The great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) is North America’s most widespread and formidable owl — a two-to-five-pound predator with a four-foot wingspan, feathered “horns” that are neither horns nor ears, and the most varied diet of any raptor on the
The most effective humane way to get rid of moles is to make your lawn a worse restaurant: cut back on watering so earthworms retreat deeper, treat serious grub infestations with beneficial nematodes or milky spore, protect beds with buried
Yes — bears can climb trees, and black bears in particular are astonishingly good at it. A black bear’s short, curved claws work like climbing hooks, letting it rocket up a trunk faster than a person can run on flat
Owls live on every continent except Antarctica, in nearly every habitat that supports prey — forests, deserts, grasslands, tundra, farmland, and city parks. What they don’t do is build homes: owls make no nests of their own. Instead they occupy
Moles and voles are completely different animals causing completely different damage. A mole is an insect-eater that tunnels underground after earthworms and grubs, leaving raised ridges and volcano-shaped soil mounds — but it almost never eats plants. A vole is
The most reliable way to tell a black bear from a grizzly is not color or size — it’s shape. A grizzly has a prominent muscular hump over its shoulders, a dished (concave) facial profile, short rounded ears, and long,
Owls are strict carnivores. Every owl species lives entirely on animal prey — most commonly small mammals like voles, mice, shrews, and rats, along with birds, insects, frogs, reptiles, earthworms, and even fish. What a particular owl eats depends mostly
To donate venison, take your legally tagged, field-dressed deer to a processor participating in a venison donation program — most states have one, often under a name like Hunters for the Hungry, Hunters Sharing the Harvest, or Farmers and Hunters
To get your deer tested for CWD, submit the head (or the extracted lymph node sample) through one of the channels your state wildlife agency runs or approves: a staffed check station, a self-serve drop-off freezer, a participating processor or
If a wounded deer crosses onto property you don’t have permission to enter: stop at the line. In most states, a hunting license and a blood trail do not create any legal right to follow — entering without permission is
Fair chase is the principle that a hunter pursues free-ranging wild game in a way that gives the animal a genuine chance to evade, taking no improper or unfair advantage — a standard articulated by the Boone and Crockett Club
A hunter education course is a state-approved class — typically completed either fully online, or as online coursework plus an in-person field day, or as a traditional multi-session classroom course — that covers firearm safety, hunting ethics, wildlife identification, regulations,
To tag a deer, validate your tag immediately upon recovering the animal and before moving or field dressing it — in most states that means notching or cutting out the month and date on a paper tag (and often marking
After you shoot a deer: stay put and watch it until it is out of sight, listening for a crash. Mark exactly where the deer stood at the shot and where you last saw it. Then wait — about 30
Tree stand safety comes down to four habits practiced every single hunt: wear a full-body harness and stay connected to the tree from the moment you leave the ground until the moment you return to it, keep three points of
Yes, you can hunt on your own land — but owning the ground does not exempt you from hunting law nearly as much as most new landowners assume. In every state, seasons, bag limits, weapon rules, and tagging requirements apply
Hunting national forest land is the purest form of public land deer hunting in America: enormous acreage, free access, statewide seasons, and almost no one telling you where to set up. National forests are open to hunting by default under
A wildlife management area (WMA) is public land owned or managed by a state wildlife agency specifically for wildlife habitat and wildlife-based recreation, with hunting as a core intended use. That last part is what makes WMAs different from most
Walk-in hunting access programs are state-run systems that pay private landowners to open their ground to public hunting. The hunter simply shows up, follows the posted rules, and hunts land that would otherwise be locked behind a knock on a
Deer tag draw systems decide who gets to hunt when demand for a tag exceeds supply. Instead of selling unlimited tags over the counter, a state takes applications for a limited quota and holds a lottery, and the three main
Planning an out-of-state deer hunt breaks into five jobs: pick a state and unit, secure the nonresident license and tag, scout from a distance, sort out the travel logistics, and plan how the meat and antlers get home legally. Do
To get a hunting license in the United States, you generally complete a state-approved hunter education course, create an account with your state wildlife agency, and buy the license online, at a license vendor, or at an agency office. Most
Hunting public land deer comes down to four skills: knowing which types of public ground you can legally hunt, e-scouting them faster and smarter than the crowd, understanding how hunting pressure redistributes deer, and hunting with the etiquette that shared
Hunting deer from the ground without a blind is the original method, and it still fills tags: you build or borrow natural concealment, sit at deer level with the wind in your favor, and beat a whitetail’s eyes and nose