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SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — Wildlife officers on Wednesday were tracking a mountain lion that attacked a 7-year-old boy and prompted the closure of a sprawling Southern California park, authorities said. The child and his father were walking up stairs at Pico Canyon Park near Santa Clarita around dusk on Monday when a cougar emerged from brush and bit the boy on the buttocks, said Capt. Patrick Foy with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Foy said the father, who was walking behind, heard his son cry out and charged toward the big cat. “The lion let go and retreated...

Snake Road in Shawnee National is being shut down to vehicles to allow for the safe passage of endangered snakes.. ... Wildlife authorities in Illinois have shut down a two-mile stretch of road to vehicles through late October due to a yearly snake migration. The U.S. Forest Service said Forest Road #345 – also known as "Snake Road" – in the Shawnee National Forest was closed to vehicles starting September 1st and will remain closed through October 30th. It’s also closed every year for a short time in the Spring. ... The snakes migrate from LaRue Swamp to the nearby...

Sunday morning 6:50AM - Started my day by making a cup of coffee. The blinds were slightly open - I could see out. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye - Not A deer - BUT TWO young does happily munching my tomato plants. DANG-IT!In my current locale I am not going to open fire on them and risk the neighbors calling law enforcement - discharging a gun HERE is sort of illegal. "BUT OFFICER, IT WAS SELF DEFENSE! The deer were threatening me!!"No, no - not going to go there... So I go out the door...

<p>There’s something especially charming about the dappled pattern on the backs of baby deer. But the white spots are more than just adorable: They also help the defenseless fawns stay safe during their early days on Earth.</p><p>As Henderson State University biology professor Renn Tumlison explains, the flecks effectively camouflage a fawn by mimicking patches of sunlight that shine through trees and other plants, landing unevenly across the already-varied neutral hues on the forest floor. Without the strength or size needed to outrun a predator, a newborn fawn’s best bet for survival is to simply blend in with the scenery.</p>

The original illustration by F.W Gabler was changed for the 1953 and 1986 re-writes of the article.This is the part III in a series of four segments on the Old Groaner legend.In segment I, the original article, published in the February 1936 issue of Alaska Sportsman is examined.In segment II, the 1953 re-write and some of the major changes in the rewrite are examined.We may never know why the many changes were made to the Old Groaner story when it was re-written by W.H. "Handlogger" Jackson and published in the March issue of the 1953 Alaskan Sportsman as "The Moaning...

Coyotes have become practically ubiquitous across the lower 48 United States, and they’re increasingly turning up in cities. The draws are abundant food and green space in urban areas. At first these appearances were novelties, like the hot summer day in 2007 when a coyote wandered into a Chicago Quiznos sub shop and jumped into the beverage cooler. Within a few years, however, coyote sightings became common in the Bronx and Manhattan. In 2021 a coyote strolled into a Los Angeles Catholic school classroom. They’re also appearing in Canadian cities.

People in a southwestern Japanese city have come under attack from monkeys that are trying to snatch babies, biting and clawing at flesh, and sneaking into nursery schools. The attacks - on 58 people since July 8 - are getting so bad Yamaguchi city hall hired a special unit to hunt the animals with tranquilizer guns. The monkeys aren't interested in food, so traps haven't worked. They have targeted mostly children and the elderly. "They are so smart, and they tend to sneak up and attack from behind, often grabbing at your legs," city official Masato Saito said ... When...

A visitor to a southern California beach captured video of beach-goers fleeing in a panic two sea lions appear to aggressively charge after them -- but one expert said the animals may not have been concerned with the humans at all. Charlianne Yeyna, who posted the now-viral video to TikTok, said the chase began when a woman attempted to take a photo of a sleeping sea lion at La Jolla Cove in San Diego. "The sea lions were sleeping and were just massive on the beach and I was just watching them and this woman got really close to them,...

Park officials said bison are wild and unpredictable, as recent incidents show. For the second time in three days, a visitor to Yellowstone National Park has been gored by a bison. Park officials say a 71-year-old woman from West Chester, Pennsylvania, and her daughter inadvertently approached the bison Wednesday as they were returning to their vehicle at a Yellowstone Lake trailhead. The woman’s injuries were not life-threatening. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Cody, Wyoming. The incident remains under investigation. On Monday, a 34-year-old Colorado man got too close to a bison and was thrown as he...

