- [Bret] Slowly but surely, I hunted less and less with a rifle.

After moving back to Minnesota and living in the shotgun-only zone, I went almost exclusively to the bow.

This is what I've learned.

- [Geoff] A coyote kills a fox, it's typically what we call a competition killing.

So, they're not actually killing the fox to eat the fox.

(upbeat triumphant music) - [Female Announcer] Funding for this program was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

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- [Bret] Some people do it for the big racks, others for the freezer-filling protein, some just appreciate the quiet solitude of the outdoors.

As for me, I do it for all the above.

But if I were to rank 'em, it would go in the opposite order.

(soft mellow music) I grew up chasing whitetails in Northwest Wisconsin, during the traditional Thanksgiving week, nine day season.

Once I was old enough to handle a 30.06, that became my rifle of choice for many years.

While I enjoyed the tradition and comradery of our family's deer camp, the short season, travel and costs of an non-resident license started to take their toll.

While living North Dakota, I'd heard stories from friends who had crest towering buttes in the Badlands, while searching for mule deer.

I had to try it.

The rugged landscape and a new served species intrigued me as my past experiences dealt exclusively with whitetails, and big patches of hardwoods.

There was only one problem, drawing a gun tag could take up to five years.

Well, in order to scratch that itch, I drove over to the big sporting good store in town and picked up a brand new bow.

For residents, a statewide bow tag for whitetails or mule deer was easy to get.

So, the decision to begin bow hunting was made.

Over the years, I was lucky enough to watch the sunrise over the Little Missouri River, while tagging some nice deer.

Including both mule deer and whitetail bucks.

I even made it back to the old family stomping grounds in Wisconsin to take part of the archery season there.

Slowly but surely, I hunted less and less with a rifle.

After moving back to Minnesota and living in the shotgun-only zone, I went almost exclusively to the bow.

And this is what I've learned.

Bow hunting gives you the opportunity to hunt longer.

The flexibility of picking and choosing which days you want to hunt allows you to stay home on days with bad weather.

(wind blustering) I don't think so.

Or the wrong wind directions.

Plus, it's just more fun when you can hunt all the time.

(soft bright music) (brush rustling) If you have a certain buck on camera you can spend the right amount of time trying to pattern him, and hunt him when it makes sense.

Now, there have been many times during the gun season where you have deer getting pushed from other hunters and shots have to be made on the run.

Then they start to get an nocturnal and they get harder to hunt.

It's just more fun seeing deer in their natural movements.

(bird chirping) Sitting quietly in your stand, allows the resident wildlife to go about their day uninterrupted.

Giving you a first-hand glimpse into the natural world from pheasants (pheasants calling) to waterfowl, (waterfowl calling) to bears, coyotes, fox, and more.

Even something as common as a squirrel might give you a peak into an intimate moment, you won't see often.

(upbeat circus music) This may be my favorite part, while I routinely rely on wild game to supplement my diet and will happily take a doe if a large buck doesn't present an opportunity, I enjoy being surrounded by wildlife.

And then given the chance to view them doing wild things without them knowing I'm there.

(soft mellow music) While I easily could have shot this doe, I was still trying to hunt a buck that I got on camera.

I've been trying for nearly two months now but so far, he was winning.

Just being this close to a group of deer like this though, got the heart pumping.

And while they knew something was up, they weren't quite sure where I was.

Unfortunately, on the opening day of the gun season my target buck was shot by a neighbor, and my priority changed to filling the freezer.

And it's happened to me before, I pass up on some easy deer only to go the rest of the season without another opportunity.

(bright instrumental music) As you get near the end of the season, you tend to start taking chances.

So, we set up on a popular trail with an ambush location in mind.

The wind was right, we were set up in time, but clearly something just looked outta place, and these deer weren't fooled.

(bright instrumental music) Thankfully, there'd be more to come.

(soft instrumental music) All I needed was one more step from this doe and we'd have fresh venison tonight, but that wouldn't be the case.

