Outdoor News and Videos

You never forget your first time seeing a giant salamander, according to Andy Hill. He was a teenager, standing thigh-high in the Watauga River outside Boone, North Carolina, casting a line on an early fall day when he saw his first eastern hellbender. The salamander stretched 2 feet long and...

MINNEAPOLIS — Once-rare lake trout in Lake Superior are doing so well that state biologists will use the fish to stock the species in lakes around the state, officials have announced. This fall, the Department of Natural Resources successfully harvested lake trout eggs from fish captured in two nets set...

There are few items on the Pennsylvania hunting calendar that draw more anticipation than the opening day of firearms deer season. There also are few events that have generated as much heated debate in recent years, particularly since the Pennsylvania Game Commission made the decision in 2019 to shift opening...

Pick a social media platform and a fishing-related hashtag, say #patroutfishing on Instagram. It’ll turn up thousands upon thousands of posts. Anglers have long posed for photos with their latest and biggest catches, but the phenomenon of being able to pull out a smartphone and share your achievement globally is...

In response to the detection of new deer populations hosting chronic wasting disease, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has issued 500 additional antlerless tags for a newly established hunting area in Armstrong County. Hunters can purchase additional tags for Deer Management Assistance Program unit 7305, roughly 25,000 acres including part or...

Steve Boeser has been a busy man since June. Boeser is contracted by the Municipality of Murrysville to collect and dispose of dead deer that have been struck by cars. His contract starts in June, and he’s usually well into January before he reaches 100 calls. As of Oct. 22,...

OREGON, Ohio — On a warm late-summer evening, a small speedboat motored across a pea-green stretch of Lake Erie past a beach where a child sat splashing and a pair of newlyweds waded for a portrait photographer. On the sand, unseen or ignored, bright red signs warned people to stay...

The wildlife trail cameras set up by Bill Powers of Murrysville keep catching some of the area’s more elusive creatures. On Thursday, one of his PixCams cameras recorded a brief shot of a piebald white-tailed buck moving through the woods. Powers prefers not to identify the locations of his cameras....

Bear hunting season is underway in Pennsylvania with more than 200,000 hunters expected in the field this year, though the state game commission expects just 3% of them will come home with a bear. Archery hunting has started in specific regions and will continue through Nov. 29, including two Sundays,...

Justin Relihan has been bowhunting since he was 16 years old. The Butler resident began hunting at age 12 with a rifle, but quickly found he had more of a passion for using a compound bow. “I like the quietness of bowhunting,” said Relihan, 48. “There’s a lot less people....

NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. — A 13-foot (4-meter) Burmese python was confiscated from an upstate New York man who was keeping the still-growing snake in a small tank, authorities said. The state Department of Environmental Conservation said it got a complaint about an illegally owned snake in New Hartford on Aug....

Between the plain cedar furnishings, olive carpeting and antique phonograph, the interior of John Blinkhorn’s Airbnb appears frozen in various points of the 20th century. But its existence speaks mostly to the future of Export and similar communities along the region’s growing trail network. Blinkhorn bought the triplex in his...

Kayakers took to the Lower Youghiogheny River on Saturday evening to race downstream — and back upstream. The Upstream Nationals took place on a half-mile section of the river at Ohiopyle State Park in Fayette County. The race started just below the falls at Ohiopyle and continued part of the...

More opportunity in more places, that’s what awaits hunters this fall across much of Pennsylvania, thanks to additional state game lands enrolled in the Deer Management Assistance Program. DMAP, as the program is commonly called, works like this: hunters can get permits that allow them to harvest antlerless deer —...

BOONE, N.C. — On the whooshing Watauga River, excavators claw at the remains of Shulls Mill Dam, pulling concrete apart piece by piece and gradually opening a waterway kept in check for nearly two centuries. Removal of this privately-owned hydropower dam in western North Carolina will be a boon for...

Wildfire smoke may be worse for brain health than other types of air pollution, according to new research linking it to an increased risk of dementia. The findings, reported Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philadelphia, come as millions spent the weekend under air quality warnings from wildfires...

DELAWARE SEASHORE STATE PARK — On a muggy July evening, Delaware state biologist Jason Davis is doing what kids have done for ages: Trying to catch a firefly. It’s nowhere near as easy as the summer evenings of his own childhood, with only a few in this large wetland between...

The Eastern Massasauga rattler is one of the few venomous snakes native to Pennsylvania. It’s also the least likely to be spotted, because its historic range only includes parts of Butler, Clarion, Venango and Mercer counties along with a small slice of Armstrong County. But there may be a few...

Timber rattlesnakes spotted recently in the St. Clair and Seward areas of Westmoreland County are likely just trying to beat the heat, according to officials with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. A St. Clair police officer posted a photo on social media of a timber rattlesnake Friday. The snake...

To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, U.S. wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their smaller cousins. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service strategy released Wednesday is...

HARRISBURG — Hunting on Sundays in Pennsylvania would be greatly expanded under a proposal that passed the state House on Thursday over objections about trespassing provisions and new restrictions on hunting in state parks. Lawmakers voted 129-73 to send the bill to the state Senate. “Sunday is an opportunity to...

For all the time I spend digging, planting, pulling and weeding, one would think I’d have some poison ivy horror stories to tell, but I do not. I can’t say for sure whether I’m immune to the rash that tortures so many of my fellow gardeners or if I’ve just...

Summer is rapidly approaching, and, for a lot of people, that means getting into the great outdoors — whether it’s spending a few days camping, hiking a favorite trail or just getting out and enjoying a wooded park. Pennsylvania’s snake population also is enjoying the nice weather, and that can...

An expansion of Pittsburgh’s deer hunting program will bring limited archery into additional parks, and the city might bring in U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters in some areas. The city last year launched a limited archery pilot program in Frick and Riverview parks. Thirty archers culled 108 deer and donated...