Don’t try this at home. On Sunday, April 21, Mike Dragich was filmed wrangling an 8-foot alligator barehanded on a busy street in Jacksonville, Florida. The footage shows a shoe-less Dragich pursuing the gator while wearing shorts, a trucker cap, and a cut-off T-shirt. Dragich attempts to grab the gator by the tail before pouncing on its back and straddling it with his legs.
“He was running towards the cops, and a crowd of people, and everybody was screaming,” Dragich told FOX35. “I felt like Batman!”
Eventually, Dragich manages to tape the reptile’s mouth shut. Then, he hoists the critter into the air like a naughty toddler and walks away with it.
Despite the casual nature of the video, Dragich is actually a licensed trapper, among other professions including MMA fighting. He has a history of grappling with big alligators, which has earned him the nickname “The Blue Collar Brawler.”
He was called to the scene by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission (FWC) through the agency’s nuisance alligator program. He told News4Jax that he was at a nearby minor league ice hockey game when the FWC called him, hence his lack of specialized equipment.
In a press release issued yesterday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) updated the public about the recent movements of 10 gray wolves that were captured in Oregon and released on the Centennial State’s Western Slope last winter. According to the release, two of the wolves are no longer emitting signals from GPS collars they were wearing during their December release. Another has died, likely of natural causes.
The press release included a statement from the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) about the deceased wolf. “On April 18, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service became aware of a deceased gray wolf in Larimer County, CO,” that statement reads. “As a federally listed species under the Endangered Species Act, the Service is investigating and has sent the carcass for a necropsy to determine the cause of death.”
Until the necropsy is completed, the USFWS won’t say for sure what killed the wolf, but initial evidence suggests that its death was not human caused. The agency went on to confirm that the dead wolf “was one of the ten recently released by Colorado Parks and Wildlife in December 2023.”
Shortly after the USFWS confirmed the dead wolf, CPW Director Jeff Davis informed Colorado’s ranching community that he won’t authorize the lethal removal of a female wolf that killed four cows in Grand County. “The biological interpretation of this is that she was likely in a den during the time when connectivity with the collar was interrupted, which aligns with the expected timing of wolf reproduction,” Davis wrote to the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association, as reported by the Colorado Sun.
Davis’ statement was a response to a letter that the ranchers sent to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and several CPW commissioners demanding that the agency kill a total of four transplanted wolves they say are responsible for killing six cows in tow counties in the past month. The ranchers who are demanding action live in Grand County, Larimer County, and Jackson County, Colorado.
CPW’s most recent wolf map shows that the animals moved east during the month of April, spreading further into Larimer County and north of Estes Park. “Movements of reintroduced wolves have been confirmed in watersheds east of the Continental Divide and onto the Front Range,” yesterday’s press release states.
In addition to newly transplanted wolves, Colorado is home to the world’s largest elk herds. Many hunters worry about the impact the new wolf population will have on elk numbers once it’s more firmly established in the state. CPW says it’ll continue to update the public about wolf movements but will no longer be issuing monthly wolf maps via email.
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Whether you’re hiking in remote areas, camping deep in the woods, or hunting the backcountry, there’s only thing more important than even food: clean water. And for that, the LifeStraw personal water filter is a game-changer. Right now, the popular straw filter is on sale for just $15 for a limited time.
This LifeStraw is arguably the best water filter out there. The survival tool removes almost all bacteria, parasites, microplastics, dirt, and sand from even the dirtiest water, making sure you have clean drinking water no matter where you are. It’s incredibly easy to use and it’s very lightweight—under 2 ounces—so it’s ideal for tossing in your pack without adding any bulk. Plus, it can filter up to 1,000 gallons of water and it has an unlimited shelf life.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a better deal on a LifeStraw water filter, so grab one while you can. After all, clean water is priceless.
A park ranger removed a cow elk carcass from a school’s football field last week after wolves moved in from neighboring Yellowstone National Park and devoured the ungulate. According to reporting in the Billing Gazette, the principal of the small school in Gardiner, Montana posted a photo of the elk’s remains on Facebook with information about the incident. The picture shows the wolf-killed cow it with its hide torn away and most of its innards and meat scavenged.
A group of wolves known as the the “8-Mile Pack” was responsible for the kill, which occurred sometime in the middle of the night before the elk was discovered in the early morning hours of April 18. According to wolftracker.org, the 8-Mile Pack originated in southwest Montana near the Tom Miner Basin and existed on the fringes of Yellowstone until 2011 when the canines moved into the park more permanently.
A park spokesperson told the Billing Gazette that the wolves “exhibited natural wary and wild wolf behavior by traveling quickly away from the carcass, which was mostly consumed, and returned to the park.”
