Wildlife

"State employees began an aerial wolf hunt on the Yukon border on Tuesday in what officials describe as an effort to preserve caribou for shooting by hunters."

They call it "wolf jail." Efforts to reintroduce the Mexican gray wolf to a New Mexico border area depend on whether the wolves play by the rules.

"For 14 years, since they first reported that a disturbing proportion of deaths among rescued California sea lions were caused by metastatic cancer, researchers have been trying to pinpoint the source of the illness."

"Sylvatic plague -- a close cousin of the dreaded disease that killed one-third of all European residents in the six years between 1347 and 1353 -- persists in rodents in the American West even when the disease does not erupt into epidemic form, new research demonstrates."

The so-far unfounded fears of a few that President Obama will restrict gun sales are boosting sales as gun enthusiasts stockpile. One result: a boost in state funds for fish and wildlife restoration. Under the Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937, a federal tax on guns and ammo is set aside for this purpose.