Parker made Elvis, Elvis gave Priscilla Presley a voice, & Priscilla Presley stood up for the horses MEMPHIS, Tennessee––The clock appears to have just about run out on efforts to pass the Prevent All Soring Tactics Act, or PAST Act, in the 117th Congress. Priscilla Presley, 77, retired actress and former wife of the late […]
COVID-19: speedboat toll on manatees soars, but large land mammals get a break
Trump administration downlisted manatees to “threatened” status before body count doubled ST. PETERSBURG, Florida; DAVIS, California––More manatees, but fewer large land mammals, appear to have been hit by motor vehicles during the first five months of COVID-19 lockdowns, studies from four states show. The bad news for manatees, reported by the Florida Fish & Wildlife […]
Noted in passing: “Turtle God” & rhino, elephant, & lion advocates
Victims of cancer, assassins, & two killed by the species they loved “Turtle God” Peter Pritchard, 76, died in hospice care on February 26, 2020. Known as “the Turtle God,” recalled longtime Tampa Times environmental reporter Craig Pittman, Pritchard at his home in Oviedo, Florida kept what Pittman believed to be “the largest private collection […]
Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther
by Craig Pittman Hanover Square Press, 2020. 336 pages. Hardcover, Kindle, and MP3 CD editions available from all major online booksellers. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther could in many ways be called a sequel to longtime Tampa Bay Times environmental reporter Craig Pittman’s previous four […]
Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission acts against cruelty to fish
Landing Goliath groupers still off limits & land-based shark fishing to be restricted FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida––Concern over cruelty to fish dominated the April 25-26, 2018 meeting of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, including a spirited defense of Goliath groupers led by Rabbi Ed Rosenthal, the self-proclaimed “Scuby Jew” who serves as faculty […]
Florida: Bashing the brains out of iguanas as alleged illegal aliens
Iguanas were in Florida first––by 16 million years FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida––Bashing or shooting the brains out of iguanas essentially for the hell of it would be illegal almost anywhere if done to pets. Braining iguanas in the name of research, however, brought University of Florida wildlife biologist and research coordinator Jenny Ketterlin and 14 […]
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 […]
Snooty, 69, last Florida manatee without propeller scars, drowns in tank
Oldest manatee on record was second born in captivity BRADENTON, Florida––Snooty, 69, both the oldest Florida manatee on record and the only Florida manatee on record who lacked scars from boat propellers, drowned on July 22, 2017 at the South Florida Aquarium in Bradenton, his almost lifelong home. Snooty had two scars on his […]
Favor to speedboaters: Trump administration downlists manatees
But manatees may benefit from global warming HOMOSASSA SPRINGS, Florida––After a record 104 Florida manatees were killed by speeding boaters in 2016, one might almost expect the March 30, 2017 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announcement that Florida manatees are no longer officially endangered to be followed by a shout of “April Fool!” But […]
Will more boat kills than ever stop proposal to ease manatee safeguards?
Speeding boaters kill most since 2009, with a month of 2016 left to count MIAMI, Florida––Florida boaters have thus far in 2016 killed a record 98 West Indian manatees, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed on December 2, 2016, with almost a month left in the year. The previous record toll from boats […]