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Anita had not been in Polar Zoo in about 2 months. When she returned the chance to film her first meeting in a long time with the wolves she spent a long time socializing from 16th of May 2008.

Woman won online essay contest and popular voteA Bay Area woman has just claimed an award even she didn't expect: Extreme Huntress of 2012. Think of it as the "Miss America" of the hunting community. It's a big deal. Concord resident Tiffany Brewer recently won the nationwide contest, sponsored by Tahoe Films and Tom Opre, host of the NBC Sports outdoors show "Eye of the Hunter." Entrants had to submit a 500-word essay on why they considered themselves the Extreme Huntress. Ten finalists were chosen based on their essays, then it was up to popular online vote to determine the...

I am jogging across the thick sea ice as fast as my chunky rubber boots and oversize parka will allow, feeling like the Michelin Man version of the sleek, naked sprinter in the Inuit film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. Sloshing through pools of turquoise meltwater, I aim toward a massive, shiny black lump bobbing 300 metres away – a bowhead whale in a hole it smashed open from beneath – through 60 centimetres of ice – with the distinctive bump on the top of its skull. A closer look at the waters off Igloolik Blowing geysers of mist into the...

Just looking at new gun cleaners, anyone ever use Gunzilla ?

How will we get around in the post-apocalypse? One of the irritating things about many post-apocalyptic movies in TV shows is that everyone drives everywhere, with little thought about alternative modes of transportation. But how will we get around after armageddon? We weigh the post-apocalyptic transit options. Hopefully, down the line, we'd see groups of people teaming up to bring back trains, but in terms of personal transit in the immediate post-apocalypse, here are a few options: Cars: Ah, the noble car, transit mode of choice in far too many post-apocalyptic fictions. For some people, cars might be a logical...

Erika Faulk and her cousin, Gale Robinson, could have met up for a weekend spa retreat or planned a shopping excursion, but the two middle-aged, suburban moms opted for weekend learning to shoot guns, build campfires and track deer deep in the Ocala National Forest. Faulk, Robinson and about 100 other women were taking part in a three-day workshop called 'Becoming an Outdoors-Woman'. The program began two decades ago in Wisconsin and has spread to 40 states and Canada as a way to teach women the skills needed to enjoy outdoor activities.

I'm looking for another rifle. I want this one for if the fecal matter hits the oscillating unit, you know basic target shooting at the club, *cough*. Should be high caliber but not ridiculous. I don't want to spend ridiculous dollars for something that looks great but is inferior. It must be semi-auto, not one shot. I can't think of a better place to ask for opinions. Makers, calibers and model suggestions welcome.

This video might make you want to take cover at the end.

SHENANGO TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A woman in Shenango Township said she has seen a raccoon with its face stuck inside a jar for four days. Tammy Yakubic said she is worried that if it doesn't get help soon, the raccoon will die. Yakubic called the Pennsylvania Game Commission, but the animal is up too high in a tree for it to intervene. "Their hands were tied, unless the animals would actually come down to the ground, which he has not. I mean, this is going on four days now, so I didn't know what else to do," Yakubic said.

Chagas, a disease that can lead to life-threatening heart and digestive disorders, is in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, seven cases have been diagnosed in Arizona and California. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin said the bugs that cause the disease, the Triatomid or "kissing bug," were already discovered in 11 southern and central Texas counties.

The 40th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race came to an end earlier this week in Nome, Alaska. Dallas Seavey, 25, bested both his father and his grandfather with his team of nine dogs, becoming the youngest musher ever to win the nearly 1,000-mile race across the Alaskan wilderness. His winnings included $50,000 and a new truck. Gathered here are images from the Iditarod and other events from around the globe.(29 photos total)

Just a quick non-political break.

LONGWOOD, Fla., -- Wildlife officials in Florida said a woman walking her dog was bitten on the rear end by a black bear. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Joy Hill said the woman was walking her dog at an apartment complex on Sable Drive in Longwood around 7 a.m. Friday when the bear attacked, the Orlando Sentinel reported Friday. The woman sustained four puncture wounds to her rear end and was taken to Florida Hospital Altamonte for treatment, Hill said. Hill said wildlife officers are setting traps for the bear, which they plan to euthanize.

What places are calling your name for 2012? Whatever your mood, Traveler magazine has a recommendation for you—from the romantic hills of Croatia to the perfect beach in Thailand.

Now on Fox. Mr. Donnie Dann of the Bird Conservation Network, is on, demanding that the EPA ban lead ammunition as it "is the most toxic substance on the planet and is poisoning America." A guy from the National Shooting Sports Foundation is trying to say that the EPA is, by law, banned from regulating lead in ammunition, but Mr. Dann, doing a great Doctor Emmett Brown imitation, won't have any of it. He displays the 1000 yard, fried, seeing things the rest of us can't see, stare so typical of the deranged left. His group has brought suit to...

