Pets & Wildlife

A snowy owl perches on the top of a chimney of a home in Cypress, Calif., on Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 27, 2022, as bird watchers and photographers gather on the street below to see the very unusual sight. A snowy owl, certainly not native to Southern California, has made an appearance in a residential Cypress neighborhood, drawing avid ornithologists and curious bird gawkers alike.

Real snowbird in Southern California? Snowy owl to be exact

December 30, 2022, 8:08am Life

Snowbirds are a common sight in Southern California in wintertime — except when they’re actually a bird. A snowy owl to be exact. Read story

A bull elk bugles during rutting season in 2010 in Estes Park, Colo.

Elk calves in southwest Colorado are struggling

December 30, 2022, 6:52am Pets & Wildlife

Colorado wildlife managers are mobilizing to reverse a decline of elk in the southwestern quarter of the state by controlling hunting and protecting wild habitat, aiming for increased calf survival amid intensifying droughts and development. Read story

Corey Kitzmann of Davenport, Iowa, owns the new Minnesota muskie release record. He caught this 57 1/4 inch fish while on Lake Vermilion on Aug. 6, 2019.

Minn. wants to change fish record-keeping

December 30, 2022, 6:52am Pets & Wildlife

People are fascinated by big fish, and the Department of Natural Resources, like other conservation agencies nationwide, keeps a list of “record’’ fish caught in Minnesota — a program that requires anglers to tell the truth about the weight and/or length of their catches, a whopper of an expectation. Read story

A Whale Watch Week volunteer looks for gray whales with binoculars from the Whale Watch Center on Wednesday in Depoe Bay, Ore.

Whale Watch Week returns to Oregon in-person after pandemic

December 28, 2022, 4:51pm Latest News

Whale Watch Week in Oregon returned in-person for the first time since the pandemic on Wednesday, drawing visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of the annual gray whale migration to the state’s coastline. Read story

Firefighters answer ‘unique call for help’: cow stuck in Tenino creek

December 25, 2022, 6:05am Life

The crew at South Thurston Fire & EMS started Tuesday morning off with what they called “a unique call for help.” Read story

Canadian polar bears near ‘bear capital’ dying at fast rate

FILE - A male polar bear walks along the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, Aug. 23, 2010. Polar bears in Canada's Western Hudson Bay -- on the southern edge of the Arctic -- are continuing to die in high numbers, a new government survey released Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, found.

December 23, 2022, 8:14am Life

Polar bears in Canada’s Western Hudson Bay — on the southern edge of the Arctic — are continuing to die in high numbers, a new government survey of the land carnivore has found. Females and bear cubs are having an especially hard time. Read story

Keep hummingbird feeders thawed as temperatures dip in Northwest

Experts say to keep the nectar flowing in your hummingbird feeders during freezing temperatures.

December 23, 2022, 6:05am Clark County Life

The cold snap that started Wednesday night and scrambled so many people’s Christmas travel plans also messed up the bar-crawl progress of local hummingbirds. They normally spend the day flitting from feeder to feeder (and, when they’re blooming, flower to flower). Read story