Missouri Department of Conservation

Black Market Caviar Ring Busted in Missouri; Investigation Snags 100 Poachers

A two-year investigation into illegal fishing and harvesting of paddlefish eggs in southwestern Missouri ended this week with citations and charges filed against more than 100 people. The suspects include eight men who face federal charges in connection with their alleged efforts to transport paddle ... More >>

Mountain Lion in DeKalb County: The 5th Sighting Since September

This mountain lion was photographed with a wildlife cam on private land in the wee hours of Wednesday, December 12. By my count, that's the fifth sighting of a big cat in Missouri since September 10. As we've said several times before, this could be different  cougars or all the same cougar; it ... More >>

Looks Like Somebody Shot a Wild Wolf in Howard County

Wild timber wolves haven't roamed Missouri for over a century, so it's quite remarkable that a hunter apparently shot one on Tuesday, just northwest of Columbia, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation. So first, we get mountain lions coming back, and now maybe wolves? Perhaps it's true ... More >>

Ghostly Image is Missouri's 33rd Mountain Lion Sighting Since 1994

Related content: - Meandering Missouri Mountain Lion Last Seen in Michigan- Petition Aims to Stop Senseless Killing of Missouri's Mountain LionsThe Missouri Department of Conservation has confirmed the sighting of a mountain lion outside the town of Ellington in Missouri's Reynolds County. A trail c ... More >>

Brunner, Kinder and Martin Favored to Win GOP Primary Contests, Poll Finds

According to an automated phone poll over the weekend of nearly 600 people likely to vote in Missouri's GOP primary tomorrow, 35 percent said they'd pick John Brunner to take on incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill30 percent said they'd prefer Todd Akin25 percent went for Sarah SteelmanBrunner enjoys ... More >>

The Skekses at the River Confluence for Show Me Shows: The Record is Out Tomorrow

Show Me Shows is a video series documenting bands living in and traveling to St. Louis. This Friday, June 8, the Skekses will release its excellent new EP, Curse My Name at a show at the Heavy Anchor with Magic City and Lonesome Cowboy Ryan. Read RFT Senior Music Writer Christian Schaeffer's review ... More >>

Upstream With a Paddle: From cops to cottonmouths, float trips can be perilous if you're not prepared

The Semi-Triumphant Return of the Prairie Chicken

Happy news from Prairie Chicken Land, aka Wah'Kon-Tah Prairie in far western Missouri, just outside El Dorado Springs: The prairie chickens that workers from the Missouri Department of Conservation captured in Kansas last year and transported east are alive and booming and, best of all, reproducing. ... More >>

Mountain Lion Spotted in Northern Missouri, 13th Cougar Verified in Past Year

The Missouri Department of Conservation confirmed this week the presence of an adult mountain lion in Grundy County. A trail camera captured an image (right) of the big cat on April 2 as it walked through a wooded area around 8:45 p.m. The cougar is the 29th verified sighting in Missouri since mount ... More >>

First-Ever Live "Bird-Cam" On Turkey Vultures in Missouri Picks Up Rarely-Seen Behavior

Last spring, the live "eagle cam" feed from Decorah, Iowa blew up the Internets, making national news and entrancing millions of people in 184 countries who watched bald eagles hatch their eggs in real-time. But this spring -- as you read this sentence, actually -- the folks behind that project are ... More >>

Meandering Missouri Mountain Lion Last Seen in Michigan

First things first. The word Missouri in the headline above probably should be in quotes. Why? Because the cougar photographed in north-central Missouri's Linn County in December 2010 is probably not originally from the Show-Me State.  How do we know this? Because conservationists tracking ante ... More >>

White-Nose Syndrome Confirmed in Missouri Bat Population

The Missouri Department of Conservation knew it was coming, but now it's official: White-Nose Syndrome has been confirmed in a population of bats in an undisclosed Missouri cave. In 2010, symptoms were spotted on a little brown bat in Pike County, and five gray bats also showed symptoms in a public ... More >>

Missouri Trapper Nets Mountain Lion; Animal Released Into Wild

​Thought: University of Missouri should really change its mascot from the tigers to the mountain lions. In the past 14 months there have been 17 confirmed sightings of the big cats in Missouri, with this week's run-in with a mountain lion the most convincing confirmation yet. It happened Wednesday ... More >>

The St. Louis Food Lover's Gift Guide: Books

With a little planning and a couple of cocktails the holidays can go down smoother than a pint of spiked egg nog. Gut Check's assembled a series of guides to help find the perfect present for the food lover in your life while maintaining sanity and investing in your community... and, okay, maybe pic ... More >>

Hellspawn Arrive at Saint Louis Zoo

Some call them snot otters, others old lasagna sides, grampus and devil dogs, but we prefer the colloquial term hellbender. If you're going to name a salamander, you might as well make it sound way more badass than it is. Hellbenders live in Missouri's rivers. Or, rather, they used to live in Misso ... More >>

Spearchucker Bags Missouri Deer; Hunter is First to Kill Animal with Primitive Weapon

​For the first time in modern history, a Missouri hunter has harvested a deer using the atlatl, an ancient weapon that allows users to launch a spear at speeds over 100 m.p.h.The Missouri Conservation Department first allowed the use of the atlatl during last year's deer season. But it wasn't unti ... More >>

Urban Hunters Bag 570 Deer in Missouri

She's all yours. Just do NOT shoot the minivan.​Last weekend was urban deer season in Missouri, allowing hunters to harvest antler-less deers in and around St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Columbia/Jefferson City. In total, hunters in those regions killed 570 deer. In the St. Louis area, hu ... More >>

