All things snowshoe hares on this weeks lean protein show. #fluffles
Subscribe:
Contact:
The Answering Machine: (218) 481-0649
Episode Transcript
[0:00:10 – 0:00:13] Flith: Long ago, the great Flith made the world.
[0:00:20 – 0:00:33] Flith: He made all the stars, and the world lived among the stars.
[0:00:35 – 0:00:40] Flith: Flith made all the animals and birds, and at first made them all the same.
[0:00:41 – 0:00:46] Flith: Now among the animals was Elaghera, the prince of rabbits.
[0:00:49 – 0:00:55] Flith: He had many friends, and they all ate grass together.
[0:00:56 – 0:01:01] Flith: But after a time, the rabbits wandered everywhere, multiplying and eating as they went.
[0:01:06 – 0:01:11] Flith: Then Frith said to Elaghera, Prince Rabbit,
[0:01:12 – 0:01:17] Flith: If you cannot control your people, I shall find ways to control them.
[0:01:18 – 0:01:24] Adam: Welcome to Tumble Home Boundary Waters Podcast.
[0:01:25 – 0:01:29] Adam: This is episode 0133, Boundary Waters Podcast.
[0:01:29 – 0:01:32] Adam: Coming to you live from… Tumble Home?
[0:01:33 – 0:01:36] Adam: Coming to you live from K2 with The View.
[0:01:38 – 0:01:40] Adam: Yes, my name is Adam.
[0:01:40 – 0:01:41] Adam: I’m joined here with…
[0:01:41 – 0:01:42] Adam: My good friend Eric.
[0:01:42 – 0:01:43] Adam: Hello, Eric.
[0:01:43 – 0:01:44] Adam: Hello.
[0:01:44 – 0:01:46] Adam: Got the sunglasses on in the studio.
[0:01:46 – 0:01:47] Erik: It’s really weird.
[0:01:47 – 0:01:51] Erik: I think this is the coolest record we’ve ever experienced.
[0:01:51 – 0:01:52] Adam: I feel real cool.
[0:01:52 – 0:01:53] Adam: Yeah.
[0:01:53 – 0:01:54] Erik: It’s so bright.
[0:01:54 – 0:01:56] Erik: We need sunglasses inside.
[0:01:57 – 0:02:02] Adam: Tumble Home, as always, is sponsored in part from our friends on Patreon.
[0:02:03 – 0:02:06] Adam: Thank you for keeping us a proud independent podcast.
[0:02:07 – 0:02:09] Erik: Yeah, we’ve got eight below out there.
[0:02:10 – 0:02:15] Erik: And before the end of the month, we’re doing A River Runs Through It.
[0:02:16 – 0:02:23] Erik: We’ve probably talked about that movie enough that if you were to cut together all the little clips, it would be a full Tumble Home Cinema Classics discussion.
[0:02:23 – 0:02:28] Erik: But we’re going to go through and become even more fans of Tom Skerritt.
[0:02:29 – 0:02:29] Erik: He’s the best.
[0:02:29 – 0:02:31] Erik: He’s the bee’s knees.
[0:02:31 – 0:02:32] Erik: This pleases me.
[0:02:32 – 0:02:34] Adam: This pleases me, father.
[0:02:37 – 0:02:38] Adam: Today’s round share out to our calendar.
[0:02:38 – 0:02:44] Adam: Fact of the day for February 8th, 2021 is great horned owls are nesting, Eric.
[0:02:45 – 0:02:49] Adam: Sunset is at 5.31 p.m. What does that mean?
[0:02:49 – 0:02:50] Adam: They’re nesting.
[0:02:50 – 0:02:53] Adam: It’s time to get the nest ready for the eggs.
[0:02:53 – 0:02:54] Adam: You know, it comes after the nest.
[0:02:55 – 0:02:55] Adam: You get the eggs.
[0:02:56 – 0:02:58] Erik: You know what comes after the nest?
[0:02:58 – 0:02:58] Erik: The eggs.
[0:02:59 – 0:03:01] Adam: And you know how eggs are made, Eric.
[0:03:03 – 0:03:03] Adam: It’s owl sex.
[0:03:05 – 0:03:06] Erik: Yeah, I don’t actually.
[0:03:06 – 0:03:07] Adam: You got to fertilize the egg.
[0:03:07 – 0:03:10] Erik: I don’t know how eggs are made, to be honest with you.
[0:03:10 – 0:03:15] Adam: That’s going to be a topic of a future episode, how eggs are made.
[0:03:18 – 0:03:20] Adam: All the different eggs of the Boundary Waters.
[0:03:21 – 0:03:22] Adam: The incredible egg.
[0:03:23 – 0:03:27] Adam: I’d say there’s probably at least 100 different kinds of eggs in the Boundary Waters.
[0:03:27 – 0:03:32] Erik: I mean, I just can’t get the fish egg scenario out of my head.
[0:03:34 – 0:03:38] Erik: Does a papa owl come over and squirt on the eggs?
[0:03:38 – 0:03:42] Erik: Or is the egg produced because of activities that were done last week?
[0:03:43 – 0:04:02] Adam: who’s to say the owls keep their secrets they’re very private uh birds the great horned owl i feel like the more the more i like think i know about things right you realize you don’t realize i don’t know anything uh today the topic of today’s show of course is the snowshoe hare they do not lay eggs eric
[0:04:03 – 0:04:05] Adam: They just do regular sex.
[0:04:05 – 0:04:06] Erik: Just regular sex.
[0:04:06 – 0:04:09] Erik: You heard it here first, within the first three minutes.
[0:04:09 – 0:04:12] Adam: They do lots and lots of regular sex.
[0:04:12 – 0:04:13] Erik: Lots and lots.
[0:04:13 – 0:04:13] Erik: I’ve heard.
[0:04:13 – 0:04:16] Adam: Three, four litters a summer, Eric.
[0:04:16 – 0:04:19] Adam: Two, three kittens per litter.
[0:04:19 – 0:04:22] Erik: You’re going to Night of the Lepus me?
[0:04:23 – 0:04:24] Erik: Lagomorph chat today?
[0:04:24 – 0:04:25] Erik: Who would have thunk?
[0:04:26 – 0:04:27] Erik: Three years.
[0:04:27 – 0:04:29] Erik: We’re closing in on our three-year anniversary.
[0:04:31 – 0:04:43] Erik: And thinking of this whole show leading up to when we started it, I just thought just in general today, like if somebody would have told me like four years ago that
[0:04:44 – 0:04:46] Erik: I would have had a podcast at all.
[0:04:47 – 0:04:48] Erik: I would have been shocked.
[0:04:48 – 0:04:54] Erik: But if you would have said, you’re going to have a Bon Jovi podcast and at some point you’re going to talk about lagomorphs.
[0:04:55 – 0:04:55] Erik: Yeah.
[0:04:57 – 0:04:58] Adam: It’s pretty funny.
[0:04:58 – 0:04:59] Erik: I would have not believed you ever.
[0:05:01 – 0:05:01] Erik: Yeah.
[0:05:02 – 0:05:03] Erik: Who knows where we’re going to be in four years from now.
[0:05:03 – 0:05:05] Erik: We might figure out where eggs come from.
[0:05:05 – 0:05:06] Erik: Yeah.
[0:05:07 – 0:05:08] Erik: Thank you, patrons.
[0:05:08 – 0:05:11] Erik: But also, thank you, Jake.
[0:05:11 – 0:05:12] Erik: Are you out there?
[0:05:13 – 0:05:19] Erik: For this week’s beer sponsorship.
[0:05:19 – 0:05:26] Erik: I think these ones come with a bit of a story, if I remember correctly.
[0:05:28 – 0:05:31] Erik: First of all, these are from…
[0:05:32 – 0:05:52] Erik: bald man brewing company in egan minnesota we’re back to a bit of a local beer here this is a young american pale what you have there uh young american pale ale i suppose i should get you one i recognize this can
[0:05:54 – 0:06:18] Erik: Yeah, these are from Jake, and I believe that these were gifted to the show at a stressful afternoon slash early evening at Clearwater last year where I thought everything had been done for the day, and then this group showed up for a, I think it was like 5, 5.30, needing a ride to Ram, and it wasn’t.
[0:06:19 – 0:06:21] Erik: on the books or it wasn’t scheduled.
[0:06:22 – 0:06:40] Erik: And I was in a bit of a huff over the whole thing because a staff member who shall remain nameless took the reservation and then basically just walked away from the information and didn’t put it in the places that it needed to be for us to know
[0:06:40 – 0:06:44] Erik: hey, there’s going to be a late afternoon slash early evening shuttle to Ram.
[0:06:44 – 0:06:46] Erik: So these guys show up expecting this.
[0:06:47 – 0:06:48] Erik: And I’m like, what?
[0:06:48 – 0:06:49] Erik: What are you talking about?
[0:06:49 – 0:06:51] Erik: And so they’re like, no, yeah, we booked this.
[0:06:51 – 0:06:52] Erik: It’s been booked.
[0:06:52 – 0:06:58] Erik: Like we called like two months ago and guy said like, yeah, just show up anytime and you guys will be able to get us over there.
[0:06:58 – 0:07:01] Erik: So I’m like trying to keep my cool with them.
[0:07:01 – 0:07:04] Erik: Meanwhile, like I’m just in the kitchen like –
[0:07:05 – 0:07:22] Erik: ranting and raving about who the hell took this reservation and then it all kind of came to light like oh yeah I guess that was me and I’m like and it was not just like you’re any old just like well we got to run a couple of guys over to Ram it was like a large group I think a trailer was involved so I’m like loading all these vans up just ranting and raving and
[0:07:23 – 0:07:46] Erik: not it’s usually those things are the ones that frustrate me the most because they come out of nowhere anything that like surprises me to that extent and it also was i think at the end of the summer that i was already like getting a little burnt out but then so i get everything loaded up and then these guys come walking up and they hand me these beers and it was just like oh now i just feel like i just feel like a jerk now
[0:07:47 – 0:07:48] Erik: So you should always expect.
[0:07:48 – 0:07:50] Erik: That was a learning lesson for me.
[0:07:50 – 0:07:56] Erik: I’m just always expecting you treat everybody like they’re going to be beer sponsors.
[0:07:56 – 0:07:57] Adam: They’re going to give you some beer.
[0:07:58 – 0:08:01] Adam: Which I don’t know if that’s a good way to go through life, I would say.
[0:08:01 – 0:08:02] Erik: Yeah.
[0:08:02 – 0:08:03] Erik: So thanks, Jake.
[0:08:03 – 0:08:06] Erik: Thanks for making my day there a little bit nicer.
[0:08:06 – 0:08:08] Erik: And sorry for the confusion at the time.
[0:08:13 – 0:08:14] Erik: Cheers, my good man.
