? normal and the other a skeptic. Uh, X-Files? The X-Files. Do you think you're more of a molder or a sculli, do you think? I haven't watched it ever.

Okay. I'd say you're a molder. I think, um, oh, interesting. How about me? Who would you say I am? I'm saying you're a scully. Yeah, I'd be more of a sculli. All right.

I'm a, I'm a molder in my heart. I'm a believer. Uh, Wes, this is the music category. This singer nicknamed simply the voice would set a new record for longest running number one single of all time in the USA with their song, I will always love you. Whitney Houston. Oh, you got it. So I watched the music video. It's kind of one of those, like, it's interspiced with clips from the movie The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner of Whitney Houston. And it just kind of made me, I feel bereft of the days when it was kind of an art. Like music videos

were a big deal. It was such a big deal. Yeah. One of my favorite directors, what's his name, David Fincher? Yeah, he let guys start with music videos, I think. A lot of them. Yeah, a lot of do. Michael Bay. Yeah. Yeah. Your other favorite director?

My top dude. You too. Okay, Jeff, to you, this is the video games category. This revolutionary first-person shooter PC video game was released, spawning countless imitators and sparking an age-limit debate over its violent and satanic imagery. It's doom. You're right.

Okay. These the last two are going to be real tough. Oh, I loved it. This is books, Wes, for you. A perennial favorite of teachers everywhere, Lois Lowes-Lowry's young adult dystopian novel was published and has since sold over 12 million copies and been read by countless school kids.

Lois Lowes-Lowry's what? Dysopian? It's like a young adult dystopian. Always assigned to kids in elementary school or middle school to read. Is it the giving tree? Ooh, I think you actually are thinking of the right book, but you have the title wrong. The giver.

The giver. Yeah. I'll give that. That's $20. Yeah. 20 bucks. I don't know. Yeah.

Okay. This is the last one. Jeff, Sexiest Man Award. I don't know if you're going to get this one. What year is it? 1993. 93.

In a shocking twist that still only happened the one time People Magazine awarded a sexiest couple award, not just sexiest man. Name one of the two. I'm going to say it was Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. 93. A little early. Yeah, go for it. Oh, wait.

So Brad Pitt wasn't right? I'm not going to say anything. You said I need a name one of them. Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Pitt. No. It's a little early for those two young lovebirds. Juliet Lewis. That's a bit closer.

It's Richard Gear and Cindy Crawford. Oh, that's a good pick. So that's only 10 bucks since I had to get it right. We'll add that. Got it. Sorry sharks. Yeah. So what, six?

Me and West Hyde. $150, 170. $180 to Bimini Shark Lab. Good job, Bimini. You did it. I like this game. That was a fun game. Yeah, I could have made it a little harder.

Maybe next time. Real seminal year for me, 1993. Yeah, it was real easy until the last two questions. Yeah. Well, that was the pilot. We'll maybe bring it back in a later episode. But I was thinking maybe going with a deer. charity, but I don't think deer really need a whole lot of money at the moment.

I think they're doing okay, right? They're all right. Do you want to do a preservation or a conservation corner, West? Conservation. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, just like Mike mentioned deer, white-tailed deer specifically are doing really well in the U.S.

They're expanding their range in a lot of places. And it's largely just because they have, they've accustomed to living in human settlements. Like they live in our cities. They live in our towns. they are really good at making use of human resources, like lawns, agriculture, all of those kind of things, to a point where they're a huge problem in a lot of places, both for their, like, the fact that they eat people's gardens

and, like, and landscaping and stuff, and that they also lead to a lot of traffic, like, problems. But, yeah, we've eliminated a lot of their natural predators. They're doing great. Part of me is like, yeah, this is a problem that we have so many deer, And then part of me is like, it's also so cool to see these kind of animals that are able to thrive with the amount of shit that we've thrown at them. They figured it out. And so I, part of me is like, hats off to whitetail deer.

And then part of me is like, yeah, we need to figure out how to not have so many white tail deer. But, yeah, that's kind of how I feel about it. I like them a lot, deer. I do too. I think they're beautiful. I've seen millions of them. And every time I see them, I'm still just like, cool, a deer. How about real quick, cage match, this nine-point buck from this story,

and then like the biggest coyote from our coyote story? Yeah, that's a good fight, but I would give it to the buck. I don't think the coyote would go after a big buck like that. But then you'd give the Wolverine over the buck. I don't think a wolverine would really go too hard on like a huge white-tail nine-point buck either. I think they would probably think it's not. the edge. Yeah.

