The MeatEater

As a native family of American animals, for more than five million years wolves of various kinds have been keystone predators of western ecologies. Before humans arrived they shaped the West more than any other mammal species. Numerous, nearly tame, and admired by Native people, wolves continued this role until the arrival of people from the Old World initiated a continent-wide war against wolves. While wolf pelts became a target of the western market hunt, into the early 20th century most wolves were destroyed by bounty hunters and “wolfers,” who trapped and poisoned hundreds of thousands of wolves at the behest of livestock associations and state governments.

Thank you to our sponsor Velvet Buck.

Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts. YouTube, Spotify, Apple, iHeart, Pandora, Amazon.

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

Check out more MeatEater's American History audio originals "The Long Hunters" and "Mountain Men"

Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop MeatEater Merch

This week, Tony explains how to develop a rut hunting plan and then actually see it through until you get a crack at the right buck.

Connect with Tony Peterson and MeatEater

Tony Peterson on Instagram and Facebook

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop MeatEater Merch

This week Reid and Dan host a fellow West Tennessean and GRAMMY nominated songwriter Jessi Alexander out in God's Country. Jessi is a force to be reckoned with in Nashville with penning some of the biggest songs in the genre and an ACM AND CMA Song of the Year with "I Drive Your Truck". She shares her inspirational Nashville journey that will leave anyone feeling inspired to chase a dream. The three of them joke on some of their Nashville "Mine Would Be's" and the episode ends with an old habit she can't let go.

God's Country on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop God's Country Merch

Shop MeatEater Merch

Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) recently euthanized several wolves following an “unprecedented” streak of livestock depredations. According to a recent press release, wolves from the Bayem Seyo Pack in the Sierra Valley of Eastern California, were responsible for a whopping 70 confirmed livestock losses from September 10, 2025 to October 14, 2025. That number accounts for over 60% of total livestock losses in the state during that timeframe.

Before the lethal management action was taken, CDFW officials employed “extensive adaptive management deterrence efforts, including the use of drones, non-lethal bean bags, all-terrain vehicles, foot presence, diversionary feeding, fladry installation, and field presence 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

However, the wolf pack had shifted its behavior to considering its primary food source to be cattle, which officials say, “threatens both livestock and the ecological integrity of wolf recovery.” Lethal action ensued, with staffers euthanizing the pack’s breeding pair, an adult male, and a juvenile male that was initially mistaken for the adult male.

“This decision was not made lightly nor was it easy,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “The situation with this pack is far outside any comparable experience across the state or the West…[they] became so reliant on cattle at an unprecedented level, and we could not break the cycle, which ultimately is not good for the long-term recovery of wolves or for people.”

During the course of the operation, officials also found the remains of two juvenile wolves that had already died. Wildlife management staffers are working to capture three remaining wolves from the pack and relocate them to a wildlife sanctuary.

Livestock depredations caused by wolves are not incredibly common, but they do occur in the Western U.S., and unfortunately, wolves known to prey on livestock tend to be repeat offenders. Wolves had been extirpated in California about 100 years ago. The state has not conducted any reintroduction efforts like other places in the West. However, starting in 2011, they began to extend their range into the Golden State from Oregon. Most California wolves live in the northeast of the state, with one pack in the Southern Sierras. They are protected under the Endangered Species Act, as they are elsewhere in the Lower 48, except for the Northern Rocky Mountain Population. The recent action marks the first lethal action California has taken against wolves since they began to recolonize parts of the state.

That said, California is far from being the only state to struggle with balancing the presence of wolves with ranching communities in the West. Colorado, in particular, has had a bumpy and controversial voter-mandated wolf reintroduction that began in 2023. The Copper Creek Wolfpack, for instance, was introduced to the state from Oregon, where one of the wolves already had a history of livestock depredations. In the Centennial State, the pack was responsible for a string of depredation events in 2024, prompting Colorado Parks & Wildlife to capture, hold in captivity, and then relocate the wolves. However, despite the male wolf seen as primarily responsible for this behavior dying, the pack continued attacking livestock in 2025, injuring or killing at least seven cattle in a short span and prompting lethal action against one of the wolves. CPW searched for but failed to find another wolf involved in the depredations.

Ultimately, the recent incidents in California and Colorado underscore the difficulties of managing the apex predators when their range inevitably intersects with livestock producers. Meanwhile, a recent study showed that the regulated sport hunting of wolves in Montana and Idaho—both states where the species is not protected under the ESA—had only minimal impact in preventing livestock depredations, in part because chronic depredations from certain packs are so common.

Last week we dove into the topic of the menhaden fishing industry or pogie boats along the Louisiana coast, and the growing concerns from recreational fisherman and wildlife biologist. This week we will be hearing from a representative from menhaden industry to share their side of the story. The timing of this crucial because this Thursday, November 6, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Commission will be voting to potentially change some of the buffer zone laws, which directly affects where these menhaden boats are legally able to fish.

Connect with Lake Pickle and MeatEater

Lake Pickle on Instagram

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and YouTube Clips

MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Steven Rinella talks with MeatEater's very own Jordan Sillars about the stories and cold cases behind his brand new investigative outdoor true crime podcast, "Blood Trails."