Animal rescuers in Massachusetts said a family who rescued a "lost puppy" found on a busy road were shocked to learn the animal was actually a baby coyote. The Cape Wildlife Center in Cape Cod said in a Facebook post that a family spotted the small canine wandering alone at the side of a busy road. The family took the animal home when they "mistakenly identified him as a lost puppy," the post said. Family members soon started to suspect the "puppy" was actually a wild animal and contacted the Cape Wildlife Center, which confirmed the canine was an Eastern...

As I collected documented incidents of handguns fired in defense against bears, a pattern emerged. The recorded incidents of pistols being fired in defense against bears overwhelmingly occurred from 1960 onward. I’ve found 125 documented cases where handguns have been fired in defense against bears, from 1890 to present. Two of the 125 cases were considered to be indeterminate as to success or failure. An additional 20 cases, where handguns were used with other lethal means, are considered combination defenses. They are not included in this analysis.The total numbers include indeterminate cases, but not the combination cases. 95% of all...

A bunch of deer totally wreak havoc on a car.

A U.S. wind power developer pleaded guilty to multiple violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act after its wind turbine blades allegedly killed more than 135 bald and golden eagles across the country. The company, ESI Energy, pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of violations in the form of golden eagle deaths. Prosecutors said the birds were documented to have been killed by blunt force trauma after being struck by its wind turbine blades at its facilities in Wyoming or New Mexico, where ESI had not applied for the necessary permits. As part of the settlement, ESI “acknowledged that at...

Craig Clouatre, 40, of Livingston, was found dead on Thursday after he had gone out hiking with a friend the day before – possibly to hunt for antlers — and never showed up at a designated meeting spot. Officials provided no details on where he was found or why they believe a grizzly bear was responsible for his death. The search began Wednesday night with teams on the ground and in helicopters concentrating their efforts on the Six Mile Creek area of the Absaroka Mountains, north of Yellowstone National Park.

WARNING: PICTURES ARE GRAPHIC. Wolves have killed another cow in Jackson County. Here’s Travis Duncan with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. ... Steamboat Radio was told of the most recent wolf depredation incident today by Adam VanValkenburg, President of the North Park Stockgrowers Association. He said the wolf kill happened sometime Monday night, as confirmed by CPW. He says another suspected kill from the pack was of six elk on another neighboring property in Jackson County. Here’s his opinion on the recent incident in Jackson County. ... “In my opinion and in consulting with other experts, they are teaching their pups...

Scientists in Utah have captured, collared and released a wolverine for the first time, in what wildlife officials are calling a "once-in-a-lifetime" event. Officials with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said it was just the eighth confirmed wolverine sighting in Utah since 1979. ... ...Officials said that on March 10, an aircraft piloted by personnel from USDA-Wildlife Services was flying over Rich County, Utah when they noticed an animal feeding on a dead sheep. The dead sheep was one of 18 sheep the wolverine had killed or wounded in the area that morning...

A native bobcat swipes at a 120-pound Burmese python in the Florida Everglades. in the Everglades captured images of a native male bobcat stumbling upon a python nest and striking at the 120-pound mama snake. Though the python successfully defended her nest, that didn't stop the bobcat, who later returned when the nest was unguarded and feasted on the eggs. Their duel took place the following day, when cameras captured images of "the python's head at striking distance from the rest of her coils near the bobcat's feet," followed by "the bobcat...swiping at the python from the left side of...

A group of Yellowstone tourists thought they had seen all the national park had to offer. They spent the day Saturday, March 5, in the park and saw wolves, bears, elk, golden eagles and more, Carl Kemp, a person on the tour, said on YouTube. “We turned around to make our way back, when I saw what I thought was a black bear running down the road,” Kemp said. “As soon as it turned, we realized we were in the middle of a once in a lifetime experience.” Read more at: https://www.modbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article259153973.html#storylink=cpy

When we attached tiny, backpack-like tracking devices to five Australian magpies for a pilot study, we didn't expect to discover an entirely new social behavior rarely seen in birds. Our goal was to learn more about the movement and social dynamics of these highly intelligent birds, and to test these new, durable and reusable devices. Instead, the birds outsmarted us. As our new research paper explains, the magpies began showing evidence of cooperative "rescue" behavior to help each other remove the tracker. While we're familiar with magpies being intelligent and social creatures, this was the first instance we knew of...

Elk hunting is immensely popular in Utah, so popular that it took fewer than 10 hours for all 17,500 of Utah's elk hunting permits to be scooped up last season. But while Utahns know when it's hunting season through a set calendar, a recent study suggests Utah elk also seem to know when it's hunting season — and where to go to seek refuge until it's over.