[0:08:15 – 0:08:15] Adam: Cheers.
[0:08:24 – 0:08:25] Erik: Yeah.
[0:08:25 – 0:08:36] Erik: I would say that the bready malt foundation combined with fresh Minnesota-grown hops does create a crisp and classic American pale ale.
[0:08:37 – 0:08:37] Erik: Bald man.
[0:08:38 – 0:08:38] Erik: All night.
[0:08:38 – 0:08:39] Erik: And a Egan.
[0:08:39 – 0:08:42] Erik: You will want to drink, young American.
[0:08:43 – 0:08:45] Erik: Why can’t I think of a young American song?
[0:08:46 – 0:08:46] Erik: Bowie?
[0:08:46 – 0:08:48] Erik: Yeah.
[0:08:48 – 0:08:50] Erik: I know that that’s a song of his, but I literally can’t sing it.
[0:08:50 – 0:08:56] Adam: Was that it?
[0:08:56 – 0:09:00] Flith: Yep, that’s it.
[0:09:00 – 0:09:04] Adam: I give this beer for Bowies.
[0:09:05 – 0:09:06] Adam: Bowies!
[0:09:06 – 0:09:08] Adam: Not boys.
[0:09:08 – 0:09:09] Adam: Bowies.
[0:09:10 – 0:09:11] Adam: Chef’s kiss.
[0:09:11 – 0:09:12] Erik: I need one more sip.
[0:09:14 – 0:09:15] Adam: So I snowshoed over here.
[0:09:15 – 0:09:19] Adam: It hasn’t been above zero in four to five days now.
[0:09:19 – 0:09:21] Adam: It’s currently like 10 below.
[0:09:22 – 0:09:24] Adam: Kind of windy, but the sun is out, as we’ve said.
[0:09:24 – 0:09:27] Adam: It’s nice and sunny, and the air is crisp.
[0:09:27 – 0:09:31] Adam: So I said, what the heck, might as well take the dog out and walk down the hill.
[0:09:32 – 0:09:34] Erik: Yeah, I’ll go ahead and give it three.
[0:09:36 – 0:09:37] Adam: Yeah.
[0:09:37 – 0:09:52] Erik: Yeah, you reverse engineered a couple of weeks ago where I skied up to the Studio K. Yeah, I don’t know if I’m going to snowshoe home because we have the tumble tourney brackets here.
[0:09:53 – 0:09:54] Adam: They’re starting to rough them out.
[0:09:54 – 0:09:56] Adam: Eric’s got them all drawn out here.
[0:09:57 – 0:10:01] Adam: The host locations for the first round have been determined.
[0:10:02 – 0:10:02] Erik: Yes.
[0:10:02 – 0:10:06] Adam: And we need to spruce it up with a little glitter probably.
[0:10:06 – 0:10:22] Adam: need some glitter and i still have a couple i have a couple vials of glitter left at the house so i think i’m gonna take that home i might just take a ride home because uh that’s way it’s way easier coming from from my place down here yeah it’s a climb straight up downhill the whole way and uh
[0:10:23 – 0:10:27] Adam: It was a really nice day for a hike, though, and the view of the lake sure is pretty.
[0:10:27 – 0:10:30] Adam: So that was a nice reward at the end of it.
[0:10:30 – 0:10:30] Adam: Yeah.
[0:10:30 – 0:10:32] Adam: And then this beer came into my life.
[0:10:35 – 0:10:38] Erik: Yeah, the lake’s really given off her heat the last few days.
[0:10:38 – 0:10:43] Erik: It’s like massive spires of sea fog as far as I can see this morning.
[0:10:43 – 0:10:45] Adam: Yeah, there’s like tendrils out there.
[0:10:45 – 0:10:47] Adam: It looks like little mini twisters.
[0:10:47 – 0:10:57] Erik: It’s laid down quite a bit, but this morning, I’m sure everybody has seen the pictures on the social medias of the walls of Seafog, especially down in Duluth.
[0:10:57 – 0:10:59] Erik: It’s always very impressive.
[0:10:59 – 0:11:01] Adam: I already have one fact checked.
[0:11:01 – 0:11:03] Adam: We’ve got to get a fact check down the fly.
[0:11:03 – 0:11:09] Adam: I said earlier the baby hairs are called kittens.
[0:11:09 – 0:11:10] Adam: That’s the cottontail rabbits.
[0:11:10 – 0:11:11] Adam: They’re the kittens.
[0:11:13 – 0:11:16] Adam: The baby hairs are called leverets.
[0:11:17 – 0:11:25] Adam: hmm and uh the main difference between the two is that they are born with fur and open eyes and one is the other one’s not
[0:11:26 – 0:11:29] Adam: Yeah, the other one’s like… Just a little skin ball?
[0:11:29 – 0:11:31] Adam: Yeah, a little thing that needs love and attention for a while.
[0:11:31 – 0:11:33] Erik: Where you can see its heart beating through the skin?
[0:11:33 – 0:11:34] Erik: It’s always so gross.
[0:11:34 – 0:11:35] Adam: Yep, exactly.
[0:11:37 – 0:11:38] Adam: So there you go.
[0:11:39 – 0:11:41] Adam: Well, we have… Bunnies, you can call either of them bunnies, though.
[0:11:41 – 0:11:44] Adam: It’s just an affectionate term for either rabbits or hares.
[0:11:44 – 0:11:44] Erik: Sure.
[0:11:45 – 0:11:46] Erik: Well, don’t get too far down the…
[0:11:46 – 0:11:51] Adam: I just wanted to clear that up right away, because I know I already made one mistake, and I don’t want to let that hang out there too much longer.
[0:11:51 – 0:11:52] Adam: I’ll forget.
[0:11:52 – 0:11:55] Erik: Don’t go too far down the rabbit hole.
[0:11:55 – 0:11:55] Erik: Yeah.
[0:11:57 – 0:12:04] Erik: I have to get to a gift that definitely needs to be shouted out from Josh.
[0:12:05 – 0:12:05] Erik: Yeah, it does.
[0:12:06 – 0:12:07] Erik: The Green Hornet strikes again.
[0:12:08 – 0:12:12] Erik: Josh sent us a couple of homemade Green Hornets, a.k.a.
[0:12:12 – 0:12:18] Erik: little hand-carved and hand-reeled ice fishing rods.
[0:12:18 – 0:12:27] Erik: And if you’re not on the Patreon or have never seen the movie Grumpy Old Men, you probably have no idea what we’re talking about.
[0:12:27 – 0:12:32] Erik: But essentially, it’s Walter Matthau’s go-to ice fishing rod.
[0:12:33 – 0:12:34] Erik: He calls it the Green Hornet.
[0:12:34 – 0:12:35] Erik: It’s his lucky rod.
[0:12:35 – 0:12:49] Erik: it’s the lucky rod and it catches a lot of fish and then the green lemon breaks it over his knee and then like glues it back together somehow out of spite and then remorse yeah then glues it back together yeah we don’t have to get back into that whole awkward relationship yeah
[0:12:50 – 0:12:53] Adam: The green hornets caught more fish than you’ve lied about, Lundegaard.
[0:12:53 – 0:12:54] Adam: Yeah, so.
[0:12:54 – 0:12:56] Erik: Got dueling green hornets.
[0:12:56 – 0:12:58] Erik: These are pretty amazing.
[0:12:59 – 0:13:01] Erik: Home carved and epoxied.
[0:13:01 – 0:13:07] Erik: Josh is a little bit worried about the epoxy finish on these.
[0:13:07 – 0:13:09] Erik: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the epoxy finish.
[0:13:09 – 0:13:10] Erik: Real slick.
[0:13:10 – 0:13:11] Erik: They’re pretty great.
[0:13:11 – 0:13:14] Erik: One is a loon and one is a merganser.
[0:13:14 – 0:13:15] Erik: Yeah.
[0:13:15 – 0:13:15] Adam: Yeah.
[0:13:15 – 0:13:31] Erik: nicely hand carved i love the red eyes and i really think we should try to get these out on the ice before the end of this winter season oh we will we will yeah so pretty much guarantee i’m gonna catch a crappie on this thing it’s got it’s got the feel maybe i’ll get a 40 inch musky
[0:13:33 – 0:13:50] Adam: i don’t know how the i don’t know how the green hornets would hold up to it looks pretty sturdy 40 inch musky you gotta use the right kind of line that’s the key it’s got a pretty fine tip on it though that’s why it struck me as more of a crappy rig but i bet you could haul you could haul in some lake trout on this too
[0:13:50 – 0:13:54] Erik: Yeah, there’s even some finger grooves for real, you know, for getting that touch.
[0:13:55 – 0:13:55] Erik: Yeah.
[0:13:55 – 0:13:55] Erik: To feel that nipple.
[0:13:56 – 0:13:56] Erik: I love it.
[0:13:57 – 0:13:57] Erik: Yeah.
[0:13:57 – 0:13:57] Erik: Thanks, Josh.
[0:13:57 – 0:13:58] Erik: These are great.
[0:13:58 – 0:14:01] Erik: And I really think we’re intending on getting these out.
[0:14:01 – 0:14:08] Erik: I’ve never fished with like a hand line style fishing rod where there’s no reel or anything.
[0:14:08 – 0:14:12] Erik: You just like loop the line on the back, which is essentially the wings of the birds.
[0:14:13 – 0:14:15] Erik: So maybe we’ll throw some pictures up on the…
[0:14:17 – 0:14:19] Adam: The places that we put pictures.
[0:14:19 – 0:14:21] Adam: For sure, put pictures on Instagram.
[0:14:21 – 0:14:21] Adam: Don’t you worry.
[0:14:21 – 0:14:28] Erik: Tumble Homecast, Reddit, Facebook, which I’m trying to keep up on, but… Man.
[0:14:29 – 0:14:30] Erik: Facebook.
[0:14:30 – 0:14:33] Erik: It’s just… Are you all right, man?
[0:14:33 – 0:14:37] Erik: Oh, I forgot the mics were still hot.
[0:14:37 – 0:14:38] Adam: Yeah, that’s okay.
[0:14:39 – 0:15:02] Adam: sun just went behind a cloud that’s probably what happened you lost your energy yeah i do batteries temporarily vitamin d energy um but uh yeah those are really nice i can’t wait to try them out i would say i just have to put some sturdy line on them and uh just like uh backing and then tip them with exactly 25 pound fluoro yeah go crappie fisher yeah we’ll nail them sounds like fun
[0:15:04 – 0:15:31] Adam: shout out our Tumble Home cast for the nice picture of the Grumman on the Subaru that made it up there somebody thought we were being a little harsh on the Grumman which is probably true not the first time that we’ve been criticized for being harsh to the Grumman I owned a Grumman when my brother and I had a Grumman back in the day and I got no problem with the Grumman and honestly the more I think about it maybe we should use the Grumman on the Ensign trip for the authentic experience Eric what do you think?
