Wildlife Management

Go ahead, stretch out in the soft grass. It's comfortable. You're surrounded by a smorgasbord of prey. You may belong half a world away, but here in the Everglades, life is good. Except you're a Burmese python, and the state wants to hunt you down and kill you. It hasn't put a bounty on your head, but it may as well have: If caught, you're decapitated. In this moonlit world of marsh, bug and fanged danger, snake hunter Jeff Fobb is top predator.

The wild fox population on Santa Catalina Island is so robust that biologists said Tuesday they may seek to have the small animals taken off the federal endangered species list next year.

The news was mixed this week as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it would move forward on a review of 29 plant and animal species and assess their inclusion on the federal endangered species list. The fact that the agency is considering listing any species represents a change from the last eight years. But the service also rejected petitions for nine species, including the ashy storm-petrel, a California seabird. For those who submitted petitions that were denied, the situation appeared dire.

The coyote perched atop the cinder-block wall 25 feet across the lawn from Candy Julian's screen door, dangling its paws and eyeing her family's two miniature schnauzers. "We started screaming. My son grabbed a shovel," the 45-year-old fitness instructor said of her run-in with a coyote one evening late last month in her Yorba Linda backyard. "I was screaming 'The dogs! The dogs!' " Her family chased off the coyote. But some neighbors haven't been so lucky, losing cats and small dogs and fearing for their children's safety.

Environmental groups have sued to block a federal rule that would allow state wildlife agents and private citizens to kill more endangered gray wolves in the northern Rockies. Federal officials want to empower state wildlife agencies to kill off packs of wolves in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana if they are having a "major impact" on big-game herds, particularly elk. The rule also would allow for the killing of wolves caught attacking stock animals or dogs.

This time each year, hundreds of croaking, roaring, shrieking elephant seals gather to breed and give birth on the rocky shoreline below Hearst Castle. The boisterous annual show draws hordes of tourists to a boardwalk 15 feet above, where they can watch the enormous pinnipeds tend the shiny black pups, squabble over beach space and battle for the right to mate. But this year, the traffic jams near the Piedras Blancas birthing grounds aren't being caused just by curious motorists.

Adam watched as his mother and father were gunned down. Rosie was just 4 weeks old when her mother died after being caught in a trap. She almost didn't make it. Pixie lost her newborn, who suffered a broken leg, and even after she became pregnant again, was still deeply depressed.

South Africa announced Monday that it would allow the killing of elephants as a population control, a move strongly condemned by animal welfare groups. Beginning in May, the government will lift a 13-year ban on elephant culls, usually carried out by shooting entire herds, including youngsters, from helicopters. The move could hurt the country's tourist industry, with animal welfare lobbies calling for a tourist boycott to protest culling.

The bison death toll continues to climb for Yellowstone National Park, as park officials say they plan to slaughter an estimated 180 animals captured Monday to prevent the spread of disease. The bison were captured on the north end of the park near the town of Gardiner -- not far from Yellowstone's famed Roosevelt Arch.

Government fishery managers took steps Friday toward an unprecedented total ban on salmon fishing this year off the California and Oregon coasts, a move that would hammer beleaguered harbors and deprive the West of a culinary and cultural prize. A ban would cut deeply into a $150-million industry already suffering hard times, hitting not just commercial fishing but also the state's recreational angling industry.