By Ben Romans

Imagine after years of applying for a coveted hunting tag, you open your email inbox one morning and find a message from the state fish and game office with the word “congratulations!” in the subject line. Then imagine the sinking feeling half an hour later when you receive a follow-up email from the same office saying, “Oops, our bad. Sorry, you’re not a winner. Better luck next year.”

There’s a good chance you know exactly what I’m talking about if you applied for one of South Dakota’s two bighorn sheep licenses. Last week a computer glitch inside the South Dakota’s Game, Fish & Parks’ system incorrectly notified approximately 2,000 bighorn sheep applicants they won one of the prized tags.

By Ben Romans

Between Jan. 12 and Feb. 10, over 1,600 snake hunters combed the Florida everglades looking for Burmese pythons as part of the state’s 2013 Python Challenge.

Hunters Mark Rubinstein, Gregg Jobes, and Joseph Post didn’t land in the winner’s circle or receive any trophies. In fact, they didn’t find a single python. But they did walk away with something worth more than contest prize money—gold.

According to NBC Miami, while searching for pythons, Rubinstein discovered a round piece of gold jewelry accented with sapphires in the shape of a cross and diamonds surrounding the perimeter. While a corner fragment of the jewel is melted, the majority of the piece is in good condition, and likely worth a substantial sum.

By David Maccar

By CJ Lotz

A Wisconsin man, realizing a 200-pound bear was about to attack his dog, ran outside and tried to scare the bear off, but the bear tackled him and sunk its teeth into his neck. When the man’s wife realized what was happening outside, she grabbed a shotgun, but didn’t know how to load it, so she ran outside and clubbed the bear over the head. Stunned, the bear fell away from the man long enough for the couple to run inside the cabin. Officials arrived shortly after and shot the bear.