[0:15:32 – 0:15:34] Erik: Uh, that’s the first time I’ve, I’ve thought of that.
[0:15:34 – 0:15:41] Erik: Um, and I will definitely have to do some serious reflection on whether or not I want that to.
[0:15:41 – 0:15:43] Adam: A sneak attack to you with that Grumman question.
[0:15:43 – 0:15:44] Adam: Didn’t see it coming.
[0:15:44 – 0:15:50] Erik: Well, we did, we’ve, we did talk about stopping at, uh, Betty’s pies on the way.
[0:15:50 – 0:15:50] Erik: Yeah.
[0:15:50 – 0:15:53] Erik: And then going to like Dairy Queen afterwards.
[0:15:53 – 0:15:56] Adam: I am going to have to get some cutoff jean shorts for this trip.
[0:15:56 – 0:16:00] Erik: Oh, I love that the, the Bon Jovi is taking a backseat to the memes.
[0:16:00 – 0:16:00] Erik: Yeah.
[0:16:02 – 0:16:24] Adam: everything’s a meme it’s 2021 welcome to tumble home a meme podcast um i don’t know just the thought i like i said i don’t really have an issue with the grumman it’s a fine boat and be kind of fun just to like have a old-fashioned trip i don’t yeah i think clearwater still has a grumman or two we’d have to get like white socks
[0:16:27 – 0:16:53] Adam: leather boots and jeans that’s just being mean now you’re just being mean that’s unnecessary yeah I’ll think about it I think it would be like either we have to go all in on that you can’t just go part of the way if you had a grumman canoe and like Betty’s pies leftovers and you know some cut off jean shorts I think that would be a pretty good look you wouldn’t have to worry you know we should just paddle with reckless abandon
[0:16:53 – 0:16:56] Erik: Straight shaft, metal and plastic paddles.
[0:16:57 – 0:16:59] Adam: Is there any like moving water we could challenge on that road?
[0:16:59 – 0:17:01] Adam: I think there is a little bit of moving water in there.
[0:17:01 – 0:17:03] Adam: The chain and the numbers chain probably.
[0:17:04 – 0:17:05] Adam: Well, let’s just make this a no portage trip.
[0:17:06 – 0:17:07] Erik: Whatever it takes.
[0:17:07 – 0:17:09] Erik: Just going to go right down the creek.
[0:17:09 – 0:17:11] Erik: Whatever it takes to not portage.
[0:17:11 – 0:17:13] Erik: The old creek runners.
[0:17:13 – 0:17:18] Erik: I’ll get one of the oldest Eureka Timberline tents I can find.
[0:17:18 – 0:17:19] Erik: Sleep on the ground.
[0:17:20 – 0:17:22] Erik: This is not sounding like a fun trip now.
[0:17:23 – 0:17:24] Adam: I love it.
[0:17:25 – 0:17:27] Adam: Yeah, I had the snowshoes out today.
[0:17:27 – 0:17:29] Adam: Brand new snowshoes this year.
[0:17:29 – 0:17:32] Adam: They’re a dream boat kind of snowshoe.
[0:17:32 – 0:17:34] Adam: I can’t believe I used those old Atlas for so long.
[0:17:34 – 0:17:35] Erik: I don’t know.
[0:17:35 – 0:17:36] Erik: They seem fine.
[0:17:37 – 0:18:02] Adam: then the bindings were just shot on them it was being held together by like yarn at the end just having new snowshoes with uh like those fancy bindings is sure is nice but overall they’re really nice i’m really liking them i was surprised there’s not any more snowmobile tracks out there i can’t believe i’m saying this but where the hell are the snowmobilers i know i’ve been having to keep open my little ski tracks on the power line and yeah it looks like you’re the only one that had been through that section in a while
[0:18:02 – 0:18:21] Adam: yeah basically it’s where’s lenny i have no idea it’s been any are you out there it’s been like almost a week since we got the last like four or five inches or whatever shocked when i uh yeah i hit the first left after the river and it’s just nice powder nothing yeah i mean it’s like four inches of powder on top of a packed
[0:18:24 – 0:18:25] Adam: There’s no shooting conditions.
[0:18:26 – 0:18:29] Adam: And then once I started going down the main hill, you know the one.
[0:18:30 – 0:18:30] Erik: Yes.
[0:18:30 – 0:18:32] Adam: All of a sudden, rabbit tracks everywhere.
[0:18:32 – 0:18:32] Erik: Ooh, nice.
[0:18:33 – 0:18:34] Adam: I’m sorry, hare tracks.
[0:18:34 – 0:18:34] Erik: Hares.
[0:18:35 – 0:18:37] Adam: It’s going to take like years to break that habit.
[0:18:38 – 0:18:38] Erik: Morph tracks.
[0:18:40 – 0:18:41] Adam: Yeah, morphing.
[0:18:41 – 0:18:42] Adam: Or morphing.
[0:18:42 – 0:18:44] Adam: Oh, the morphs that are, none of them were going down the hill.
[0:18:44 – 0:18:49] Adam: They always were going cross hill, across the grain, as you would say.
[0:18:50 – 0:18:50] Adam: I don’t think that they were.
[0:18:50 – 0:18:51] Adam: They were going with the grain.
[0:18:52 – 0:18:53] Adam: I was going against the grain.
[0:18:53 – 0:18:54] Erik: Sure.
[0:18:54 – 0:19:00] Erik: Yeah, they don’t really seem to mind or care about human trails and or tracks like some other animals.
[0:19:00 – 0:19:00] Erik: They don’t need them.
[0:19:00 – 0:19:02] Erik: They don’t really probably even notice them.
[0:19:05 – 0:19:06] Erik: Yeah.
[0:19:06 – 0:19:08] Erik: Well, are we to the meat?
[0:19:09 – 0:19:14] Adam: Yeah, as they say, we’re about ready to start the meat of the episode.
[0:19:14 – 0:19:17] Adam: And rabbits, they got a real lean meat to them.
[0:19:17 – 0:19:19] Adam: That’s the leanest of proteins.
[0:19:19 – 0:19:26] Adam: But it really is the backbone of the entire ecosystem.
[0:19:26 – 0:19:29] Adam: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but a lot of things eat rabbits.
[0:19:29 – 0:19:30] Erik: Yeah, that’s for sure.
[0:19:30 – 0:19:31] Adam: It’s a fine eaten meat.
[0:19:32 – 0:19:34] Erik: And that’s what killed, what’s his face?
[0:19:35 – 0:19:35] Erik: Chris McCandless.
[0:19:36 – 0:19:56] Erik: rabbits too many rabbits i thought it was potato seeds well it was it was this it was eventually seeds that he was eating but he was so malnourished because all he was eating was rabbits yeah all he was eating he had like a borderline like uh protein poisoning yeah humans are not the links you know the human needs more i need the fat need that fat
[0:19:58 – 0:19:59] Adam: Snowshoe hares.
[0:19:59 – 0:20:01] Adam: Lapis americanus.
[0:20:01 – 0:20:04] Adam: How many things are americanus?
[0:20:04 – 0:20:05] Adam: Too many.
[0:20:05 – 0:20:07] Erik: There’s a whole other conversation we could have on that.
[0:20:07 – 0:20:10] Erik: Where do these animals get their Latin names from?
[0:20:11 – 0:20:13] Erik: Is it just because it’s only in America, North America?
[0:20:13 – 0:20:15] Erik: I would have to imagine that’s a big part of it.
[0:20:15 – 0:20:18] Adam: Yeah, the range of the snowshoe hare is pretty wide.
[0:20:19 – 0:20:48] Adam: anywhere you got good northern forest you’re gonna find them uh one of the more interesting facts i learned about the the snowshoe hare eric is they as you know they change from brown in the summertime to white in the winter but there is a variant it’s a i guess a genetic variant in the species along like the you know northern the british columbian coast uh there’s snowshoe hares that they never turn white there because they’re closer to the ocean
[0:20:48 – 0:20:52] Adam: Right, and it’s a genetic difference.
[0:20:52 – 0:20:54] Erik: Because it would be too dangerous for them to turn white?
[0:20:54 – 0:20:56] Adam: Right, they don’t need it.
[0:20:56 – 0:20:59] Adam: Not regular enough snow where it would be useful.
[0:20:59 – 0:21:08] Adam: But then there’s these overlapping zones out there where some of the hairs will change to white and some of them won’t.
[0:21:08 – 0:21:10] Adam: But around here, they all change to white.
[0:21:11 – 0:21:14] Adam: And that’s all based on the amount of sunlight you’re getting in a day.
[0:21:15 – 0:21:16] Erik: So it is a sunlight thing.
[0:21:16 – 0:21:16] Adam: It is.
[0:21:16 – 0:21:21] Erik: It’s all based on the sunlight and no other external factors as far as we can tell.
[0:21:21 – 0:21:23] Adam: As far as we can tell, yeah, I don’t know.
[0:21:23 – 0:21:29] Adam: I mean, I didn’t read everything that is out there, but that’s the general consensus is that it’s based on sunlight.
[0:21:29 – 0:21:32] Adam: And so, yeah, once the days start getting shorter, they start to turn.
[0:21:32 – 0:21:36] Adam: And so sometimes, you know, what’s variable is the snowfall.
[0:21:37 – 0:21:40] Adam: So what you’ll get is sometimes it’ll start snowing early, but they haven’t changed yet.
[0:21:40 – 0:21:44] Adam: You know, you get that October snow, but you’re still seeing brown snowshoe hair out there.
[0:21:45 – 0:21:47] Erik: Yeah, I’ve seen it in the spring where it’s very funny.
[0:21:47 – 0:22:14] Adam: yeah it’s always funny yeah it goes in reverse either the beginning of winter or in the spring you know in the beginning of spring it can go the other way too like you just said they’re so visible yeah or when it comes out early or you know sometimes you just take you’re not getting any snow kind of like this winter where they’ve already changed but there’s a lot of areas where there’s not much snow so then they kind of will move up to areas with snow sure um but uh yeah i thought they all changed
[0:22:15 – 0:22:17] Adam: And they don’t.
[0:22:17 – 0:22:24] Adam: They are also called the varying hair, apparently, because of this feature, which I’ve never heard that term before.
[0:22:24 – 0:22:25] Erik: Neither have I.
[0:22:25 – 0:22:29] Adam: But either way, there’s like three different lagomorphs in the state of Minnesota.
[0:22:31 – 0:22:35] Adam: But the only one that we have up here in the Boundary Waters is the snowshoe hare, Lapis.
[0:22:36 – 0:22:39] Erik: Again, I am no scientist.
