The National Park Service defended it's elk-management policy in Rocky Mountain National Park before a federal court of appeals on Thursday. In a hearing, wildlife advocacy group WildEarth Guardians argued that the Park Service failed to seriously consider the option of reintroducing wolves to the park. The park has a large elk population with few natural predators. The group unsuccessfully sued the NPS in 2008, at the start of the park's elk-thinning program, saying that recruiting volunteers... Read More
Six people arrested during the Operation Puerto doping raids in 2006 will finally go to trial on January 28 in Madrid's Superior Court. The defendants include Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes and former head of Liberty Seguros team Manolo Saiz, both of whom are suspected of helping cyclists cheat using blood doping and anabolic steroids. The raids, in which police searched businesses and houses in Madrid and Zaragoza, implicated some 50 cyclists, including Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso, both of whom ar... Read More
Primates may laugh at the misfortune of others, according to new research on laughter that finds apes appear to enjoy slapstick comedy. "The use of language-based jokes is clearly unique to humans," said Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford. "There is some suggestion that apes 'play practical jokes' or laugh at another's misfortune,” such as enjoying watching someone trip on a banana peel. The research also demonstrated how laughter evolved and... Read More
Government officials have approved the systematic mass-shooting-and-killing of badgers in England, and, well, people are upset. On Monday, the government issued the first badger-cull licenses for Gloucestershire in a plan to exterminate about 100,000 badgers, designed to curb badger-transmitted tuberculosis in cattle. Licensed farmers and landowners are encouraged to shoot as many badgers as possible over a six-week season for the next four years. Environmentalists and many scientists oppose t... Read More
The Alaska Board of Game has denied a request to establish an immediate no-hunting zone around Denali National Park to protect the wolf population after a female wolf was fatally trapped earlier this year. For about a decade, a 122-mile buffer zone protected Denali wolves who strayed from the park's boundaries. Advocates for the buffer zone are concerned that the Denali wolf population is at its lowest in years and failed to produce any pups this past season. Despite advocacy from conservati... Read More
