Cheeseburgers and chicken so far fail to entice a rescue dog who's spent weeks on the run in Alaska
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — In the days after wildfires devastated the Los Angeles area, a formerly stray dog named Jackie lucked into a new life. She was rescued from an overburdened shelter in Los Angeles County, where she faced possible euthanasia, and given a home far away in Juneau, Alaska.
But Jackie didn't stay long.
The German shepherd-husky mix slipped her collar on the first day with her new family in mid-February and absconded to a pocket of forest. Since then, she has been living by her wits — eluding a trap that was set with food such as cheeseburgers or chicken by animal control workers and volunteers worried about her.
The forested area Jackie frequents is near a busy road. Further, black bears are starting to reemerge from hibernation, raising the potential the dog could have an unfortunate run-in. Volunteers have stopped putting out food and cat kibble to avoid attracting bears.
'Maybe this is what she wants, is to be free and feral like this,' said Thom Young-Bayer, a Juneau animal control officer. "It's not a safe way for her to live here.'
Young-Bayer and his wife, Skylar, have been searching in their free time, often at night, for the skittish canine, painstakingly trying to build trust with her. Jackie has been known to burrow into the soft moss on the forest floor for cover and to avoid looking directly into the Young-Bayers' headlamps, making it hard to detect her eyes in the dark.
On videos Thom Young-Bayer has taken with his infrared camera, Jackie's red heat signature resembles something out of the movie 'Predator.'
On a recent day, Young-Bayer caught a fleeting glimpse of Jackie in the lush forest, her dark coat helping camouflage her movements among the stumps and roots. He surveyed the undergrowth and surroundings but came up empty — as did a nearby trap he had been monitoring for weeks.
When Young-Bayer returned to a trail where a fellow animal control officer had been waiting, he learned Jackie had trotted past on a frozen pond.
Lately Young-Bayer been encountering Jackie on every visit. Young-Bayer says that's progress. Weeks ago, if Jackie saw someone, she would flee. He and his wife aren't trying to sneak up on the dog and want to help her feel safe, he said.
Juneau Animal Rescue, a local pet adoption agency that also handles animal control and protective services, has asked that people who see Jackie report their sightings. Given the dog's skittishness, officials want to limit those searching for her.
Little is known about Jackie's history. She was brought into a California shelter as a stray in early January, days before deadly wildfires swept through the Los Angeles area. She is believed to be 2 to 3 years old. Her intake forms listed her as quiet with a moderate anxiety and stress level.
Skylar Young-Bayer, who has volunteered with rescue groups in that region, helped arrange for Jackie and two other dogs at risk of being euthanized to be transferred to Juneau for adoption. Jackie was with a foster home before her adoption placing.
Other dogs have gained fame as fugitives, including Scrim, a 17-pound, mostly terrier mutt who was recaptured in New Orleans in February — in a cat trap — after months on the lam.
Mike Mazouch, animal control and protection director for Juneau Animal Rescue, noted Jackie didn't have much time to bond with her new family before bolting. Officers deemed trying to tranquilize her as too risky because they didn't know if they would be able to find her once she was sedated.
Mazouch accompanied Thom Young-Bayer to the forest last week to disassemble the trap when Jackie came within 50 feet (15 meters) of Mazouch on the frozen pond. Mazouch snapped a photo of her as she appeared between the skinny, tall trees. He called efforts to capture her a 'battle of wills.'
'She is not willing to give up, and we're not willing to give up, either,' Mazouch said.

