Wildlife

The news media became part of the story when a mountain lion took refuge under a Los Angeles-area house.

"After the decimation of his species by poachers, Sudan the rhino finds himself in an extremely precarious position: He is the last male northern white rhinoceros on the planet."

"Federal biologists will consider increasing Endangered Species Act protections for the northern spotted owl, reflecting the bird’s continued slide toward extinction despite steep logging cutbacks in the Northwest. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that there was enough new information in a conservation group’s petition to warrant looking at changing the owl’s listing from threatened to endangered."

"An influential European scientific body said on Wednesday that a group of pesticides believed to contribute to mass deaths of honeybees is probably more damaging to ecosystems than previously thought and questioned whether the substances had a place in sustainable agriculture."

"The neonicotinoid insecticide clothianidin is a likely contributor to monarch butterfly declines in North America, finds new research by a team from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Theirs is the first report of neonicotinoids affecting monarchs or any other butterflies."

"Ever since a serpent enticed Eve to munch on that forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, relations between humans and snakes have been at best strained. But at least the gullible Eve and her mate had to cope with just the one snake. In South Florida, wildlife officials have struggled for years with tens of thousands of the creatures: specifically, a species known as the Burmese python, an interloper from Southeast Asia that has taken up what looks like permanent residence in Everglades National Park and other areas of the state."

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to list species of Appalachian crayfish as endangered, with potential consequences for the struggling eastern Kentucky mining industry."

"The only resident group of whales in the Gulf of Mexico, a population numbering fewer than 50 animals off the Florida panhandle, has moved one step closer to possible federal protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act."

"Wildlife advocates are suing the Obama administration to prevent the killing of protected grizzly bears that come into conflict with sportsmen over elk they kill or wound during annual hunts in northwest Wyoming."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Thursday it was unlikely to approve new or expanded uses of certain pesticides while it evaluates the risks they may pose to honey bees."