Outdoors

Shutdown disrupts state park visitors, holiday plans
Reservations will be disrupted for more than 3,000 campsites in state parks should the government shut down.
Duluth is considering whether to extend the annual bow hunt for deer in the city.
Flesh-eating beetles clean up on European mounts
Allen Edberg bought flesh-eating beetles to clean the skulls of deer for European mounts, a form of deer mount that has become popular with Minnesota hunters. In a European mount, the antlers and skull remain intact, mounted as one.
Bear researchers want killing of collared bears banned
Supporters of the North American Bear Center in Ely are asking lawmakers to make it illegal for hunters to kill research bears tagged with radio collars.
Chronic wasting disease in deer an 'isolated incident,' DNR says
Minnesota DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr said a single wild whitetail deer shot this fall near Pine Island has tested positive for chronic wasting disease -- a first for the state.
DNR argues for higher fishing, hunting license fees
Officials at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources say the state needs to consider hunting and fishing license fee hikes to prevent the state's Game and Fish Fund from being depleted by 2015.
Nature takes its course for trophy elk in N. Minn.
Ryan Muirhead and a couple of deer hunting buddies came across a trapped bull in Decemeber and did their best to save the huge animal. They didn't know it at the time, but the elk's antlers eventually would measure among the largest ever.
The Minnesota Deer Hunters Association is asking people with trail cameras to leave them up this winter so that they might catch a picture of a predator -- especially a cougar.
The Department of Natural Resources says hunters have registered 171,000 deer since the firearms season opened Nov. 6. The DNR says 107,000 deer were registered during opening weekend.
Thousands of Minnesotans headed to the woods and fields today for the opening of muzzleloader deer hunting season.