Month: May 2026

By Veronica Haynes, Jennifer Peñate and Imani Clement

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    CHELMSFORD, Massachusetts (WCVB) — A duck is recovering Tuesday after it was found with an arrow through its bill.

Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, was alerted to the duck’s plight by a Salem resident who saw it near a pond over the last couple of days with what appeared to be a bolt from a crossbow stuck in its beak.

The mallard duck, who is well known along the river and was affectionately named Horace by his fans, was captured on Tuesday and the arrow was removed.

Steven Salowsky, of Newhouse Wildlife Rescue, was there for it all, helping to remove Horace from the Salem River.

“Jane and I both got in the water, got on both sides, and ran full force with nets,” Salowsky said. “It was right through the beak, it was actually completely superficial and it was right by the nostrils, conveniently so it was kind of like a nose piercing for a duck’s beak. We put some lubrication on it and it slid right out. It was very bizarre.”

Salowsky and the Rescue rehabilitate hundreds of animals, including a beaver just last month.

The beaver was trapped just below a dam, huddled on a rock with cuts and infection. It is now healthy and ready to be released.

“Sometimes it’s accidental. Sometimes it’s on purpose. It was another rescue where we both ended up jumping in the water, but we couldn’t leave him there like this,” Newhouse rescuers posted.

The duck is expected to make a full recovery. It will be released back to the pond where it was found, Newhouse Wildlife Rescue said.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Adam Bartow

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    AUGUSTA, Maine (WMTW) — A procession was held Wednesday morning to escort the body of Maine Game Warden Joshua Tibbetts, who died in a plane crash in Avon on Tuesday. The procession was described as an honorable transfer.

The Augusta Fire Department said the procession started at about 9 a.m. on Hospital Street in Augusta. The procession then moved to Bangor Street, Riverside Drive, Route 3 and then continue north on Interstate 95.

Drivers were asked to allow space for the procession to pass by, but people were also encouraged to stand and salute on roads in Augusta as the procession passed by them.

The procession ended the Crosby Neal funeral home in Newport.

Waterville Fire-Rescue officials said that northbound on-ramps on the highway were closed to traffic during the procession, as well as the Trafton Road and Rice Rips Road overpasses. Once the procession has passed through Waterville, the roads and on-ramps were re-opened.

Drivers were asked to NOT stop along the highway to render salute.

Tibbetts, 50, was a Warden Service pilot. The crash happened at about 11 a.m. Tuesday near Schoolhouse Pond in Avon.

“We are heartbroken,” the DIFW said in a statement shared on social media. “This is a devastating loss for the Maine Warden Service, our Department, and the people of Maine. Our thoughts are with the family, loved ones, colleagues, and all those impacted by this tragedy.”

“I want to express my profound sadness for Warden Tibbetts’ loved ones who got that call today, a call no family should ever have to receive,” said Gov. Janet Mills. “I ask all Maine people to hold the Warden Service in our hearts, as we all grieve the loss of their colleague, and to express our deepest condolences to Warden Tibbetts’ family and friends who are enduring an unimaginable sorrow — and to recognize the risks that law enforcement officers take when they show up to work each day to protect public safety and to keep this state the best place in the nation, the safest place in the nation, to live, work and raise a family.”

What we know about the crash and incident response The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the Maine Warden Service plane involved in the crash was a Cessna 185F.

Tibbetts was the only person who was on board the plane at the time of the crash, officials said. Scott said Maine Warden Service pilots fly on their own most of the time and that Tibbetts was working with the Bureau of Fisheries to stock fish in the western part of the state.

A witness told Maine’s Total Coverage reporter Jackie Mundry that winds in the area were very strong at the time of the plane crash.

“You definitely could feel the wind and you could see the trees were bending,” the witness said. “[The plane] definitely looked like it was fighting against the wind and was not in very good control, because it was teetering back and forth and it was very, very low to the mountains.”

Scott said Warden Service planes automatically send out a signal in the event of a crash.

“That system did work and that’s what notified the dispatch center,” Scott said.

Once the Warden Service was notified about the crash from the Maine State Police dispatch center, Scott said two Warden Service planes were immediately dispatched to see if they could locate the crash site. Maine Forest Service helicopters also responded to assist in the search.

“There’s no immediate roads nearby and so the best way to locate it was from the air,” Scott said.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and FAA both confirmed they are investigating the plane crash. The FAA said the NTSB will be in charge of the investigation.

Game wardens told Mundry that Tibbetts’ body was removed from the crash site by helicopter. Mills said Tibbetts’ remains have been transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta.

Scott said FAA investigators based in the Maine area were traveling to the crash site Tuesday night. NTSB investigators arrived in Maine Wednesday morning, according to the agency.

