A story about pigs, foxes, and golden eagles might sound like it was pulled from Aesop's Fables, but at Channel Islands National Park it's one of how ecological balance has rescued one species from possibly vanishing forever.

That rare bird you spotted on your last trip to Channel Islands National Park may be a good bit rarer than you thought. The Island Scrub-jay (Aphelocome insularis) is now estimated to be one-fifth of what had been previously believed, according to a study by the Smithsonian Institution’s Migratory Bird Center.

The blue whale is one of the earth’s loudest (its song travels thousands of miles), longest-lived (80-90 year lifespan) and largest animals known to have ever existed. Though long and slender, with a tapered body and a small dorsal fin, blue whales measure in at up to 100 feet in length. These more than 200-ton leviathans are truly creatures to be reckoned with.

A package of legislation that sponsors call the Conservation and Economic Growth Act and which critics maintain would severely cripple the nation's environmental laws and pose a threat to the National Park System is expected to come up for a vote in the House of Representatives this week.