Yeah. I would. Okay. Yeah. Do you want to put a number to how much you like them less? One to ten claw rating? Yeah. I would say for me, I would give white-tailed deer a seven claws, especially in the summer when

they're like really pretty and just, I just think they're an animal that I truly see every single day. Like I could probably look out my window and see one right now. But I still enjoy them. And I think it's cool that they've managed to do so well in the face of so much pressure. So seven. Tasty, too. I think I'm going to give them 10.

Whoa. Yeah, rank them 29. I just think, you know what really elevates them for me is their fons. Like, I think their fons are arguably the cutest animals alive. Like how cute they are with their little spots and stuff. Spindly little eggs. And I just like how they're like a pretty big animal that I, can easily see out in the wild.

Yeah. I had a bit of a paradigm shift when you gave your squirrel episode. It was like, it just made me look at kind of boring or common animals in a new light. It's kind of cool that such a big animal is like so willing to just, I don't know, willing is maybe the wrong word, but just like is so close to us all the time, you know? And yeah, I just, I think they're really cool. I'm going to give them an eight and I'm just happy that they're a thing and that we don't have to worry too much about them other than when we're in our car. Yeah, they're great food for

some of my favorite animals, too. So I do love that. Sharks. And we will, at some point, we'll do, like, another episode on them. Like, they're definitely going to be one. I'm glad, I'm actually, I'm really glad we did this for subscribers first, because sometimes, like giving our subscribers a new animal before we give, like everyone else, that animal. But at some point, we'll put a main feed episode out about. deer as well so yeah oh dear oh dear all right i'm done thanks mike i'm done talking yeah you're welcome let's do some listener questions yeah these are from people that uh asked these questions on patreon thank you to our patreon community i know a lot of you listening right now are because this is a subscriber

episode mage hand from discord so this actually after that whole intro this is actually from discord uh I should submit a question if narwhals can beat a polar bear in a fight because that song says they can. So I'm going to say that you did submit that question because I have it here on my sheet. So thank you, Mage Hand. Can a narwhal beat a polar bear in a fight? No. So, well, I guess it depends on the medium. I think if you're in water, then yeah, a narwhal could probably beat a polar bear in a fight if the polar bear is swimming.

but there are polar bears who have learned to feed on narwhal. So sometimes what Narwhal do in the high Arctic, especially, they'll find leads in the sea ice or these things called polenia. And a polenia is essentially like a hole that never freezes in the sea ice. And when one of those forms, a lot of marine mammals will go to it because it's this ability, it's this place where they can breathe and then still go out and look for food and whatnot,

but they know they'll be able to come up for air and breathe. and those can attract groups or pods of narwhal, and there are polar bears that have learned that they can just wait by a polenian kill narwhal and actually bounce on them, grab them, and a big male polar bear can pull an entire narwhal up onto the ice. So because there's record of one killing the other and not the other killing the other,

so I would say polar bears win in that fight. I've been researching Narwha a little bit recently, and their horns, But scientists for a long time thought that those were for like fighting other males for mating. Yeah. But they actually use them to like communicate with other males. And they also are like hypersensitive and give them information about their surroundings, which is really cool to me. Interesting.

Yeah. And they haven't ruled out that they're also used for like for defense and mating stuff. But then they think they're like multifaceted. It's not just that. They're like less beneficial than beneficial, though. The female narwhal without horns tend to live longer than males. Yeah, I can see that. Cool.

All right. This is another one. This is from Valerie. Valerie said, hello, I have a question for Wes. What does he think about Colorado reintroducing wolves? Some people are saying that it's bad for the existing ecosystem. That can be true. Like when you put a large predator, a really dominant predator back into an ecosystem,

it existed in historically, it can really upset this kind of new normal that we've created. But in my personal opinion, trying to get an ecosystem back to the way that it existed for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years, before we interfered in the last like couple hundred years. And when I say we, I mean kind of like white European settlers. I think that's the right thing to do. And Yellowstone was a really good case study for what can happen with wool. where when they reintroduced wolves, it really did, it upset that balance that had been established.

