Don’t mess with with Mom. Usually mild-mannered mother and schoolteacher Anna Avery of Beach Lake, PA said she became adrenaline-charged after seeing a rabid raccoon jump on her two-year-old son, Wyatt, and start biting him. “I ran over and grabbed the thing by its mouth and yanked it off of him,” Avery said. “My hand was in the thing’s mouth the whole time. I didn’t know what else to do, so I got on top of it with my fingers still in its mouth and I smothered it. I didn’t really think about it. I just did it.” The Wayne Independent.

Results from a Montana State Crime Lab autopsy released Friday indicate that bear hunter Steve Stevenson, 39, did not die directly from a grizzly attack as was previously thought by authorities, but likely from a bullet fired by his hunting companion. Lincoln County Coroner Steve Schnackenberg, who viewed Stevenson’s body before it was autopsied, said he saw clear signs the hunter was mauled and bitten by a bear. “We’re pretty sure the bullet passed through the bear before it got to him,” Schnackenberg said. Idaho Statesman and AP.

Two men were arrested and charged with poaching after officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission found them with sacks containing an estimated 260 recently hatched alligators at Lake Apopka. Officers released the confiscated gators and seized Robert “Bo” Duval’s truck, trailer and airboat. Orlando Sentinel.

The state deputy chief administrator for courts outside New York City has ruled that a taxidermy display of a large black bear in the lobby of the Sullivan County Courthouse in Monticello, NY was inappropriate and a “distraction” given the “seriousness of the business we do in our courts.” The bear, donated by a local bowhunter, now resides in the office of Acting Supreme Court Justice Frank LaBuda, a bear hunter himself. NY Law Journal.

What may have been a freelance “Free Willie” attempt was blocked Saturday night when an off-duty Miami police officer arrested an animal-rights activist with links to the radical Animal Liberation Front outside a marine-mammal rehabilitation site in Key Largo. A $30,000 bond was set for Arnold Christopher Lagergren, 41, charged with four misdemeanor counts of trespass and vandalism at the Marine Mammal Conservancy. Miami Herald.

For the second time in the past 15 months, a hunter’s remote trail camera has captured the image of a mountain lion in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, this time one with an ear tag and radio collar. The Michigan DNR does not has a tagging and collaring program in place for the species. Detroit News.

A game warden’s job is not an easy one, to be sure. They deal with poachers, snakes, wild critters and fishing scofflaws daily. But we don’t think we’ve heard of one being attacked and bitten by a monkey–’til now. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department warden Karin Apple, on duty in an area north of Houston, was bitten on the finger by a rhesus monkey that apparently escaped from captivity during recent wildfires in the area. AP.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources reports that a 49-year-old hunter sustained non life-threatening injuries yesterday when he was attacked by a female black bear while hunting from his treestand approximately 10-12 feet above the ground. The hunter, who was not identified, shot and killed the bear when it climbed the tree a second time.

A squirrel hunter who became separated from his companions in dense west Tennessee timber while heat indexes exceeded 100 degrees says he ate worms and drank muddy water to survive five days in before he was rescued Sunday. “I was drinking muddy water, eating worms,” said Bill Lawrence, 38. “Yeah, I’d seen that on TV. I ate worms.” Commercial Appeal.

Officials with the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife say a man who shot and killed a black bear after he discovered it eating food out of his refrigerator at an Estes Park cabin last week was justified in defending himself and his family and will not be charged. “We want to remind people that our policy is, if a bear enters an occupied dwelling, we have to remove that bear,” said agency spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill. Denver Post.

Less than a month after a mountain lion was sighted in SW Missouri’s Shannon County, the state Department of Conservation has confirmed one of the big cats in adjoining Oregon County. The DOC’s Mountain Lion Response Team reports a photograph from a landowner’s game camera taken on Aug. 23 northeast of Alton shows the distinctive rear portion of mountain lion.

Austin, TX-based contemporary photographer Matt Rainwaters took his camera and a plain white backdrop to July’s 12th annual Okie Noodlin’ Tournament in Pauls Valley, Okla. and came away with a series of photographs depicting some of this year’s participants with their hand-caught catfish. The photos are part of a New York Times interactive feature, “If You Ain’t Bleedin’, You Ain’t Leadin’.

A five-year-old Minnesota girl has undergone treatment for rabies after she was bitten by a bat while shopping with her mother at a North Branch Walmart store this week. “The bat flew down the pizza aisle, flew back at us, flew down and landed on her, attacking her and bit her leg,” said her mother, Holley Townley, who also claims her daughter was severely traumatized by the incident. We see a lawsuit coming. WCCO.

New Mexico law enforcement authorities Thursday began removing 5,000 marijuana plants found at a sophisticated growing operation in the backcountry of Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos. “We have not seen this kind of activity in any of our national parks in the intermountain region. This is the first time this has happened,” said park superintendent Jason Lott. Santa Fe New Mexican.

OK, it was all we could do to write a headline that included NASCAR, a naked man and an illegal wild raccoon, and now you probably expect a great lead sentence to boot. Well forget about it! West Virginian Joshua Greene, 27, was arrested by authorities in Bristol, TN for streaking through Pit Row Market during NASCAR’s Irwin Tools Night Race Saturday, and was later found to have a raccoon in the back seat of his car. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency responded in what was likely its most unusual call of the week. Gazette Mail.

Authorities in Key Largo, FL say a Boca Raton, FL man was arrested Monday for stealing a boat and trailer and driving the wrong way on Hwy. 1 while trying to elude police. Ira Bershatsky, 62, who told arresting officers he was actor Sam Elliot and was heading to film a movie with “De Niro,” was charged with grand theft and multiple traffic violations. The Dude abides. S. Florida Sun-Sentinel.

A passing good samaritan is credited with saving the life of an elderly Copeland, FL woman after she was attacked by an 8-foot alligator as she walked in her front yard. After being pulled from the gator by Dwain Daniels, Margaret Webb, who lost part of her leg in the attack, was airlifted to a Ft. Myers trauma center. AP and Naples News.