PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — A playful dolphin leaps a few feet away, looking for a throwback fish that might become an easy meal.

The Nantahala River currently has no flow.

LAFOLLETTE, Tenn. -- Cleveland's Jeff Moses has a future stepson to thank for his selection among five hunters participating this week in Tennessee's first elk hunt in more than a century.

As the chosen five get ready for Tennessee’s inaugural elk hunt Oct. 19-23 in the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area near the Kentucky border, Great Smoky Mountains National Park staffers are evaluating data from their own elk herd.

Ryan Allen knew the challenge that lay ahead. So did fellow Chattanoogan Bryce Evans and Asheville, N.C., resident Bryan Knight.

Early-season dove hunters often see native birds rather than those migrating from Wisconsin and elsewhere up North.

The occasional reduction in rabbits in this part of the country has interested biologists for years.

Pythons are showing up throughout the southern part of Florida, according to that state's Fish and Wildlife Commission. Estimates range from 30,000 to 80,000.

Adding shower facilities to the three major campgrounds in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most popular upgrade request, but the idea is unfeasible, park officials say.

The two biggest challenges in learning to sail are the terminology involved and keeping track of wind direction.

When engineer Thilo Brockhaus came from Germany to Chattanooga last December to oversee building the Volkswagen plant, he greatly appreciated the surroundings.

Pikeville native Sam Roberson was in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on Dec. 7, 1941.

General Sessions Court Judge Bob Moon of Chattanooga has fished offshore for more than 30 years. He goes on excursions with plastic surgeon Jim Eyssen and other friends aboard the Contender boat "Seacup" out of Dauphin Island, Ala.

BIG SANDY, Tenn. — Boat-building means family bonding, Debi Weinert says. She has witnessed it numerous times at her husband Karl’s shop in the scenic, rolling, grassy farmland of West Tennessee.

Memorial Day weekend brought mixed economic signals for some area recreational businesses. The Fourth of July weekend should provide a clearer picture.

Almost everyone involved in physical fitness will tell you that walking is helpful in losing weight and firming muscles.

At least one poaching incident has involved the elk herd created by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Riding the splashing Ocoee and Nantahala rivers in inflatable rubber rafts has been popular for nearly a half-century, despite ups and downs in the economy.

Earlier this year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Pennsylvania’s governor, Ed Rendell, urging him to support legislation making it illegal for anyone under 18 to hunt in the Keystone State.

BLUE RIDGE, Ga. — In the mountains of North Georgia, the first place in the Southeast where a sanctioned United States Adventure Racing Association event was held, the sport remains plenty strong.

Wintry winds seem to bite extra harshly into sports associated with warm weather, but not for those sailors competing in the Shackleton Series out of Sale Creek Marina.

“Turkey hunting is by far the best way to introduce anyone to hunting,” Chris Walls said during this year’s National Wild Turkey Federation convention in Nashville.

Almost a decade after Florida bass were introduced into Lake Chickamauga, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officials still aren’t sure if that has enhanced the fishing.

A Kentucky girl used to wear only black attire to school and wrote for 21 consecutive days in her diary: “No one spoke to me today.”

Rossville’s Lanny Gilliam and his nephew Jeremiah Gilliam were among the 158 applicants drawn for the two-day deer hunt at Georgia’s Franklin Delano Roosevelt State Park in January.

The U.S. government’s SAFE program is starting to catch on with farm owners and operators in Middle and West Tennessee the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency recently reported.

Rodger Ling took his wife and daughter on a 19-month sailboat trip covering 10,000 miles by river and sea.

A 5-pound, 14-ounce spotted bass caught by Jack Watson of Tellico Plains on Dec. 31 in Parksville Lake, east of Cleveland, has been confirmed as the new Tennessee state record for the species.

So there’s no Chattanooga RV Show to ease the winter doldrums for outdoorsmen?

Good deer habitat, a lack of hunting pressure and natural protection have been cited as instrumental in big antler racks claimed this season at the Oak Ridge Wildlife Management Area.

It was a quick summer trip for Mike Haugen, a 31-year-old eighth-grade science teacher in Denver.

Back in the 1970s, the transfer of stripers from Atlantic Ocean tributaries where they thrived to places like Georgia’s Oostanaula and Etowah rivers brought lots of concerns.

Trenniss Elliott was expecting nothing more than a nice family outing when he took his wife and sons to Cooper’s Creek Wildlife Management Area near their Blairsville, Ga., home on Oct. 4.

When 14-year-old Sarah Terry of Mount Sterling, Ky., landed a Kentucky-record 47-pound muskellunge recently, it drew considerable interest from seasoned fishermen and younger anglers alike.

It’s a comment often heard from backyard birders:

When Rick McFerrin cast a Prowler soft shad bait close to a dock on Tims Ford Lake, he saw several smallmouth bass immediately chasing it.