The radio-collared wolf, known to researchers as OR 159, was found dead in an area where the animals are federally protected.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in a case involving the illegal killing of a protected gray wolf.
The agency explained in a news release that the incident occurred in Morrow County west of Highway 395, where gray wolves are federally listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
The radio-collared male wolf, known to researchers as OR 159, was found dead Nov. 8 on private property about 20 miles south of the county seat of Heppner.
The USFWS and the Oregon State Police are conducting a joint investigation.
The USFWS asks that anyone with potentially helpful information should call the Service at (503) 682-6131, or OSP Dispatch at (800) 452-7888, text *OSP (*677), or email TIP@osp.oregon.gov. Tipsters can remain anonymous.
Mountain lions are protected in Missouri and the animal was walking away from the elevated stand when it was shot.
A Missouri deer hunter who shot and killed a mountain lion as it passed beneath his tree stand last month has been charged with a misdemeanor.
According to KY3 News, Joseph Licklider of Desloge, Mo., informed the Iron County Sheriff’s Department on Nov. 16 that he had shot the mountain lion, or cougar, while in the tree stand with his partner.
Missouri does not have an established cougar population, but a handful of sightings are reported each year. The protected animals can only be killed in self-defense or to protect pets or livestock.
The cougar that Licklider killed was wearing research tags from the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission, and walking away from the elevated stand when it was shot.
The charge for illegally killing protected wildlife was leveled after an investigation determined that Licklider’s action was unjustified. He’s scheduled to appear in court in February 2025.
The hulking bear with a plush, reddish-brown coat is shown inspecting the camera and later revealing its massive paws.
Trail-cam footage captured in 2021, showing a massive and beautifully colored grizzly bear in Canada’s Yukon Territory, has been re-posted to reflect a comment that stood out to the camera operator.
“ ‘If I’m going to get eaten by a bear, I want it to be this one’ – my favorite comment ever in relation to this awesome bear,” recalled David Troup of Yukon Wildlife Cams.
The new Facebook post by Troup inspired further commentary regarding the hulking bear and its plush, reddish-brown coat.
“How awesome to know that this magnificent animal is roaming free on earth!” one viewer remarked.
“He looks like a movie bear!” another viewer chimed in.
The footage, which shows the bear inspecting the camera before walking away and revealing its massive paws, is posted below. (Please click here if the video player does not appear.)
Dramatic footage shows a dominant male leopard bolting in to end a fight between a female leopard and her adult daughter.
A fierce battle between leopards, apparently a mother and adult daughter, was forcefully declared over recently by a third leopard that bolted in to separate the combatants.
“The mother entered the daughter’s territory in pursuit of the area’s dominant male, who at the time was with the daughter. Daughter was not happy about that as you can see.”
The wild confrontation played out in front of tourists in Sabi Sands Nature Reserve in South Africa. The footage, best viewed with audio, shows the male leopard knocking both female leopards into apparent submission.
A series of breaches off Newport Beach shows rope winding through whale’s mouth and tightly around its pectoral fin.
On December 12 we featured images showing an entangled humpback whale revealing the extent of its troubles with a spectacular series of breaches off Newport Beach, Ca.
On Wednesday the photographer, Mark Girardeau, published the accompanying footage. It shows the whale trying desperately to free itself from rope that wound through its mouth and tightly around its right pectoral fin, threatening to amputate the appendage.
Girardeau began his description: “The impact of humans on this planet is all too apparent, most of it goes unnoticed or we simply turn our backs to it. We eat from the ocean while destroying the animals in it, this is just one of so many instances just here in Southern California.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDvg0uyy4VR/
Rescue teams were hoping for a chance to free the whale, but a safe opportunity did not present itself and the whale is now presumably still entangled while migrating to Mexico for the winter.
However, as Girardeau pointed out, there are no crab or lobster traps attached to the rope, so the whale is not dragging dead weight and there’s a chance the rope can be worked free.
The whale is known to science, cataloged by Happy Whale as HW-MN0503323. It has been documented five times since 2023 between Morro Bay and San Diego.
During the summer bears roamed the Yellowstone landscape, but weren’t always easy to see. Image will test your spotting skills.
*Editor’s note: A version of this post was published by ForTheWin earlier this year.
Bears in Yellowstone National Park are hibernating, but during the summer they were spread across the landscape and often visible from roads and trails.
But they weren’t always easy to see, and one Montana-based hiking guide used an image he captured from above the Lamar River to test his social-media followers’ spotting skills.
“I’ve been told my more recent ‘Find the Animal Friday’ posts have been way too easy,” Douglas Scott stated via X. “This one is a little more challenging.”
Can you spot the black bear? Photo: Douglas Scott
Scott allowed the use of his image for this post, so we’re also challenging readers: Can you spot the black bear in the images posted above? (Answer below.)
Hint: It’s a difficult quiz and there are several shadows that might be mistaken for the bear.
Scott, who runs The Outdoor Society, told me that he captured the image June 21 “on a perfectly clear day” in the park’s northern range.
“It was definitely a fun spot as my client was amazed I saw it so easily from so far away,” Scott recalled.
His X followers offered several guesses but in the hours after his post only one had pinpointed the bear’s location.
When I guessed, Scott informed me that I had found “the shadow of a tree.”
Another guess was met with the reply: “Unfortunately, you are incorrect. You most definitely found a non-animal shadow though!”
Yellowstone is remarkable in that visitors often see bears up close or in the distance, especially if they’re patient and use binoculars or spotting scopes.
They might also capture a landscape image and later realize that a critter is visible in the image.
