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in the savannah of Alatash National Park, the lion sleeps tonight. This remote part of north-west Ethiopia was considered a possible habitat for lions, but it is seldom visited by people. Now an expedition by the University of Oxford’s Conservation Research Unit has discovered that lions are indeed alive and well in the park – a rare extension of their known range. “During my professional career I have had to revise the lion distribution map many times,” says Hans Bauer, who led the expedition. “I have deleted one population after the other. This is the first and probably the last...

immediately after the regular season ends. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has already made the decision to fire coach Mike Pettine, multiple sources say, and it is likely general manager Ray Farmer will be shown the door, as well. Pettine leaves after just two seasons full of quarterback movement and a woeful defense. Farmer likely will leave despite never hiring his own head coach. Haslam has already laid the groundwork for the move, doing work on potential candidates and seeing who will be available to him. It ends a tumultuous tenure for Cleveland, filled with dysfunction, in-fighting, failed player acquisitions and...

The Obama administration's decision to extend Endangered Species Act protections for two breeds of lions is a turning point for the lions now roaming Africa, advocacy groups say. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signaled in a document obtained by the Associated Press that it would classify the lion as threatened or endangered across its entire range in Africa. The agency has scheduled a noon conference call to discuss its findings. The Humane Society of the United States projects that American trophy hunters imported 5,647 lions in the past decade. The group's president and CEO, Wayne Pacelle, said he expects...

Five years ago, few would have freaked out about the face-mask penalty that extended Thursday night's wild game at Ford Field. (Trust me, it happened five years ago, and many have long since forgotten it.) [snip] NFL officiating is under siege this season, in many cases by its own making, but referee Carl Cheffers' call Thursday night does not fit neatly into that box. NFL officials have been making that call for decades, using the rotation of a quarterback's head and helmet during real time as a reliable sign that a defender had illegally grabbed his face mask. You just...

Why the War in Kurdistan Matters - John Gallagher We live in a society that’s grown around a very basic philosophical principle: That the world around us can be understood using our senses and our minds. From this simple insight comes the moral revelation that all human beings are equal in this capacity, and therefore equal in dignity. This radical idea was the turning point in human history, before which all civilizations had been dominated by the idea that class hierarchies and racism were perfectly justified according to the revealed wisdom of ancient texts, and sanctified by holy men with...

Across the NFL, teams recognized Friday's tragedy in Paris with a moment of silence.

The lion is among Africa’s most iconic wildlife — right up there with elephants, rhinos and giraffes — and also one of the continent’s top predators. But despite its status as one of the world’s most recognizable animals, the lion has lately been losing its grip on its historic domain.

~~Heroic Safari guide mauled to death by charging lion as he protected his guests in the same Zimbabwean park where Cecil was illegally hunted~~ A Safari guide has been mauled to death and hailed a hero as he tried to protect his group from a charging lion. Quinn Swales was killed by the big cat in the same Zimbabwean park where Cecil the lion was illegally hunted by an American dentist last month. The 40-year-old was tracking lions with a tour party during a dawn safari when they were suddenly targeted by the large male. According to statement from the...

The Redskins have plenty of work to do. The offensive line, specifically pass protection, would be a good place to start. Robert Griffin III and the Redskins starters managed 10 total yards on their first three series of Thursday night’s preseason game vs. the Lions. On the fourth series, Griffin got sacked on consecutive plays. On the second sack, his fumble was recovered by Gabe Wright of the Lions at the Redskins’ 11-yard line. To make matters worse, the Redskins announced Griffin was then evaluated for a right-side stinger and possible concussion. He was cleared to return to the game...

Every once in a while, common sense finds its way onto the pages of The New York Times. That was the case on Monday, when it published a piece on Cecil the lion and trophy hunting of large animals.

Winston-Salem, N.C. — MY mind was absorbed by the biochemistry of gene editing when the text messages and Facebook posts distracted me. So sorry about Cecil. Did Cecil live near your place in Zimbabwe? Cecil who? I wondered. When I turned on the news and discovered that the messages were about a lion killed by an American dentist, the village boy inside me instinctively cheered: One lion fewer to menace families like mine. My excitement was doused when I realized that the lion killer was being painted as the villain. I faced the starkest cultural contradiction I’d experienced during my...