[0:22:40 – 0:22:47] Erik: I dropped out of college after my second semester and definitely failed biology.
[0:22:48 – 0:23:11] Erik: and i’m not expecting you to necessarily know but so uh the lagomorph like what is that in terms of the hierarchy like you know there’s like the genus the class like where is that yeah i don’t know if it’s the family or the genus i don’t know i like so all lagomorphs are rabbits uh but are there other things all rabbits are lagomorphs and all hares are lagomorphs so it’s like higher up
[0:23:12 – 0:23:18] Adam: There’s also these weird rabbits across the sea that are also lagomorphs, but they’re not rabbits.
[0:23:19 – 0:23:21] Erik: These weird foreign lagomorphs.
[0:23:22 – 0:23:24] Adam: You don’t want to run into these guys.
[0:23:24 – 0:23:25] Erik: Like Fiverr and the crew?
[0:23:25 – 0:23:26] Adam: Yeah.
[0:23:26 – 0:23:29] Adam: Also lagomorphs, but they’re British.
[0:23:31 – 0:23:34] Adam: They eat nothing but tea leaves and boiled bologna.
[0:23:35 – 0:23:36] Erik: and they go up the lift.
[0:23:36 – 0:23:38] Adam: I’m sorry, they probably wouldn’t.
[0:23:38 – 0:23:40] Adam: They might eat boiled bologna.
[0:23:42 – 0:23:44] Adam: They’ve basically been here since the ice receded.
[0:23:44 – 0:23:55] Adam: One of the first mammals to take up residence here on the area we now call the Boundary Waters after the ice sheets receded at the end of the last ice age.
[0:23:56 – 0:24:01] Adam: So they were like the first ones back in here, and now they’re still here as the caribou are no longer around.
[0:24:01 – 0:24:02] Adam: The moose are barely here.
[0:24:03 – 0:24:04] Adam: The deer come and go.
[0:24:04 – 0:24:12] Adam: But the lagomorph, the snowshoe hare, has always been here and probably always will be due to, as we’ve mentioned earlier, about their prolific breeders.
[0:24:13 – 0:24:27] Adam: Uh, pretty much they all get, end up getting eaten at some point, but there’s so many of them that they just, they have their, they have their good years, Eric, they have their bad years, but you know, they just so many hairs every spring.
[0:24:27 – 0:24:31] Adam: They just, they just went in the winning by the sheer numbers.
[0:24:31 – 0:24:32] Adam: Sure.
[0:24:32 – 0:24:32] Erik: Yeah.
[0:24:32 – 0:24:36] Adam: I mean, volume of rabbits, uh, and, uh, hairs having the, the babies.
[0:24:37 – 0:24:38] Erik: Yeah, I think there’s a name for that, too.
[0:24:38 – 0:24:43] Erik: I love it when we tread in these scientific topics where we just are fringe.
[0:24:44 – 0:24:47] Erik: And we’re asking ourselves more questions than we’re answering.
[0:24:47 – 0:24:49] Adam: That’s what’s fun about these episodes.
[0:24:49 – 0:24:52] Erik: Are you going to get to the…
[0:24:52 – 0:24:56] Erik: I was going to just… Because you were kind of talking about range.
[0:24:56 – 0:25:00] Erik: Did you get any information on what the snowshoe hare’s range is?
[0:25:00 – 0:25:01] Adam: How far south do they get?
[0:25:02 – 0:25:02] Adam: Each hare…
[0:25:03 – 0:25:10] Adam: It has about a 17 to 20 acre home range and they mostly move around at night, especially in the winter.
[0:25:11 – 0:25:35] Adam: i mean like over the course like the whole like north america range oh like how far you know i don’t have any maps to show you but i mean they’re all over the north okay i might i’ll just pull it up and see if there is like they go up and they go into the appalachians so they kind of go farther south into the mountains the high the high ground but yeah mostly it’s in the the areas where you’re gonna have like pine forest and then uh yeah they have some in the
[0:25:36 – 0:25:53] Adam: the Rockies and then a lot in, you know, British, uh, Columbia, the Pacific Northwest has some, and then, you know, up through, uh, Alaska there, uh, they have very wide range in North America, but yeah, each rabbit itself, not a very big range.
[0:25:53 – 0:25:59] Erik: Yeah, I would say just looking at this quick map here, the range is pretty much what you just described.
[0:26:00 – 0:26:00] Erik: I nailed it.
[0:26:00 – 0:26:05] Adam: With, like, basically not even… Well, yeah, the one I saw also had a little…
[0:26:05 – 0:26:08] Adam: I guess it does show a little finger that goes down on the Appalachians, but… Yeah.
[0:26:09 – 0:26:10] Adam: Yeah, they…
[0:26:10 – 0:26:16] Adam: So, northern Minnesota, you know, northern Wisconsin, I guess they’re in the northern North Dakota there nearby.
[0:26:16 – 0:26:17] Adam: The UP, full of hairs.
[0:26:18 – 0:26:18] Erik: Full of hairs.
[0:26:19 – 0:26:19] Adam: So…
[0:26:20 – 0:26:20] Erik: Nice.
[0:26:20 – 0:26:26] Adam: Yeah, you know, if you live in an area where you’re getting snow on a regular basis, then you’re probably going to have them.
[0:26:26 – 0:26:28] Adam: That’s their main advantage in that habitat.
[0:26:29 – 0:26:30] Adam: Yeah.
[0:26:30 – 0:26:35] Erik: The bulk of their existence is Canada, though, I would say, vast majority.
[0:26:35 – 0:26:39] Adam: Yeah, way more snowshoe hares in Canada than the United States.
[0:26:39 – 0:26:41] Adam: I haven’t looked that up, but it feels true.
[0:26:42 – 0:26:44] Erik: I mean, I just found a map, a picture on Google.
[0:26:44 – 0:26:45] Adam: It’s got to be true.
[0:26:45 – 0:26:48] Adam: So we’ve determined that a group of hares is called a drove.
[0:26:50 – 0:26:52] Adam: The bunnies are still a fluffle.
[0:26:52 – 0:26:53] Adam: Nice.
[0:26:53 – 0:26:53] Adam: Yes.
[0:26:53 – 0:26:58] Adam: And yeah, the hare babies are the leverets and the baby rabbits are kittens.
[0:26:59 – 0:27:02] Adam: And bunnies can be either as an affectionate term.
[0:27:02 – 0:27:04] Adam: Minnesota does have three lagomorphs, as I said.
[0:27:04 – 0:27:09] Adam: The snowshoe hare, the white-tailed jackrabbit, and the eastern cottontail.
[0:27:09 – 0:27:10] Erik: Jackrabbit?
[0:27:10 – 0:27:12] Adam: Yeah, they got those jackrabbits out in the plains.
[0:27:12 – 0:27:14] Erik: I was going to say, it’s got to be like southwest Minnesota, right?
[0:27:14 – 0:27:17] Adam: Yeah, and then the cottontail is just farther south as well.
[0:27:17 – 0:27:20] Adam: But none of those other two ever make it this far up north.
[0:27:21 – 0:27:22] Adam: It’s too much snow.
[0:27:22 – 0:27:25] Erik: Yeah, the cottontails are the ones I remember from growing up in the Twin Cities.
[0:27:27 – 0:27:32] Adam: Generally, though, we talked about what they’re called as a group, but generally they are a solitary creature.
[0:27:32 – 0:27:38] Adam: So a drove does not happen very often, as described what we saw on Caribou Lake West.
[0:27:39 – 0:27:40] Adam: Any idea what that was?
[0:27:41 – 0:27:42] Adam: You know, maybe they were young.
[0:27:43 – 0:27:46] Adam: They could have been a group of youth.
[0:27:46 – 0:27:49] Adam: Could have been a wild gang of youth hares.
[0:27:50 – 0:27:51] Adam: Tagging up the joint.
[0:27:51 – 0:27:53] Adam: You know, they were probably… Vaping.
[0:27:54 – 0:27:55] Adam: Doing the graffiti.
[0:27:57 – 0:27:58] Adam: I love that that’s what we think.
[0:27:58 – 0:28:00] Adam: I think they were making TikToks.
[0:28:00 – 0:28:01] Erik: Yeah, I’m sure.
[0:28:01 – 0:28:04] Erik: They were just working on being an influencer group.
[0:28:06 – 0:28:07] Adam: It’s not heard of, like, during mating season.
[0:28:08 – 0:28:18] Adam: And we were there in June, so, I mean, maybe it was, like, you know, maybe they were doing some freaky hair sex, getting it on, you know.
[0:28:18 – 0:28:22] Erik: Making those eggs, Eric.
[0:28:22 – 0:28:25] Erik: Rabbit eggs.
[0:28:25 – 0:28:26] Erik: Filled with the Cadbury cream.
[0:28:26 – 0:28:27] Erik: Oh, my God.
[0:28:27 – 0:28:30] Erik: Am I going to have to mark this explicit without any lewd bleeps?
[0:28:30 – 0:28:32] Erik: Ugh.
[0:28:35 – 0:28:36] Adam: Sorry, compose yourself, Eric.
[0:28:36 – 0:28:40] Erik: Yeah, I have questions, but I’m going to wait and see if they’re answered here.
[0:28:40 – 0:28:42] Adam: All right, all right, all right.
[0:28:42 – 0:28:45] Adam: So, yeah, what we’re going to get to next then.
[0:28:46 – 0:28:48] Adam: Yeah, let’s do the population estimates.
[0:28:48 – 0:28:48] Adam: You like that?
[0:28:49 – 0:28:49] Adam: Sure.
[0:28:49 – 0:28:51] Adam: 2016 was the most recent I can find.
[0:28:51 – 0:28:56] Adam: They estimated 6,000 snowshoe hare were harvested in the rabbit hunt.
[0:28:57 – 0:28:59] Erik: Who’s involved in the rabbit hunting?
[0:29:00 – 0:29:01] Adam: Old dudes.
[0:29:01 – 0:29:01] Erik: Old guys.
[0:29:02 – 0:29:02] Erik: Old guys.
[0:29:02 – 0:29:28] Adam: so it’s not like done by the state or anything that’s just what got harvested based on like hunting tags they don’t have tags you just need a small game license so you can hunt these things up here like middle of September to what is she doing out there you can do dog is being weird so yeah I brought Arrow with and she was being way too loud to be inside so she’s outside she’s acting funny
[0:29:30 – 0:29:31] Adam: Yeah, you need a snowshoe.
[0:29:31 – 0:29:33] Adam: To hunt snowshoe, you need the small game.
[0:29:33 – 0:29:37] Adam: So middle of September, and you go all the way to the end of February.
[0:29:37 – 0:29:38] Adam: So it’s currently still open.
