Outdoors

Flesh-eating beetles clean up on European mounts
Allen Edberg bought flesh-eating beetles to clean the skulls of deer for European mounts, a form of deer mount that has become popular with Minnesota hunters. In a European mount, the antlers and skull remain intact, mounted as one.
Nature takes its course for trophy elk in N. Minn.
Ryan Muirhead and a couple of deer hunting buddies came across a trapped bull in Decemeber and did their best to save the huge animal. They didn't know it at the time, but the elk's antlers eventually would measure among the largest ever.
The Department of Natural Resources says hunters have registered 171,000 deer since the firearms season opened Nov. 6. The DNR says 107,000 deer were registered during opening weekend.