South Texas Cougar Causes Controversy Between Neighbors and Drone Technology A New Frontier For Hunters and Game Wardens Alike

What this episode covers

When I got the text of a big male cougar in a snare last week, I figured someone had sent it to my longtime buddy Chisum Cooke. The next text I got was of his old man (and my friend) Lee Cooke bear hugging the 135 lb South Texas tom and I realized that cat was caught on their family ranch in Webb County! Chisum jumps on the show to discuss how his family’s passion for whitetail management and trying to carry bucks to 6.5 – 7.5 years old led him to recently start snaring along their fence line. It took about 10 days before this cat was hung up in one of those traps set for coyotes. With the ability/need to kill a deer a week, this catch is infinitely more important than a pack of coyotes would have been from a whitetail management standpoint. Sadly enough, photos of the cougar quickly spread from neighbor to neighbor and ultimately ended with some incredible jealously from the hunters who share the fence line the cougar was caught on. They claimed it was their snare and therefore their catch. Game Wardens quickly came out and confirmed the cougar belonged to the owner of the snare, which was indeed the Cooke’s. (Lee with the big old pumpkin headed tom)   Next we take a listen to a bourbon fueled discussion on feral hogs as table fare with my buddy Greg Pavur of Pavur Outdoors. We taped this conversation while in camp together recently. In addition to hogs and various wild game discussion, Greg and I also shed some light on Texas drone law pertaining to videoing or photographing wildlife. Our Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Wardens came out to discuss the ever evolving drone regulations after seeing a video I posted on social media. Be sure to pay attention if you own a drone!