[0:29:38 – 0:29:42] Adam: I guess it’s a fun winter option for people who must always hunt.
[0:29:42 – 0:29:44] Adam: Yeah, I guess.
[0:29:44 – 0:29:47] Adam: I’ve watched a video, and this guy was just walking around with a six-shooter.
[0:29:47 – 0:29:48] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:29:48 – 0:30:14] Adam: geez yeah handgun a rabbit hunting and i remember my uncle joe did that one time they i went up hunting with the uncles it was a rabbit hunt in northern wisconsin and like uncle joe just had like a pistol like a six shooter on his belt and he got one it was terrifying because you get pretty close to him you know so it’s like you know anything goes a lot of people use 22 uh he’s like a 410 shot on him
[0:30:15 – 0:30:17] Erik: Is there a trapping season that’s separate?
[0:30:17 – 0:30:19] Adam: No, I don’t believe so.
[0:30:20 – 0:30:20] Adam: Not that I know of.
[0:30:21 – 0:30:23] Erik: So that’s what was reported?
[0:30:23 – 0:30:24] Adam: Yeah.
[0:30:24 – 0:30:31] Adam: So anyways, the estimates are based on hunter questionnaires, animals observed during the rough grouse survey.
[0:30:32 – 0:30:35] Adam: They also keep track of like, oh, there’s another hare.
[0:30:35 – 0:30:37] Adam: And then winter track surveys.
[0:30:37 – 0:30:41] Adam: So like what I saw coming down the hill today, people go out and like, yep, that’s another one.
[0:30:42 – 0:30:43] Adam: Checkmark.
[0:30:43 – 0:30:44] Adam: Hashtag.
[0:30:46 – 0:30:47] Erik: Hashtag.
[0:30:47 – 0:30:47] Erik: Yeah.
[0:30:48 – 0:30:51] Erik: Kind of like there’s a bird count every year that they do.
[0:30:51 – 0:30:58] Erik: I think it’s around Christmas where you just go out and count the birds in your neighborhood and then send the information in.
[0:30:58 – 0:31:06] Adam: Yeah, my mom and step-pops are involved in that annual bird count down near Green Bay there.
[0:31:08 – 0:31:09] Adam: She’s gone by on the Davenport.
[0:31:09 – 0:31:11] Adam: Gosh, gosh.
[0:31:11 – 0:31:12] Adam: I shouldn’t make fun.
[0:31:13 – 0:31:14] Adam: It’s still part of me.
[0:31:14 – 0:31:16] Adam: I’m never going to escape that accident.
[0:31:16 – 0:31:17] Erik: No, you will not.
[0:31:18 – 0:31:20] Adam: The highest one I could find was in 1981.
[0:31:20 – 0:31:22] Adam: Let me check this.
[0:31:22 – 0:31:24] Adam: I’ve got my cheaters on here.
[0:31:24 – 0:31:28] Adam: 286,000 snowshoe hares harvested in 1981.
[0:31:30 – 0:31:32] Adam: Again, it’s an estimate.
[0:31:32 – 0:31:34] Erik: And that’s just the ones that people are reporting.
[0:31:35 – 0:31:59] Adam: yeah yeah right in the questionnaire so um yeah you know that’s the one thing that really is wild about these there’s so many of them but their their populations fluctuate in these little pockets sure um year to year you know you can have a crazy difference i suppose it’s based on a lot of things predominantly the snow conditions i would bet
[0:32:00 – 0:32:04] Adam: Snow conditions and, well, then the amount of predators.
[0:32:04 – 0:32:06] Erik: Yeah, the populations of other animals.
[0:32:06 – 0:32:12] Adam: Yeah, it’s one of the more interesting things about them is, like, this predator-prey relationship.
[0:32:13 – 0:32:18] Adam: And there’s a lot of, like, graphs and videos you can go watch about this if you’re interested in that topic.
[0:32:18 – 0:32:22] Adam: Just how it’s kind of a yin and a yang thing, but the lions never actually touch.
[0:32:23 – 0:32:26] Adam: There’s always so many more hares than there are predators, but…
[0:32:26 – 0:32:31] Erik: Well, yeah, I would think that that would be cause for alarm as a species if the lines touched.
[0:32:31 – 0:32:32] Erik: You can’t have it.
[0:32:32 – 0:32:33] Adam: You just can’t have it.
[0:32:33 – 0:32:34] Adam: Well, we’re wiped out.
[0:32:37 – 0:33:00] Adam: um yeah i wanted to go i there is i think it’s later in my notes but yeah basically they’re like uh you know you can have a very large amount of hairs in one square mile uh one year and uh like i think that like the high end would be like in a freakish year you could have like 10 000 snowshoe hairs in a square mile jeez which is insane
[0:33:01 – 0:33:09] Adam: But then they were like, and also like in the next following year, there could be like two though in the same square mile if you only like focused on one square mile.
[0:33:09 – 0:33:10] Erik: Yeah.
[0:33:10 – 0:33:12] Adam: Because that’s how like rapidly the population can change.
[0:33:12 – 0:33:18] Adam: But generally there is like a cycle that is you can measure this out and has been measured out.
[0:33:18 – 0:33:20] Adam: It’s really interesting to go look at these figures.
[0:33:21 – 0:33:22] Erik: Kind of like grouse.
[0:33:22 – 0:33:23] Adam: Yeah.
[0:33:23 – 0:33:24] Adam: It’s a lot like gross.
[0:33:24 – 0:33:28] Adam: And it is kind of like a 10 year cycle, you know, seven to 10 year cycle is what they say.
[0:33:28 – 0:33:34] Adam: Um, you know, and that’s like a rough estimate, like statewide, but like, then as I said, you know, it can be really localized.
[0:33:34 – 0:33:36] Adam: It can be really weird and different too.
[0:33:36 – 0:33:43] Adam: So like, it could be a ton of rabbits down here, a ton of hairs down here, Eric, like none up at our place.
[0:33:43 – 0:33:43] Adam: Sure.
[0:33:43 – 0:33:46] Adam: And then next year completely, completely reversed.
[0:33:46 – 0:33:51] Adam: But then the overall trends like emerge as you look at like bigger and bigger data sets.
[0:33:52 – 0:33:52] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:33:52 – 0:33:53] Adam: I had that in here somewhere.
[0:33:53 – 0:33:59] Adam: I think I’ve, uh, represented that portion of it correctly, but, um, yeah, here we go.
[0:33:59 – 0:34:04] Adam: Um, the fluctuation in the cycle on this reports at eight to 11 years.
[0:34:05 – 0:34:05] Adam: Uh, yeah.
[0:34:05 – 0:34:12] Erik: Wow, so maybe they’re more closely… Has anybody tried correlating the solar cycle?
[0:34:13 – 0:34:16] Adam: Ooh, that would be fun, because that’s also about a 10-year one, too.
[0:34:17 – 0:34:17] Adam: Possibly.
[0:34:17 – 0:34:21] Adam: I got a little section here I can give you.
[0:34:22 – 0:34:26] Adam: As predation increases and starvation sets in, the population starts to decline.
[0:34:26 – 0:34:28] Adam: Continued predation due to high population…
[0:34:29 – 0:34:34] Adam: high populations of lynx and other predators increases, the hare population declines.
[0:34:34 – 0:34:38] Adam: When the hare population reaches a low level, it stabilizes for several years.
[0:34:39 – 0:34:44] Adam: The food plants slowly recover, and the hare population starts to increase again.
[0:34:45 – 0:34:49] Adam: Since hares have several litters each year, the hare population increases rapidly.
[0:34:49 – 0:34:53] Adam: After a year or two at high densities, the hare cycle repeats itself.
[0:34:54 – 0:34:57] Adam: It’s more about the small plants and what they’re eating.
[0:34:57 – 0:34:58] Erik: Right.
[0:34:58 – 0:35:00] Erik: It’s almost more them depleting their food source.
[0:35:00 – 0:35:03] Adam: They eat their area out of the good stuff, of all the clover.
[0:35:05 – 0:35:06] Adam: That’ll be another episode.
[0:35:06 – 0:35:09] Adam: The Clovers of the North Shore, episode 410.
[0:35:09 – 0:35:09] Adam: Yeah.
[0:35:11 – 0:35:14] Erik: At this rate, it might be sooner than that.
[0:35:14 – 0:35:19] Adam: The lynx is known to be its primary predator, although a lot of things like to eat snowshoe hare.
[0:35:20 – 0:35:26] Adam: But the lynx population declines following the snowshoe hare population crash after a lag of one to two years.
[0:35:26 – 0:35:35] Adam: Other predators include humans, fox, owls, wolf, and of course the pine marten, which we witnessed firsthand out on Otter Lake last week.
[0:35:35 – 0:35:43] Erik: Were you able to draw any more conclusions based on your week of lagomorph research to maybe explain a little bit more?
[0:35:43 – 0:35:44] Erik: Because we had questions last week.
[0:35:44 – 0:35:45] Erik: Yeah.
[0:35:45 – 0:35:51] Erik: In terms of what we saw and chain of events that maybe would have caused what we saw to occur.
[0:35:51 – 0:36:01] Erik: And my best guess at the time was that it was a larger predator that attacked the rabbit and then the pine marten came in and swooped in.
[0:36:01 – 0:36:01] Erik: Yeah.
[0:36:02 – 0:36:07] Erik: It was based on the time difference between when the rabbit ran across the lake and the pine Martin showed up.
[0:36:07 – 0:36:14] Erik: But it sounds like there might be some evidence to suggest that pine Martins are in fact a, a predator.
[0:36:14 – 0:36:25] Erik: And I don’t think we discussed it on the roadhouse episode, but like, cause I was like trying to, I was trying to get a handle on how a pine Martin could ever catch a rabbit or,
[0:36:26 – 0:36:35] Erik: But they’ve got that whole dropping down from the treetop aspect because those guys, I’ve seen those things sitting in trees almost as often as I’ve seen them screwing across the ground.
[0:36:35 – 0:36:37] Adam: Yeah, a fisher could pull the same move.
[0:36:37 – 0:36:39] Erik: Chilling in a branch just off the ground.
[0:36:40 – 0:36:49] Adam: Whereas the fox and the wolf and the lynx are going to be laying wait in ambush or they’ll stalk up on them because their main trick is to just stay still.
[0:36:49 – 0:36:52] Adam: And often if they stay still and they will not be found.
[0:36:52 – 0:36:52] Erik: Yeah.
[0:36:52 – 0:36:56] Adam: But what happens then is they freak out and run and then they gotcha.
[0:36:57 – 0:36:59] Adam: So I think it still was the pine Martin.
[0:36:59 – 0:37:01] Adam: I’m honestly thinking that the, they had an encounter.