You excited to go out there Dan?

- Not really.

(Bret chuckles) - [Bret] Let's go.

Despite feeling a little under the weather, I talked Dan into coming out and filming me one more time.

It was cold, spirits weren't very high, but I've been getting deer on camera, so we were gonna give her one more try.

Maybe the guy that lives here.

(Bret whispers) (soft somber music) But the deer came through on a different trail than I'd anticipated.

(soft somber music) I had a small window and took the shot.

(bow thuds) There was kinda a loud crack when I shot, I think I smoked a tree.

I don't know.

Did they all run back across the road?

- [Dan] I lost them after you shot.

- They all turned and went that way.

But they were getting all weird, and I was like "Ah."

(bow thuds) What did it sound like to you?

- [Dan] Not hitting a deer.

(men laugh) But, I mean, that could have been after pass through.

- Yeah.

Thought I heard my arrow hit a tree.

It sure did.

Smoked that tree.

I don't know how I missed that deer though.

I must have shot, I wonder if I went maybe right under it.

It would've been standing, it would've been standing right there.

Dang, seems pretty clean.

Doggone it.

So my tag went unfilled this season.

Overall, I'm not mad about it.

My stomach will miss the meals, but spending quality time in the stand is always worth it.

(soft somber music) (bright marimba music) The world's canines are a mix of wolves, jackals, fox, coyotes, and other members of the dog family.

But like human relatives, they don't necessarily get along.

That's especially true of foxes and coyotes that are moving into urban areas in increasing numbers.

(camera lens shutters) In 2019, University of Minnesota researchers started looking at the behaviors of fox and coyotes establishing their home ranges in the Twin Cities, seven county, metropolitan area.

- We really wanted to get an idea of how these species are moving throughout urban landscapes.

And then also get an idea of what kind of diseases these animals are carrying, what they're eating.

And also, get kind of a sense for where hotspots for risk of conflict between humans and wildlife are in the Metro.

Foxes, often den under decks, under people's houses, where we don't see that with coyotes at all.

This is partially do to the foxes selecting areas where they can avoid running into coyotes because coyotes do pose a immediate risk to the life of any fox they run into.

When a coyote kills a fox, it's typically what we call a competition killing.

So, they're not actually killing the fox to eat the fox.

They're concerned about foxes eating more of the rabbits and squirrels that they might be eating.

What we see with coyotes is they seem to select more of the green spaces.

And so, they'll try to avoid people and their avoidance in these green spaces kind of gives an opportunity to foxes to get away from coyotes in the more heavily human-used landscapes.

(soft guitar music) - [Bret] To study the wild canines, Geoff Miller started capturing and collaring them in the fall of 2019.

Last October, he showed us a trap site.

- This is close to downtown Minneapolis.

We caught a gray fox, just like 20 yards that way.

We know that there's a red fox and a coyote in this area as well.

So, we've got all three canines right across from downtown.

In this case, we're using a dirt hole set with a foothold trap.

And to make sure that we're not catching any domestic animals in the set, we actually cover just with a bucket lid during the day.

And a rock so that even if somebody's dog finds it, they shouldn't be able to get this cover off of the trap.

And then we also use other methods of trapping, such as cable restraints.

And with those, you just simply close the loop that the animal would get caught in.

We do that during the day to close them down.

And, we also use box traps occasionally, and that's just simply closing down the trap.

The trap is actually buried right here, and there's a hole down that way with a little bit of bait and a lure.

And that's how we attract the animal to this area.

Canines are really intrigued by holes and they'll come and investigate.

It does attract quite a variety of carnivores.

So, you'll get raccoons in urban settings.

You'll also get the occasional a opossum.

Dogs are really attracted to these sites as well, but we take all precautions to make sure that we do not catch any domestic animals in our traps.

So, wherever we have a trap out in a public area we will make sure there are signs posted so that people know that there's wildlife research going on in the area.

