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P.S. I'm so sick of Fox News only talking about Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Martha Stewart, Scott Peterson, blah, blah, blah... :(

You must be the lucky one. I only get BowFlex Ads and miracle pills that only cost you shipping and handling. The entertainment news I thought was on Entertainment Tonight. It is pathetic there is virtually no real news coverage involving our troops or Iraq, Afganistan, or Pakistan except in small captions under the screen that run by so quickly we have to watch for them to come back across the screen to see if we really read it.

UNDIAGNOSED DEATHS, CERVIDS - USA (WYOMING)

Unexplained elk deaths in Wyo. leave wildlife officials puzzled

Elk are dying by the hundreds on the high, dry plains south of Rawlins, Wyo., puzzling veterinarians who suspect some kind of poison is to blame.

In the last 3 weeks, about 275 elk, mostly breeding-age cows in prime condition, have been found either dead or paralyzed in a 3-square-mile area just north of the Colorado border.

"They go to lie down, and then they can't get up," Wyoming Game and Fish Department spokesman Tom Reed said Thursday. "Their heads are up and they bark at you when you approach. But they can't move."

State biologists are euthanizing the stricken animals and have examined about a dozen carcasses in an attempt to find the cause of the deaths.

Whatever is killing the elk has yet to affect the horses, cows, calves, and antelope observed in the area. Scavengers like coyotes, ravens, or magpies that are feeding on the carcasses also appear to be immune.

"Elk are the tough guys of our big- game species, and here's something that's targeting them and taking them out," Reed said.

State wildlife veterinarians have already ruled out diseases such as chronic wasting disease, worms, or paralyzing bacteria sometimes carried by ticks.

Instead, they are focusing on natural or man-made toxins as the most likely cause of the die-off.

"There's a railroad, a coal-bed methane project, and oil and gas wells in the area," Reed said, adding that some local plants, particularly greasewood and Russian thistle, also contain compounds that can be toxic to wildlife. "We're looking at everything."

But pathologists are quickly narrowing their search. Tests have ruled out salt poisoning, insecticides, fertilizers, sulfates, and heavy metals including arsenic, selenium, and thallium.

Reed said game officers will attempt to transport several of the ill animals to the state wildlife research station in Sybille, Wyo., for further study. Meanwhile, the agency is asking that people avoid the area.

Mass die-offs of wildlife are not uncommon in severe Wyoming winters, but this one has been mild, biologists say.

In 1983, 700 antelope died in the same area after a strong snowstorm pushed them up against an illegal, 28-mile chain-link fence erected by a local rancher. The incident outraged wildlife lovers and led to a federal court
order banning such hazards.

This is the biggest non-winter-related wildlife die-off that anyone can remember, Reed said.

The area's rolling plain of sagebrush and greasewood provides critical winter range for elk and antelope, said Steve Torbit, a wildlife biologist with the National Wildlife Federation. The conservation group successfully
sued to have the rancher's fence removed.

"It's really strange that this is happening exactly where we had that battle," Torbit said.

[Byline: Theo Stein]