The mountain lion reported by multiple witnesses around Brown County Ohio in recent days is apparently the same one that escaped from its Mount Orab owner about a month ago. Sheriff Dwayne Wenninger said the owner, who purchased the animal at an Ohio flea market, indicated the animal had become aggressive and he'd "planned to dispose of it." Maysville Ledger-Independent.
A prominent natural sandstone arch at the Valley of Fire State Park near Las Vegas in southern Nevada collapsed last week, evidently succumbing to gravity and nature. Rangers said it is unclear exactly when the arch fell, adding there was no evidence of vandalism. Via AP.
Authorities at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla say a minimum security inmate on a work crew used a box cutter to kill a deer that became entangled in fencing, subsequently field-dressing the animal and hiding about 15 pounds of fresh venison in the farm's break room. The inmate, who was identified as a butcher prior to his incarceration, has lost his work crew privileges. Tenderloin anyone? Via AP.
A backpacker shot and killed a grizzly bear Friday night in Alaska's Denali National Park and Preserve, the first such incident within the park's original borders in decades and also the first since a February change in federal laws allowed licensed visitors to carry loaded guns in national parks for personal protection. Fairbanks News Miner.
Mark Henckel, one of the West's most talented and respected hunting, fishing and conservation writers, died Saturday of a heart attack at his home in Park City, Mont. He was 59. Henckel not only excelled as an outdoors communicator, but was also an integral part of the Billings Gazette newsroom since 1972, an author of hunting and children's books and a master of self-deprecating humor writing. Mark was my treasured personal friend and associate for more than 25 years and will be greatly missed by many readers and fellow writers. The Billings Gazette.
On Friday, the state of Alaska filed action against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, seeking a court order allowing it to go ahead with wolf control inside the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge on Unimak Island. Earlier in the week, the FWS cautioned the state that killing wolves without a special use permit would be considered "a trespass on the refuge" and immediately referred to the U.S. attorney. Via AP.
A mushroom hunter from Cedar Rapids, Iowa who suffered multiple broken ribs and four shattered vertebra when a falling hickory tree pinned him to the ground says he'll head to the woods in search of morels again, but not when the wind is blowing. “Lying under that tree, I had time to do some praying and soul searching," said Denis Berns, 51. "I am going to go to church and do some other different things.” Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Retired Navy officer John W. Finn, who received the Medal of Honor for his bravery during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Thursday at the Veterans Home of California in Chula Vista. At 100, Finn was the oldest surviving recipient of the nation's highest medal for valor and the only one living among those who received the U.S. Medal of Honor for actions taken on Dec. 7, 1941. Never forget. San Diego Union-Tribune.
While it's anything but an original idea, an Oklahoma entrepreneur is launching an effort to create a national deer-hunting competition—BASS for deer hunters, if you will—utilizing rifle scopes that record photos when blanks are fired at animals. According to Tulsa World outdoors writer Kelly Bostian, hunting ranch manager Greg Koch of Broken Arrow is taking his new organization, American Whitetail Authority, on tour with a flashy custom RV to find "America's 40 best deer hunters." Can't we just go hunting, please?
A second fine exceeding $200,000 has been handed down in the case of a South Carolina hunting preserve owner who pleaded guilty in 2008 of illegally transporting 54 whitetail from Ohio. In Ohio federal court yesterday, James Schaffer was ordered to pay $235,000 for violations of the Lacey Act. In 2009, he paid $250,000 in state fines and penalties. Charleston Post and Courier.
Riley, a yellow Labrador retriever currently being treated at the University of Tennessee Veterinary School for numerous injuries sustained after being shot and hit by a vehicle in Washington County, has become so popular with dog lovers that he has 3,350 "friends" on the online social networking site, Facebook. The Labrador rescue group, Labs4Rescue, is paying for the dog's medical treatment. WBIR reports.
After a three-day management effort to remove invasive species from a Papago Park pond near the entrance of the Phoenix Zoo, biologists are still in disbelief at the capture of the largest turtle in the history of the program: a 62-pound alligator snapping turtle and native of the southeastern U.S. Arizona Game & Fish Dept. press release.
Reacting to the increasing number of soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan who were applying camouflage paint to their M4 or M16 rifles, the Army has issued specific guidelines and patterns for troops to use that won't interfere with performance of weapons or optics. "It just shows soldiers how you tape your weapon up before you go to spray it," said said Col. Douglas A. Tamilio, project manager for Soldier Weapons. "We make sure we don't reduce the reliability of our weapons system." Army News Service.
Authorities in Enigma, GA report that an 82-year-old man died after being bitten several times by a rattlesnake that was inside a lawnmower he was repairing. Berrien County Sheriff Lt. Larry Tabor says he first thought Eddie Lee Dorminey died of a heart attack, but upon investigation he found a rattlesnake wrapped on the lawnmower pulley and then saw several puncture wounds on the man's wrist. Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Four northern Ohio teens were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing, criminal damage and unlawful possession of a dangerous ordnance for placing explosive devices inside portable outhouses at a Turtle Bay construction site. Using a .22 cal. rifle, members of the Lorain County Bomb Squad detonated a fizzing homemade bomb in a portable toilet Monday, resulting in at least one officer getting plastered with the privy's smelly contents. The Sandusky Register.
