Wildlife

NOAA is considering the Georgia Aquarium's proposal to import 18 beluga whales from the Sea of Okhotsk for display and breeding at aquariums.

"Bivouacking with sheep high in the mountains around Sun Valley, Idaho, field technicians with the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife are gaining deeper insights into strategies they can use to keep wolves at bay without shooting them."

"Officials in Temple Terrace, Fla., are cautioning residents that heavy rains have brought out the toxic, invasive Bufo marinus toad, a huge amphibian that secretes a toxin powerful enough to kill unsuspecting dogs, cats and other animals."

"British scientists have shot down a study on declining honeybee populations that triggered a French ban on a pesticide made by Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta."

"A team of biologists has just announced the first documented case of bird-to-bird malaria transmission in Alaska. Writing in the journal PLOS ONE, they've shown that this frequently fatal avian illness, which is normally associated with the tropics and temperate areas, may be expanding its range. Fortunately, avian malaria doesn't affect humans, co-author Ravinder Sehgal of San Francisco State University said, but the findings are particularly significant from a bird conservation as well as a climate change standpoint."

"BLOOMING GROVE -- On one side of a gravel road in Navarro County, an overgrazed pasture has been cropped to the dirt. Across the road, a surviving patch of Blackland Prairie that has been reseeded with native grasses is covered with a cornucopia of 170 plant species that together comprise prime habitat for bobwhite quail -- if only they could get there."