Printer-friendly version MOST READ STORIES • Woman seriously injured in house fire• Child hit by truck and killed in Plains• Manhunt continues for escaped Kansas inmate• Kan. inmate gets parole 31 years after conviction • Hypercautious parenting may have an effect on future footballers Published: 8/11/2012 5:07 PM | last update: 8/11/2012 5:07 PM 65-pound catfish among dead fish in mall aquarium

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SALINA – a 65-pound catfish named Willie the Rivercat and several other fish in a 15,000-gallon aquarium at a Salina mall have died because of a high chloride level in the water.

Central Mall spokeswoman Maggie Phelps declined to tell the Salina Journal how many fish died, and she didn’t know how the chloride level got so high.

Phelps says the mall was working with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen again.

She says the mall also will be getting new fish for the aquarium, including potentially another big catfish the public can help name.

Lights to the aquarium have been turned off and only seven fish and some turtles remained in the tank, which reopened in may after renovations.

Wichita chef takes lion

off menu after protests

WICHITA – a Wichita restaurant won’t be serving lion at a one-night-only dinner next week after animal rights groups protested its inclusion in the exotic meal.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Jason Febres, a chef at Taste & see restaurant, acknowledged on his Facebook page that some people were shocked and disturbed about the proposed menu item.

The restaurant still will be serving kangaroo, alpaca, crocodile and water buffalo at its $160 dinner Tuesday, which is sold out.

The dinner plans rankled wild-animal advocate Born Free USA and led to a petition on the social-action site Change.org calling for people to pressure Febres to cancel the dinner.

Febres says he isn’t canceling and added that some information about his dinner has been misleading.

Bears keep bullying

hikers on Alaska trail

FAIRBANKS, Alaska – Rangers have been ordered to kill a pair of grizzly bears if they find the duo displaying the same type of behavior they have been exhibiting toward hikers on a popular trail in the Chena River State Recreation Area.

“If they come up and challenge them, I told them to go ahead and (kill) them,” Brooks Ludwig, northern region superintendent for Alaska State Parks, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

“They’ve got a long rap sheet now,” he added. “If they have no fear of you and come right up and get in your face … we can’t have that,” he said.

The bears approached hikers twice last week on the 15-mile trail that’s about 40 miles east of Fairbanks.

One hiker fired two shots from a handgun to keep the bears at bay. The bears, however, followed him along the trail until eventually backing off.

In the other incident, a woman told park workers the bears got close enough that she could have sprayed them with a can of bear spray. She decided against using the spray because she was concerned she didn’t have enough for both bears. The woman managed to hike out unscathed.

Drought increasing bear

sightings in Vail Valley

VAIL, Colo – Wildlife officials are warning that last winter’s drought and a hot, dry summer have limited bears’ natural food supplies and are driving the animals into areas they usually don’t travel.

Perry will with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife department tells the Vail Daily this year is shaping up to be similar to 2002, when another severe drought brought an unusual number of bears into neighborhoods. Several cities in the Vail Valley have reported increased bear sightings.

Meanwhile, will says the Yeoman Park campground southeast of Eagle has been closed to “soft-sided” shelters, including tents and canvas-walled pop-up campers, because of a habituated bear that is roaming the area. he adds he will close campgrounds if necessary to reduce bear-human conflicts.

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