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CBS News
7 minutes ago
- CBS News
Air India plane crashes in Ahmedabad; Boeing 787-8 with 242 people on board slams into buildings
An Air India passenger plane carrying 242 passengers and crew crashed in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, soon after departing for London's Gatwick airport, the airline and officials said. A police official told The Associated Press there were no known survivors from the plane, and there were also likely casualties on the ground as the aircraft careened into buildings. "Air India confirms that flight AI171, from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick, was involved in an accident today after take-off," Air India said in a statement posted on social media. The airline said that the plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, departed at 1:38 p.m. local time carrying 242 people. "Of these, 169 are Indian nationals, 53 are British nationals, 1 Canadian national and 7 Portuguese nationals. The injured are being taken to the nearest hospitals," Air India said. Later on Thursday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said a "a special team of caregivers" from Air India was on its way to Ahmedabad to provide additional support. "Investigations will take time, but anything we can do now, we are doing," Wilson said. "We understand that people are eager for information. Please know that we will continue to share accurate and timely information as soon as we can, but anything we report must be accurate and not speculative. We owe that to everyone involved. For now, our teams are working around the clock to support passengers, crew and their families - as well as investigators - however we can." Firefighters work at the site of an Air India plane crash, in India's northwest city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat state, June 12, 2025. Ajit Solanki /AP Gatwick Airport confirmed in a statement that flight AI171 had "crashed on departure from Ahmedabad Airport today." The airport said the plane had been due to land at Gatwick, which is just south of London, at 6:25 p.m. local time (1:25 p.m. Eastern). "It appears there are no survivors in the plane crash," the AP quoted Ahmedabad Police Commissioner G.S. Malik as saying. "As the plane has fallen in a residential area which also had offices, some locals would have also died." He told the AP that the "exact figures on casualties" were still being determined. A spokesperson for Boeing told CBS News the company was "in contact with Air India regarding Flight 171 and stand ready to support them. Our thoughts are with the passengers, crew, first responders and all affected." The incident appears to be the first of its kind for the Dreamliner, according to Boeing's April 2025 statistical summary of incidents involving its aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board said it would "be leading a team of U.S. investigators traveling to India to assist the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau with its investigation into the crash." The Federal Aviation Administration said that "when an international incident occurs, that government leads the investigation. In the event assistance is requested, the NTSB is the official U.S. representative and the FAA provides technical support. We stand ready to launch a team immediately in coordination with the NTSB." Unverified video shared online by Indian network NDTV purportedly shows the passenger jet flying low over buildings before disappearing behind them. There is then a large explosion. In the unverified video, no fire or explosion can be seen on the aircraft before it disappears. Local media reported the plane had crashed into a building housing medical students. The head of India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, told The Associated Press that flight AI171 crashed five minutes after taking off. Live flight tracking website Flight Radar said a final signal was received from Flight AI171 just seconds after it took off. The flight path on Flight Radar showed the aircraft traveling southwest from the airport a short distance before the path stopped, and the site said initial data showed the aircraft reached a maximum barometric altitude of 625 feet before it started to descend. "At this point, it's very, very, very early, we don't know a whole lot," Aviation consultant John M. Cox told the AP. "But the 787 has very extensive flight data monitoring - the parameters on the flight data recorder are in the thousands - so once we get that recorder, they'll be able to know pretty quickly what happened." India's Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said in a statement posted on social media that he was "shocked and devastated to learn about the flight crash in Ahmedabad." Firefighters work at the scene of a plane crash in India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat state, June12, 2025. Air India confirmed that an Ahmedabad to London flight was involved in "an incident." Ajit Solanki/AP Kinjarapu said officials were "on highest alert" and that he was "personally monitoring this situation" and had "directed all aviation and emergency response agencies to take swift and coordinated action." "Rescue teams have been mobilized, and all efforts are being made to ensure medical aid and relief support are being rushed to the site," Kinjarapu said. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said "the tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us. It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it. Have been in touch with Ministers and authorities who are working to assist those affected." "The scenes emerging of a London-bound plane carrying many British nationals crashing in the Indian city of Ahmedabad are devastating," U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.


National Geographic
an hour ago
- National Geographic
Free Asha. Or cage her? This question is at the heart of a bitter debate.
