At least 17 fires in 170 years have swept the same canyons, but none before as big or fast-moving FRENCH GULCH, California––The Carr Fire, called a “wildfire tornado” by Cal Fire officials as it burned with enough intensity to create its own weather system, began about five miles where ANIMALS 24-7 social media editor Beth Clifton […]
Naming Nature: The clash between instinct & science
by Carol Kaesuk Yoon W.W. Norton & Co. (500 5th Ave., New York, NY 10110), 2009. 344 pages, hardcover. $27.95. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Though you may never have heard of either “taxonomy” or “cladistics,” the two central concepts in Carol Kaesuk Yoon’s 2009 opus Naming Nature, it remains a fascinating read for […]
Hurricane Harvey hits hunters & fishers harder than wildlife
Shrimp, sea turtles, “sport fish,” teal & doves all get a break HOUSTON, Texas––As hard as Hurricane Harvey hit humans, pets, livestock, and some of the most vulnerable wildlife along the Gulf Coast of Texas and adjacent part of Louisiana, especially big birds who could not escape from the wind, early damage assessments indicate that […]
Hurricane Irma: survival stories from 27 zoos & sanctuaries
No losses of zoo & sanctuary animals reported! (See also Hurricane Irma: first reports on animals in the Caribbean islands, Hurricane Irma: Hemingway cats & dolphin rescuer Rick Trout rode it out in the Keys , and Hurricane Irma: how wildlife endured) Current USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service licensing data indicates that at least 217 […]
Hurricane Irma: how wildlife endured
Any animals who could escape or hide did (See also Hurricane Irma: first reports on animals in the Caribbean islands, Hurricane Irma: Hemingway cats & dolphin rescuer Rick Trout rode it out in the Keys , and Hurricane Irma: survival stories from 24 zoos & sanctuaries .) Devastating as Hurricane Irma was to Caribbean habitat from Barbuda to the […]
Tropical Storm Harvey: helping animals caught in harm’s way
Harvey the Wallbanger busts some animals out of confinement, traps others in need of rescue (See also Hurricane Harvey: who is doing what for animals?, Brian Davies puts $49,562 toward Harvey animal rescue, challenges others to match it and Which Hurricane Harvey animal relief charity took the Labor Day weekend off? More updates will follow as quickly as possible.) […]
Snehal Bhatt, “The Cobra Girl of Gujarat,” dies at 55
Made famous by The Snake Wranglers Snehal Bhatt, 55, made famous worldwide as “The Cobra Girl of Gujarat” by the second episode of the National Geographic reality television series The Snake Wranglers, died in her sleep from a heart attack in the early morning hours of January 23, 2017 at her home in Vadodara, Gujarat, […]
What’s on the menu? Mice & rats, frozen or live
South African bust sheds light on a dirty business KLOOF, South Africa––Six hundred dead rodents plus dying rats, rabbits and mice, left unfed for days, on December 20, 2016 brought home to the Kloof & Highway SPCA branch of the National SPCA of South Africa what spokesperson Sue Noakes termed “the stark reality of […]
Who eats the most Floridians––pythons, pit bulls, bears, or alligators?
Feral species challenge understanding of predator/prey relationships MIAMI––Florida hosts 1.3 million alligators, about a quarter of a million pit bulls, a few billion mosquitoes, and––according to promotional material for the 2016 Python Challenge Burmese Python Removal Competition––perhaps 100,000 pythons, the species officially deemed most in need of killing after the first Florida bear hunt […]
Screaming for the dragon slayer
by Merritt Clifton Chained to fast-falling hunting license sales, with agency revenue and careers at stake, wildlife managers from Florida to Texas are looking toward modestly rising interest in alligator hunting for the miracle that might save them from a fate worse than death––or at least from having to cater chiefly to non-hunting, non-trapping, non-fishing clientele. […]