On 3 October, a few weeks after Montana opened its first legal wolf-hunting season in decades, a hunter killed the alpha female of Yellowstone Park's Cottonwood Pack, whose behavior, travels, life history, and genealogy had been studied in detail by scientists for years. Her death, and that of five other pack members also shot outside Yellowstone, has irrevocably changed what had been a unique long-term study, the researchers say.

Scientists concerned about the ecological effects of a proposed dam across the northern end of Poyang Lake, 27 kilometers from the Yangtze River, were encouraged by the State Council's recent order that critics and the dam's backers thrash out their