The school has about 60 students, from kindergarteners up to high school-aged. The football field borders the nation’s first National Park on two sides and sits less than yards from the National Park Service boundary.
“It is common for wildlife to move through and adjacent to the Gardiner community given its location at the doorstep of a national park,” said Linda Veress, a Yellowstone public affairs officer, told the Billing Gazette. “It’s common for elk, bison and pronghorn to be at the school grounds, less so bears and wolves. It is very rare that we document wolves within the town’s developed footprint over the last 28 years. Very seldom, if ever, does park staff need to deal with bears and bison on school grounds.”
A group of people near an apartment complex in Asheville, North Carolina unwisely approached and harassed two tiny black bear cubs—and an onlooker captured the whole thing on video. The footage shows a brazen group of people prying the bear cubs from a small tree with no regard for their own or the bears’ safety; then they take selfies with the young critters.
“I don’t know what to do,” one of the onlooking videographers can be heard saying in the video. “Now they’re taking pictures. That’s insane.”
One of the people in the video is seen dropping one of the cubs. According to a press release provided by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC), the people who recorded the video also reported the incident to the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department, which allowed officials to respond in a timely manner.
NCWRC staff reported to the scene to look for the cubs. They located one of them in a retention ponds; the other remains at large. Unfortunately, the bear they did find was not in good health.
“The cub appeared to be lethargic and frightened. It looked to be favoring one of its front paws and was wet and shivering,” said NCWRC coordinator Ashley Hobbs.
“The cub’s condition is likely a result of the unnecessary and irresponsible actions of the people involved,” added NCWRC Game Mammals and Surveys Supervisor Colleen Olfenbuttel. “Ashley and our enforcement staff searched the area for the second cub but did not locate it. Our hope is it was able to reunite with the mother because it would not survive on its own at this young age.”
The NCWRC is still investigating the incident. While harassing wildlife is never a good idea and is in many cases illegal, it’s especially foolish to do so with bear cubs in the spring. According to NCWRC officials, during this time of the year, cubs are entirely dependent on their mothers for food and protection. While cubs may appear to be abandoned, it’s most often the case that their mothers are foraging for food and will return for them—and may be aggressive when defending their offspring.
“Even if you don’t see the mother bear, she could be nearby,” explained Olfenbuttel. “By trying to capture a bear cub, you may cause it to become orphaned, injured or both, as we saw occur in this incident.”
NCWRC officials say the captured bear cub was taken to a licensed rehabilitator with the aim of returning it to the wild later this year. The agency is reminding folks not to approach, feed, or handle bear cubs or other wildlife.
No matter where you stand on the CWD debate—whether you think it’s the most important deer-related issue of our time or more than a little overblown—what’s long been a constant, and a comforting constant at that, is the fact that the disease has never been shown to “jump” from deer to humans. It’s also why this report, “Two Hunters from the Same Lodge Afflicted with Sporadic CJD: Is Chronic Wasting Disease to Blame?”from the American Academy of Neurology seems potentially alarming. But let’s slow down a bit.
While no human has ever contracted CWD, we are susceptible to a similar ailment called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). CJD is frequently called “mad cow disease,” but that one (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is actually not related, according to the CDC. All three diseases—CWD, CJD, and Mad Cow, along with scrapie in sheep, are caused by misshapen proteins called prions, which are neither bacterium or virus. And they are all eventually fatal via a pretty nasty death, but also pretty rare. CJD, for example, occurs in about one in a million people.
Still, succumbing to a brain-eating prion is a bad way to go, and every hunter should have the good sense not to eat a game animal that looks sick. Hunters in known CWD areas are also strongly advised to get their deer tested, and discard the venison if tests positive for CWD.
Yet, if there were ever proof of a human contracting CWD from eating contaminated venison, the ramifications to deer hunting would obviously be catastrophic, and it would change the conversations and procedures around CWD management in a big way. Both reasons why this new study is something F&S should report on—but with a careful and critical eye.
The Fine Print
The study’s objective reads: “This study presents a cluster of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) cases after exposure to chronic wasting disease (CWD)-infected deer, suggestive of potential prion transmission from CWD-infected deer to humans.”
The “cluster,” from what I understand, is two people. And the study is based on an unnamed 72-year-old man who had a “history of consuming meat from a CWD-infected deer population… His friend, who had also eaten venison from the same deer population, recently died of CJD, raising concerns about a potential link between CWD and human prion disease.”
