Animal News

Josh Bransford, Idaho’s best-known wolf trapper, has violated no state laws, according to the Department of Fish and Game. But if that’s all Fish and Game will say for the record, it’s time someone filled in the blanks. Bransford is the kind of trapper who gives his activity — and his state — a black eye.

Link: Idaho Statesman

With sick and dead dolphins turning up along Louisiana's coast, federal regulators are curbing an oil and natural gas exploration company from using seismic equipment that sends out underwater pulses known to disturb marine mammals. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has told Global Geophysical Services Inc. to not conduct deep-penetration seismic surveys until May, when the bottlenose dolphin calving season ends. The agency says the surveys are done with air-guns that the emit sounds that could disrupt mother and calf bonding and mask "important acoustic cues."

Link: Yahoo! News

Charla Nash has two glass eyes. They replaced her real eyes, which were ripped out by a chimpanzee named Travis in a brutal attack Feb. 16, 2009, in Stamford, Conn. Why does this matter to Missourians? Travis was born in Festus, on a chimp sanctuary that still exists. He was purchased for $50,000 by a Stamford couple, Sandra and Jerome Herold, when he was three days old. He had worked in commercials for Coca-Cola and Old Navy before he attacked Ms. Nash, a friend of the Herolds, tearing off most of her face and hands. Missouri didn't require his owners to obtain a permit. Missouri still has no laws against owning chimps or other dangerous primates.

Link: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A Northern California hiker says he is lucky to be alive after he was attacked by a mountain lion — and saved by a bear, the Paradise Post reports. Robert Biggs, 69, of Paradise, tells his hometown paper that he had stumbled upon a mother bear, a yearling and a newborn cub while hiking Monday above Whiskey Flats.

Link: USA Today

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials are battling an invasive species in the Keys they thought they got rid of years ago: Gambian rats — giant rodents the size of cats. The outbreak started around 2000, when a Keys resident who breed the 9-pound rats released 6 or 7, according to FWC. Ten years ago, they were often imported from their native Africa as pets until they were banned after a Monkey Pox outbreak in 2003.

Link: Huffington Post

Corvallis parks officials have decided that solving flooding caused by beavers at a local park will take a little engineering of their own. The Gazette-Times reports that for years beavers have caused flooding at the softball fields at Sunset Park from damming the Dunawi Creek. But now parks officials are planning to install pipes to keep the water in ponds at a manageable level.

Link: kgw.com

The dinosaurs needed to go extinct for the mammals, and humans, to arise. At least that's what researchers have been thinking for decades. But a new study indicates that at least one group of ancient mammals was already expanding 20 million years before the dinosaurs were wiped from the Earth. Analysis of ancient mammal teeth indicates they were able to take off not because dinosaur die-off made way for them, but because they discovered a new food source that others weren't consuming.

Link: LiveScience.com

Scientists have gotten their hands dirty in the name of closer study of snow leopards, one of the planet's most endangered big cats. Because it's notoriously difficult to get their hands on the elusive cats to learn about their movements and habits, the researchers had to settle for the next best thing: their poop. Studying their feces not only allows for DNA analysis, but also offers a glimpse of what the animals like to eat.

Link: LiveScience.com