A photograph of Asha from February 2023 shows her in a 'capture box' at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico. This was the second time the endangered Mexican wolf, tagged F2754, was captured by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Asha has been held in captivity ever since. Photograph By Aislinn Maestas, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP Asha is circling the perimeter of her pen. She's pacing, moving with that long, rangy gait that all Mexican gray wolves have, her body graceful and liquid, motions smooth and purposeful. She stalks around jagged rocks, behind juniper bushes and yucca plants. She runs from the humans in her pen, anxious and hyperaware. For my part, I'm awestruck. This is the closest I've been to a wolf, and I'm only able to see her because she is currently being held in captivity by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the Sevilleta Wolf Management Facility near Socorro, New Mexico. Asha has been ensnared; and like so many humans invested in her, so have I. As part of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, each year federal, state, and tribal agencies across New Mexico and Arizona track and record the progress of the endangered species' population growth. Photograph By Chancey Bush, The Albuquerque Journal via AP The four-year-old she-wolf has been placed in the facility because she refuses to stay put, repeatedly crossing into territory off-limits to her. Born in the wild, likely a member of an Arizona pack, Asha has a history of traveling solo into the mountains of northern New Mexico, entering land that's forbidden to her kind by federal conservation policy. At least twice, she's roamed outside the perimeter of the recovery zone and into the forestlands north of Santa Fe. Asha, like all Mexican gray wolves, is supposed to stay within a specific region, one that stretches more than 153,000 square miles across southern Arizona and New Mexico and is bordered on the north by Interstate 40. The first time she crossed the line, in January 2023, Asha was captured near Angel Fire, New Mexico, and returned to the designated zone. When it happened for a second time in under a year, FWS officials determined that she was putting herself in danger and that she could no longer be trusted to roam on her own. FWS captured her in December 2023 from the southern Rocky Mountains and placed her in the Sevilleta facility. She has remained there ever since. Asha's restlessness has made her a contentious flash point between conservationists and FWS officials, who have conflicting perspectives on how to best save the gray wolf. Both agree that Asha's survival—and her ability to give birth, or whelp—is necessary to the continuation of her subspecies, which was once nearly hunted to extinction. But they disagree on almost everything else. This map shows Asha's route from southeastern Arizona to northern New Mexico from June through December 2023, shortly before she was recaptured by FWS. Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team FWS argues that it's dangerous for Asha to wander past the I-40 line, noting that she could be injured or shot by a rancher. Many wildlife conservationists vehemently object, insisting that Asha should be free to roam. Michelle Lute, a wolf biologist and executive director of Wildlife for All, has been advocating for Asha's release since 2023. 'I think Asha is teaching us what a lot of wolves would do if they had the chance,' she says. 'They have their own agency to choose the best habitats.' Asha has become imbued with meaning from multiple directions. On one side, there are U.S. government officials, who want Asha to mate, thus contributing to the limited gene pool of the population and growing the Mexican gray wolf population. On the other side are members of the public and wildlife advocates, who believe that Asha, like all members of the wild world, innately knows what is best for her. She is following her instincts, and we should redesign our world to support her natural behavior, they maintain. As I look at Asha pacing her pen, one thing is clear to me: Asha has become more than a wild canine, temporarily penned for her own safety. She has been turned into humanity's struggle against nature itself, our collective hubris, our calamitous march into the Anthropocene. Asha, of course, knows none of this. Asha stands, alert, in her enclosure near Socorro, New Mexico. Her restlessness has made her a contentious flash point between conservationists and FWS officials. Although I think Asha is heartbreakingly beautiful, the truth is that she's an unremarkable female member of her species, with a scruffy reddish-brown coat, white belly, and black-tipped tail. She looks like a coyote, and like most of her subspecies, she isn't much bigger than my own dog. Mexican gray wolves typically weigh between 50 and 80 pounds and measure around five feet from nose to tail. There is nothing technically special about Asha. Despite that, the restless lobo, according to local media, has 'captured the hearts' of Southwesterners, many of whom are outraged by her captivity. Asha is easily the most famous wolf in the region, possibly the most beloved. More than just an endangered wolf, she's become a symbol. In 2023, a reporter for Source New Mexico wrote that Asha is 'resilient in the face of peril,' a creature that 'breaks assumptions, something many New Mexicans can relate to.' Even her name was a gift, bestowed by an Arizona schoolchild. From that perspective, it's easy to see Asha as a tragically imprisoned victim of the state that deserves to roam free. But officials at FWS don't see her that way. To them, she is F2754—that's the number FWS has given her—a healthy member of an endangered species, well on her way to fulfilling her biological