[0:37:02 – 0:37:29] Adam: but a pine martin being very small and uh hair being very big that it wasn’t didn’t bring it down immediately and then it ran out on the lake yeah and then i’m thinking the delay was maybe caused by like this pine martin detected us and was kind of laying away and seeing what was going on and then finally was like well i guess i gotta go if i’m gonna go yeah and then once he came out on the lake decided it wasn’t worth messing with the quick crew i should post the video that i took the minute long bouncy boy video on the reddit
[0:37:30 – 0:37:35] Adam: Before we move too far down, I just want to give a shout-out to Minnesota Conservation Volunteer.
[0:37:35 – 0:37:38] Adam: I read a couple articles out of that fine publication.
[0:37:39 – 0:37:40] Erik: Let me say fine publication.
[0:37:40 – 0:37:47] Adam: January, February 2003, Hopping with Hairs, and January, February 2019, The Quiet Hunt.
[0:37:48 – 0:37:49] Adam: Also, The Internet.
[0:37:50 – 0:37:51] Erik: Shout out to the internet.
[0:37:51 – 0:37:52] Erik: Shout out to you, internet.
[0:37:52 – 0:37:52] Adam: The Quiet Hunt.
[0:37:52 – 0:38:03] Adam: So if you’re going to try and pitch a story to a Minnesota conservation volunteer on snowshoe hares, make sure you get it in nice and in the fall so they have it for that January, February episode issue.
[0:38:04 – 0:38:07] Erik: Yeah, what is their circulation schedule?
[0:38:08 – 0:38:08] Erik: Is it like…
[0:38:08 – 0:38:09] Adam: It’s, I guess, every two months.
[0:38:09 – 0:38:10] Adam: Every two months.
[0:38:10 – 0:38:11] Adam: So there’s six a year.
[0:38:11 – 0:38:12] Adam: I don’t know if that’s true, though.
[0:38:12 – 0:38:15] Adam: They got a couple one-monthers in there.
[0:38:15 – 0:38:16] Adam: Eight a year, maybe.
[0:38:18 – 0:38:20] Adam: Yeah, they feed at night mostly.
[0:38:21 – 0:38:29] Adam: They like to eat twigs, tree bark, a variety of trees, buds from plants, grasses, flowers, clover.
[0:38:29 – 0:38:30] Erik: What do they do in the winter?
[0:38:31 – 0:38:33] Adam: Fresh tree growth, evergreen needles.
[0:38:33 – 0:38:34] Adam: They’ll just eat evergreen needles.
[0:38:34 – 0:38:37] Erik: Oh, so they kind of got a little bit of that moose gut where they can do the needles.
[0:38:37 – 0:38:38] Adam: You’re going to like this, Eric.
[0:38:38 – 0:38:42] Adam: Like the Arctic hare, hares have been known to eat dead animals.
[0:38:44 – 0:38:44] Erik: Oh.
[0:38:44 – 0:38:45] Adam: They’re incisors.
[0:38:46 – 0:38:48] Adam: They grow continuously like a beavers.
[0:38:48 – 0:38:48] Adam: Oh, no.
[0:38:48 – 0:38:50] Adam: And they’re worn down by use.
[0:38:50 – 0:38:51] Erik: They have to keep using them.
[0:38:51 – 0:38:53] Adam: So they’re kind of like land beavers in that respect.
[0:38:53 – 0:38:56] Adam: I never did hear anything about beavers eating dead animals, though.
[0:38:57 – 0:39:00] Adam: And that way the lagomorph is a bit of an omnivore, apparently.
[0:39:02 – 0:39:04] Adam: But they’re mostly, they’re 99% herbivore.
[0:39:05 – 0:39:06] Erik: In times of desperation, maybe?
[0:39:07 – 0:39:12] Adam: It sounds like if they come across a dead animal, they’re going to go to town on it.
[0:39:12 – 0:39:13] Adam: Old country buffet.
[0:39:13 – 0:39:13] Adam: Yeah.
[0:39:14 – 0:39:16] Adam: Give me some of that gravy.
[0:39:16 – 0:39:18] Erik: Did you see the game last night?
[0:39:20 – 0:39:21] Erik: Have you tried the lasagna?
[0:39:22 – 0:39:23] Adam: It’s my favorite.
[0:39:23 – 0:39:24] Adam: It’s my favorite.
[0:39:24 – 0:39:32] Adam: So that’s the alternate explanation is that there’s a dead animal and the snowshoe hare came upon it and was feasting.
[0:39:33 – 0:39:39] Adam: And then the pine marten came along and was like, hey, I want in on this and scared him off into the lake.
[0:39:40 – 0:39:41] Adam: So that’s maybe what we’ve seen.
[0:39:41 – 0:39:43] Adam: There’s a 1% chance that’s what we’ve seen.
[0:39:43 – 0:40:05] Adam: well there’s all what we sent and i think in the when we were describing what happened you actually had a suggestion that the rabbit attacked the pine martin at one point well i don’t think that would be true then after my research this week there’s no way the rabbit would have attacked the pine martin um but you know if a rabbit or uh i’m sorry a hare if a hare found a dead pine martin
[0:40:06 – 0:40:31] Erik: and it was just might have a nibble you might have a nibble what kind of clover is this it’s the it’s the sweetest of meat well if it’s the yeah the heart of the the depths of winter and you need to keep the furnace bacon sure pop a little gizzard out of the yeah i think it’s you know middle of winter anything’s gonna eat anything i don’t understand how they’re i don’t even understand how there are herbivores
[0:40:32 – 0:40:58] Erik: just in the boreal forest i mean i get it if you’re down in the like the jungles and stuff yeah there’s probably tons of stuff just hanging fecund fecundly hanging from the trees constantly but to exist delicious in the north woods as an animal as a herbivore i just don’t i don’t understand how how can a moose survive that’s why the meat’s so lean yeah i guess and they’re my pine needles all winter
[0:40:58 – 0:41:26] Adam: constantly like running those back legs are jacked those are some well yeah let’s talk about those legs so we saw the tracks out on the lake they’re huge they’re like the size of your hand they’re shockingly large bigger than a dog’s paw my first few times in the north woods not like not knowing what those tracks were and assuming it was a a much larger animal yeah they’re well they are larger than you would think honestly seeing one up close like that uh snowshare is kind of impressive it’s you know it’s like a huge cat or a small dog yeah
[0:41:27 – 0:41:31] Adam: And their paws, the back feet are very impressive.
[0:41:31 – 0:41:37] Adam: And their paws, in the winter, their feet get a really fine, dense fur on the bottoms.
[0:41:37 – 0:41:39] Adam: And they can spread their toes out when they land.
[0:41:40 – 0:41:42] Adam: They get this crazy spring action.
[0:41:42 – 0:41:44] Adam: They can go 25 miles an hour in the snow.
[0:41:44 – 0:41:44] Adam: Can you imagine?
[0:41:45 – 0:41:46] Adam: I snowshoed down here.
[0:41:46 – 0:41:47] Adam: It took me a little more than an hour.
[0:41:47 – 0:41:48] Adam: And I was going pretty good.
[0:41:49 – 0:41:50] Adam: What is she doing out there?
[0:41:51 – 0:41:51] Adam: And…
[0:41:54 – 0:41:55] Adam: She’s enjoying the sun.
[0:41:55 – 0:41:56] Adam: Yeah.
[0:41:57 – 0:42:00] Adam: Yeah, but 25 miles an hour, that’s just insane.
[0:42:00 – 0:42:01] Erik: That is crazy.
[0:42:01 – 0:42:07] Erik: I mean, that’s the one thing you think of when you think of the snowshoe hare or rabbits in general.
[0:42:07 – 0:42:08] Adam: You’re going to like this, too.
[0:42:09 – 0:42:10] Adam: They’re cacophagous.
[0:42:11 – 0:42:13] Erik: Oh, that means that they eat the poop?
[0:42:13 – 0:42:13] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:42:14 – 0:42:16] Erik: I can’t believe I remembered that from the beaver episode.
[0:42:17 – 0:42:20] Adam: So, like I said, they’re land beavers with nice big ears.
[0:42:20 – 0:42:21] Flith: That’s essentially what they’re doing.
[0:42:22 – 0:42:27] Adam: Yeah, so the little pellets you see out in the yard, those are the finished product.
[0:42:27 – 0:42:30] Adam: But they kind of know.
[0:42:30 – 0:42:32] Adam: They got some fresh stuff coming out.
[0:42:32 – 0:42:38] Adam: They do that business in their nest or whatever in a trusted spot, and they come back to it for a little snack later.
[0:42:38 – 0:42:43] Adam: So the stuff that you find just strewn about on the trail is just like… Yeah, the hard pellets, that’s like everything’s depleted out.
[0:42:44 – 0:42:45] Adam: They got everything they can get out of those.
[0:42:46 – 0:42:49] Adam: But, yeah, they basically, you know, they do the squirts.
[0:42:51 – 0:42:52] Adam: They put some runny stuff down.
[0:42:53 – 0:42:53] Adam: They save that.
[0:42:54 – 0:43:00] Erik: Yeah, that’s stuff they’re going to eat, and then they know there’s no nutritional value in what I’m leaving behind, so I can just leave it.
[0:43:00 – 0:43:00] Erik: Then they know.
[0:43:00 – 0:43:02] Adam: We’re going to do that one outside.
[0:43:02 – 0:43:04] Adam: How do they know, though, what kind of poop is it going to be?
[0:43:05 – 0:43:06] Adam: I didn’t find that out.
[0:43:06 – 0:43:07] Adam: Maybe they just turn around and look at it.
[0:43:07 – 0:43:08] Adam: Minnesota Conservation Volunteer.
[0:43:09 – 0:43:12] Adam: We need one article specifically on the poop.
[0:43:12 – 0:43:13] Erik: Lagomorph turds?
[0:43:13 – 0:43:14] Adam: Lagomorph turds.
[0:43:17 – 0:43:17] Erik: All right.
[0:43:19 – 0:43:20] Erik: Getting it all figured out here.
[0:43:20 – 0:43:25] Adam: The breeding season is stimulated not by sunlight, but by new vegetation growth.
[0:43:26 – 0:43:31] Adam: So while the sunlight will be getting, the days are getting longer, they’ll start turning brown again in the spring.
[0:43:31 – 0:43:37] Adam: But it’s really when they start getting fresh food to eat, that’s what brings on the old breeding season.
[0:43:37 – 0:43:37] Adam: The old juice.
[0:43:38 – 0:43:39] Adam: That’s when they start laying the eggs.
[0:43:40 – 0:43:41] Erik: Well, that makes sense.
[0:43:41 – 0:43:48] Adam: So yeah, as I said before, the babies are born with the fur already ready to go and their eyes are open.
[0:43:48 – 0:43:49] Adam: They’re ready for the day.