What we know about the pilot Tibbetts began his career with the Maine Warden Service in 2008 and was promoted to game warden pilot in November 2023, according to a past Facebook post from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (DIFW).

At the time of his promotion, the DIFW said Tibbetts would serve northern Maine and be based out of Eagle Lake. He previously served in the department’s Downeast, Central and Southern Maine districts.

The DIFW said in his role as a pilot, Tibbetts’ specialized aviation work supported search and rescue, law enforcement, fisheries, wildlife conservation and public safety across the state. Before Tibbetts became a game warden pilot, he was part of the Incident Management Team and the search planning and unmanned aerial vehicle program. He also previously served as a drug recognition expert, according to the DIFW.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Dan Raby

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    ATLANTA (WUPA) — Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection say they seized tens of thousands of potentially dangerous pills that were all on their way to Georgia.

Officials say the two seizures were discovered in parcels originating from Europe via Philadelphia.

According to CBP, officers seized 7,500 lorazepam, 2,600 zolpidem, 2,500 diazepam, and 2,500 alprazolam tablets shipped in a parcel from London on April 29.

A day later, officers found 17,000 tramadol tablets that were shipped in an air parcel from the Netherlands.

Both parcels were heading to an address in Spalding County, Georgia, and were marked as T-shirts and “XOMETRY” to conceal what they really were, the agency said.

“Our primary concerns, especially with illegally imported bulk orders of prescription medicines, are the efficacy and safety of an unapproved medicine, and the serious danger that unapproved medicine pose to the importer’s unwitting victims,” said Elliott N. Ortiz, the Port of Philadelphia’s acting director.

Authorities say consumers can not be sure that medicines ordered overseas may not have toxic fillers, such as fentanyl.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Alex Howard

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    ARCADIA, Florida (WBBH) — An exotic fish native to the Amazon is now drawing anglers to Southwest Florida for a rare fishing experience, and raising questions about whether it could one day become invasive in Florida waters.

The arapaima, one of the largest freshwater fish in the world, has recently appeared in Florida through experimental fish farms and specialty aquaculture operations. The massive South American species, known for its voracious appetite and immense strength, is now the centerpiece of a new fishing resort outside Arcadia operated by Jurassic Living Jewels.

Five years ago, a dead arapaima was discovered at Jaycee Park in Cape Coral. Investigators later determined the five-foot fish had been stolen from an experimental fish farm in Charlotte County.

Today, Jurassic Living Jewels says its Arcadia property is the only place in North America where anglers can legally catch arapaima. The remote farm also houses a variety of exotic species, including Golden Dorado, Pacu and several species of catfish.

“The only place in North America where you can come and catch them,” said Hunter Vogel from Jurassic Living Jewels. “It’s a great fish, it’s like a tarpon on steroids, It’s a very primitive fish, very bony, the head is armor pretty much. You’ve probably seen a video, and if it launches itself at your chest, you will be out of breath for a while.”

The fish themselves are enormous, with some arapaima capable of weighing more than 400 pounds. Staff members recently transferred the fish from greenhouse ponds into larger outdoor stock ponds using large nets. During the move, we experienced firsthand just how powerful the fish can be after being struck in the face by one of their tails.

Jurassic Living Jewels says the fish are bred for sport fishing, with customers paying as much as $2,500 a day for the chance to catch one. The breeding program has become so successful that the facility has also begun selling some of the fish for food.

Still, questions remain about whether arapaima could survive in Florida waterways if they escaped captivity.

“They will kill anything that gets in that pond that isn’t man,” Vogel said. “Birds, anything gets in that pond, they will kill it.”

The owners of the facility argue the fish are unlikely to become invasive because Florida winters are too cold for them to survive. They pointed to studies dating back to 2013 that found arapaima struggle when temperatures fall below roughly 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

But not everyone agrees.

FGCU ecologist Serge Thomas said the species could potentially survive in Southwest Florida under the right conditions, especially during warm-weather flooding events that could allow fish to escape into waterways like the Peace River.

“Really, if it were to be released, especially in the southeastern U.S., because it is a tropical equatorial fish, it does not bear well with low temperatures below 60 or 61 degrees Fahrenheit,” Thomas explained.

Thomas compared the arapaima’s temperature tolerance to the peacock bass, another tropical species that already survives in South Florida by taking refuge in warmer groundwater-fed canals and waterways. He also warned that warm-water discharges from power plants, such as the one on the Orange River in Fort Myers, could potentially help the fish survive year-round.

“I believe firmly that it could potentially be a threat and be able to thrive down here,” Thomas said. “If you look at the peacock bass, they have the same thermal range. I think definitely it could be a problem.”