Coyote Spotted In Maplewood

Hear ye, hear ye: A coyote makes a statement in Maplewood.​The City of Maplewood is warning its residents of a recent coyote sighting. Rachelle L'Ecuyer, community development director for the mid-county suburb, put out a media alert on the critter this afternoon. L'Ecuyer tells Daily RFT that the ... More >>

Crawfish eaters horrify our readers, but Canada geese and Chris Elbring aren't so bad

Animal lovers protect Canada geese from death -- by harassing them

Actually, You Can Spray Jesus with Roundup

Kinston Free Press​If you haven't been following the news out of rural North Carolina this week, you're probably not aware of the most incredible kudzu story in recent memory. Kudzu, known as the "vine that ate the South," is an invasive weed that has become the bane of conservationists from Flori ... More >>

Black Bears May Never Have Left Missouri

Missouri may have always had black bears. But the grizzlies depicted in its flag? Not so much.​New research from the Missouri Department of Conservation is challenging the belief that black bears were extirpated from the state in the 1930s. In recent decades, the bears, which can reach 900 pounds, ... More >>

Why There Are No Cicadas In Your Backyard

Image viaWhy aren't they at your house? It's not you, it's them. Well, it's also you. ​STL has gone cuh-razy for cicadas, now that the 13-year periodical brood has come out in force. But this big ol' cicada party ain't raging everywhere -- only in certain pockets. What gives? It's actually a quest ... More >>

Mountain Lion Spotted in Southern Missouri; Sixth Sighting Since November

The cat was seen March 9 in Oregon County (red).​The Missouri Department of Conservation has confirmed the sixth sighting of a mountain lion in the state in the past five months. The cougar was seen March 9 in Oregon County in south-central Missouri. A driver near the small town of Rover saw the a ... More >>

Readers talk about Bristol Palin having sex, babies and the RFT Web awards, too

Elk War! Farm Bureau Angered Over Plan to Reintroduce Elk to Missouri

Opposition, uh, "mounts" over plan to reintroduce elk to Missouri.​They've been gone from Missouri for nearly 150 years, and the Missouri Farm Bureau would like to keep it that way. At issue is a herd of elk that that the Missouri Department of Conservation wants to release in a 365-square mile zo ... More >>

18 Symbols That Should Be Made "Official" in Missouri

​In Missouri, legislators didn't think it was a good idea to name a dead dog as the official state canine. On Thursday, the state House defeated a bill aimed at making "Seamen," the dog that accompanied Lewis and Clark on their trip West, the official canine in our state. As the Post-Dispatch ... More >>

Spanish Lake Casino Opponents Set to Picket County Planning Commission Meeting Tonight

www.knitwareblog.com​Remember the late-July proposal from a North St. Louis County developer for a massive casino and resort next to the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area? The one that would turn 376 acres of wetlands into 8,000 parking spots, an 18-hole golf course, and another Casino in the St. ... More >>

Joe's trolley, the suffering of the Jews and a casino on bottomland

Weird Animal Abundance in Missouri

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hvargas/ / CC BY-SA 2.0Mother Nature has been oddly generous to Missouri outdoorsmen this year, and here's one more example.  First we had that huge bumpercrop of paddlefish. Then our state's fishermen started breaking way more records than usual. Now the Missouri D ... More >>

And They Shall Descend Forth From The Skies

www.purplemartin.orgSome say I'm purple. I say I'm Martin.After a long schlep from South America, the first adult male Purple Martins should be alighting in Forest Park any day now. You might be interested in this species of songbird (Progne subis) for the following reasons:1) If humans don't prepar ... More >>

Unreal remains on the prowl for cougars, sees some men about a dog and checks in with an endangered virgin

Hold That Tiger: The recent big cat attacks in Missouri have residents and state officials calling for tougher exotic animal laws

Is that a Poopdeck in your plans, or are you just happy to see me?

Lakewater
The Poopdeck
4877 Highway 54, Osage Beach
573-348-2259

Using Their Noodle

Ever catch a 50-pound catfish with your bare hands? He has. So has his dad. And his granddad. And his aunts.

Letters

Week of August 3, 2005

Something Fishy

A bubbling demand for Missouri caviar spawns cutthroat competition.

Hole in One

Unreal sneaks a peek at golfing strippers, learns the health advantages of Pimp Juice and laments fallen fowl; plus, do women who marry Jesus get wedding gifts?

Lewis & Clark & Car

Leaving St. Louis

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Net Profit

In this age of shrink-wrapped food and health scares, there are still folks who crave the taste of fresh-caught river fish. Jim Beasley casts his nets every day to feed that hunger.

Mano a Fisho

Legal or not, a-noodling they will go

Is This a Good Omen or a Bad One for G.W. Bush?

The armadillo, Texas' best-known critter, migrates to Missouri

News Real

Of Wetlands and Wal-Marts

One development at a time, Missouri has lost 87 percent of its wetlands. And that means more floods, more damage, more levees, more bucks. The story of one Supercenter and how progress comes at a price.

Sending in the Doe Boys

Town & Country goes to war to make its gardens safe

Grim Harvest

Residents of Town & Country can't decide whether to slaughter hundreds of deer, move a few to rural acreage, or do a little of both. The Missouri Department of Conservation's best advice is lethal -- but the mayor is committing political suicide to save t