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Persistent precipitation in recent months have significantly improved California's drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Extreme to exceptional drought – the most severe levels – have been virtually lifted in the entire state since it first appeared on Jan. 24, 2014.

Steve Irwin’s son, Robert, stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and if you closed your eyes, it was almost like the original Crocodile Hunter was back on the show. Steve died back in 2006 when Robert was only 2 years old, and while we don’t know if Robert can dance like his sister, Bindi, he definitely has the same infectious enthusiasm that runs in the whole family. The first animal Robert brought out was an African dwarf crocodile named Beetlejuice, and when Jimmy was worried about petting little Beetlejuice, Robert put him at ease by saying, “My dad...

Controversial practice attracts widespread criticism but also limited support from some nature groupsA British Columbia woman well-known for her trophy hunts of lions, bears and giraffes says she sees the killing as an ethical form of wildlife conservation. Jacine Jadresko of Victoria has found herself a target of online hatred for her trophy hunting around the world. Watch the fifth estate on CBC-TV Friday at 9 p.m: The Hunter and The Hunted Jadresko, who appears in the fifth estate's "The Hunter and The Hunted," said that after being on a show like the fifth estate, "I'll get up to 200...

The fate of the Titans of Mavericks surf contest hangs in the balance, and the fight over event ownership is still making big waves. The current owner of the five-year contest permit, Cartel Management of Los Angeles, is involved in a public battle over the contest's legal rights with its presumed partner Mavericks Invitational Inc. (MII). MII ran previous contests and its board is made up of event founder Jeff Clark, along with Cassandra Clark and Brian Overfelt.

Rising water filling up Santa Clara County's Anderson Reservoir, which was 99.3 percent full as of Wednesday, is expected to flow over the dam's spillway as a result of this week's impending storms. Unlike the potentially catastrophic situation with Lake Oroville's emergency spillway, the Anderson Reservoir's operational spillway is not at risk of failure, according to Santa Clara Valley Water District officials. Despite that good news, officials in Santa Clara County are warning residents living along Coyote Creek and near Kelley Park to be on the lookout for potential flooding. Water officials for the past month have been releasing water...

We’ve all tuned into the fishing show ‘River Monsters’ to see what Jeremy Wade is reeling in next. But in this video, Jeremy faces a “monster” he’s not dealt with before. While pursuing salmon in the Alaskan wilderness, you have to keep your head on a swivel. You never know when you might get a 400 pound spectator who’s looking for a quick meal. That’s what happened to Jeremy and his crew in this next video. Grizzly bears are notoriously good at fishing, they even show up Jeremy Wade for a while! Finally, Wade hooks a salmon which draws the...

How Aisha Bakari Gombi, ‘queen hunter’ in the fight against the world’s deadliest terror group, became a heroine in north NigeriaAs seven abducted women and four children were being taken deeper into Sambisa forest, Aisha Bakari Gombi received a call. The voice was familiar: an army commander asking her to assemble a group of hunters to track them down. The 11 had vanished earlier that day after a group of Boko Haram militants attacked their village, Daggu. Three local people were shot dead and cars, houses and food stores set ablaze. Daggu is a half-hour drive from Chibok where more...

Walk out past the parking lot onto the end of the Homer Spit in front of Land's End Resort and you'll see some changes have occurred over the winter. While the sand all along the Spit shifts with each season, this year is nothing if not dramatic as substantial amounts of sand have been swept away. The area on the northeast side of the Spit near the ferry terminal has changed the most. What was, only two years ago, a berm followed by a gradual beach reaching the water now features a sharp drop down to the water and has...

"It's not very nice getting a 'gut bomb' on your face." The devastating mass stranding event that saw more than 650 pilot whales beach themselves in New Zealand over the weekend is finally over, with 17 survivors making it back to a large pod of more than 200 individuals seen 6 km (3.7 miles) offshore. But things are just getting started for the clean-up crew, because hundreds of carcasses are now strewn across Farewell Spit beach, and the public has been banned due to fears of spontaneous whale explosions caused by gas build-up. "These things explode from the stomach, and...

Every autumn in recent years our boreal neighbors in Sweden and Norway have regaled the rest of the world with tales of drunken moose. In most of the stories, the moose have gotten smashed eating fermented apples, the active ingredient in applejack. Recently, near Stockholm, a "mob of boozed-up moose" threatened a homeowner, daring him to step into his own garden. The online magazine Slate called the news brief issued by Radio Sweden "the best thing on the Internet today." Sweden and Norway have lots of moose and loads of apple trees. Alaska has fewer moose and a paucity of...