Skydiving daredevil Felix Baumgartner is more than halfway toward his goal of setting a world record for the highest jump. Baumgartner lifted off Thursday for a test jump from Roswell, N.M., aboard a 100-foot helium balloon. He rode inside a pressurized capsule to 71,581 feet — 13.6 miles — and then jumped. He parachuted to a safe landing, according to project spokeswoman Trish Medalen. He's aiming for nearly 23 miles this summer. The record is 19.5 miles. "The view is amazing, way better than I thought," Baumgartner said after the practice jump, in remarks provided by his representatives. Thursday's rehearsal...

El Caminito del Rey (English: The King's little pathway) is a walkway or via ferrata, now fallen into disrepair, pinned along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, near Álora in the district of Málaga, Spain. The name is often shortened to Camino del Rey. In 1901 it became obvious that workers at the hydroelectric power plants at Chorro Falls and Gaitanejo Falls needed a walkway to cross between the falls, to provide for transport of materials, and for the inspection and maintenance of the channel. Construction of the walkway took four years and it was finished...

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit from conservation groups that want to block wolf hunts that have killed more than 500 of the predators across the Northern Rockies in recent months. The ruling from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Congress had the right to intervene when it stripped protections from wolves last spring. Lawmakers stepped in after court rulings kept wolves on the endangered list for years after they reached recovery goals. Wildlife advocates claimed in their lawsuit that Congress violated the separation of powers by...

Two sons of US property mogul Donald Trump have come under fire after pictures emerged of them posing with the corpses of African animals during a hunting trip. Donald Junior and Eric Trump spent a week in the Zimbabwean bush in August 2010, and are pictured standing next to trophy kills of a Cape buffalo, a waterbuck, a leopard, a civet cat, a crocodile and a kudu.

When the moon hits your eye using a Canon Rebel XTi DSLR, this is what you get. Did you see the moon rise this past weekend? It was full, and gorgeous, and at the right angle - huge. Case in point: this photo of Mount Hamilton taken by photographer Rick Baldridge. He says he snapped the photo Saturday night at 6:08 p.m. near the San Jose airport. Baldridge says he used a DOS-based program called SKYMAP to pinpoint the exact location he needed to get the moon over the Lick Observatory. After he performed what seems to us to be...

What did Velociraptor have for dinner? Raptor skeleton discovered with bones in its gut If you lie awake at night wondering Velociraptor's favorite food was (and whether it tastes much like human flesh), you're in luck. For the first time, a Velociraptor skeleton has been observed with its last supper still filling its guts, and this little guy feasted on long-dead pterosaur. Paleontologist David Hone has published a new paper describing his findings in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, but for those who don't want to breach the paywall, he's also explaining them on his blog. This especially well preserved specimen was...

A new high-speed railway in northern Sweden has already claimed the lives of 200 reindeer since it opened three months ago, forcing the farm owner to move to safer pastures. The train line, which runs between Umeå and Lycksele, has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of reindeer over the last three months, when the unfortunate animals have wandered onto the tracks. Finding a dead reindeer or one that is injured and needs to be euthanized is a daily occurrence for reindeer owner, Per-Mikael Jonsson, who is forced to put down many injured reindeer fearing that their internal damages...

Snuggling in a blue sleeping bag, Margaret Page and her cat survived 3 1/2 weeks in a rugged New Mexico national forest, even though temperatures dropped below freezing nearly every night. Family members reported her missing Feb 14. But for various reasons, authorities didn't start searching for her until this week. The 41-year-old Page, who has a history of mental illness, was found Wednesday emaciated and malnourished but well-hydrated. Relying on a creek for drinking water, Page and her cat named Miya lived on just a handful of supplies, rescue workers said Friday. The nearest town — tiny Dusty, N.M....

Teacher Reels in a Monster Marlin(Cannot be posted at FR)

It may come as a surprise to some (and boy, do I feel like a cantankerous old geezer for saying this,) but firearms are a mature technology. We all have to be aware that just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should” Following the invention of the double column magazine by Deudonne Saive, there really haven’t been a whole lot of original ideas coming out of the handgun industry for the last 75 years. Yes, I know, underqualified hacks like me will tell you all about the latest whizbang doodad from SHOT show, but in comparison to...

I was at a birthday party yesterday in Cromwell, CT. This hawk was kind enough to sit and pose for some pictures.Hope you enjoy.