[0:43:49 – 0:43:51] Erik: And so that’s the snowshoe hares.
[0:43:51 – 0:43:53] Erik: What are the other ones that aren’t?
[0:43:53 – 0:43:56] Adam: The hares are like, they can be running around in like a couple days.
[0:43:56 – 0:43:58] Adam: The cottontail, eastern cottontail.
[0:43:59 – 0:44:01] Erik: Is it because of the more harsh environment that they live in?
[0:44:01 – 0:44:03] Adam: Yeah, that makes sense.
[0:44:03 – 0:44:04] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:44:04 – 0:44:06] Adam: I don’t know the answer to that, but that makes sense.
[0:44:06 – 0:44:10] Adam: You know, they got to be ready to run, you know, ready to go because there’s a lot of things.
[0:44:10 – 0:44:13] Adam: I even read like red squirrels will make off with the little leverettes.
[0:44:13 – 0:44:14] Erik: Oh, sure.
[0:44:15 – 0:44:16] Erik: Yeah, I don’t like that.
[0:44:16 – 0:44:18] Erik: This is after they break out of the eggs, though.
[0:44:18 – 0:44:25] Adam: Yeah, they crack out of the eggs, they eat all the Cadbury sauce, and then day one they’re ready to roll.
[0:44:25 – 0:44:25] Adam: Nice.
[0:44:25 – 0:44:26] Adam: That’s how they go.
[0:44:28 – 0:44:36] Adam: Yeah, the change from brown to white, the only other thing I didn’t mention on that was it takes usually about 12 weeks.
[0:44:36 – 0:44:38] Erik: Wow, it takes that long?
[0:44:38 – 0:44:40] Adam: It can take up to 12 weeks.
[0:44:40 – 0:44:42] Adam: I’m sure there’s cases where they go a lot faster.
[0:44:43 – 0:45:09] Adam: um i’d assume when they get caught out where it’s like i’m brown in a snowy world oh boy they kind of like come on speed there’s probably some sort of you know think really endorphins that are kicking in like hey you got to speed this variance up that’s surprisingly long but i mean if you really think about how long that’s why i wrote it down it takes like how long does your hair grow like i think 12 weeks would be about the length of the the hairs on a rabbit it
[0:45:10 – 0:45:14] Erik: I’m surprised that they can’t just do a thing where the hairs just actually change color.
[0:45:14 – 0:45:16] Erik: You know what I’m saying?
[0:45:16 – 0:45:17] Erik: Not actually have to be grown out.
[0:45:18 – 0:45:19] Erik: Or maybe it is.
[0:45:19 – 0:45:21] Erik: Maybe it’s just super slow.
[0:45:22 – 0:45:22] Erik: It seems slow to me.
[0:45:23 – 0:45:26] Adam: Yeah, it didn’t say what’s actually happening to change the color.
[0:45:26 – 0:45:29] Erik: Are they blowing their coat with new hairs or are they just changing the actual color?
[0:45:29 – 0:45:30] Erik: That’s what I’m thinking.
[0:45:30 – 0:45:33] Adam: They’re growing in brown stuff underneath the white and then the white stuff just all falls out.
[0:45:33 – 0:45:34] Erik: Kind of falls off.
[0:45:34 – 0:45:35] Adam: That’s what I’m going with.
[0:45:35 – 0:45:38] Adam: Like the hair follicles aren’t going to actually change color.
[0:45:39 – 0:45:39] Erik: Are they?
[0:45:39 – 0:45:40] Erik: I don’t know.
[0:45:40 – 0:45:42] Adam: Scientists, help us out with this one.
[0:45:43 – 0:45:44] Adam: That’s a good question, Eric.
[0:45:44 – 0:45:45] Adam: That’s a really good question.
[0:45:45 – 0:45:46] Adam: Thanks.
[0:45:47 – 0:46:07] Adam: um the i did say they can run 25 miles an hour how far do you think one can leap with those legs on those things like what straight up like a like a long jump from a standstill so a long jump or straight up in the air a high jump or a long jump a long jump we’re going long jump on this one um eight meters
[0:46:07 – 0:46:08] Adam: No, not quite that much.
[0:46:09 – 0:46:10] Adam: I don’t know why.
[0:46:10 – 0:46:11] Adam: This is in feet.
[0:46:12 – 0:46:15] Adam: Don’t ask me why they’re publishing this in feet, but it said 10 feet.
[0:46:16 – 0:46:16] Erik: Okay.
[0:46:16 – 0:46:19] Adam: So three meters tops.
[0:46:19 – 0:46:20] Erik: That’s still pretty impressive.
[0:46:20 – 0:46:25] Adam: Pretty good for a big cat or a small dog, yeah.
[0:46:25 – 0:46:25] Adam: Boing.
[0:46:26 – 0:46:27] Adam: They’re real bouncy boys.
[0:46:27 – 0:46:30] Adam: Also, they don’t like it, but they are excellent swimmers.
[0:46:31 – 0:46:33] Erik: Oh, I couldn’t imagine seeing a rabbit swimming.
[0:46:34 – 0:46:37] Adam: You never come across like a toe down Clearwater?
[0:46:37 – 0:46:40] Adam: You never just come across a hair in the lake?
[0:46:40 – 0:46:40] Erik: No.
[0:46:41 – 0:46:41] Erik: You know what I did?
[0:46:42 – 0:46:46] Adam: I’ve told the story where I saw, because I saw the lynx on Morgan Lake swimming.
[0:46:47 – 0:46:48] Erik: Yes, I have heard that story.
[0:46:48 – 0:46:50] Adam: And I was always like, why?
[0:46:50 – 0:46:51] Adam: Because they’re kind of the same way.
[0:46:51 – 0:46:55] Adam: Like lynx can swim, but they don’t generally take to water.
[0:46:56 – 0:47:22] Adam: not like these nice ice fishing rods of the green hornets you know these are waterfall they love it mergansers but you know the lagomorphs nah felines they don’t like it but they’ll go they’re fine swimmers so i always thought that was weird but then it was when i read that this morning the the little note that they are excellent swimmers so i was wondering because the links have been known to just like stalk and you know follow a rabbit’s track long distance yeah
[0:47:24 – 0:47:24] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:47:25 – 0:47:31] Adam: Probably unlikely, but it was neat to think that swimming lynx all those years back was actually swimming after a hare.
[0:47:32 – 0:47:32] Erik: I guess.
[0:47:33 – 0:47:34] Erik: Yeah, Morgan’s pretty thin.
[0:47:34 – 0:47:35] Erik: I guess it could have gotten a scent.
[0:47:35 – 0:47:37] Adam: Yeah, I’m going to make a break because that’s what it says.
[0:47:37 – 0:47:40] Adam: They’ll do it to shake a predator that’s been chasing them.
[0:47:41 – 0:47:43] Erik: Would there ever be something that would be chasing the lynx?
[0:47:43 – 0:47:44] Adam: I don’t think so.
[0:47:44 – 0:47:45] Erik: Maybe a wolf?
[0:47:45 – 0:47:46] Erik: Maybe?
[0:47:46 – 0:47:46] Erik: No.
[0:47:47 – 0:47:49] Erik: No.
[0:47:49 – 0:47:51] Erik: Maybe it was a roving pack.
[0:47:51 – 0:47:51] Adam: Maybe.
[0:47:52 – 0:47:53] Erik: Or a huge drove.
[0:47:54 – 0:47:55] Erik: It was running from the drove.
[0:47:58 – 0:47:58] Adam: All right.
[0:47:59 – 0:48:00] Flith: That’s all I got.
[0:48:01 – 0:48:02] Flith: That’s the end of my notes.
[0:48:02 – 0:48:03] Adam: Any other questions, though?
[0:48:04 – 0:48:06] Adam: I was reading a lot more about them.
[0:48:06 – 0:48:07] Adam: That’s just what I wrote down.
[0:48:07 – 0:48:08] Adam: Anything come to mind?
[0:48:09 – 0:48:13] Erik: I’m mostly curious about the eggs still.
[0:48:13 – 0:48:14] Erik: Yeah, why?
[0:48:15 – 0:48:16] Erik: Do they?
[0:48:16 – 0:48:18] Erik: Does the owl… Are the eggs good?
[0:48:19 – 0:48:23] Erik: Does the owl egg come out of the same hole that… Oh, no, the pellet comes out of the mouth.
[0:48:24 – 0:48:24] Adam: Mm-hmm.
[0:48:25 – 0:48:26] Adam: No, they’re not regurgitating.
[0:48:27 – 0:48:33] Erik: I think we need, I mean, I do appreciate all of the lagomorph facts and information that we’ve gotten.
[0:48:33 – 0:48:36] Erik: I am definitely feeling much more informed on them.
[0:48:36 – 0:48:45] Erik: But I feel like, in some strange way, I find myself more confused and questioning the existence of owls now.
[0:48:46 – 0:48:48] Adam: Yeah, we should get into owls sometime down the road.
[0:48:48 – 0:48:50] Adam: But yeah, it’s fun.
[0:48:50 – 0:48:53] Adam: They are, like I said, they’re kind of like a lot like beavers in a lot of ways.
[0:48:54 – 0:48:54] Erik: Yeah.
[0:48:55 – 0:48:56] Adam: I guess they talk about their ears.
[0:48:56 – 0:48:57] Erik: Were they ever?
[0:48:57 – 0:48:58] Erik: Yeah.
[0:48:58 – 0:48:59] Erik: What are the big ears for?
[0:48:59 – 0:49:00] Erik: Is it just the predator?
[0:49:00 – 0:49:03] Adam: They can hear, obviously.
[0:49:03 – 0:49:03] Adam: It’s radar.
[0:49:03 – 0:49:04] Adam: It’s radar.
[0:49:04 – 0:49:06] Adam: They got Doppler radar on top of their head.
[0:49:06 – 0:49:08] Adam: They can hear the links coming from a long way off.
[0:49:09 – 0:49:12] Adam: And so then their choice is, do I move or do I try and stay still?
[0:49:13 – 0:49:19] Adam: So that’s their main defense is they, their main defense is like, stay still and camouflaged.
[0:49:19 – 0:49:20] Adam: And that doesn’t work.
[0:49:20 – 0:49:23] Adam: Then they still have the option of like, well, I can try and outrun this.
[0:49:24 – 0:49:53] Adam: thing and maybe try and swim off or just outrun them yeah um well it seems like their main defense at the end of the day is just overpopulation just overcompensate for how many are going to get taken out pretty much they just know it’s a war of attrition out there it’s a rough life they’re not like a corner they’re not a keystone species but can you like i don’t think that life on the north shore for a lot of these other species would work if it was not for the hair like that’s a it’s a you know it’s a key you know food source for so many uh critters up here
[0:49:53 – 0:50:02] Erik: I would put them up there with the grouse for like main food source of the four-legged predators of the Northwoods.