destiny to help repopulate that species. Created in the late 1990s, the recovery zone is derived from the projected historic habitat of the Mexican gray wolf, where FWS biologists believe the species would have thrived centuries ago, based on site feasibility studies and land surveys. (Members of the public were also allowed to weigh in on the project and its scope through opinion surveys and public meetings.) Although FWS has held steady in insisting that this is where these wolves belong, the boundaries of the zone continue to be a hot topic of debate, especially as climate change has already taken its toll on the delicate ecosystems of the region and as wolves like Asha continue to test its limits. In December 2023, Asha was paired with two male Mexican gray wolves (brothers) that were raised in captivity. This year was her second mating season; the first one failed to produce offspring, and officials pulled one of the two males upon realizing that Asha had better bonded with the other. FWS was hoping that Asha would mate with a captive Mexican gray male to increase the species' genetic diversity. In early spring 2025, the two wolves were observed via the facility's trail camera engaging in several completed 'ties' (i.e., mating sessions), and on May 20, FWS confirmed that Asha had produced a litter of pups. It is unclear what will happen to Asha, her pups, and her mate. It is possible that their small pack will be released into the wild, together. This is what advocates want. The idea is that Asha will teach her cubs, and thus also her mate, how to survive in the recovery zone. It is also possible that they will all remain in captivity. 'We are not going to foster any pups from her litter,' says a spokesperson for FWS. Right now, the plan is to continue 'giving her space' so she can 'provide the best' for her offspring. There is no set release date for Asha at this time. Bringing the Mexican gray wolf back from the brink of extinction Another truth: Asha is remarkable. She is one of fewer than 300 Mexican wolves in the United States, part of a growing but still fragile population. History is important to Asha's story. Long before FWS and conservationists began butting heads over the fate of one wolf, they had to work together to save the Mexican gray from the brink of extinction. By the 1970s, the Mexican gray wolf had been virtually eliminated from the wild with only a handful living in captivity, the others likely killed by ranchers and sport hunters. 'We wiped out all the wolves in the United States,' says Jim Heffelfinger, a wildlife science coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department and member of the 2010 Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan. In 1976, shortly after the Endangered Species Act was passed, Mexican wolves were officially listed as endangered, but their survival looked grim. The subspecies survived only because of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Plan, an international program designed to restore the animals to southern America and northern Mexico. Founded by FWS, the recovery plan was approved and put into motion in 1982. The first wild release took place in 1998 with a founding population of just seven animals that were freed inside the newly identified Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area. Some of those were sourced from zoos and wildlife centers, but the rest were captured from the wild by trapper Roy McBride. Conservationists and FWS officials tell the history of the wolves' reintroduction quite differently. For as long as the government has been patrolling the great outdoors, it has had a hand in the death of wolves. Although the organization has gone by several different names since its inception in 1871, FWS has a long history of trapping, shooting, poisoning, and otherwise targeting wild canines. For hundreds of years, wolves were considered, at best, a livestock-stalking pest and at worst, a threat to the nation's children. In the 1800s, bounty programs began, which eventually offered $20 to $50 for every wolf carcass. These proved wildly effective. 'In 1945 they successfully killed the very last wolf in the western United States that had been born in the West,' says Michael Robinson, senior conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. 'It was a very organized program. A systemized, efficient, comprehensive killing of wolves.' FWS frames the story differently: 'The history of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the corresponding management of wolves reflects public perception,' says a spokesperson for the agency. 'In the early days of the agency, the focus was on control of wolves to mitigate conflict with livestock and other human activities, reflecting the dominant public sentiment.' In Robinson's version of events, McBride wasn't just a skilled tracker of Mexican wolves; he was the best at killing them. 'They sent one of their most experienced wolf trappers to Mexico. He had done that work for decades—not just trapping, but poisoning wolves,' Robinson continues. 