Breed

John McKissick is in his 60th season coaching the Summerville (S.C.) High School football team. No head football coach has held the same post longer. None on any level has ever won more games (589). But McKissick, who turns 85 this month, never thinks about retirement, because of what that might bring. "Most all of my buddies my age that retired, they all passed away," McKissick says in a smooth, genteel Southern drawl. "I'm not ready yet. I've got four great-grandchildren and I want to see what's going to happen to them.

One of the nation's most ambitious wildlife reintroduction efforts has suffered a setback with the deaths of 104 mountain yellow-legged frogs that had been rescued from the fire-stripped San Gabriel Mountains in 2009, authorities said Tuesday. The federally endangered frogs, which recently metamorphosed from the tadpole stage, died in captive breeding tanks over the last several weeks at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. "We have two frogs left. We're trying to determine exactly what happened," said Scott Barton, director of the zoo, which is highly regarded for amphibian husbandry.

It's a cool morning, and the Arabian oryx herd at the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park is hungry and slightly hostile to the visitors in its midst. The dominant male, known as No. 337, fixes a cold stare, lets out a loud snort and waggles his sharp horns, ready to protect his harem and offspring. The females, with equally sharp horns, attempt to lead the visitors away from their babies, cat-sized creatures tucked in small crevasses in the ground. It's a matter of genetics: For eons, the herd's ancestors roamed the Arabian Peninsula, honing their survival skills.

As a teenager in Costa Rica, Franklin Chang-Diaz had an improbable goal: becoming an American astronaut. Ultimately, he would fly a record seven shuttle missions and today wants to fly to Mars. Scott Parazynksi also wanted to go to space and figured becoming a doctor at Stanford University would help him get there. He became a jack-of-all-trades spacewalker, and went on to climb Mt. Everest and become chief of medicine and technology at a research hospital. Curtis Brown Jr. dreamed of cockpits while growing up on a North Carolina tobacco farm.

Reporting from London — Between bites of a spinach omelet at the exclusive members' club Soho House in the West End, Steve Coogan is trying to make a point. The British comedian and actor is itching to elaborate on why the conversations he and his costar Rob Brydon have in Michael Winterbottom's new film opening Friday, "The Trip" — funny, moody thrusts and parries over fancy meals in England's picturesque north — are not necessarily reflective of the pair's warmer, real-life exchanges.

When it comes to caring for the world's rarest cold-blooded animals, few places match the pampering and security provided to hundreds of critically endangered turtles and tortoises at a secret compound in the foothills of Los Padres National Forest. In paddocks and aquariums protected by surveillance cameras and electric wire, Okinawa leaf turtles feast on silkworms and mulberries in a temperature-controlled greenhouse. Nest-building Burmese black mountain tortoises relax in piles of freshly cut oak, sycamore and bamboo.

A Los Angeles city councilman has introduced a motion that could prohibit the sale and purchase of pets bred in puppy and kitten mills. Councilman Paul Koretz, who represents an area that includes West L.A., Hollywood and Encino, said he introduced the motion Friday to ease the city's pet overpopulation problem. Some pet stores purchase animals from puppy and kitten mills or large-scale breeding operations with unsanitary and overcrowded conditions and inbreeding. "By being customers, we perpetuate the problem," Koretz said.

The bison herd at Trexler Nature Preserve owes Kelly Craig a debt of gratitude. "I just wanted to know, why don't we have any baby bison?" Craig said she often wondered during frequent visits to commune with the peaceful yet ferocious creatures. She did a little research and learned the nine females — or cows — at the eastern Pennsylvania preserve were on birth control. The family planning practice prevented any bouncing baby bison surprises, but it also meant a vital link to Lehigh County's heritage would eventually disappear.

It's spring, and probably the most welcomed of the season's animals is the bunny — specifically, the chocolate bunny. No mass-produced creatures, these bunnies are made and sold by small, independent chocolatiers and chocolate shops. Grab your Easter bonnet and we'll hippity-hop around the West. Carpinteria Jean-Michel Carré shapes organic and sustainably grown chocolate from the nearby Santa Barbara Chocolate Co. into refined bunnies and hens as visitors to Chocolats du CaliBressan gaze through a large window into the kitchen.

Despite fears that Islamic extremists may be playing a hidden role in the rebellion against Moammar Kadafi, the U.S. intelligence community has found no organized presence of Al Qaeda or its allies among the Libyan opposition, American officials say. A U.S. intelligence-gathering effort that began shortly after anti-Kadafi forces started seizing towns in eastern Libya last month has not uncovered a significant presence of Islamic militants among...