Jan Casimir Seski may as well close his practise and go into hiding. What is it with American Doctors being psychopaths? #Cecil #BanHunting Dr. Jan Casimir Seski, come on down! You’re the next contestant on, “The Price is Right” “The Mob is Going to Ruin Your Life” over the allegedly illegal killing of a lion in Zimbabwe in April: And photos of other animals killed by Dr. Seski, a gynecological oncologist who directs the Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, have begun circulating on social media, and are sure to anger the same mob that went...

Nayef is son of famous Saudi poetThe son of a famous Saudi poet was attacked by a lion during TV filming of the poet and was rescued by the predator’s trainer at the last minute. The lion was left with the boy, Nayef, as his father Ziad Ibn Naheet recited poems in front of the camera in a deserted area in the Gulf Kingdom. A YouTube film showed the lion chased the boy, pushed him down and grabbed him from the back before the trainer managed to control the animal. “Suddenly the lion jumped on the son, Nayef, who tried...

This is one of the most remarkable wildlife interactions that I have come across in my time. The photographs are amazing, but it’s the touching behaviour of the animals involved that makes this story so unique. Photographer Evan Schiller and Lisa Holzwarth were on a game drive in the northern Botswana’s Selinda Camp when they came across a big troop of baboons charging through the bush. “30-40 baboons were heading in our general direction making a lot of noise,” Lisa recalls. The baboons were obviously frightened by something and they all scampered up trees, shouting, alarming, and making a big...

It’s really weird to see one of the more masculine and patriarchal professional sports keep making politically correct steps to convince America that it isn’t masculine and patriarchal. I guess this year they’re gonna ramp it up with the first ever LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) celebration! And of course it had to be the Detroit Lions: The Detroit Lions are set to host what is believed to be the NFL’s first LGBT night, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. The Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce says it will hold a pride event during the Lions’...

Recent scientific findings date their arrival earlier than ever thought, sparking hot debate among archaeologists For much of its length, the slow-moving Aucilla River in northern Florida flows underground, tunneling through bedrock limestone. But here and there it surfaces, and preserved in those inky ponds lie secrets of the first Americans.For years adventurous divers had hunted fossils and artifacts in the sinkholes of the Aucilla about an hour east of Tallahassee. They found stone arrowheads and the bones of extinct mammals such as mammoth, mastodon and the American ice age horse.Then, in the 1980s, archaeologists from the Florida Museum of...

The Miami Dolphins have reportedly agreed to a massive contract that will land them the most prized free agent of the NFL offseason: former Detroit Lions star Ndamukong Suh.

Poachers kill 300 Zimbabwe elephants with cyanide • Cyanide has been used to kill 300 elephants in Zimbabwe's biggest nature reserve - three times the original estimate - as new photos show the scale of the slaughter Poachers in Zimbabwe have killed more than 300 elephants and countless other safari animals by cyanide poisoning, The Telegraph has learned. The full extent of the devastation wreaked in Hwange, the country's largest national park, has been revealed by legitimate hunters who discovered what conservationists say is the worst single massacre in southern Africa for 25 years. Pictures taken by the hunters, which...

President Barack Obama is an admittedly big sports fan, so it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that he was watching the Cowboys-Lions game on Sunday. What might come as a surprise though is that Obama, a Chicago Bears fan, actually empathizes with Lions fans after Detroit's controversial 24-20 loss. The president told the Detroit News that he would be 'pretty aggravated' if he were a Lions fan.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie has landed himself in hot water after he was caught enthusiastically celebrating a victory for the Dallas Cowboys. Christie was filmed hugging Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones and his son Stephen in a garish orange sweater after Dallas defeated Detroit Lions in a match yesterday. A native of New Jersey, Christie follows the Cowboys despite his team having a long-standing rivalry with the New York Giants in his own state as they play in the same NFL conference every year. He also cheers for the Cowboys ahead of his state's other NFL team, the New York...