'They hired [McBride] but with a twist, one he had never seen before: Keep them alive after you capture them.' Rick LoBello, a former executive director at four national parks and longtime friend of the late trapper, tempers this: 'I told Roy once that he was riding the fence. One day he was out trying to save the wolves, and the next day he was out killing them. Wherever the money was, he would follow it.' Out of the nine wolves that the government procured, only seven managed to mate, creating a very limited gene pool. It proved to be enough; after the release of the first mated pair in 1998, their numbers continued to grow. Taken on June 7, 2023, this photograph shows Asha having a health check before being released into the wild in southeastern Arizona. Photograph By Aislinn Maestas, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP Because of this complicated history—and the wolves' near extinction—it's likely that Asha is inbred. In other wolf populations, like those on Isle Royale in Michigan, inbreeding has led to severe bone deformities, including misshapen spinal vertebrae, as well as increased incidence of fused digits (syndactyly). Since the Mexican wolves were reintroduced, they have mated in the wild and produced healthy pups. These individuals have sometimes been captured and used for mating in captivity, though some have been left to their own devices in the wild. In 2014, FWS introduced a fostering program, where healthy, captive-born pups were taken from their parents and placed in the wild dens of mated pairs, alongside their natural offspring. The idea is that the wild wolves will raise and care for these foster pups with their own, thereby diversifying the gene pool. The agency announced in March 2024 that 'fostering is working,' and, as of 2023, 15 fostered pups had reached breeding age. But activists and conservationists outside of the agency disagree that inbreeding is necessarily harmful. Robinson argues FWS's wolf recovery program isn't trying to ensure that Mexican gray wolves thrive in the wild at all. Instead, he says, the program is hobbling the population's growth through focusing on programs that have limited survivorship, like placing foster pups in the dens of unrelated mated pairs. Wolf advocates argue that the low survival rates are evidence that the fostering program is a failure. 'They need to be releasing bonded pairs with their pups. We haven't seen that happen in a long time,' Robinson says. Whether or not genetic purity is necessary is also a topic of hot debate. At approximately 60 percent of the size of northern wolves, gray wolves are 'the most genetically distinct gray wolves in North America,' Heffelfinger explains. 'They're so unique, and so different.' One reason the I-40 boundary was established was to prevent the Mexican gray from mating with wolves in the Rockies, which could happen if Asha were allowed to continue her travels north. This is the challenge: To increase the genetic diversity of the remaining grays, without diversifying so far that they start to resemble another species. 'Our legal obligation under the Endangered Species Act is to recover the Mexican wolf as it is listed in its uniqueness,' Heffelfinger says. 'And I think, personally, we have a moral obligation to not dilute the centuries and eons of evolution.' Asha should mate, he says, and she should do it in captivity, under the oversight of the FWS, and with her own kind. The question of whether Mexican gray wolves should be allowed to mate with other gray wolves (or as Heffelfinger calls them, 'Canadian wolves') is at the core of the debate around where they are allowed to roam. By keeping Mexican grays confined to the areas south of I-40, FWS is following the Endangered Species Act as it currently stands. It is respecting the findings of scientific studies on the historic range of the species. FWS says that the Mexican gray wolf evolved to thrive in a lower-altitude, dry forested habitat known as the Madrean pine-oak woodlands, and it doesn't want to see them venturing onto higher, wetter ground. Furthermore, Lute argues that we should allow released wolves to show us where they can thrive rather than impose arbitrary borders on their movements. The casualty of this approach may be the genetic purity of a species, but Lute sees this as no great loss. Nature, she argues, should take its course. 'This way of thinking, where we can define species along clear lines,' Lute says, is strictly a human perception. In a fostering program introduced in 2014 by FWS, captive-born Mexican gray wolf pups are taken from their parents and placed in the wild dens of mated pairs. The idea is that the wild wolves will raise and care for these foster pups, thereby diversifying the gene pool of the endangered subspecies. Photograph By Daniel Becerril, Reuters/Redux Asha is a restless soul, an independent wanderer. She doesn't appreciate humans very much; her tendency to chew on any cameras in her pen means that all monitoring devices must be strung up outside the perimeter of the fence. According to FWS, she's the most active wolf at the facility—and curious too. But biologists don't believe that Asha's travels were inspired by that curiosity or some greater desire to see the world. They think she went loping up toward Colorado to find a mate. She's a pack creature; it simply doesn't make sense for her to strike out on her own. Despite the disagreements over Asha's welfare, everyone agrees that her new status as a mother is a positive sign. Should she be released, she may feel less inclined to wander, now that she's started a pack. Or perhaps she'll keep traveling, this time with pups and mate in tow. The fate of Ella, another Mexican gray wolf (FWS name: F2996), shows yet another potential outcome for Asha and her offspring. In late January 2024, FWS captured Ella as part of their annual count. In early February 2025, Ella escaped from her crate while being transported and ran from FWS officers. In her freedom, she traveled from outside Show Low, Arizona, to an area north of I-40 in New Mexico, near Mount Taylor. Ella was found dead at the end of March. Her death is under investigation by FWS, who recently confirmed that necropsy results show that she died via 'interspecies conflict, likely a bear or mountain lion.' Like Asha's story, Ella's has been irreversibly politicized. For those in support of FWS's handling of Mexican gray wolf recovery, Ella's life and death are evidence of its soundness. Wolves should not be allowed north of the boundary; just look what happens. For those who oppose the official recovery zone, Ella is an example of how wrong the boundaries are. 