Second eaglet pecks its way out; two hatchlings now in the eagles’ nest at Berry College. From Berry College Eagles’ Facebook page: “B9 is finally here! The little eaglet hatched sometime in the wee hours of the morning and is currently snuggled close together with B8! Great screencap by Deanna George.” Earlier photo: That’s eaglet B8 next to the now “pipped” shell of its sibling as B9 is taking steps to exit its shell. From Berry County Eagles’ Facebook page: “This great screencap taken by Rebecca Ahmad shows off our little B8 and the confirmed pip in egg #2!

Every golfer needs a putter he can rely on — especially when an alligator decides to play through. “As I was walking about 5 to 6 feet away from the water I heard a splash, and as soon as I heard that splash I knew it was an alligator, and he got me,” Aarts said. The gator grabbed Aarts by his right ankle. He wound up on his back and rolled into the nearby water hazard as they struggled. “I remember having a club in my hand, and as soon as he had me in the water up to my...

Like most members of law enforcement, Lynn Koch dreads the day he has to draw his service weapon. Even if to protect his own life, it can mean death to another person. But on a cold winter day Koch, a Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks game warden, drew his .45 Glock to save the lives of two animals, and ensure the safety of another game warden and his own. “I have a lariat in my pickup, but knew there was no way to use it without one of us maybe getting hurt,” Koch said of when he and fellow...

In what can only be described as a youngster doing the 'puff, puff, pass', West Australian dolphins may be using blowfish - or 'blowies' - to get high, scientists have found. Murdoch University researcher Krista Nicholson, who monitors dolphins occupying the Peel-Harvey coastal waters off Mandurah, said there were several records of them interacting with blowfish in estuaries and coastal waters around the world. The young dolphin Huubster tosses a blowfish in the air. Photo: Mandurah Dolphin Research Project ============================================================================================================================== She said that in Australia, scientists had seen juveniles mouthing blowies in the Leschenault estuary in WA's South West and...

In a battle between America’s symbolic bird of prey and Florida man’s nemesis, a Parrish man said not on his watch. A male bald eagle sat at the edge of a pond behind his home in the Copperstone subdivision when the alligator clamped its jaws on the bird Wednesday. “It’s our bald eagle. It’s our treasure,” Anderson, who is also going through chemotherapy, told Fox 13. “It stands for who we are and what we are.” A neighbor called Justin Matthews of Matthews Wildlife Rescue and he arrived clad in a cowboy hat and camouflage cargo shorts. The eagle’s legs...

A snake catcher called to remove a huge python from an Australian home's driveway live-streamed video of the serpent eating a possum. The video, posted to Facebook by Snake Catchers Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan & Gold Coast, shows the scene snake catcher Lana Field was greeted with when she arrived Thursday at the home in the Chapel Hill area of Brisbane, Queensland. Field arrived to find the python in the midst of eating a possum, which it had about halfway into its mouth. "As you can see it's already got the front shoulders down and we're already half-way down the body,...

Terrified hiker captures the moment he totally freaked out after spotting Yeti-like creature wandering through the woods – but is all as it seems?Man cowers behind a tree as the mysterious figure FOOTAGE of a terrified Ukrainian man cowering behind a tree as a figure he believes to be a Yeti walks past him has resurfaced. The petrified hiker trains his camera on the ape-like figure as it bounds through the forest. A terrified man caught footage of what he believed to be a Yeti-like figure in a Crimean forest But unable to hold his nerve, the whimpering cameraman drops...

Survivor: Game Changers — Mamanuca Islands is the 34th season of Survivor (for those unfamiliar with the show, there are two seasons each year). It begins Wednesday, March 8, 2017 on CBS at 8/7c with a special two hour episode. References: Official Survivor site at CBSWikipedia article There will be twenty returning players divided into two tribes of ten players each. The "Game Changers" theme as with some past themes, is of course utterly contrived. Apparently the original plan called for three teams consisting of (1) winners, (2) those who made the jury, and (3) those who were booted prior...

In a photo provided by Stephen Tatum, an orange alligator is seen near a pond in Hanahan, S.C. Photos show the 4- to 5-foot-long alligator on the banks of a retention pond at the Tanner Plantation neighborhood. Jay Butfiloski with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources says the color may come from where the animal spent the winter, perhaps in a rusty steel culvert pipe. Experts say the alligator will shed its skin and probably return to a normal shade soon. Stephen Tatum HANAHAN, S.C. No one seems to know why there's an orange alligator in a pond near...

Some wildlife activists and Banff business owners are voicing disappointment over recently released results of a $1-million, five-year study into bear deaths on train tracks in mountain national parks. Jim Pissot of WildCanada Conservation Alliance, says the recommendations to create alternative habitat and escape routes, manage vegetation, install early warning systems and electric mats ignore one glaring reason grizzlies are attracted to the tracks — spilled grain from rail cars. “Bizarrely, after six years of study, Parks Canada and Canadian Pacific have blamed the bears,” said Pissot. “They are determined that the bears, wolves and other wildlife must change their...