Department of Natural Resources officials say its the first cougar documented in Otter Tail County. They believe the big cat is traveling from the Black Hills in South Dakota.

The state sold 3,000 fewer waterfowl stamps this year compared to last. The Department of Natural Resources says they're not sure why -- especially this year -- when duck populations are up and the season opened a week earlier.

The Department of Natural Resources says a rare Blanding's turtle has been discovered in Martin County in south central Minnesota. Until now, the youngest Blanding's turtle was estimated to be 14-years-old.

Minnesota is one of several states dealing with a severe outbreak of the disease. Some 400 new cases have popped up in Minnesota this month. The people contracting the disease most often are older elementary school kids and middle schoolers.

The grouse population index has dropped significantly in Minnesota over the past three years and there are signals that the birds are descending on their 10-year boom-to-bust cycle. The DNR predicts that this is not the bottom, one state official told the Star Tribune that grouse numbers may not begin to rise again until 2014. It's unclear what kind of impact this exodus will have on Minnesota grouse hunters.

Wild rice growers on the Fond Du Lac Reservation say June floods devastated aquatic life in several lakes where fall harvests typically reap several thousand pounds of wild rice, which is used at community events, funerals and the school, WDIO reports. It was the first time in 13 years that there was no harvest, a natural resources program manager says.

Minnesota's number of whooping cough cases continues to grow. The state confirmed about 400 new cases of whooping cough in the past month, raising the total in Minnesota to nearly 2,400 infections this year. The number of confirmed cases is the highest since vaccines were introduced in the 1950s.