Taking a lost bull by the horns

Halfmoon

The large, furry brown beast sighted in southern Saratoga County over the past week was captured on Tuesday morning.

Bigfoot? No, big all over — with antlers.

The 600-pound bull moose was tranquilized in the backyard of a Dunsbach Road home just before noon by Department of Environmental Conservation officials after a week of sightings in the Clifton Park-Halfmoon area.

The moose first appeared in the yard at sunrise and lumbered around aimlessly until it was shot with a dart. Just after noon, a 10-person team loaded the sedated creature into a trailer for a ride to the Adirondack Mountains.

"The reason we did this is for the safety of the moose and of the public," DEC wildlife biologistEd Reed said. "Moose-vehicle accidents can be nasty."

The animal had been glimpsed in various spots, but on Tuesday it was roughly a mile from the Exit 8 area of the Northway. Besides being a driving hazard, Reed said this is moose mating season and the youngster could have been more aggressive than usual, as is often the case with males of any species that are competing for females.

On Tuesday morning, it lay calmly under a large tree as DEC team members inched toward it. When they closed in, the moose stood up and it was shot in the neck with a bright orange dart. About two minutes later it began to stumble and then stagger before lying down again.

The animal was hooked up to an oxygen tank and its eyes were covered as it slowly drifted into unconsciousness. The team then used a tarp-like carrier to lift the moose into a waiting trailer. It was tagged, its antlers shorn for safety — DEC Police Lt. Chris Ruckert said they would have been shed anyway — and the wait began for the sedation to wear off.

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Large male orangutan rescued in Borneo

September 2013. An army of rescuers in Indonesia has successfully caught a magnificent male orangutan stranded on the outskirts of a village and moved him to safety in a protected forest far from human habitation.

Rice field creation

The Human-Orangutan Conflict (HOC) Team from UK-based charity International Animal Rescue had received reports of an orangutan sighting close to the village of Tempurkan in West Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. The landscape surrounding the village consists of coconut trees but these are now being burned to clear the way for rice fields. This has increased the risk of conflicts between local people and orangutans, which are being isolated within the shrinking pockets of remaining forest.

Large male

After an initial visit to the village in which the orangutan could not be found, the team returned to the area early the following morning to find the community gathered at the edge of the tree line. Expecting to find a female orangutan or an infant, they were stunned to find a fully flanged, dominant male relaxing in his nest.

Tranquillised

Evacuation plans were discussed with the officers of the Forestry Department (BKSDA) and village representatives and phone calls made to bring in a cage large enough to contain the huge animal. IAR's ‘Rapid Response' vet was brought in on the back of a scooter to supply the team with the tranquilliser gun and medication. After a long struggle trying to corner the male long enough to provide a clear shot, Argitoe Ranting, IAR's Field Manager, was able to tranquillise the male up in the tree canopy. A large net was placed below the branches as the team attempted to cut down the tree - a difficult process as the falling tree kept getting snagged in the surrounding vegetation. Eventually one of the team climbed the tree and dislodged the orangutan. Fortunately he was caught unharmed in the net.

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Africanized bees in Fort Myers being moved

FORT MYERS, FL -

There's something abuzz off of McGregor Boulevard tonight. Most of it taking place up a tree behind a house.

A sign called it to our attention. It warns of Africanized bees, also known as killer bees.

High above this dying banyan tree something is swarming.

"They found a hole, probably a woodpeckers hole to go inside the tree and they made their own hive," said David Gatley, David's Bee Haven.

Bees abuzzin' are normally a good sign for Anne Tipton.

"I like honey, and I want to attract them," Tipton said.

But licensed beekeeper Gatley warns not these bees.

"They will actually boil out of the hive and attack people, dogs, anything," Gatley said.

Gatley says unlike their European counterparts, the Africanized bee also called the killer bee is ruthless.

"The threat is within feet, you don't have to go right up to the hive," he said.

The homeowner says he was never bothered by the bees, but because the tree could fall at any moment he called in the experts.

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Wandering Cape Cod bear captured in Boston suburb

BOSTON (Reuters) - He's baaack: A male black bear captured on Cape Cod earlier this month, where it was tranquilized and moved to central Massachusetts, showed up again on Tuesday just six miles from downtown Boston.

State officials said they had captured the bear in a tree in the Chestnut Hill area of Brookline, just west of Boston, and confirmed it was the same bear which roamed the Cape for about two weeks before being captured and relocated on June 12.

The bear was identified by a tag placed in its ear. It had probably traveled about 100 miles.

"Because this bear was in a highly congested urban area, an interagency Large Animal Response Team was deployed to the area," said the Massachusetts' wildlife agency, known as MassWildlife.

The 180-pound bear was then shot with a tranquilizer dart by the Environmental Police. Later, MassWildlife officials transported the animal to a remote location in western Massachusetts, about 150 miles away.

The Boston Globe reported that the bear was spotted in a white pine tree in the backyard of Alan Leventhal, chief executive of Beacon Capital Partners, one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the United States, and on Boston University's Board of Trustees.

The agency said that black bear sightings have been reported in a number of towns west and south of Boston recently but could not confirm that all sightings were the same bear.

The Boston Globe reported that the bear was spotted in a white pine tree in the backyard of Alan Leventhal, chief executive of Beacon Capital Partners, one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the United States, and on Boston University's Board of Trustees.

The Brookline Police Department tweeted photographs of the bear in the tree, with a caption that was a twist on the classic children's book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See":

"Black bear, black bear what do you see? I see Brookline police looking at me."

The so-called Cape Cod bear was first spotted May 27 in the Cape Cod area, the easternmost part of the state. State wildlife officials think the bear swam across the Cape Cod Canal from the mainland.

The Massachusetts bear population was last estimated at 3,000 in 2005, with most bears in northwest and western parts of the state, including the Berkshires region.

The black bear population has been slowly growing and expanding its range into eastern and southeastern Massachusetts, state officials said. Of the three species of bear found in North America, the American black bear is the smallest.

(Reporting By Ros Krasny)

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