The study doesn’t say where this deer population was or what the CWD prevalence rate was in it. Some counties in southern Wisconsin have CWD prevalence rates as high as 28% in tested deer, but the rate is much lower than that elsewhere, and the definition for a CWD infected area can be pretty broad.
The point is, the study does not establish that the men ate infected venison or not. Maybe the researchers know beyond a doubt that they had their venison tested, that it came back positive, and they ate it anyway—but if they did, wouldn’t the study say so?
The findings also makes it clear that “Due to the challenge of distinguishing sCJDMM1 from CWD without detailed prion protein characterization, it is not possible to definitively rule out CWD in these cases.” Well, just because they can’t rule out CWD certainly doesn’t make CWD the culprit.
Bottom Line: Not Much News Here
Like so many studies that are perfectly valid and worth reading, but then later twisted to make a better headline, this one actually concludes with a fair bit of nothing: “Clusters of sporadic CJD cases may occur in regions with CWD-confirmed deer populations, hinting at potential cross-species prion transmission. Surveillance and further research are essential to better understand this possible association.” That’s pretty much what’s always been said about CWD, all the qualifiers including.
When considering how freaked out you should be about this, it’s worth taking into context the largest CJD scare in history, too, which was the outbreak of mad cow disease in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s and 1990s. During that, which went on for years, 178 people were believed to have contracted a CJD variant from eating contaminated beef. That’s out of a population of about 60 million people. In response to the panic, 4.5 million cattle were slaughtered and discarded. It’s worth noting that those feedlot cattle were fed a diet supplemented by protein meal made from the bones of other slaughtered cattle. Yeah, forced cannibalism seems like a good way to get sick, and it’s probably a good thing they stopped it.
Meanwhile, I’ll take this new study with a large grain of salt—which I may well use on my next steaks of wild, clover-fed venison.
A gray fox recently attacked and bit three hikers in Saguaro National Park in Southern Arizona. According to a Facebook post, the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) confirmed that the fox had rabies.
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The attacks occurred on April 3 and 4 on the Hugh Norris Trail. AZDFG officials said that two of the hikers used trekking poles to fend off the rabid fox. All three hikers received minor injuries and were treated with rabies shots.
National Park Service (NPS) officials initially closed the Hugh Norris Trail to the public following the spate of the attacks. Later, the fox approached an AZDFG official and was shot and killed.
The incidents are not isolated. Earlier this year, the NPS warned visitors to Saguaro National Park to take extra precautions in light of possible rabies cases at the park, due to “reports of deceased animal and strange wildlife behavior.” Additionally, a bobcat suspected to be rabid attacked and sent a 66-year-old to the hospital in a January 21 attack. In a separate incident, a rabid gray fox bit someone in a picnic area on Mount Lemmon near Tucson in March.
“It came up to me and lunged toward my feet,” victim Jorie O’Brien told 13 News following that attack. “I started kicking it in the head. That’s when it started biting me.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rabies is a “fatal but preventable viral disease.” The illness is spread to people from bites and scratches from rabid wild animals. Peoples’ pets can also be carriers of the disease. The disease impacts the central nervous system. But victims of rabid animal attacks can take a course of rabies vaccine shots to kill the virus.
Following the spate of attacks, AZGFD officials are warning the public to avoid oddly behaving wildlife and keep their pets up-to-date on their rabies vaccinations. “In Arizona, the principal rabies hosts are bats, skunks and foxes,” said Dr. Anne Justice-Allen, AZGFD wildlife veterinarian in a statement. “These animals carry their own distinct strains of the rabies virus. When rabies activity within these animal groups increases, rabies can impact other mammals, such as bobcats, coyotes, javelina, cats, dogs, horses, and cows.”
Earlier this week, the Coast Guard and the Navy joined forces to rescue three mariners who were stranded on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for several days. Relatives reported the men missing on April 6, more than 5 days after they set out in a small fishing skiff from their home in the island nation of Micronesia. They were rescued on April 9 after crews spotted their distress signal spelled out on a sandy beach more than 100 nautical miles from their home.
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“In a remarkable testament to their will to be found, the mariners spelled out ‘HELP’ on the beach using palm leaves, a crucial factor in their discovery,” said Lt. Chelsea Garcia, the search and rescue mission coordinator. “This act of ingenuity was pivotal in guiding rescue efforts directly to their location.”
The stranded fisherman were brothers in their 40s, the press release states. They set out from Palowat Atol, part of the the Federated Sates of Micronesia, on Easter Sunday (March 31). Micronesia is east of the Philippine Islands and north of Papua New Guinea.
Apparently, the men had navigated the waters around the small island where they were eventually stranded before. But this time the outboard motor powering their 20-foot skiff took on water sustained damage, USA Today reports.