Connect with Steve, Jordan, and The MeatEater Podcast Network

Steve on Instagram and Twitter

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

This week, Cal tells you about a new study that answers the question we've all been asking: is my dog addicted to his ball? He also covers what happens when wild animals invade civilization, and how an amputee still manages to get out in the field.

Connect with Cal and MeatEater

To learn more and get involved with any Cal to Action, click here.

Cal on Instagram and Twitter

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips

Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube

Shop Cal's Week in Review Merch

The path to cracking the code on a mature whitetail buck is a convoluted, ever-changing riddle. It’s the cat-and-mouse puzzle that stokes our fires and keeps bruiser whitetails on our minds year-round. We can study moon phases, changing food sources, barometric pressure, alternating feed-to-bed patterns, and the effect of differing wind directions on whitetail movement. We have real-time trail camera data and even AI algorithms to aid in our decision-making process, and yet that antlered Houdini still evades us.

Setting obscure environmental factors aside, there are undeniable and definitive factors that increase our odds of success. Think of them as odds multipliers. By stacking as many odds multipliers together as possible, the statistical probability of encountering a mature buck compounds with each variable that you have working in your favor.

As complicated and elusive as that sounds, it can be as simple as asking yourself how many odds multipliers you have working in your favor in any given location. There are many that won’t make this short list; however, here are seven proven odds multipliers for the analytical whitetail hunter.

When it comes to rutting bucks, nothing concentrates deer movement and increases the likelihood of a deer within bow range like a good terrain funnel. If there are a dozen trails meandering between food and bedding, why hunt one or two of the trails when there is a spot where four trails intersect as a result of terrain? However, not all terrain funnels are created equal.

Some will be littered with rubs, scrapes, and scat, while others look good on paper, but are nearly void of fresh deer sign. Both can be good during the rut, even the travel corridor without much sign. My best rut funnel doesn’t hold many deer, and certainly doesn’t look very impressive upon scouting. I don’t see many deer when sitting that stand, but I know it’s only a matter of time before a mature buck finds himself passing through.

As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. When you find a good rut funnel, regardless of the nearly infinite variables at play, a spot that sees a few cruising bucks last November will likely see a completely different cruising buck this November. This is where trail cameras really shine, not in the sense of real-time intel, but by compiling historic data.

As we’ve all learned the hard way, because a shooter buck walked by our trail camera yesterday doesn’t always mean he’ll walk by the same camera today. Instead of using them strictly for deer inventory, use trail cameras to vet the productivity of hypothetical rut funnels. It may not be the golden ticket for this year’s hunt, but you’ll think differently about that funnel next fall.

From a statistical perspective, more time in the field increases your sample size and allows more time for the statistics to play out in your favor. As painful as a string of all-day hunts without laying eyes on a deer may be, it only takes one lovestruck buck to turn your entire season around.

The key is identifying spots conducive to mid-day deer movement. That means leaving behind wide-open field edge setups. Spots conducive to mid-day movement are usually deep in the timber, sitting over a terrain funnel close to or in between bedding areas, and places where bucks feel safe moving in the broad daylight.

For the public land hunter, nothing shuffles the deck quite like abnormally high hunting pressure. Deer are used to being hunted and seeing an uptick of human activity each fall, so don’t let your run-of-the-mill hunting pressure squash your optimism.

Deer know where they can go to escape hunters, often finding sanctuary in areas created by terrain, legal boundaries, thick vegetation, or water features that humans tend to avoid. Identifying a good sanctuary is worth its weight in gold after the lead starts flying.

In November, does are almost a form of currency that can be exchanged for a whitetail buck. While that’s probably a bit exaggerated, the bucks know where the does are, and if you are hunting an area seldom visited by does, shooter bucks will be even more scarce. Does respond to hunting pressure the same way that mature bucks do, making sanctuary an increasingly important odds multiplier.

With the rut peaking, buck activity should be at an all-time high. However, along comes an early November heatwave, squashing your best-laid plans. If you’re fortunate enough to pick and choose your hunting days based on the weather forecast, choosing to focus your efforts around a cold front is always a wise move. If you have time to hunt, don’t let the warm weather keep you sidelined, but maybe save your best spots for a perfectly timed cold front.

You might have every single one of these odds multipliers working in your favor, but if the wind is giving away your position, you might as well leave your weapon at home. In order to put the final pieces together, infer a wind direction that will reliably carry your scent to a location of low deer density. In a perfect setup, this should not require a mature whitetail to travel with the wind at his back.

Hunting the whitetail rut can be as simple as stacking these variables together and allowing time for the statistics to play out. When scouting for your next hunt, think about how many days it will take for a November whitetail to walk within 20 yards of this spot. Prioritizing your time and volume hunting these strategic locations is sometimes as complicated as you need it to be.

Steven Rinella returns to the Yturria Ranch in south Texas, this time, to hunt turkeys and pigs with country musician Luke Combs. Their plans to chase the spring thunder shifts as the weather has a different idea. Presented by Can-Am and RAM

Hosts Randall Williams, Seth Morris, and Cory Calkins catch up with our friend Jordan Sillars about his new podcast, Blood Trails, play another round of Fake News, interview hunter Lauren Dolcater about a unique request she made to First Lite customer service, and share some old photos in Throwback Thursday.

Watch the live stream on the MeatEater Podcast Network YouTube channel.

Subscribe to The MeatEater Podcast Network

MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube