If you don't live in Kansas, Mike Blair is probably one of the best outdoors and wildlife photographers you've never heard of. Blair, a longtime employee of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, has assembled a touching tribute to his chocolate Labrador retriever, Java, his companion and hunting partner for the past ten years.View it here.
Rob Parker was fishing for shark and barracuda in the Gulf of Mexico about 4 miles off the coast of Venice, FL when a 45-inch barracuda leapt into the boat and clamped onto his 14-year-old daughter's arm. Wira Parker's injuries required 51 stitches. "It was like out of 'Jaws,' it was that scary," said mother Dina Parker. "It was the most terrifying thing I've ever been through. I've never been so scared in my life." Herald Tribune.
A 3-year-old girl playing in her Rye, NY backyard Tuesday evening received non-life-threatening injuries in the second coyote attack on a child in the New York City suburb in four days. On Friday, two coyotes attacked a 6-year-old girl in her front yard. She was treated for scratches and bites at a hospital and released. The Journal-News.
Officials in West Milford, New Jersey have postponed the city's planned Fourth of July fireworks display as the search continues for an aggressive black bear that attacked a hiker and his dog in the park where the holiday event was scheduled to take place. The Daily Record.
The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks announced this week that a mountain lion wearing a GPS collar wandered into the western part of the state from Colorado in March, traveling from north to south. It marked the third confirmed mountain lion in Kansas in the past 106 years, with all three occurring since 2007. Michael Pearce in the Wichita Eagle.
Pamela Gorman, candidate in the Arizona Republican primary along with six others who hope to fill the seat being vacated by 8-termer John Shadegg, has posted an online video of her shooting different firearms, including full- and semi-auto rifles, revolver and auto pistol. Predictably, the lefty blogs are having a collective hissy fit, with one calling Gorman, "Sarah Palin of Sand Land." Politico.
A five-week-old peregrine falcon hatched in a nest atop the 41-story Rhodes Tower in downtown Columbus, Ohio apparently failed in its first—and final—attempt to take flight yesterday, its lifeless body lifted from the sidewalk by a food vendor and placed in a cardboard box. "I saw it fall, and I heard it hit," said one witness. "It came straight down. It wasn't flapping." The Columbus Dispatch.
Wisconsin Chief Forester Paul DeLong might have walked away after he mistook a turkey hen for a gobbler during the spring season. Instead, he turned himself in and paid a $263 fine. “To me, this is an issue of integrity,” he said. “As a hunter, I made a mistake. The right thing to do there is take responsibility for that mistake, which is what I’ve done." Via AP.
Martelle, Iowa bowhunters Marvin Hunter, 61, and Kim Silver, 42, repeated their wedding vows perched in a treestand above fellow archers at the Anamosa Bowhunters Archery Club on Saturday. Naturally, the bride, groom, and everyone in attendance were dressed in appropriate camouflage attire. ‘We joked about getting married in a tree stand, and it evolved into this,’ said Hunter. The Cedar Rapids Gazette.
The New Mexico Game and Fish Department reports a 250-pound male black bear was caught and killed early Monday at the Sandia Mountains picnic ground where a young woman was attacked early Sunday morning. The 20-year-old victim was dragged from her tent, but fought the bear and got away. She underwent surgery Sunday at the University of New Mexico Hospital and is expected to recover fully from her injuries. NMGF.
Wildlife and law enforcement personnel are actively searching for a black bear that attacked a hiker Sunday in the Red River Gorge Geological Area north of Campton, KY, marking the first Commonwealth bear attack in modern times. Timothy L. Scott, 56, was clawed across his chest and suffered bite wounds to both legs. Lexington Herald-Leader.
Testing performed by a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service forensics lab has determined that sausage left on a Clark Fork, Idaho forest trail that killed one dog and sickened two others was laced with carbaryl, a potent insecticide. Investigators with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game believe whoever placed the tainted meat may have been targeting grey wolves. Bonner County Daily Bee.
Robert Miller, a geologist looking for potential possible mining project sites in a remote valley of the Alaska Range mountains, is lucky to have survived two attacks by the same grizzly bear in which he shot multiple times with his .357 Magnum revolver and played dead as the bear gnawed on him. "He should have been packing a more powerful gun," said Rick Sinnott, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist. "You have to be a very good shot or very lucky to stop a brown bear with a .357 Magnum." Via AP.
A 6-year-old Rye, New York girl was hospitalized and treated for non-life-threatening injuries after she was knocked down and repeatedly bitten by a pair of coyotes as she played with other children near her home Friday night. "It seems that she was probably the smallest of the group and the attack seemed to focus solely on her," said Rye Police Commissioner William Connors. The Daily Record and The Journal News.
In a 5-4 decision announced this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the individual right to firearms ownership and possession. McDonald v Chicago.