'Her roaming was teaching us about where Mexican gray wolves choose to be,' said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project, in a statement. 'The agencies insist on keeping wolves south of Interstate 40 in Arizona and New Mexico based on the 'historic range' of the species, but wolves like Ella live in the present and they are showing us their species' future is in an expanded northern range.' And before Ella, Anubis (or M2520) roamed north of the I-40 line in 2021 and was shot and killed a year later. He was wearing a bright pink tracking collar indicating, the Arizona Republic reported, 'the shooter knew the wolf was an animal of value to science.' Though killing a Mexican gray is illegal, that is the leading cause of death for these animals. According to the organization Earthjustice, 'More than 70 percent of documented wolf fatalities are human caused,' with over 105 killed in the past two decades. Robinson argues that FWS placates nearby ranchers, allowing them to get away with shooting endangered wolves. 'I thought it was a coyote,' is their get-out-of-jail-free phrase, Robinson says. The government, he says, has 'over and over again taken the side of ranchers against the wolves.' FWS disputes that: 'Our goal is to recover Mexican wolves in a way that balances the needs of people, predators, and livestock over the long term,' the agency says. 'We strive to achieve coexistence with and social tolerance for Mexican wolves, and we remain committed to the long-term recovery of this subspecies alongside thriving local communities.' Heffelfinger scoffs at claims like Robinson's. 'They can advocate, and they can cast aspersions on agencies working with ranchers,' he says. 'But the truth is you are not going to recover a controversial carnivore on a working landscape by just saying, 'We're the government; here are the wolves.' No recovery will be successful if you don't work with them.' And there are plenty of private landowners who welcome the return of the wolf, which is good news. While there have been dips and peaks in the population, the overall trend is toward growth, which adds credence to Heffelfinger's argument: 'We're here to recover the wolves,' he says. 'I'm not interested in people naming one wolf and talking about how she feels.' A Mexican wolf is released back into the wild with a radio collar. Anubis, another Mexican wolf, was wearing a bright pink collar when he was shot. Photograph By Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team Defying borders Another truth: Asha's fate is undecided. Right now, she's pacing and prowling, running in circles around her one rocky outcropping, her few scattered pines. She is with a companion she didn't choose in a place she doesn't want to be. But maybe she's fine with both companion and place. Maybe her new litter of pups is a sign that Asha is content, healthy, and happily fulfilling her biological destiny. The problem with animals is that it's impossible to know their desires, and so we map our own onto them. It's possible that Asha is simply frantic because she doesn't like having humans so close. Still, it's hard to witness her distress. Heffelfinger would say I'm personifying Asha—wrongly so. But her story is so evocative, it's easy to imagine she too is stewing in uniquely human frustrations. It's easy to see her as a female lacking in agency, denied choices and freedoms. Here is an even harder truth: What's best for Asha and what's best for Mexican gray wolves may not be the same thing. She represents an unruly tangle of contradictions, caught in decades' worth of history that has left the apex predator vulnerable. Asha may turn out like Ella; she and her pups may be released; or she may live in captivity for the rest of her life. But Asha's story is about more than just Asha. Her fate has already set a precedent, one that could affect every endangered wolf that dares to cross an invisible boundary and be found suddenly in the spotlight, in the news, in peril. But as Asha and the other wandering Mexican gray wolves have made clear, the human-designed boundaries are not theirs.


San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
A look at previous plane crashes in India
NEW DELHI (AP) — India has had several major plane crashes in recent decades. An Air India flight with more than 240 people on board crashed in the city of Ahmedabad on Thursday. Here are some previous aircraft accidents in India: Aug. 7, 2020 An Air India Express flight to bring back Indians stranded abroad by the COVID-19 pandemic skidded off a runway in heavy rain and cracked in two in southern India. Eighteen people including the two pilots were killed and more than 120 were injured. The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Dubai to Kozhikode in Kerala state. May 22, 2010 An Air India flight arriving from Dubai overshot the runway in the city of Mangalore and plunged over a cliff, killing 158 people out of the 166 on board. The wreckage of the Boeing 737-800 was strewn across a hillside. July 17, 2000 An Alliance Air Boeing 737-200 crashed into a residential area about 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) from its destination and burst into flames in Patna, killing more than 50 people on board and five on the ground. Nov. 12, 1996 A Saudi Arabian airlines Boeing 747 taking off from the airport in Delhi collided in midair with an arriving Kazakhstan Airline flight, killing all 349 people on both planes. It was one of the deadliest crashes in aviation history. April 26, 1993 An Indian Airlines 737-200 hit a truck beyond the runway while taking off and crashed soon after in the city of Aurangabad, killing 55 of the 118 people on board.