In 2023, for example, I was watching bears on one side of a highway and turned to snap an image of a coyote in transit on the other side of the highway.
When I got back to my hotel room and began to inspect my images, I discovered that a smaller animal was visible, paying close attention to the coyote.
As for the black bear photographed by Scott, it’s much easier to spot in a zoomed-in version posted immediately below.
Zoomed-in version shows black bear’s location. Photo: Douglas Scott
Immediately below is an image with the bear pinpointed with an arrow.
Black bear location. Photo: Douglas Scott
As for Yellowstone bears, they’ll begin to emerge from hibernation as early as late March.
“The acts represent a multitude of violations including using a crossbow to kill big game animals and shooting in city limits.”
Authorities in Oregon are seeking information that could help them solve a case involving the recent poaching of two deer with a crossbow in Corvallis.
Joining in the effort is the group Traditional Archers of Oregon, which this week chipped in $500 to bring the reward in the case to $2,000.
Both deer were bucks that roamed Corvallis with arrows in their bodies before they died.
“The acts represent a multitude of violations including using a crossbow to kill big game animals and shooting in city limits,” the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife stated in a news release. “Several members of the public contacted Oregon State Police Fish & Wildlife Troopers to report the injured deer wandering in the area.”
Traditional Archery Hunters of Oregon President Riley Savage is quoted: “As you can imagine, being traditional archers, using a crossbow to commit such heinous crimes goes against everything we hold dear.
“The operator does not need the same skills required to use a handheld, vertical bow, like getting close and knowing when to draw and when to shoot. They are an assassin, lying in wait, at long distance, with no detectable movement visible to their prey.”
The bucks were shot on or around Oct. 25 and Nov. 18 near NW Walnut and NW Witham Hill Drive.
Anyone with potentially helpful information is asked to contact OSP’s Albany Fish and Wildlife office via dispatch at 800-442-2068 or *OSP (*677) from a mobile phone. Case reference number: #SP24-383408.
Lions have an amazing ability to blend in with the terrain of the African savanna. This trait allows them to easily sneak up on prey.
Editor’s note: A version of this post was first published on Aug. 8, 2023.
Lions possess the ability to blend in with the dry, low-lying grasses of the African savanna, a trait that allows them to easily sneak up on prey.
In this case, however, tourists at Kruger National Park in South Africa managed to spot a lone lion because it was walking through the grass.
“Whilst driving along slowly, we noticed a movement that caught our eye as she [the lion] was walking along through the grass,” Peter Hall explained to USA Today/For The Win Outdoors.
“We stopped there and I took that photo once she had stopped walking for a while and was just sitting there watching us. With a long lens, I could get a decent pic. She was at least 50 meters [165 feet] away. But I liked the way she blended so perfectly into the surrounding landscape of the Central Kruger Park, near Tshokwane.”
An experienced safari guide put his vehicle in reverse and skillfully fled a charging hippo in an unforgettable encounter.
Safari tourists experienced some tense moments when they encountered an angry hippo in the middle of the road at the Manyoni Private Game Reserve in South Africa.
Driver and guide Sandiso recognized the hippo as one of the larger bulls in the area that is “known to be on the grumpier side,” and the assessment proved accurate.
“Sandiso could…tell by the hippo’s behavior that it was in no mood for company!” Latest Sightings wrote in its post on YouTube.
So Sandiso put the vehicle in reverse and began slowly backing up until the hippo broke into a “full-blown charge” toward the vehicle.
When the hippo lunged at the vehicle, Sandiso hit the gas, and managed to make a turn onto a dirt road, leaving the hippo in the dust.
“The reaction from everyone in the vehicle in the aftermath said it all: a brief moment of silence, followed by lots of nervous giggles and a very quiet Sandiso in the driver’s seat,” Latest Sightings reported.
Photo credit: Latest Sightings
“It’s safe to say that no one there will ever be forgetting this encounter. Thanks to experience and composure, everything ended in what probably is the best way possible. The hippo moved on safely, the vehicle was unharmed, and most importantly, everyone in the vehicle was completely all right.
“At a time when many of us will be traveling to the bush for our end-of-year holidays, this serves as a reminder of just how cautious we need to be. The wild is truly wild!”
Yellowstone National Park elaborates that just because bears are hibernating, visitors should keep bear spray handy.
Yellowstone National Park this week cautioned that while most bears are hibernating, winter visitors should still carry bear spray.
That’s because mountain lions, or cougars, are active year-round in the park.
“Though these big cats are extremely elusive and averse to human activity, you should always take care when recreating in the park — even in the winter,” the park explained via Instagram. “Carry bear spray and keep it handy, not inside your pack.
“If you see a cougar, ACT BIG! Yell, show your teeth, and make eye contact.”
Yellowstone cougar keeps watch from tree. Photo: NPS/Connor Meyer
Biologists estimate that as many as 42 cougars inhabit the park’s northern range, and that other cougars enter the park sporadically.
From the park website: “Wolves are not normally a danger to humans, unless humans habituate them by providing them with food. No wolf has attacked a human in Yellowstone.”
Cougar encounters, while extremely rare, do occur.
In February 2022, Yellowstone Wolf Tracker shared distant footage showing a large cougar rising from its resting spot and exiting the frame. (Video posted above.)
The ecotour company exclaimed: “Low-quality video but a high-quality sighting!”
Cougars prey mostly on deer and elk, but also small mammals such as marmots.
According to the park’s website, bears and wolves sometimes displace cougars from their kills, and wolf packs have been known to kill adult cougars and cougar kittens.
The park adds that “very few documented confrontations between cougars and humans have occurred in Yellowstone.”
