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Here’s what’s worth reading today, Monday, May 4, 2020:

Americans turn to hunting amid fears of coronavirus food shortages

More Americans are turning to hunting during the coronavirus pandemic — and amid fears of nationwide food shortages after meat plants were forced to halt operations over outbreaks.

“People are starting to consider self-reliance and where their food comes from,” Hank Forester of Quality Deer Management Association said, adding that he believes there will be a hunting resurgence over empty grocery store shelves.

Outbreaks have recently caused at least three major meat producers — Tyson Foods, JBS USA and Smithfield Foods — to shutter more than a dozen plants across the nation.

Meanwhile, some states have seen a jump in hunting licenses — including Indiana, where there was a 28% increase in turkey hunting license sales during the first week of the season.

Colorado mountain lions hit with new hunting plan as people spread

Mountain lions face an uncertain future under a new state plan to let hunters kill up to 15% a year across western Colorado, and more near subdivisions — rankling animal rights advocates who favor a live-and-let-live approach to wildlife.

Among the world’s most elusive predators, mountain lions join black bears in Colorado as the last surviving large carnivores, eating mostly elk and deer. These solitary cats weigh up to 150 pounds, run as fast as 50 mph and can leap 40 feet.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife managers say they’re compelled to allow hunting to control mountain lion numbers amid a human population growth and development boom drawing more people onto lion habitat. They point to “conflicts,” saying staffers received 116 calls about lions over 13 months from people in the Roaring Fork and Eagle River valleys. In one case, a lion was brushing up against stopped vehicles before it and another lion were found dead a few days later along Highway 82. Lions also have raised alarms by wandering near a school and homes, where they occasionally snatch pets.

Colorado officials are basing their plan on a statewide estimate of 4,000 to 5,500 lions today, half a century after bounty killing pushed this species toward extinction.

It’s not coronavirus reviving wildlife, it’s hunters

Wildlife is doing just fine with the world on lockdown. That’s what news reports are portraying. All it took was a worldwide pandemic to push humans indoors and turn the world into an inside-out zoo, with humans on exhibit and wild animals roaming empty streets and looking in.

Except it’s not quite true. It also denies fundamental truths.

One of the more recent urban myths is that black bears are having a party without all those pesky humans crowding their habitats at Yosemite National Park. One report made headlines of a single quote: “The bear population has quadrupled,” Warren McClain, who works in the kitchen at Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Hotel, told the Los Angeles Times.

What was easily skimmed over was that the park is home to 300-500 black bears that have lived there the whole time. Without tourists, of course they’re emboldened, especially as they come out from winter hibernation looking for food.

Another report cooed about vulnerable leatherback turtles flourishing on South Florida beaches during the season they lay their eggs. Without crowds of sunseekers, the turtles have the sandy expanses to themselves.

Shed hunter in Cody attacked by grizzly

A man was injured this morning by a grizzly bear while shed antler hunting in Sunlight Basin northwest of Cody. The man was flown by helicopter to an area hospital where he is receiving treatment for severe neck injury.

Upon notification, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department immediately responded to the area to assist Park County Search and Rescue and to begin an investigation. The man was identified by Associated Press as Spencer Smith, 41, of Cody.

Smith was in the East Painter Creek drainage north of the Sunlight Basin Wildlife Habitat Management Area this morning when the encounter occurred. The investigation is ongoing, and Game and Fish personnel are still at the scene gathering further details.

In Alaska town, calls to shut down fishing season amid coronavirus fears

Robin Samuelson grew up hearing stories about mass death in his Alaska community, victims of a pandemic so brutal that dogs were found feeding on human bodies.

The 68-year-old’s father-in-law was among the hundreds of children orphaned by the 1918 flu epidemic, which some scholars estimate killed at least 30 percent of the population in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

Some locals fear that history could repeat itself unless Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy shuts down the upcoming salmon fishery, which attracts more than 12,000 workers from across the country for a frenetic, two-month season that begins next month.

Dunleavy’s administration has pledged to implement safety measures to prevent the importation of the novel coronavirus, including a mandated two-week quarantine for arriving fishers. But some local officials say they’re not convinced the state can enforce those rules.

Alaska float fishing company takes big hit from COVID-19

Fly fishing float trip company owner Paul Hansen was taking bookings when the COVID-19 pandemic started to flare up.

“It was looking like a really good season,” Hansen said from his Wasilla home.

But his 28th season with Alaska Rainbow Adventures is looking bleak. Hansen says his biggest impact includes local mandates that don’t allow non-resident travel where he runs trips. One area is Goodnews Bay. Because of COVID-19 concerns, non-resident travel to Goodnews Bay is suspended for all of 2020, according to James Bright Jr. who is with the tribe’s Public Works and Transportation Department.

“We’re respecting their wishes because they don’t want the coronavirus in their villages. You don’t want to have that happen,” Hansen said.

Hansen has canceled all Southwest Alaska trips. Two of his fly fishing float company hubs are in Bethel and Dillingham.

Florida angler risks swimming with sharks to avoid losing tarpon

A fisherman determined not to lose his first tarpon braved jumping into waters known for dangerous bull sharks and swimming to the fish to untangle his line that got caught up in the rope of a crab trap.

Steven Starmer was fishing in Tampa Bay off a pier in Oldsmar, Fla., last week when the incident occurred. The bay is known for its bull sharks and in fact he had caught two from the same spot two weeks before.

“There’s been some 9- to 10-foot bull sharks up in the bay,” Starmer told the Bradenton Herald. “We’ve been broken off by some monsters.”

The first catch on this day was not a “monster” but a small bull shark, caught by Starmer’s friend Petey Santos. It was released and the fishermen waited for another bite.

“I watched something huge explode over the top of my bait,” Starmer explained to the Herald. “As soon as I set the hook a tarpon started jumping like crazy, shaking his head.

Birdwatching soars amid COVID-19 as Americans head outdoors

Conner Brown, a 25-year-old law student at Stanford University, spent the early days of the pandemic following his brother as he spotted and collected characters in the Pokemon Go mobile game. Then, Brown noticed the birds.

“I thought, ‘Why don’t I take up birding?’ It’s like real-life Pokemon Go. It’s super addicting because you can start logging them and you get a little collection. It’s really cool,” Brown said. He paused, then added, “They should really game-ify it.”

Brown, who’s living near Annapolis, Maryland, can now identify 30 different bird species. He can recognize the calls of the brown-headed cowbird and cardinal and tell male birds from females. He bought a special set of binoculars that attaches to his iPhone camera, downloaded bird identification and bird-logging apps, and is giving birding advice on Twitter.

With coronavirus restrictions dragging on, interest in bird-watching has soared as bored Americans notice a fascinating world just outside their windows. Downloads of popular bird identification apps have spiked, and preliminary numbers show sales of bird feeders, nesting boxes and birdseed have jumped even as demand for other nonessential goods plummets.

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