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Outdoor Updates: Dog rescued after being trapped in 81-foot hole for six days

PHOTO: DLNR

Dog rescued after being trapped in 81-foot hole for six days

A one-year-old Catahoula hunting dog named Orange has been rescued after spending six days at the bottom of an 81-foot hole on the island of Kaua’i. Orange’s owner had a GPS tracker on the dog and was able to locate him almost immediately after his fall. He kept the dog alive by lowering food and water down the hole. He says he knew Orange was alive because the dog would occasionally whimper or howl.

The hole, believed to be part of an old water irrigation system, was on DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) land and eventually, an employee with DOFAW, who also happened to be an experienced climber, was tapped to extract the dog from the hole. Adam Williams, a botanist with DOFAW, lowered himself into the bottom of the hole and loaded the dog into a small canvas bag, which was then pulled back to the surface by a team of volunteers. “He was really happy to see me,” said Williams. “After he got over the shock of being down in a hole for a week.”

Hawaii’s coral bleaching is not as severe as predicted

There’s some good news coming out of Hawaii’s oceans this autumn. The widespread coral bleaching event that was predicted by NOAA earlier this year was not as severe as many scientists feared. While warm waters over the summer and into the autumn did cause bleaching events that impacted reefs throughout Hawaii, the bleaching was not as destructive as it has been in previous years.

Still, Hawaii’s coral reefs did experience substantial bleaching. The most impacted island was Kona, where reefs along the coast averaged 40% bleaching of live coral. Cauliflower and rice corals were most impacted by this year’s bleaching event. To see bleaching reports visit www.hawaiicoral.org

When it comes to the rules of the road, most cyclists follow them and most motorists don’t 

A new study of out Denmark finds that less than 5% of cyclists break traffic rules while riding their bikes but 66% of motorists break traffic laws while driving. 

Researchers studied video cameras that captured 28,579 cyclists crossing intersections and found that only 4.9% of cyclists broke road rules. The most common law broken by cyclists was biking on the sidewalk. However, cyclists broke road rules more frequently (14% of the time) when they did not have access to cycling infrastructure like bike lanes. Separate studies in Denmark found that nearly two-thirds of motorists regularly break the law and speeding is the most common offense. 

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