Keeping track of the big white bears as they find themselves hopelessly stranded on ice floats in our Great White North.
Polar bears put on ‘special concern’ list
By Emily Jackson
Toronto Star, November 2011
What’s a polar bear worth to you?
By Emily Jackson
Toronto Star, November 2011
Ontario polar bears doomed, expert says
By Emily Jackson
Toronto Star, December 2011
Missing in the Caribbean
By Liam Casey
Toronto Star, February 2012
One dog survives alone at sea when his owner goes overboard and never comes back.
“Dingo lay curled, close to death, on a sailboat bobbing in Bahamas’ turquoise waters. A deep gash on his hind leg. Protruding ribs. Bulging eyes. The severely dehydrated 60-pound dog had somehow survived alone on the boat for nearly three weeks without his best friend.”
The Squid Hunter
By David Grann
The New Yorker, May 2004
In search of the giant squid.
“The creature had glistening skin and long arms with suckers, which left impressions on the hull. “It was enormous,” Kersauson recalled. ‘I’ve been sailing for forty years and I’ve always had an answer for everything—for hurricanes and icebergs. But I didn’t have an answer for this. It was terrifying.’”
Death of a Pig
By E.B. White
The Atlantic, January 1948
On losing livestock.
“I discovered, though, that once having given a pig an enema there is no turning back, no chance of resuming one of life’s more stereotyped roles. The pig’s lot and mine were inextricably bound now, as though the rubber tube were the silver cord.”
The Man Who Loved Grizzlies
By Ned Zeman
Vanity Fair, May 2004
A love story in Grizzly Country.
Greece’s front-line riot dog
BBC News, June 2011
The dog, thought to be a stray called Loukanikos, or Sausage, has been in the centre of the action for years.
The Opposite of Tarzan
This American Life, February 2010
A story about parenting.
“Then all of a sudden she grabbed me. I mean really grabbed me. One arm circled all the way around me and she sort of held me really, really tight. It really made me breathless and I started crying. She started begin these soft little pants. And I’m still pretty certain what she was saying to me was it’s OK. You know, it’s all OK now.”
Police kill moose on loose in Orléans
By Jennifer Pagliaro
Ottawa Citizen, June 2010
One young bull moose is dead and a second was still at large in the woods Tuesday evening following failed attempts to tranquilize the two animals when they wandered into a park behind an Orléans elementary school.
It’s highly unusual to see moose in a heavily populated residential area. Const. Katherine Larouche, a spokeswoman for the Ottawa police, said it’s possible they swam across the river from Quebec because of the smoke from forest fires. People in canoes spotted two moose drinking in the Petrie Island area on Monday, but it’s unclear if it was the same pair.
“They have no way out,” Larouche said, while police were still attempting to tranquilize the animals. “There is always the possibility this will not end well.”
In 2011, the Toronto Star investigated one of Ontario’s biggest tourist attractions and the difficulties in keeping a major marine water park afloat.
Custody of killer whale plays out in court
By Liam Casey
Toronto Star, July 2011
A cross-border battle for custody of Ikaika the killer whale.
The man behind Marineland: 50 years of controversy
By Liam Casey
Toronto Star, October 2011
For their March issues, the top two men’s interests magazines tracked down the same story on the bizarre and horrifying Zanesville Zoo Massacre in Ohio and what led Terry Thompson to let all his animals out.
Two different approaches, two well-written tales of lions and tigers and bears (oh my).
A Death in Yellowstone: On the trail of a killer grizzly bear
By Jessica Grose
Slate, April 2012
A Grizzly justice system and the bears of Yellowstone.