A Coast Guard file photo shows members of the rescue crew that saved the stranded fishermen.
The Coast Guard’s initial efforts to mount a rescue operation were thwarted by bad weather and limited availability of equipment and military personnel. Eventually they secured an aircraft from a Navy base in Japan and additional support from a Coast Guard air station in Hawaii.
“A pivotal moment in the rescue operation came on April 8, when a U.S. Coast Guard HC-130J Hercules aircraft from Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii overflew the area,” the press release reads. “The crew was able to relocate the mariners, dropping a radio to establish communication. The mariners confirmed they were in good health, had access to food and water, and recovered their skiff … They expressed a desire for assistance in returning to Polowat.”
On the morning of April 9, the USCGC Oliver Henry set sail for Pikelot Atol, the tiny forested island where the fisherman were stranded. They picked the men up and returned them to their home island, along with their boat and fishing equipment.
“Whether we’re out there protecting valuable resources or saving lives, we’re not just visitors – we’re members of this vibrant maritime community that connects all these islands,” said Lt. Ray Cerrato, commanding officer of USCGC Oliver Henry. “This recent operation near Pikelot Atoll hits home the kind of difference we can make. It’s about more than just performing a duty; it’s about the real human connections we forge and the lives we touch.”
Need to know how remove a tick right now? No problem. I’ve got you. Having spent a lifetime outdoors and the last 25 years at an Upstate New York home whose yard is absolutely crawling with the horrible pariahs, I have removed more ticks from myself and others than I want to think too much about. It’s been a disgusting education, but with all that practice, I’ve gotten very good at it. So, I can tell you not only how to remove a tick the right way, but also how to avoid the wrong ways and what to do after you’ve pulled that nasty little bugger out of your flesh.
How to Remove a Tick – The Short Answer
If the head of a tiny, bloodsucking beast is writhing under your skin right at this moment and you can’t bear to have it in there one second longer, then here’s the short answer: Use a pair of fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to its head as possible and pull straight upward with even, steady pressure until it pops out. Or, run to the drug store, grab a tick-removal tool, and do pretty much the same. Use this video from the University of Rhode Islands TickEncounter Resource Center as a guide.
How to Remove a Tick: Table of Contents
How a Tick Becomes Embedded
How to Remove a Tick with Tweezers
How to Remove a Tick with a Specialized Tool
How Not to Remove a Tick
What to Do After Removing a Tick
Frequently Asked Questions
How a Tick Becomes Embedded
Oh my God, get it out! Right? No problem. Removing a tick is disgusting, but not difficult to do correctly. EvgeniyQW / Adobe Stock
Ticks don’t merely insert their horrifying mouthparts into you; they dig their way in via flesh-ripping hooks and then anchor themselves with a proboscis that’s studded with barbs—the little jerks. This is why they can be a little difficult to pull out.
But before they can dig in, they need to get themselves on your person first, which they do by climbing to the top of a blade of grass, forb, or twig and then reaching their disgusting little forelegs out in a posture called “questing.” There they wait for you or some other unfortunate to walk past and brush the blade or twig so they can grab on to a shoe or pantleg. From there, if left unnoticed, they will make their way to your skin, find a soft spot, and start digging.
How to Remove a Tick with Tweezers
Even after removing scores of ticks, I still have a visceral reaction to seeing one embedded. The little a-holes are so nasty and repulsive that it is perfectly reasonable if your first reaction is to want to run or cry, rather than remove it. So, the first thing you might have to do to remove a tick is just swallow hard and decide you are going to be clinical about this. There’s plenty of time to be disgusted later. After that, follow these steps:
metel_m / Adobe Stock
Disinfect the bit area with rubbing alcohol, or if that’s not handy, soap and water.
With a pair of fine-tipped tweezers, grasp the little bugger as close to your skin and as close the tick’s head as possible.
Pull straight up with even pressure. Don’t twist or yank or pull to the side, any of which can tear the tick’s revolting body from its nasty head, leaving the latter still embedded in your flesh, which you don’t want. It may take a couple tries, and you may have to pull fairly hard, but eventually the tick should pop out. And “pop” is the right word, as it will usually pull free suddenly, often with a surprising little snap or pop.
Clean the area again with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.
Specially design tick extractors are widely available and work great. Alexander Kurlovich / Adobe Stock
Personally, I stopped using tweezers year ago because, in my opinion, a number of widely available specialized tick-removal tools work better. These are very simple, most featuring nothing more than a small handle of some sort and a slot that get progressively narrower between two pieces of plastic. You slide the tool over the tick until it’s trapped in the narrowing slot and then do as above: pull upward with steady pressure until the tick tip pops free, as illustrated below.
