Wildlife

"Cicadas overwhelm tree branches across Maryland once every 17 years, like clockwork. But something — some suspect climate change — could be sounding their alarm clocks four years early."

"Timing is everything for migratory songbirds chirping away in North America's trees. If they arrive too late, they'll get only the scraps of spring's insect buffet. Plus, the best nesting spots and mates will be taken, leaving them with lackluster prospects for making baby birds. Arrive too early, and they'll face a hostile winter chill."

"Mexico's government has enlisted the help of three trained dolphins to locate in the wild their less fortunate cousin, the rare vaquita porpoise, in an effort to bring back from the brink of extinction a species with fewer than 40 specimens left."

"U.S. EPA violated the Endangered Species Act when it issued 59 pesticide registrations between 2007 and 2012, a federal court has found."

"A small but dangerous parasite, the winter tick, is spreading north and west as winters become shorter and now is knocking at Alaska's border. The winter tick, which has already devastated moose populations in New England and the upper Midwest, has been confirmed in Canada's Yukon Territory and in the Northwest Territories, where it's infecting elk, mule deer and some moose."

"The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to designate 187,000 square miles of Alaska’s coast and waters a critical habitat for the threatened polar bear."

"A robot zaps and vacuums up venomous lionfish in Bermuda. A helicopter pelts Guam's trees with poison-baited dead mice to fight the voracious brown tree snake. A special boat with giant winglike nets stuns and catches Asian carp in the U.S. Midwest."

"Bison calves have been born in Alberta's Banff National Park for the first time in 140 years, Parks Canada officials said on Tuesday, marking a milestone in attempts to reintroduce a wild herd to the area."

"The Interior Department no longer supports legislation that would transfer the National Bison Range to the tribes whose reservation it's located within."