Once we get a animal in a live trap, we'll tranquilize it.

During the processing, we'll put a GPS collar on the animal.

We'll take a blood sample, we'll check for different diseases.

It'll be about 45 minutes total that the animal is totally under anesthesia.

And after about 45 minutes of recovering, that's typically when an animal is released.

We take hair samples and through measuring different isotopic signatures in hair samples, we can actually determine how much human food the animal has been incorporating in its diet.

And then we also take fecal samples to test for different internal parasitic diseases.

So, intestinal parasites.

In urban environments, you have less habitat, less of these selected habitats, such as green spaces, wooded areas, grassy areas, where these species can actually go.

So, when they're confined to these smaller green spaces they're more likely to come in contact with each other, and more likely to spread the diseases.

(soft guitar music) - [Bret] Over two seasons, researchers caught and collared 16 red and two gray foxes and 17 coyotes.

We checked back with Geoff, in April, to see what the study analyses had shown so far.

- One of the surprising things that we found was actually low the survivorship is for red foxes compared to coyotes.

We were finding that about 80% of the coyotes that we collared will survive from one year to the next.

Whereas red foxes have a really low survivorship actually.

So, they have around 20% of the population will survive from one year to the next.

Foxes seem to be getting mange at a higher rate than coyotes are.

From 17 foxes, it looks like four or five of those animals are then gonna have mange.

Mange is actually a small mite that lives on these animals, that burrows into the hair follicles of the animal.

And that's what causes the really, really dramatic hair loss and scabbing that you see in these animals.

It's a really communicable disease.

So, it spreads pretty rapidly throughout these populations and can have a pretty detrimental impact on the populations themselves.

Two of the red foxes that we collared, that were killed by coyotes, had mange in some form.

So, that could have contributed to them being less mobile and then being caught by a coyote.

And also, we've had one of the, one of the foxes with mange got hit by a car.

So, mange has the potential to alter their behaviors in ways that it makes them more likely to die either directly from mange or as a secondary result of mange.

(bright piano music) - [Bret] The study also tested for coronavirus, but none showed up.

However, 90% of the metro animals have, or in the past have had canine parvo virus, or distemper.

We asked Geoff how the increased presence of these animals could impact urban residents particularly coyotes, that many call varmints.

- Coyotes do have this kind of reputation of being mean.

But, I think that's just kind of a bad reputation that coyotes have in general.

As humans, we try to, we sometimes conflate intelligence because intelligent animals can be of a nuisance with being a bad animal.

You may think your dog is smart, and dogs evolved from wolves, but coyotes actually have a higher brain mass ratio to body weight than wolves do.

So, they're highly intelligent animals.

Any carnivore is, that's intelligent is gonna cause potential for problems with pets.

Especially in the spring when coyotes are denning.

They want to protect their young from run-ins with other canines.

Because in the wild, another canine might be a wolf that would try to kill their young.

The bolder of coyote is, the more likely it is to get into a confrontation with a human.

And so, feeding wildlife is one thing that should really be avoided.

When you see a coyote that's acting bold, you should yell at that coyote and teach it that coming into contact with a person is not a thing they should want to do.

Throwing things at coyotes, yelling at them, making yourself look big, and basically showing them that you're the one in charge in this interaction, and that will actually ensure that the coyotes can live in these landscapes without coming into conflict with humans and their pets.

These animals are here to stay.

There's really no management solution that will keep coyotes from moving into the cities.

One of the things that might make Minneapolis and St. Paul a little different than other metropolitan areas, such as Chicago, is that there's this green space that kind of breaks right through the center of these cities.

So, the Mississippi river goes right through downtown Minneapolis, downtown St. Paul.

That really gives these animals an avenue to move through these really urban areas.

If we control coyote populations in the cities, they're gonna move back in.

We're gonna have to get used to coyotes and foxes being around, 'cause both of these animals are throughout these areas.

