Imagine how surreal it must be to go snowboarding at night and become the only source of light as you carve turns in fresh powder.
Pro snowboarder William Hughes is the "silver surfer" in the accompanying production by filmmaker Jacob Sutton, who intended to show "a lone character made of light surfing through darkness."
Sutton achieved his goal, in a production for Nowness, by fitting Hughes in a specially-designed L.E.D-enveloped suit for four nights of filming in the Tignes in the Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France.
Said Hughes of the bizarre experience: "Filming in the suit was the most surreal thing I’ve done in 20 years of snowboarding. Luckily there was plenty of vin rouge to keep me warm, and Jacob’s enthusiasm kept everyone going through the cold nights."
It's not a horse of a different color that turned up in Pennsylvania recently, but rather a different mammal -- a squirrel. More precisely a purple squirrel.
The uniquely-colored rodent was trapped by Percy and Connie Emert, of Jersey Shore, Pa., who caught it in traps put out to keep squirrels from their bird feeders.
"We have bird feeders out in our yard, and the squirrels are constantly into them," Connie told AccuWeather.com. "My husband traps them and then sets them free elsewhere."
Connie had spotted a purple squirrel on her property but no one believed her.
"I kept telling my husband I saw a purple one out in the yard. 'Oh sure you did,' he kept telling me," she said.
But sure enough, when Percy checked the traps on a recent Sunday, there it was, in all its purple glory.
Nobody can explain the peculiar coloration, but theories abound.
AccuWeather.com meteorologist Henry Margusity ventures that "The squirrel could have been looking for somewhere warm and fallen into a port-a-potty or something similar."
"This is not good at all. That color looks very much like Tyrian purple. It is a natural organobromide compound seen in molluscs and rarely found in land animals. The squirrel [possibly] has too much bromide in its system."
No matter the reason, no harm came to the brightly colored squirrel. The Emerts released it back into the wild and currently nobody knows where the animal is. Hopefully, it will remain that way.
"We're not going to do a manhunt to look for the purple squirrel," Harold Cole, wildlife conservation officer for the Pennsylvania Game Commission said.
Residents of Midland in Ontario, Canada, have made a touching gesture to honor the memory of freeskiing star Sarah Burke, who died last month after an accident during training in a superpipe.
Burke grew up on Huron Street in Midland, and residents in the neighborhood, according to Simcoe.com, have requested that the town change the road's name to Sarah Burke Street.
"It would be a great tribute to one of Midland’s amazing, beautiful, young and inspirational athletes, who was taken from us way too soon," Rick and Debbie Dalziel stated in a letter to the city council, supported by the signatures of 11 neighbours. "Being friends and next-door neighbours of the Burke family for several years, we feel that Sarah and the entire family would be truly touched by this honour."
The entire street is in agreement regarding the name change but a councilman responded that the gesture may be too modest.
Still, many will agree that the name change ought to be granted, along with whatever larger gesture the council may come up with.
The request has been forwarded to the planning and development committee for review, after which it'll be brought to council for a decision.
A marlin constructed entirely with sunglasses? Now that's cool.
Even better is that the Costa sunglasses sculpture has been donated to The Billfish Foundation to help fund conservation efforts.
The shimmering artwork will be shown at various events, beginning with this week's Miami International Boat Show, before being sold at auction next February.
It was sculpted using the lenses, hinges, frames, nose pads, side shields and retainer cord segments of hundreds of pairs of sunglasses.
Costa is a sponsoring partner of The Billfish Foundation.
Ellen Peel, president of the conservation group, described the sculpture as "truly a priceless work of art."
Below is a video showing how the sculptures of the marlin and other fish were created:
In support of the California Department of Fish and Game and its effort to keep hunters and anglers informed, Pete Thomas Outdoors, on Thursday or Friday, posts marine biologist Carrie Wilson's weekly California Outdoors Q&A column:
Question: I have been trying to get into the sport of bow-fishing but two issues have my parents and I a little puzzled. My dad heard that if you are going to bow-fish, you need some kind of special reel on the bow (don’t know whether it was an open face reel or a crank reel). We are also unsure what license I should use. Do we need a hunting or a fishing license to bow-fish? (Nicholas M.)
Answer: No special reels or gear are required for bowfishing by the Department of Fish and Game but you will need sport fishing licenses since you will be taking fish and not game. Be sure to check with the governing law enforcement agency for the area where you intend to fish because not all areas of the state (including various federal, state and local parks) are open to bow-fishing. Some areas prohibit using this type of fishing gear because they consider it possibly a "deadly weapon." This has been the case primarily in incorporated city areas. If fishing in freshwater, please read section 2.25 in the Freshwater Sport Fishing Regulations for the list of permitted species and any special water restrictions (California Code of Regulations Title 14, section 2.25).
Q: My uncle has a ranch up in northeastern California and his property has become overrun with ground squirrels. He’s worried about his calves stepping in the holes and breaking their legs. Do we need hunting licenses to help him get rid of these varmints? How can we legally help my uncle control his ground squirrel invasion problem and not get in trouble with a game warden? (Anonymous)
Animal care experts from SeaWorld San Diego removed a bullet Wednesday from a sea lion that had come ashore at least four days earlier in Oceanside.
