Outdoor News Daily

The Arizona Game and Fish Department yesterday formally placed one of its employees on administrative leave with pay as a result of an interim finding in the department’s ongoing internal administrative investigation into the events surrounding last year’s capture of the jaguar known as Macho B.

The department took this action based on statements made by the employee during the course of the internal investigation, bringing about a need to consider taking administrative action to resolve concerns raised by the statements.

Under state personnel rules, placing an employee on paid administrative leave relieves the employee of duties, pending a determination on what final administrative action may be taken.
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After receiving several complaints last year, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department anticipates more complaints this spring about muskrat damage to township roads in the northeastern part of the state.

To better handle the problem, the department is streamlining the process local government authorities can use to deal with troublesome muskrats.

A large population of muskrats and high water levels are at the root of the problem. Muskrats seeking high ground near roadways will dig and tunnel with destructive results.
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Wildlife is often not the only attraction at National Wildlife Refuges. History also beckons, and in sometimes surprising forms: remnants of some of the nation’s industrial or commercial past.

Scattered on the more than 150 million acres encompassing the 551 units of the National Wildlife Refuge System are areas that once served as rice mills, oyster processing plants, logging and mining camps and many other reminders of bygone eras of America’s past. Others were home to cattle ranches, salt producers, sugar mills, guano extractors and fish packagers.

Mandated by Congress through a host of laws dating back to 1906, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the remains of these historical enterprises as cultural resources and interprets the most significant through exhibits and displays for visitors.
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Tired of having a bear drag your trash around your yard? Or, have you already figured a way to keep them out of the garbage can? The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) wants to see your design idea at this year’s Florida Black Bear Festival in Umatilla, just south of the Ocala National Forest, on March 27, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Black bears are shy, secretive animals but also very intelligent. One of the best options to avoid bear conflicts is to have bear-proof residential garbage cans. At this time, bear-proof cans are not available statewide. Until every county has access to bear-proof cans, the FWC wants to provide residents with cost-effective methods that can keep bears out of existing garbage cans.
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