How Not to Do It
There are a handful of sources out there that still recommend crazy things like heating a needle until it’s red hot and sliding it under the tick until it backs out. Well, don’t do that. And don’t cover it with petroleum jelly and wait for it to want to leave for lack of air, either. Just do the above because it’s the quickest and safest way.
What to Do After Removing a Tick
Once you’ve got the awful thing out, wash your hands and the area around the bite with rubbing alcohol or soap and water. If you couldn’t get the head out, you can try removing it with the tweezers, but don’t worry too much if you can’t; it will heal over and work out naturally.
Meanwhile, if the removal went smoothly, you’ve likely got a live tick crawling on your countertop. So, what to do with it? Well, you may want to have the horrible bug tested for bacteria, viruses, or parasites that cause tick-borne illnesses, and some states and private labs will do that for you. If so, put it in a jar or small sealable bag and call your state health department. Also, talk to your doctor; if they are open to prescribing a prophylactic single dose of antibiotic based on a tick-test result, it may be worth it to you. Otherwise, it won’t really tell you much. In fact, the CDC discourages this route for a few of reasons: First, just because a tick is carrying a bad virus or bacteria doesn’t mean it passed on to you; second, there are false positives that can unnecessarily freak you out; and, third, you wont know if you’ve been infected until you start showing symptoms anyway.
Plus, you won’t get the satisfaction of killing the damn thing. It’s temping to want to hit it with a hammer or squash it under a fingernail, but then you’ll have tick juice on your counter and possibly your hand, which isn’t good. Instead, watch it suffocate in a pool of rubbing alcohol, or flush it down the toilet, or fold it inside a piece of tape so it can’t possibly escape and throw it in the trash.
You’re welcome to call your doctor and tell them that you just removed a tick, but they will likely tell you to do the same thing you would if you didn’t call: Keep a close eye out for any symptoms, such as a bullseye rash, stiff joints, or flu-like symptoms. If you have any of these problems or just feel off after a tick bite, go to your doctor and tell them you recently removed a tick. The good news is that if you found and removed the tick within 24 hours of it becoming embedded, the odds are very good that you won’t have a problem. But if you have any symptoms, go to your doctor and get tested anyway, to be on the safe side.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will a stuck tick head eventually come out?
Yes. If the head of an embedded tick pulls away from its body and remains embedded, try using sterilized tweezer to grasp the head and pull it straight out. But if you can’t get it, don’t worry. It will heal over and work itself out eventually.
Can I use alcohol to remove a tick?
That’s a bad idea. So-called topical “treatments” like applying alcohol or peroxide of petroleum jelly will just prolong the time a tick is embedded, and some can irritate the tick enough that it will regurgitate it’s stomach content into you, increasing the odds of transmitting a nasty disease.
Do all ticks carry Lyme disease?
No. Lyme disease is transmitted only by infected deer ticks or black-legged ticks. And not all ticks that can carry diseases do. Even for Lyme disease, by far the most common tick borne illness in the U.S., scientists estimate that only 1 to 3 percent of bites end up transmitting the disease, even in areas where Lyme is common.
A sobering video recently posted to Instagram shows a rarely-filmed instance of black bears working in tandem to bring down vulnerable prey. The viral clip, shared by @natureismetal on March 30, captured two black bears taking down a struggling moose calf after the animal was separated from its mother during a wolf attack. It was originally filmed in Ontario, Canada in September 2023.
“They were certainly big bears, however it was also a young calf, probably only about quarter/half the size of an adult moose,” wrote photographer Anna-Mari Muller in the comments below a still frame photo of the incident she shared back in October. According to Muller, the calf’s mother was tucked away in the weeds nearby when the predation event took place.
The calf is seen standing in a lake as the bears attack, but they eventually pulled it up onto the shore, Muller’s Instagram post states. Her photos also show one of the wolves that originally attacked the calf before the black bears showed up to finish it off.
Muller filmed the encounter from a lake access point inside Algonquin Provincial Park. Her video is hard to watch, but it documents an important aspect of black bear behavior. Over the years, scores of studies have shown black bears to be formidable predators of juvenile moose—particularly when there are no grizzlies around to compete for the prey. A 1980 study conducted by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, for example, found that black bears were responsible or a whopping 59 percent of all moose calf mortality on the Kenai Peninsula.
Ontario is mostly devoid of grizzly bears, but Algonquin Park—which sits in the southeastern part of the province about three hours north of Toronto—has approximately 2,000 black bears and somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 moose. The 1.2 million-acre park is also home to between 30 and 35 separate wolf packs.
