Wildlife

"The dozen trapped orcas swam free after changing weather conditions cracked the sea ice in northern Canada."

"Inuit people call for Canadian government to send icebreaker to free pod of mammals that are struggling to surface for air."

"A mysterious new virus on the West Coast is believed to be causing fatal brain cancer in raccoons -- an alarming sign given the animals' frequent interactions with humans and the fact that tumors of any type were previously rarely found in the animals."

"Two Americans face federal arraignment next week in Maine on charges that they were part of a smuggling ring that brought narwhal tusks into the United States from Canada for illegal sale."

"The pheasant, once king of Iowa’s nearly half-a-billion-dollar hunting industry, is vanishing from the state. Surveys show that the population in 2012 was the second lowest on record, 81 percent below the average over the past four decades."

"After 25 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to end its program of relocating the mammals, calling the effort a failure. Fishermen complain."

"D-CON kills rats and mice, the label reads. And, according to state and federal officials, it can kill hawks, owls, eagles, foxes, bobcats, mountain lions and other non-targeted wildlife too."

"Snowy owls have left the arctic en masse this year, flocking south to B.C., delighting bird enthusiasts across the province but worrying biologists."

"The Interior Department [Friday] proposed Endangered Species Act protection for the lesser prairie chicken, a grayish-brown grouse whose native grasslands and prairie habitat in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas has declined by about 84 percent."