All posts tagged "Wildlife"

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here.

As spring arrived in southwestern Alaska, a handful of people from the state Department of Fish and Game rose early and climbed into small airplanes. Pilots flew through alpine valleys, where ribs of electric green growth emerged from a blanket of snow. Their shadows crisscrossed the lowland tundra, where thousands of caribou had gathered to calve. Seen through the windscreen, the vast plains can look endless; Wood-Tikchik State Park’s 1.6 million acres comprise almost a fifth of all state park land in the United States.

As the crew flew, it watched for the humped shape of brown bears lumbering across the hummocks. When someone spotted one, skinny from its hibernation, the crew called in the location to waiting helicopters carrying shooters armed with 12-gauge shotguns. ...

A baby raccoon was euthanized after a woman brought the animal to a Maine Petco store for a nail trim and let strangers kiss it, authorities said.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife in a Facebook post said the agency is seeking information about the woman who brought the potentially rabies-infected raccoon to the Auburn Petco store on Mt. Auburn Avenue to have its nails trimmed at around 1:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

The raccoon tested negative for rabies, meaning anyone who came into contact with the animal won’t need to seek treatment, the agency said. The test requires that the animal be euthanized, according to the CDC's explanation....

CHICAGO -- The deaths of 200 starlings in Yankton, South Dakota this week is no mystery -- they died as the result of poison set out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an official said on Thursday.

Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over an Arkansas town.