"If you had told me just over 15 years ago that I would be firing rifles, daydreaming of buying a truck and researching venison recipes, I would have never believed you."

Who doesn't love backyard birds? They add beauty to the landscape and serenade us with their sweet songs. We often put out feeders to attract these lovely little critters to our homes. One of the best ways to attract birds and give back to them as they brighten our days is through native plant gardens. With the sprawl of urban areas, good bird habitat is increasingly in short supply. MORE

A $200 bounty on hellbenders? Say it’s not so.

“That is a rumor and absolutely untrue,” said Lori Williams, a Wildlife Diversity biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. “Furthermore, the Eastern hellbender is listed as a species of special concern in North Carolina. Harming, harassing, collecting or killing one is a Class 1 misdemeanor, which can result in a fine and up to 120 days in jail.”

Hellbenders are one of the largest salamanders found in North Carolina, averaging 16-17 inches long but can grow up to 24 inches long.

Also called the “water dog,” “snot otter,” “Alleghany alligator,” among other names, the hellbender is a harmless, giant aquatic salamander found in fast-moving, clean mountain streams in . . .
 

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Most likely, yes. We’re now in the “prescribed burn” season—late winter and spring.  The Commission uses controlled, low-level flames to restore and maintain wildlife habitat on most of the 2 million acres of state game lands used by hunters, anglers and wildlife watchers.

In North Carolina, prescribed burning is commonly conducted between January and March, when most trees are less active metabolically. Repeated burns conducted during the spring growing season eventually kill hardwood sprouts, allowing a diversity of native grasses, herbs and wildflowers to develop. These herbaceous plants are typically more valuable than hardwood sprouts for food and cover for wildlife. Without prescribed burns, wildlife in some habitats may experience low reproduction and eventual displacement. READ MORE

 

Written by: Brad Howard Have you seen this picture in an email or on Facebook lately?  We have! This photo has been passed around to numerous folks over the last month with claims that it has been taken in various locations across North Carolina.  More recently, some attention was given to a few reports of “a black panther” in Stokes County. There were no photographs or other verifiable evidence to support those reports. While very rare, jaguars, leopards, the jaguarundi and even bobcats can have black coats but there has never been a documented occurrence of a melanistic phase (black) cougar in North America. So, any report of a “black panther” or a “large black cat” is most likely mistaken identity since only the above-mentioned cats have a black phase and only one of those cats is native, the bobcat. The black phase in bobcats is extraordinarily rare. Determining if it were a bobcat would not be that hard. While...