Meagan just doesn't fit the stereotype.
I like the tools she has beside her. I love the woven basket type packs, I have one of bamboo myself, great for carrying things that would otherwise dig into your back. I'd think her's is made of birch, I think that's the traditional wood used in the US.
Notice also the pole with the loop of wire. The pole and loop are to restrain "by catch" while removing the trap. I hope I'm spelling by catch correctly, it's the term for unintended animals caught in traps. I think with modern traps and legal settings only similar sized and weight animals can get caught. I'm not even sure a coyote or bobcat could set off a trap. The myths of animals in pain chewing off legs makes for great fundraising if nothing else.
I came across this article via my google news aggregator, it culls all news wolf for me. http://www.jsonline.com/... The other wolf news is generally a steady switch from advocacy to science based management with the wolf now a big game species in seven states and hunted in six this year. A recent 9th circuit court decision also upheld delisting even without the congressional rider.
Probably the biggest news even though it makes no headlines isn't this fall's widespread hunt throughout the northern great lakes and rocky mountains but rather a quiet but growing consensus amongst wildlife professionals and especially wildlife biologists that many of the early assumptions about wolves are turning out to be at best premature and more likely true only in limited instances and even factually wrong.
Science is self correcting, experiments are repeated with very different results, hypotheses are re tested. Some of the more famous ideas to be re evaluated by the foremost researchers on the subject are trophic cascades, aspen re generation, affects on other predators, riparian zones, etc. Most famously (for wolf researchers that is) is the peer reviewed article by the worlds formost wolf researcher David Mech in Biological Conservation which is probably deserving of a post in and of itself as it lays asunder many of the more famous wolf myths.
Many famous wildlife biologists began their studies of wildlife while trapping as teens. It forces one to study and understand the habits of wild animals more than just about any other pursuit. Megan dreams of a career in natural resources management, I wish the best for her.