Experts say the fish’s feeding habits are another concern. Juvenile arapaima feed on small fish and insects, while adults are capable of consuming frogs and much larger prey as they grow.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Allison Shafter

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    EMMETT, Idaho (KIVI) — Idaho Fish and Game implemented what officials are calling “an experimental approach” to address a nonmigratory elk herd that has caused “significant agricultural damage” on private land in the Big Willow Creek area.

34 elk were moved in a translocation project, aimed at addressing a herd that had reportedly caused more than $1 million in crop damage among five landowners last year.

Flying from a helicopter, IDFG staff used a dart gun to sedate 37 elk northwest of Emmett, who were then transported by a helicopter to a processing site. Staff at the site fitted the animals with GPS collars, conducted health checks, loaded them into trailers, and then drove them 8 hours to the release site in the Panhandle.

IDFG captured 22 elk on May 4 and 15 elk on May 5 in Unit 32. All of the captured elk were cows.

Three of the elk reportedly died during transport due to capture-related causes. IDFG officials say the deaths are “a known risk due to the stress of handling and reaction to sedation, which Fish and Game staff worked to minimize.”

34 of the captured elk were released to Unit 7 in the Panhandle Elk Zone, an area that the current management plan calls for increasing the elk population. Numbers are reportedly low due to habitat changes, predation, and low calf-to-cow ratios.

The elk will be monitored to see if they remain in Unit 7 and integrate with existing herds.

However, IDFG acknowledges that these elk will not meaningfully increase this population. “The hope is that these elk will survive, reproduce, and contribute to the herd in the long term,” IDFG said.

Regional Supervisor Josh Royse is calling the operation “an experimental approach to addressing depredation.” According to Royse, IDFG has tried “every other tool in the toolkit” to address the Big Willow resident herd that has grown to about 350 animals over the past five years. He says the agency will need to evaluate the cost and success of the project to decide if translocation is effective.

In previous efforts, hunters harvested 150 elk on the private properties in 2025, but officials say that hunting alone didn’t reduce the herd.

IDFG said the next phase of the project would be to kill approximately 60 more elk from the herd by the USDA Wildlife Services this summer. Officials say the meat will be processed and distributed to Idaho food banks.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Sahana Patel

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    MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho (KIVI) — The Gunfighter Skies Air Show returns to Mountain Home Air Force Base this weekend after eight years. Crews have been planning for nearly two years and taking from lessons learned from past tragedies.

Air Show Director Anthony Mountain said the road to this weekend was not without obstacles.

“We’ve worked through a fair amount of challenges, including a no-notice deployment that happened recently, and just to see how the team and the base has come together to put on a great show has been the best part,” Mountain said.

Maintenance crews have been working around the clock to ensure every aircraft is ready for takeoff, with teams prepared to make repairs at a moment’s notice if something goes wrong during the show.

Hannah Brian, director of operations for the Fighter Generation Squadron, said her team will be visible throughout the event.

“You’ll see us out there fixing [aircraft] and launching them, but they’re there sitting ready to go and doing all the preparation to make sure that everything goes smoothly,” Brian said.

Safety for spectators is also a top priority. Senior Master Sergeant Jesse Mitchell, the air show maintenance deputy, said aircraft positioning is carefully managed to protect the crowd.

“We keep all of our aircraft at a perfectly safe distance so even if something does happen, the crowd will never be involved in any of those incidents,” Mitchell said.

First responders and emergency teams will be stationed across the base throughout the weekend. Officials say past incidents continue to shape how they prepare for large-scale events.

During the base’s last air show in 2018, a hang glider died after crashing onto the runway. In 2003, a Thunderbirds jet crashed during the show, though the pilot ejected safely just one second before impact.

Mitchell said those events directly inform current planning.

“We can go through and learn everything that we can from those incidents. In one of our plans that we have right now is we’re going to have a helicopter on static; that’s a Life Flight helicopter,” Mitchell said.

Deputy Fire Chief Justin Hatch said new requirements are now in place as a result of past incidents.

“Now, for air shows, we’re required to have trucks stationed on the flight line on the ramp so we can reach anywhere on the airfield within 60 seconds,” Hatch said.

Even as the air show takes center stage, the base’s operational mission continues. Brian said her team is balancing the event with ongoing military responsibilities.

“We still have a mission to do, and we’re recovering from a deployment. We’re working through reconstituting our fleet, so my focus has really been just to make sure that that is still ongoing throughout the duration of the air show,” Brian said.

The Gunfighter Skies Air Show takes place Saturday and Sunday at Mountain Home Air Force Base. You can find details on the event here.

This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. KIVI’s editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.