- [Male Presenter] Longtime Prairie sportsman, Chef Curt Anderson, lives on in the delicious wild game recipes we filmed before his passing in January of 2019.

- My friends, item that I love for fall.

This is gonna be grilled rabbit with apple chutney.

Little bit of a twist on the chutney.

As you see the recipe, you're gonna note that there's a few things that usually were in chutney that I didn't necessarily put in there.

Nuts is one of them.

Raisins is another, okay.

Now, the chutney recipe works and I wanna show you what I got sitting in the back of the stove here.

You cook it, you gotta be careful.

I'm almost at that point where I've cooked it too much, but you want it to get to this nice golden dark look, this color.

That's just the sugars that are releasing, that's gonna make it twice as good when it goes on top of your meat.

And you won't add any other juice, other than that.

Here, you can see I've got the rabbit cooking.

And on this rabbit, I've added nothing more than just a little bit of salt and pepper.

I'm using that indoor grill pan instead of outside.

Boom, this is the way it's looking.

It's a little thick.

I'm touching it like this, just to see if any juices are gonna run and that those juices are clear.

But let's jump over here, chutney 101.

Here's what I want to have you see.

This is everything I used to make this amount here.

This would be enough for two people, or me alone, in one case.

This goes really well.

Think of it as a sweet and sour apple mixture, apple sauce, so to speak.

So, these are our apples right out on the tree, peel 'em, dice 'em small.

Dice your onion a bit smaller than your apple.

Otherwise it'll, you'll get too much of that onion flavor.

You can see I've add butter here, I've added brown sugar to that.

We've got suggestions here for the water and for the vinegar, so that we'll be able to follow through with that recipe.

And then it's just roasting at very low heat, very low heat.

So, if we take our carrots and have them poached and hot, we put our rabbit that's grill on top of that.

Here comes the magic stuff.

Now this to me, is always something that brings back memories of fall.

And I maybe don't need all of it.

I had enough for two but I want you to give that a try.

It's excellent, it's not too sweet, the vinegar gives it a little bit of sharpness, a little bit of backing off there.

The rabbit, which is very neutral meat, it'll accept everything.

So, you're gonna find that this becomes a very, very healthy and good lunch.

Thanks for watching.

(upbeat jazz music) - [Female Announcer] True or false?

Waterfowl contribute to the spread of invasive zebra muscles.

False, laboratory studies of ducks, found that waterfowl are not very efficient at carrying zebra muscle larvae.

If they were, our shallow lakes and wetlands would quickly become infested.

In Minnesota, more than 50 lakes are managed for migratory waterfowl, and none are infested with zebra muscles.

Infestations are typically found in popular recreational lakes and rivers where there is an abundance of people, boats, docks, and water toys.

We can stop aquatic hitchhikers from infesting more lakes and streams by cleaning up a everything we pull out of the water.

It's a simple drill, clean in, clean out.

Before leaving a water access, clean your boat and water equipment, remove and dispose of all plants and aquatic species in the trash.

Drain water from your boat, ballast tank, motor livewell, and bait container.

Remove drain plugs and keep drain plugs out while transporting equipment.

Dispose of unwanted bait in the trash.

To keep live bait, drain the water and refill the bait container with bottled or tap water.

And if you have been in infested waters, also spray your boat with high pressure water, rinse with very hot water, dry for at least five days.

Stop the spread of AIS.

Funding for this segment was provided by the Aquatic Invasive Species Task Forces of Wright, Meeker, Yellow Medicine, Lac qui Parle, and Big Stone counties.

(bright marimba music) Funding for this program was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

Safe Basements of Minnesota, your basement waterproofing and foundation repair specialist since 1990.

Peace of mind is a safe basement.

Live Wide Open, the more people know about West Central Minnesota the more reasons they have to live here.

More at livewideopen.com.

Western Minnesota Prairie Waters, where peace, relaxation, and opportunities await.