“Mammals” on The Daily Caller

BEIJING (AP) — A rare Siberian tiger attacked and killed a tour bus driver in northern China while the man’s horrified passengers watched, Chinese media reported. (more)

The “nightmare well” is dead. But the Gulf coast’s bad dream is far from over. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government hired a New Orleans man for $18,000 to appraise whether news stories about its actions in the Gulf oil spill were positive or negative for the Obama administration, which was keenly sensitive to comparisons between its response and former President George W. Bush’s much-maligned reaction to Hurricane Katrina. (more)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin fired darts from a crossbow at a gray whale off Russia’s Far Eastern coast on Wednesday in the latest in a series of man-versus-nature stunts designed to cultivate the image of a macho leader. (more)

TOKYO (AP) — A quarter-century ban on commercial whaling — one of the world’s most successful preservation agreements — could crumble altogether if conservationists cannot persuade Japan to cut back on the tradition it champions. (more)

WASHINGTON — To hear Obama administration officials tell it, they’ve been fully engaged on the Gulf Coast oil spill since Day One, bringing every resource to bear and able to ensure without question that taxpayers will be protected. (more)

CORDOVA, Alaska (AP) — Communities along the Gulf Coast wondering about what kind of legacy the monstrous oil slick will leave can look no further than the towns along the Alaska coastline that were ravaged by the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. (more)

TOKYO (AP) — Japan cautiously welcomed an International Whaling Commission proposal Friday that would effectively allow the resumption of commercial whaling for the first time in 25 years — though under strict quotas that the commission argues will reduce the global catch of the mammals. (more)

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Two-time horse of the year Curlin has produced his first foal. (more)

TOKYO (AP) — Seafood-loving Japan — having faced years of international pressure to stop whaling — finds itself with a potentially bigger fight over a highly prized type of tuna that conservation groups say is being fished to extinction. (more)

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Gray wolves killed livestock in Montana at the rate of an animal per day in 2009, stirring a backlash against the predators in rural areas and depleting a program that compensates ranchers for their losses. (more)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Police in New Zealand are inquiring into reports that a boisterous teenage dolphin with a reputation for stealing surfboards and balls from swimmers has been attacked with a paddle after annoying a canoeist. (more)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Three environmental groups are going to court to try and stop a particularly contentious timber sale of old-growth trees in the country’s largest national forest. (more)

SYDNEY (AP) — A conservationist group that lost one of its ships in a clash with Japanese whalers off Antarctica has filed a piracy complaint in the Netherlands against the captain and crew of the whaling vessel, one of the group’s leaders said Saturday. (more)

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Hundreds of sea lions that abruptly blew out of San Francisco Bay’s Pier 39 last Thanksgiving have apparently found a new home at another tourist attraction — 500 miles north on the Oregon coast. Thousands of California sea lions started showing up in December at Sea Lion Caves, a popular tourist draw because of the Stellar sea lions living in the caves. (more)

APOLLO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Frigid temperatures across Florida drove hundreds of manatees to balmy waters outside a power plant, shocked endangered sea turtles off the coast and even sent cold-blooded iguanas tumbling from trees. (more)

SYDNEY (AP) — Conservationists monitoring Japanese whalers in the Antarctic said Friday that they remained committed to protecting whales despite a dangerous clash this week that resulted in one of their boats sinking. (more)

SYDNEY (AP) — A clash off Antarctica between a Japanese whaler and a boat from a protest group partly bankrolled by former TV game show host Bob Barker left the anti-whaling vessel badly damaged and each side accusing the other of life-threatening behavior. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Television game show host Bob Barker knew anti-whaling work could be dangerous even before his $5 million donation to a conservation group, but he was shocked to hear about Wednesday’s violent crash between a Japanese whaling ship and one of the group’s speedboats. (more)

LONDON (AP) — The water-dwelling ancestors of modern-day mammals, reptiles and birds emerged onto land millions of years earlier than previously believed, researchers report. (more)