WASHINGTON
If you live in the forest, eventually you’re bound to run across other forest critters — deer, flying squirrels, maybe Sasquatch — so when Northwest author Jonathan Evison encountered a bear cub on a trail near his cabin, he was prepared. The Kitsap Sun reported Evison had been tromping around in the Olympic foothills of Clallam County when he heard a curious sound: A crying baby? Or perhaps a lost kitten? He investigated and found a tiny cub alone at the base of a tree, scared and miserable.
Evison, not wanting to interfere and hoping the mama bear would return, stepped quietly away. But the following day, he came back and found the cub still crying, tangled up in branches underneath a tree. “It really wasn’t much of a decision, and I just pretty much instinctively went up after it and freed it and then just put it back on its feet,” he said. The cub latched onto Evison’s ankle and began following him. Evison suspected that the mother had been killed by poachers, but in any case, she clearly hadn’t returned.
So he contacted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and took the cub to West Sound Wildlife Shelter for medical attention. Then it was transferred to PAWS in Lynnwood, a facility specifically created for lost or abandoned black bear cubs. There, the cub will hang out with its peers and learn how to be a bear, and, eventually, be reintroduced to the wild. Evison said he felt he made the right choice when he rescued it: “What, am I supposed to kick it in the bushes and outrun it? I feel OK about it.” But, he added, “We sure do miss him. He was such a cute little son of a gun.”
CALIFORNIA
Well, call me Ishmael! Apparently, white whales aren’t confined to classic literature, SFGate reports. Harbor Breeze Cruises, a whale-watching tour company, was returning from Catalina Island when Capt. Kevin Nguyen spied the stream of mist that marks a spouting whale. An extremely rare “ghostly” white orca known as Frosty then appeared with a pod of six other whales. It was a banner day, and not just for the school kids on Nguyen’s boat; within an hour, three other tour boats raced out with passengers, eager to glimpse the legendary white whale.
OREGON
It sounds like the opening scene from a classic 1950s monster movie: “Freaky-looking fanged fishes found on Oregon beaches.” These “freaky fish,” which are known as lancetfish, are “scaleless with fanged jaws and huge eyes … slinky bodies,” and a “sail-like fin,” according to the Associated Press. They’re considered inedible (not that we can imagine anyone having the gumption to try) due to their “gelatinous flesh.” The lancetfish, which normally live in tropical waters and travel as far north as the Bering Sea, washed ashore along 200 miles of coastline, an unusual occurrence, considering they dwell a mile beneath the ocean. Cue the bespectacled scientists scratching their heads while spooky music plays and the hero declares, “Bullets won’t stop ’em,” and springs into action, even as his sweetheart, one of those dauntless movie-style “girl reporters,” says, “Guys, it’s just a fish.”
WASHINGTON
A popular roadway was closed for several days due to a frightful pothole that wreaked havoc on motorists’ tires. The 5-by-4-foot pothole materialized on the on-ramp to northbound State Route 99. Video taken by KIRO 7 shows the hole from below with bright blue sky visible through the West Seattle Bridge. The hole might not be a sinister portal to another dimension, but local motorists are certainly not pleased. The State Department of Transportation found no issues in August 2022, when it last inspected the road. But WSDOT did note that the road is over 60 years old — which is prehistoric in dog, or highway, years.
COLORADO
The best part of waking up is not Folgers in your cup but … a cougar breakfasting on your front porch? Yikes! When Charles Zelenka was roused at 2 a.m. by an unholy racket, he assumed it was bears trying to break into his bear-proof dumpster, Outdoor Life reported. But when he investigated, he found a large elk in its death throes: “I was just about ready to turn and go out the door, and a mountain lion popped up,” Zelenka said. “So I grabbed my phone — I’m in my skivvies, I’ve just gotten out of bed — and start recording.” Where’s David Attenborough when you need him?
Note: This story was updated to correct where Jonathan Evison found the baby bear. It was not on Bainbridge Island but in the Olympic foothills of Clallam County.
Tiffany Midge is a citizen of the Standing Rock Nation and was raised by wolves in the Pacific Northwest. Her book, Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s (Bison Books, 2019), was a Washington State Book Award nominee. She resides in north-central Idaho near the Columbia River Plateau, homeland of the Nimiipuu.
Tips of Western oddities are appreciated and often shared in this column. Write heard@hcn.org, or submit a letter to the editor.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Baby bears, white whales and ‘freaky-looking fanged fish’.
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