And a lot of elk died and a lot of things changed really quickly and people were kind of upset about it. But then we saw all these really cool things start to happen because of that reintroduction. Like the elk herds actually became stronger. They became wilder. They were acting like wild elk. You saw like better regeneration of plants down by the riverways because these prey animals weren't feeding without like. being vigilant. So they were letting those plants kind of regrow in. Beavers came back. Grizzly bear populations did better because they were feeding on wolf kills. It just did a lot of things that

really helped that ecosystem overall. So my whole argument is just like, let's try and make our ecosystems as strong and as historically accurate as possible. So I'm really glad they're doing it. Cool. And I think the boys would agree with me. Yeah. Sounds great. Yeah, in Montana, there's a lot of pushback because, like, at first the wolves just wiped out so many elk because, like, the elk weren't trying to protect themselves from wolves, you know? And then elk adapted. And now it's more just that, like, those elk had lived without ever having to deal with it. So all of a sudden, you'll have, like, a few years where a lot of prey don't do quite as well. But then they'll get back.

A few decades. Yeah, it'll take a little while. All right. So, have we done this Wiley Coyote one? Is Wiley Coyote the victim rather than the roadrunner? No. I can't remember. This one's from Tracy.

Tracy asks if Wiley Coyote is the victim rather than the roadrunner. I think so. I don't. Me neither. Who's trying to eat? I guess you're right. Why not just leave? Yeah, but that's like his natural.

Yeah, find some other food. Right. It's like if you're trying to eat someone alive, I think they have a green light to, do whatever they want to you. Yeah. I think you're right. And if he's able to like order bombs,

if he can like order like all this stuff from Acme, he can also just like order some chicken or something, you know? That's true. That's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. And like the roadrunner, I mean, he, he is mean about how he messes with coyote.

Like he does mean stuff, but it's like, just leave him alone. That dude's trying to eat him. Yeah. Like this, that's a good point. This coyote is. obsessed with this singular roadrunner. I think they're both obsessed with each other. I think it's kind of like a Batman Joker kind of thing where they probably actually

they're in love with each other is what I think. Yeah. Okay. I like it. You should try it out. See how it goes. One more here. This is from Noah.

Noah said, What is the scariest movie that features an animal or animal attack that you've ever seen? Ring two. Ring two for Jeff, the deer attack can ring two. For me, my honest answer is probably the movie Backcountry, which is a movie that features a really visceral Black Bear attack that just like kind of gets it right and it's pretty hard to watch. So that's probably mine. That's probably what I would pick. Sorry, I should have prepped you guys with this one.

Do you have a- No, it's good. I have a couple of answers. I just, I don't really get scared, especially when animals are involved. It's more of like a fun thrill than like, oh, I'm actually going to not be able to sleep tonight. But like the bear scene in annihilation is one I always think about is like, wow, that was actually really creepy. And I recently watched kind of an Australian cult classic called Razorback. That movie is amazing. I love that movie. Again, not scary at all, but it features like

they call it Jaws on Trotters was kind of the tagline, kind of like the marketing ploy. And it's just really fun. It's not, of course, not up to that standard, but just a great, very novel kind movie that you don't see a lot of killer boars going to hog wild, you know. Just a very bizarre movie with crazy visuals, like almost a hallucinogenic desert scene. It's really interesting. Very like kind of pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of funding and amateur production that ended up being super fun. Cool.

My actual one, I need to figure out its name because I've referenced it a few times, but it's that one where like all the rattlesnakes in Veda Town and they're just like killing people. I forget what's called. It's like a made-for-TV movie from like the late 90s. Yeah, it's like L.A. has like a billion rattlesnakes all the sudden. I'm going to do an honorable mention to you for the opening Jaws scene because that one really stuck with me for a long time. Yeah. All right.

I think that's it. Thanks, Mike. You're welcome. I think you did a really good job. Hey, I do too. I also think that. Good job. I appreciate you all.

And thanks Ron for telling your story out to the world. Yeah. All right. Well, I love you. Wes and Mike. Thanks. Bye. See you.