Some bees love a good adventure while others prefer to hang out at the hive, and a new analysis of bee brains suggests some of the same chemicals that affect human personality could explain why. Honey bees are known to have a structured society in which different bees serve different tasks — some work as nurses while others forage for food, for example. But within these ranks, it appears that bees have different personalities, said the study in the journal Science that examined the difference between nest scouts that forage for new food sources and those that do not. ³There...

In Roman mythology, the master of the hunt was the goddess Diana. She was praised for her strength, athletic grace, beauty, and hunting skills. In Freemasonry, she was a symbol of sensibility and imagination, of poets and artists. Shrines were erected in her honor; stags followed her wherever she went; she ruled the forest and the moon. I like to think that Diana’s influence has never entirely waned, that hunting was never just about men getting together in the woods. Hunting is for all of us, an extension of our being both humans and animals—our first work and craft, one...

Just a reminder, Daylight Savings Time for 2012 starts March 11. Turn your clocks ahead 1 hour tonight.

Coast guards in Italy have used helicopters to rescue the crew of a cargo ship after it ran aground on a reef off Sicily in stormy seas. All 19 crew members were ferried to shore by helicopters after the captain of the Gelso M gave the order to abandon ship. ... Rescue service sources quoted by the agency suggested that, given the weather conditions, the captain had been sailing too close to the coast. The incident comes two months after the cruise ship Costa Concordia hit rocks off the island of Giglio on Italy's west coast, capsizing with the loss...

AMELIA, Ohio - When emergency workers found Carol Forste's body in Ohio after Friday’s tornado, they also came across one of her dearest possessions, her dog, still at her side. The storm that killed his owner and best friend spared the dog's life, even as it crushed his spirit. Kush, Forste's pit bull survived Friday's storm. Doctors at All Creatures Animal Hospital in Amelia, say it will take weeks for Kush to truly heal. One look into his eyes and you can see he is still shocked and traumatized from Friday's tornado. "Kush would not leave her deceased body's side...stood...

"The Undefeated," a documentary about former Alaskan governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin drawn from her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life," seems to have been made as a piece of political promotion for the 2012 presidential race. But before "The Undefeated" premiered in a tiny number of theaters, Palin announced that she would not run. The film did not do well, either financially or critically. Now it has found a secondary purpose — running on Reelz Channel as an answer to the much-touted HBO film "Game Change." Where "Game Change" portrays Palin as a woman professionally unqualified and personally...

Conventional wisdom isn't always based on common sense, and sometimes isn't even based on real data, especially when it comes to animals of mythological proportions like bears. BYU wildlife biologist Tom Smith wants to change that. A new study suggests that one of the most commonly suggested deterrents against bears in the wild — guns — actually won't protect people any better than not using a gun. "It really isn't about the kind of gun you carry,” he said. “It's about how you carry yourself. We need to respect an animal that could potentially take our lives." [Snip] This...

A massive solar storm may spark an intense northern lights display for skywatchers at high latitudes tonight and Thursday (March 8) as a wave of charged particles reach the planet. Two huge solar flares erupted from the sun late Tuesday (March 6), triggering one of the most powerful solar storms in more than five years. The solar tempest is expected to intensify aurora displays (also known as the northern and southern lights) on Earth, according to space weather scientist Joseph Kunches, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). One of the big sun flares unleashed a cloud of solar...

It turns out sawfish actually wield their snouts like chainsaw-toting madmen On second thought, that's not entirely accurate. Comparing a sawfish to a "madman" might give you the impression that these cousins of stingrays are unruly or careless when it comes to dispatching prey with their serrated snouts, when, in actuality, recent evidence suggests the exact opposite to be the case. Truth be told, sawfish are a lot more like chainsaw-toting surgeons. This observation was made by University of Queensland Biologist Barbara Wueringer, who used chunks of mullet and tuna meat to observe the predatory behavior of juvenile Pristis microdon...

No one was reported hurt, so you can relax and watch these crazy videos of a ginormous, late-afternoon, wet avalanche at St. Francois-Longchamps, France, in the Savoie, destroying a quad chairlift. Some 70 people were on the lift and, incredibly, not one was injured and all were evacuated within two and a half hours.

It's a given in bird and critter photography that closer is always better but a big lens will work too.This is a Sigma 400mm f5.6 in Minolta A mount. In this pic it's on my Minolta Maxxum XTsi but it also fits my Sony. On the Sony it is equivalent to 600mm.This lens was made in the mid 80s but can pass for new, not a blemish on it anywhere.

Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 5 ~ Feb. 24, 2012 ~ Selling Your Price & Joy 41 posts last week – we’re approaching planning speed...I can guarantee you every boat will sell. We just don’t know when, and for how much... If you aren’t using your boat at least once a month (during boating season), sell it! (When you get the boating itch again, you can always buy another boat.) The best way to sell a boat is to pretend it isn't for sale - clean it, fix it, use it, and then be pleasantly surprised when it sells....

Due to the mild/non-existent winter we experienced this year, plants are blooming sooner. Here are a few of mine: Apple tree Citrus tree Kiwi Strawberries Buds on Mulberry tree Peach blossoms Japanese Loquat (finally bearing fruit!)

I believe this will be my final classic video with scenic views also background sound of a childhood place (Chepachet River) in Chepachet R.I.! Thanks for viewing my humble videos that in my understanding may reach young children and the older viewers!

Found: Ancient Warrior's Helmet, Owner Unknown A Greek bronze helmet, covered with gold leaf and decorated with snakes, lions and a peacock's tail (or palmette), has been discovered in the waters of Haifa Bay in Israel. But how this helmet ended up at the bottom of the bay is a mystery. The helmet dates back around 2,600 years and likely belonged to a wealthy Greek mercenary who took part in a series of wars, immortalized in the Bible, which ravaged the region at that time. Archaeologists believe that he likely fought for an Egyptian pharaoh named Necho II. Dredging discovery...

Residents in northern Namibia, on the southwest coast of Africa, have reported being terrorized by a bizarre dog-pig hybrid creature. The animal is said to be mostly white and unlike anything the villagers have ever seen, with a doglike head and the broad, round, nearly hairless back and shoulders of a giant pig. The beast was spotted chasing and attacking dogs, goats and other domestic animals in this arid region not far from the Kalahari desert. As often happens when rumors of monsters spread in rural areas around the world, some locals have taken extra safety precautions, such as traveling...

To save the imperiled spotted owl, the Obama administration is moving forward with a controversial plan to shoot barred owls, a rival bird that has shoved its smaller cousin aside. The plan is the latest federal attempt to protect the northern spotted owl, the passive, one-pound bird that sparked an epic battle over logging in the Pacific Northwest two decades ago. The government set aside millions of acres of forest to protect the owl, but the bird’s population continues to decline — a 40 percent slide in 25 years. A plan announced Tuesday would designate habitat considered critical for the...

Lifeguards warn couples before turning them over to cops; eyewitness say fully-clothed men denied access to beachDubai’s beach guards say part of their job has now become to issue daily warnings to tourists and visitors on the beach who get intimate in public. Lifeguards these days are doing multiple jobs at the same time and that includes not just rescuing people from drowning but also saving them from a possible arrest. “Many tourists unaware of local laws engage in some serious huddling and kissing on the beach and we have been on constant lookout, and of course warning them,” said...

Three women identified by their lawyers as lesbians were arraigned yesterday on a hate crime charge for allegedly beating a gay man at the Forest Hills T station in an unusual case that experts say exposes the law’s flawed logic. (Victim or Perp?)

Congrats on a new world champion from the Red River event just a minute ago. World champion and a cool $500,000 to go with it.

Imagine a planet where jellyfish rule the seas, giant rodents roam the mountains and swarms of insects blur everything in sight. It may sound far-fetched, but enough global warming is likely to change the distribution of wildlife on Earth. While species that are under threat, such as the polar bear, seem to get all the attention, others are beginning to thrive like never before. In the past three months, new studies have been published about killer whales, wandering albatross and trumpeter swans—all of which appear to be benefiting from climate change. Melting ice is turning the Arctic Sea into a...

Playing with Windows Movie Maker, the version in Win7. All these shots are with my Sony A200, Vilano Beach, St. Augustine.

With a police officer wounded and the presidential palace breached, the Pakistani capital has launched a fresh offensive against a uniquely feared enemy in the Muslim country, the city’s ever expanding population of wild boar. Each night, packs of the hairy beasts emerge from Islamabad’s river beds, parks and scrubland to rifle through the overflowing rubbish bins of its mostly wealthy residents and growing number of restaurants. City authorities are laying poison and have announced free hunting permits to cull the wild pigs’ numbers. But to make sure residents don’t get caught in the crossfire, they only allow shotguns. There...

Weekly FR Boating Thread ~ Vol. 5 ~ Feb. 24, 2012 ~ Effects of the Economy on Boating If the boating market is a barometer of the economy - perhaps we are currently in the eye of the storm.. When the economy heads south, boating is one of the first things people stop doing, and one of the last things people start doing again when the economy warms up. If you listed things from need to not need; food, water, clothing, shelter would be at the beginning the list, and boating would be second to last, right before owning property...