“What good are they?” a woman recently asked wildlife writer Shannon Jacobs about skunks. “Are you asking what good are they for humans or what good are they for the web of life?” Shannon retorted. Eyes rolled with that comment. Good for What? So what good are skunks? What good are manatees? What good are …
“Where can I take my boys to go and shoot some prairie dogs?” a woman recently asked Chuck at the visitor center where we were working. The question took Chuck by surprise. “Why would you want to do that?” he asked. The woman was obviously serious. “They just want to shoot some little critters.” Annoyances …
“I just came across a carcass,” my friend Gaylia told me when she called from a trail she was hiking near Grand Teton National Park, “and I’m wondering what it is.” As she described the large skull with no upper front teeth, I pictured an elk. “But check the length of the nasal bones,” I …
“Hey! There’s a moose and her calf over there!” a visitor to Grand Teton National Park shouted at us as we started a hike on a trail we’d taken many times before. As the visitor and his wife hurried across the sagebrush in the direction of the mother and young, we continued on the trail. …
Venom can kill. It can also make money and, more importantly, save lives. “Why is venom, filled with deadly toxins, now a leading contender for lifesaving drugs on so many medical fronts?” asks PBS documentary, Venom, A Production of NOVA and National Geographic Television. What Good are Snakes? For several years now, while presenting reptile …
Settling down was far from our minds after only seven years on the road fulltime RVing. Living on and volunteering for national wildlife refuges for the past few years has instilled in us a love of open spaces inundated with wildlife. But when we found a small affordable house on two acres in lush desert …
“I remove rattlesnakes from my property myself,” a neighbor told us. “In two pieces!” Recently we purchased a small home on two acres in a rural area near Tucson, Arizona. Because we chose the property for its native vegetation and wildlife that it attracted, we assumed others who live here share our values. For the …