Wildlife

Cleanup crews used dispersants in large quantities after the 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil spill and 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We had no idea it was carnivorous,” says Sean Graham, a botanist with the University of British Columbia. “This was not found in some exotic tropical location, but really right on our doorstep in Vancouver. You could literally walk out from Vancouver to this field site.”

It was the summer of 1996 when William Young — an Alaskan fond of wilderness and solitude — survived an attack by a brown bear.

The three animals had been active throughout Sitka for the past month before trying to enter homes on consecutive days.

Maggie moved to Anchorage in 1983 as a young orphan from southern Africa. She stayed for 24 years before moving to a sanctuary in California.

Sunflower sea stars are critically endangered and being driven toward extinction by a mysterious, devastating disease.