A SeaWorld team rescued the underweight and distressed pinniped last Saturday. It's believed to be between 5-10 years old.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the sea lion was found with a deep, infected wound on its left flipper, and that a bullet fragment had become lodged in its shoulder. The animal was treated with antibiotics and was said to be in stable condition.
It remains unclear who may have shot the sea lion, or what the motive might have been.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is investigating the incident. The agency also is investigating a string of nine sea lion killings in Washington state.
California wolf enthusiasts may be interested in learning that OR7, believed to be the state's only wild wolf, has crossed from Lassen back into Shasta County.
The state Department of Fish and Game has created a web page devoted to OR7 and posts occasional maps that reveal where the young male gray wolf has been, thanks to a GPS unit fitted onto its collar. The maps are lagged, however, to avoid revealing the wolf's real-time location.
The accompanying map, released Wednesday, shows OR7's position through Feb. 9.
But the DFG also provides more timely updates, and earlier this week the agency reported that the wolf, who crossed from Oregon into California in late December, had entered Shasta County. He had also been in Shasta before entering Lassen County, and had previously been in Siskiyou County.
An update Wednesday morning states that OR7 is in the southeast portion of the county and traveling to the south. That would place him close to where he was before he entered Lassen County.
To be sure, if OR7 is searching for a mate his vast wanderings seem a sad and hopeless journey through bountiful but wolf-less terrain. The last known wolf in California was a specimen killed by a trapper in Lassen County in 1924.
OR7 is 2 1/2 years old and hails from a pack in northeastern Oregon. He entered California on Dec. 28.
As tempting as it may be for anglers who return from long-range trips into Mexican waters with mountains of tuna, it's against the law to sell the fish commercially.
Scott Harper, a captain with the Redondo Beach Fire Department, is under investigation for selling sport-caught tuna from the back of his truck, according to the Daily Breeze.
Harper had been fishing aboard the Red Rooster III, one of several San Diego-based luxury sportfishers that carry anglers on multiday excursions in search of giant yellowfin tuna. The vessel returned to port on Feb. 3.
The case against Harper opened last week in San Diego. The misdemeanor charge could result in an $8,000 fine.
"Anything you catch is for personal use or to give it away to friends or family, but you can never sell," Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game, told the South Bay newspaper.
Long-range fishing trips out of San Diego are famous for producing catches of yellowfin tuna in excess of 200 and sometimes 300 pounds.
Harper reportedly caught a 293.6-pounder to earn big-fish honors, and landed two others at 200-plus pounds.
Two other fire fighters were on the same trip, but Harper appears to be the only angler to have landed in hot water.
-- Image shows Scott Harper with a 293.6-pound tuna caught aboard the Red Rooster II out of San Diego. Credit: Bill Roecker / Fishingvideos.com
Pop singing star Shakira, after a scary encounter with a sea lion off Cape Town, South Africa, undoubtedly has a greater appreciation of wild animals and how unpredictable they can be.
The entertainer from Colombia, while on a recent nature tour, was ferociously charged by the large pinniped after she had scampered down the rocks to get an up-close photo with her BlackBerry, which she guessed was mistaken as food.
Here's Shakira's description, via the singer's Facebook page:
"This afternoon I happened to see some sea lions and seals. I thought to myself how cute they were so I decided to get a bit closer than all of the other tourists and went down to a rock trying to pet them doing a baby talk while taking pictures...
"Suddenly, one of them jumped out of the water so fast and impetuously that it got about one foot away from me, looked me in the eye, roared in fury and tried to bite me. Everyone there screamed, including me.
"I was paralyzed by fear and couldn't move, I just kept eye contact with it while my brother 'Super Tony' jumped over me and literally saved my life, taking me away from the beast."
Sea lions can be territorial and their bites can spread painful and serious disease. Divers who swim in their company are sometimes charged but not often attacked by the swift and agile mammals. I've personally experienced these false charges while scuba diving and snorkeling in the Sea of Cortez off Baja California.
Shakira added: "We both got our hands and legs scratched by the rocks while trying to protect ourselves. I believe what happened is that it confused the shiny reflection of the BlackBerry I was taking these pics with, with some sort of fish."
She went on to visit penguins, which were much more accommodating, as you can see by the image at the top of this post. The imge was pulled from her Facebook page.
Having been fortunate enough to have visited to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, I can attest that there are few avian critters as goofy-looking (on land), graceful (in flight) and lovable as the Laysan albatross.
The accompanying video clip, posted Monday by Midway Journey, reveals a glimpse of what's to come in a high-definition film titled "Midway," directed by Chris Jordan. It shows weary albatross parents waddling shoreward to embark on their first forays to find food after weeks on the nest.
But the large sea birds of Midway -- which hosts about 71% of the world's nesting population -- face peril because of plastic pollution that's picked up in the ocean by the adults, and passed to babies on the atoll.
Midway Journey states on its website that the atoll "serves as a lens into one of the most profound and symbolic environmental tragedies of our time: the deaths by starvation of thousands of albatrosses who mistake floating plastic trash for food."
Jordan says the upcoming film is "more than just a documentary or a film about wildlife at risk. 'Midway' brings us an opportunity for us to look at our world in close-up, to see how our lives are impacting the planet, and to find new approaches to moving forward."
To be sure, the plight of the albatross lends contemporary meaning to the phrase, "Battle of Midway." The film, which remains under production, ought to be both inspirational and enlightening.
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