[0:50:03 – 0:50:08] Erik: And without either of them, yeah, it would be a lot smaller populations and a lot harder.
[0:50:09 – 0:50:13] Adam: Yeah, because as we’ve talked about, the cycle always continues.
[0:50:13 – 0:50:21] Adam: And without the boom of the hares, then the predators won’t be doing as well.
[0:50:21 – 0:50:27] Adam: And it should be noted, too, the lynx will follow these pockets of hare boom as they will.
[0:50:27 – 0:50:27] Adam: Wow.
[0:50:28 – 0:50:35] Adam: The predators will kind of follow as the populations of the lagomorphs ebb and flow.
[0:50:35 – 0:50:40] Adam: And once they get, they find that hot pocket, as they say, and then they’re going to hunker down and just hunt it out.
[0:50:40 – 0:50:45] Erik: Yeah, kind of like just a sad, sad, old Grateful Dead or Phish fan.
[0:50:45 – 0:50:45] Adam: Yeah.
[0:50:45 – 0:50:48] Erik: Just following them around wherever they’re going to be.
[0:50:48 – 0:50:54] Adam: I wish we had a Phish song reference about Lagomars right now.
[0:50:54 – 0:50:57] Erik: I couldn’t sing one if my life depended on it.
[0:50:57 – 0:50:58] Erik: They all sound the same.
[0:50:59 – 0:51:01] Adam: Yeah, but…
[0:51:03 – 0:51:25] Adam: yeah it’s uh it’s like you don’t notice them they’re kind of just like a species that’s always out there and you see a lot of them walking in the woods out here and you’ll see them on portages you’ll see them in campsites occasionally in the boundary waters but it’s never it’s never really that kind of the the critter where you’re like i wonder what they’re really up to so i just wanted to dig a little into it i didn’t want to you know read a 500 page book this is part one
[0:51:26 – 0:51:34] Adam: Yeah, I didn’t find a 500-page book that I thought would be worth reading on the hair, but I haven’t ruled out doing that in the future.
[0:51:35 – 0:51:36] Erik: I thought you had one.
[0:51:37 – 0:51:40] Adam: I had a couple of different options, but they weren’t really focused on the snowshoe hair.
[0:51:41 – 0:51:45] Adam: It’s more a lagomorph generalized books is what I was able to locate so far, but…
[0:51:46 – 0:51:49] Adam: You know, I want to focus on what we got going on up here.
[0:51:49 – 0:51:52] Adam: There’s a lot of neat critters out there in the woods.
[0:51:52 – 0:51:55] Adam: So now we both know a little bit more about them.
[0:51:55 – 0:51:57] Adam: But I think it’s something we could revisit in the future.
[0:51:57 – 0:51:59] Adam: But there’s some other critters to think about.
[0:52:00 – 0:52:00] Adam: For sure.
[0:52:00 – 0:52:01] Adam: What are they up to?
[0:52:01 – 0:52:01] Erik: Yeah.
[0:52:01 – 0:52:07] Erik: I’m like, for whatever reason, the owl conversation and how eggs are produced.
[0:52:08 – 0:52:10] Erik: It seems like something I should know.
[0:52:10 – 0:52:11] Erik: I don’t.
[0:52:11 – 0:52:11] Erik: I know.
[0:52:13 – 0:52:13] Adam: Yeah.
[0:52:13 – 0:52:14] Adam: Yeah.
[0:52:14 – 0:52:19] Adam: The one other thing on the hairs is the the tips of their ears always remain black.
[0:52:19 – 0:52:21] Adam: Like there are beady little eyes.
[0:52:21 – 0:52:24] Adam: That’s so that’s what hunters look for in the winter, especially.
[0:52:24 – 0:52:27] Adam: They’re like, you can see the tips of their ears twitching.
[0:52:27 – 0:52:29] Adam: So beady little eyes.
[0:52:29 – 0:52:34] Erik: So you would think, it sounded like owls were a predator of them.
[0:52:34 – 0:52:35] Erik: Yeah, for sure.
[0:52:35 – 0:52:42] Erik: That they wouldn’t necessarily be wanting to hunt at night when the owls are active.
[0:52:42 – 0:52:43] Adam: Right.
[0:52:43 – 0:52:43] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:52:43 – 0:52:45] Erik: Interesting that they’re feeding and actively feeding.
[0:52:45 – 0:52:47] Adam: I feel like the owls are the least of their worries.
[0:52:47 – 0:52:49] Adam: There’s a lot more danger on the ground.
[0:52:49 – 0:52:50] Erik: That’s probably true, though.
[0:52:50 – 0:52:52] Adam: That they can sneak around on.
[0:52:52 – 0:52:52] Adam: But yeah.
[0:52:52 – 0:53:20] Adam: they’re pretty sneaky like solitary stealthy little critter yeah i mean considering how many there are out there yeah like you see tons of tracks yeah uh you know they’re out there but like how often do you really like just see one yeah it’s not this time of year i don’t hardly ever see them no you know in the i don’t know if i’m just out in the woods more like just off trail more in the summertime but i tend to see them a lot um just wandering around the woods in the summer
[0:53:20 – 0:53:26] Erik: Well, and that’s why the one that ran out onto Otter Lake last week at the Roadhouse was so, like, that was surprising.
[0:53:26 – 0:53:27] Adam: It was.
[0:53:28 – 0:53:34] Adam: So, I just, yeah, kind of, you know, I wanted to, that’s the event, you know, that led to this episode.
[0:53:34 – 0:53:38] Adam: So, I’m glad we were able to make this happen and fit it in here.
[0:53:39 – 0:53:44] Adam: It’s a nice bookend to the Pronto Roadhouse saga and what happened out there.
[0:53:45 – 0:53:45] Erik: Yeah, that it is.
[0:53:46 – 0:53:51] Adam: Now we’ve got to get into pine martins and owls and get back to ravens.
[0:53:51 – 0:53:54] Adam: There’s a lot of critters that we don’t know anything about yet, and the eggs, of course.
[0:53:54 – 0:53:54] Erik: And the eggs.
[0:53:55 – 0:53:56] Erik: My God, the eggs.
[0:53:56 – 0:53:59] Adam: The pups are back and playing outside.
[0:54:00 – 0:54:04] Adam: It’s going to be a rare sub-one-hour episode, and that’s fine.
[0:54:04 – 0:54:07] Adam: Like the rabbit itself, this episode is lean protein.
[0:54:07 – 0:54:08] Erik: Lean protein.
[0:54:08 – 0:54:10] Adam: You don’t need an hour of rabbit talk.
[0:54:10 – 0:54:12] Adam: You need 55 minutes of…
[0:54:13 – 0:54:24] Adam: snowshoe hare talk so anyways do your best out there folks when you’re talking about lagomorphs of the north they are snowshoe hares not rabbits rabbits and hares are not the same but eric
[0:54:26 – 0:54:29] Adam: They have more in common than they have in difference.
[0:54:30 – 0:54:30] Erik: Aw.
[0:54:30 – 0:54:32] Adam: So there’s that, which is nice.
[0:54:32 – 0:54:34] Adam: Just like all of us here on planet Earth.
[0:54:34 – 0:54:35] Adam: We’re all just humans.
[0:54:36 – 0:54:41] Erik: Well, I mean, there’s a number of us that are humans, but we are all not humans.
[0:54:42 – 0:54:44] Adam: They walk amongst us and they look like humans.
[0:54:44 – 0:54:47] Erik: Yeah, they just look for that zipper at the back of the base of the neck.
[0:54:48 – 0:54:50] Erik: That’s how you spot the lizard folk.
[0:54:51 – 0:54:55] Adam: All right, from Studio K2 for Tomahome, a Boundary Warriors podcast.
[0:54:55 – 0:54:58] Adam: This has been a Critter Series episode on Lagomorphs.
[0:54:58 – 0:54:59] Adam: Thanks for being with us.
[0:55:00 – 0:55:04] Adam: And, you know, hope to catch you hopping on down the trail later there, friends.
[0:55:04 – 0:55:06] Erik: Adios and Arrivederci.
[0:55:06 – 0:55:07] Erik: Happy paddling.
[0:55:07 – 0:55:08] Erik: Are we calling this the Lagomorph Hole?
[0:55:09 – 0:55:10] Erik: I don’t know yet.
[0:55:10 – 0:55:14] Erik: Down the Lagomorph Hole.
[0:55:14 – 0:55:18] Flith: This angered Frith, so he determined to get the better of Ella Herrera.
[0:55:19 – 0:55:20] Flith: He gave a present.
[0:55:20 – 0:55:24] Flith: to every animal and bird, making each one different from the rest.
[0:55:25 – 0:55:41] Flith: When the fox came, and others like the dog and the cat, the hawk and the weasel, to each of them Frith gave a fierce desire to hunt and slay the children of Elephraera.
[0:55:51 – 0:55:58] Flith: Then Elagrara knew that Frith was too clever for him, and he was frightened.
[0:55:59 – 0:56:05] Flith: He had never before seen the black rabbit to death.
[0:56:07 – 0:56:12] Flith: My friend, said Frith, have you seen Elagrara?
[0:56:13 – 0:56:14] Flith: For I wish to give him a gift.
[0:56:15 – 0:56:17] Flith: No, I…
[0:56:19 – 0:56:20] Flith: I have not seen him.
[0:56:21 – 0:56:25] Flith: So Frith said, Come out, and I will bless you instead.
[0:56:26 – 0:56:26] Flith: No, I cannot.
[0:56:27 – 0:56:27] Flith: I am busy.
[0:56:28 – 0:56:29] Flith: The fox and weasel are coming.
[0:56:30 – 0:56:32] Flith: If you want to bless me, you’ll have to bless my bottom.
[0:56:34 – 0:56:34] Flith: Very well.
[0:56:35 – 0:56:36] Flith: Be it so.
[0:56:39 – 0:56:44] Flith: And Elagrara’s tail grew shining white and flashed like a star.
[0:56:45 – 0:56:47] Flith: And his back legs grew long and powerful,
[0:56:49 – 0:57:00] Flith: And he tore across the hill faster than any creature in the world.
[0:57:00 – 0:57:02] Flith: All the world will be your enemy.
[0:57:03 – 0:57:05] Flith: Prince with a thousand enemies.
[0:57:05 – 0:57:13] Flith: And whenever they catch you, they will kill you.
[0:57:13 – 0:57:15] Flith: But first they must catch you.
[0:57:16 – 0:57:18] Flith: Digger, listener.
[0:57:19 – 0:57:24] Flith: runner, prince with the swift warning.
[0:57:24 – 0:57:31] Flith: Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.
