Wildlife

Broadway Oyster Bar Invites You to Suck It at Crawfish Fest This Weekend

The mighty mud bug is the star of this month's food festival at Broadway Oyster Bar (736 South Broadway; 314-621-8811), and chef Brad Hagen is pulling out all the stops (and all the crawfish) to make this a feast worthy of the Big Easy. Gut Check spoke with Broadway Oyster Bar's Mary Moramarco to ... 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 >>

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 >>

Pal Joeys: Two New Kangaroo Babies at the Saint Louis Zoo

The population of the Saint Louis Zoo increased by two over the winter, but the cuteness factor just grew exponentially. Kasbeth the Matschie's tree kangaroo and Conundrum the red kangaroo both gave birth to lima bean sized babies back in January; now those younguns are big enough to start venturing ... More >>

Cri Cri the Harbor Seal Is Dead

The Saint Louis Zoo announced that Cri Cri the harbor seal has died at the Indianapolis Zoo. She was in transit to St. Louis from London, Ontario's Storybook Gardens with three other harbor seals when handlers discovered two of those seals, Nunavut and Atlantis, were dead. The truck carrying them de ... 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 >>

Michelle Higgins and Anthony Higgins, Sr: St. Charles Couple Hoarded Reptiles, Lived in Filth

​A St. Charles couple kept 157 snakes and lizards in their split-level rental property, as well as at least 1,500 live mice to feed them, and one dog. The snakes were housed in clean cages -- the problem was all the animal waste, which the couple, Michelle Higgins and Anthony Higgins, Sr., did not ... More >>

It's the actors who need rescued in trapped-whale saga Big Miracle

March of the Penguins

Area Wolves Seek Transportation for the Holidays

This holiday season while families gather and write down their Christmas lists, Rachel Broom, director of development at the Endangered Wolf Center (6750, Tyson Valley Rd, Eureka) will continue her search for transportation for the 42 wolves, wild dogs, and foxes that call the center home. Located ... More >>

Mr. Popper's Penguins and Chill Frozen Yogurt

Robin WheelerCoffee and chocolate frozen yogurt topped with Valrhona chocolate shavings at Chill.​ What screams summer movies more than a penguin farce that takes place during a Manhattan winter? Perhaps Mr. Popper's Penguins was meant to mentally cool us while we watch a bunch of misplaced ... More >>

Arizona Wildfires Threaten Missouri-Raised Mexican Gray Wolves

Photo courtesy of Regina MossottiThe Arizona wildfires might have the power to impact almost half the population of Mexican gray wolves living in the wild. These one-month-old pups live at the Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka.​Look at those faces. Outside of a moon scene on a novelty T-shirt o ... More >>

Cicada Cuisine: Six Ways to Cook the Critters

Wikimedia CommonsYummy cicadas​ Sick of cicadas? You can lower their population by eating them. Oh, come on. People all over the world eat insects without getting grossed out. With rising food prices, the U.S. shouldn't be so quick to poo-poo cheap sources of protein. And considering all the ... More >>

How To Survive a Mountain Lion Encounter

funnyaussiesigns.comYou, too, can survive a mountain lion encounter.​Another mountain lion was confirmed in Missouri this week. The Department of Conservation concluded Wednesday that paw prints photographed April 20 in Macon County in north-central Missouri were almost surely those of a cougar. F ... More >>

Study Confirms Orangutans Lazier Than the Laziest Human You Know

Orangutan at Rest: How very stereotypical.​That orangutan you see at the zoo doing nothing but sitting on its rump staring at you (no matter how hard you bang on its plexi-glass cage), is indeed as lazy as you thought. According to a new report penned by anthropology professor Herman Pontzer at Wa ... More >>

St. Louis Zoo Replaces Dead Polar Bears with Electronic Proxies

Okay, so the story in today's business section of the Post-Dispatch is mostly about how a company that sells holiday decorations is opening an office in downtown St. Louis. (Yes, exciting!)But the real news is the photo (below) that accompanied the story.Post-Dispatch, Section B1, 11/13/2009​If yo ... More >>

Cold Hard Facts

No One Saw This Coming: PETA Urges Zoo to Close Polar Bear Exhibit

flickr.com/photos/79947165@N00The zoo's polar bear confines.The other day we noted how the Saint Louis Zoo's last polar bear, Hope, died this week from cancer at the age of 23. Now today...wait for it...that's it...just a second...more...okay, here it comes...PETA announced that it is urging the zoo ... More >>

Otter in Mourning

The River Otter Journal, Fall/Winter 2008Splash, Slide and Chambers in happier days.A moment of silence, please, for Splash the otter, who died three months ago at age ten after an infection from an abscessed tooth spread to his heart. And another moment for his brother and littermate Slide, who sti ... More >>

Isn't It Time the Saint Louis Zoo Rethinks Its Position on Elephants?

www.helpelephants.comThis morning's Post-Dispatch has a rather alarming story buried back on page D3. Another of the Saint Louis Zoo's elephants has been diagnosed with a potentially deadly strain of herpes. According to the daily, the two-year-old Asian elephant Maliha is currently showing no sympt ... More >>

Fancy Birds

Long walk

Elephant Treament Lands Saint Louis Zoo in "Hall of Shame"

This just in from the In Defense of Animals organization: Our very own Saint Louis Zoo has landed in the "Hall of Shame" for the confinement and treatment of its elephants. Visitors to the zoo over the past few years may have noticed a foot brace on Clara (an elephant that was euthanized in 2007 at ... More >>

Stop the Flooding: Eat a Muskrat!

Stop the Flooding: Eat a Muskrat!

Malcolm eats a tin of armadillo. Hmmm, it tastes like salmon mousse.

RFT readers show their deep admiration for skunks.

Frog-gone It!

Malcolm never saw a frog’s leg he couldn’t keep down, until...

Dried Weaver Ants With Eggs

Weaver ants are a tad dry for Malcolm’s discriminating palate, but the Democratic presidential primary provides plenty to chew on.

Jin Yang Silkworm Pupa

This week: Silkworm pupa out the Jin Yang.

Buzzkill

See all those little suckers? Did you know that they're an invasive species and a linchpin of modern agriculture? That they're dying off by the million and no one's sure why?

Sylvilagus Floridanus (Eastern Cottontail)

Webster Groves

Flocka Alpaca

Roland Smoked Sliced Octopus

$1.99
DiGregorio Market
5200 Daggett Avenue

Dance of the Penguin

That whole talking animal genre? Let's be done with it.

Miracle on Ice

The life of the emperor penguin isn't easy, but it might make yours seem better

Animal Crackers

In Madagascar, the wild things romp, then roam

Save the Amshack

We lament the impending doom of our beloved train-trailer, talk to a guy with some great squirrel recipes and go to jail. Plus: Can taking Communion give you the flu?

Best Zoo Animal

Giant anteater

Jump the Shark

What could make the City Museum even better? Fifteen thousand sea creatures!

Gopher Guts

Elephant funerals and turtle necropsies: It's all in a day's work for the Saint Louis Zoo's Dr. Mary Duncan

Nocello, Neat

Harvest, 1059 Big Bend Boulevard, 314-645-3522

Bring the Folks

For fun in any language

Best Zoo Animal

Takin

Best Gun Shop

Denny Dennis Sporting Goods

Muskrat Love

Beneath the skin of FURRY

It's a Toss-Up

Jugglers throw up for sport

Best Addition to the St. Louis Zoo

Capybaras

Wildcat Strike

Board of a sanctuary for lions, cougars and tigers takes a walk because the owners let the animals breed

Going Ape

Suzy the Chimp is dead, her teenage killer faces charges and there's bad blood all around