Moose hunting in national parks: While moose may be struggling in parts of their historic range, such as Minnesota, North America's largest ungulate is thriving in a region where it is a non-native species, introduced by humans more than a century ago. So much so that Parks Canada plans to take the unusual step of opening a hunting season in the areas -- which also happen to be national parks. Moose hunting opened in a remote stretch of Gros Morne National Park in the Canadian Maritime province of Newfoundland last month, and will open soon three other areas within Gros Morne and Terra Nova national parks (also in Newfoundland), according to a report in the St. Johns Telegram. The program -- in its fourth year -- is aimed at reducing moose populations to protect the region's boreal forests, a Parks Canada bulletin says, citing the booming moose population as the top cause of recent ecological damage to those forests: "In the absence of predators, and with an abundant food supply, their numbers increased dramatically. Today, moose populations in these national parks are greater than the forests can support; forest diversity is in decline."
NOAA's orca drones: NOAA scientists are using drones to get photos and videos of killer whales in unprecedented detail and from new perspectives, according to a story and video from one of the agency's in-house science writers. The agency used the drones -- six-rotor contraptions called "hexacopters" -- to fly about 100 feet above pods of the Northern Resident orcas off the coast of British Columbia snapping photos and filming video. Scientists had suspected that the endangered sub-group of whales, who feed primarily on king salmon, might be suffering as some stocks of those salmon have plunged in recent years. "By analyzing the hexacopter photos, scientists can see how fat or skinny individual whales are," NOAA writes. "They can also see which whales are pregnant and what percentage of pregnancies are carried to term." The drones allow researchers to get much closer -- at 100 feet they don't bother they whales -- and to stay out far longer than in an expensive helicopter.