YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — The saucer-sized footprints in the mud around the bloody, disemboweled bison carcass were unmistakable: wolves. A pack of 35 named after a nearby promontory, Junction Butte, now were snoozing on a snow-dusted hillside above the carcass. Tourists dressed against the weather watched the pack through...
Wildlife Advocate 'Devastated' by Death of Another Endangered Gray Wolf in California
SACRAMENTO — An endangered gray wolf that wandered thousands of miles through Northern California has died, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Thursday. OR-54, a 3- to 4-year-old female with a radio tracking collar, was found dead on Wednesday in Shasta County, the agency said in a statement....
Russian Scientists Present Ancient Puppy Found in Permafrost
YAKUTSK, Russia — Russian scientists on Monday showed off a prehistoric puppy, believed to be 18,000 years old, found in permafrost in the country’s Far East. Discovered last year in a lump of frozen mud near the city of Yakutsk, the puppy is unusually well-preserved, with its hair, teeth, whiskers...
Cute! California's Only Known Wolf Pack Adds 3 Pups
SAN FRANCISCO — Wildlife officials say at least three new wolf pups have joined the only known pack in California. KQED reports that trail cameras set up by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife in northeast California recorded the pups and two or three adult wolves in June. Amaroq Weiss...
Adorable Wolf Pups Make Debut at Oakland Zoo
OAKLAND — Four new gray wolf pups have come out of their den at the Oakland Zoo. The pups were born on May 13. This month, the 6-week-old pups have started to explore the two-acre habitat. Parents Siskiyou and Sequoia were born in captivity and brought to the zoo's California...
Scientists Take a Peek Behind Those Sad Puppy Dog Eyes
NEW YORK — What's behind those hard-to-resist puppy dog eyes? New research suggests that over thousands of years of dog domestication, people preferred pups that could pull off that appealing, sad look. And that encouraged the development of the facial muscle that creates it. Today, pooches use the muscle to...
Politics, Killings Stifle Wolf Recovery Amid Hefty Price Tag
RALEIGH, N.C. — Illegal killings and longstanding political resistance have undercut the return of two species of endangered wolves to the wild, frustrating government efforts that already cost more than $80 million but have failed to meet recovery targets. The number of red wolves roaming the forests of North Carolina...
Voth: Remembering Peter Everwine, the Patriarch of Fresno Poets
When I was in high school, my father worked at a gas station and wrote poetry late at night in our kitchen. He wrote old-fashioned poems. I now know they were decent, but the poetry experience was generally uninteresting to me. In my twenty-seventh year, I worked in a tire...
Trump Wants To Amend Endangered Species Act
DENVER — The Trump administration on Thursday proposed ending automatic protections for threatened animal and plant species and limiting habitat safeguards that are meant to shield recovering species from harm. Administration officials said the new rules would advance conservation by simplifying and improving how the landmark Endangered Species Act is...