Recently in Wildlife
Wildlife:
Sightings have been reported in two L.A. neighborhoods that stretch into the Santa Monica Mountains.
Wildlife:
News from the ominous Red List for at-risk and near-extinct animals includes two updates to California animals: the Sonoran mud turtle and Amargosa springsnail.
Wildlife:
The mountain lion that wandered into downtown Santa Monica and was fatally shot last month was a young male genetically linked to a local population and was not an exotic pet, according to the National Park Service.
Wildlife:
The Mojave has long stood in, in the public mind, for barrenness, an impression reinforced by generations of forbidding location shots in westerns and other films, but that couldn't be further from the truth.
Wildlife:
As concern grows over the toll industrial wind turbines take on California's largest birds, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to change the permitting system -- and it may not be for the better.
Commentary:
The birds are excellent at storing food, but they do lose a significant portion of their acorn caches to germination.
Commentary:
The easiest way to see wildlife in the California desert is also one of the saddest.
Wildlife:
It may seem alarming that there is a Mountain Lion living in Griffith Park, but it's certainly not the first time (remember 2004?) and is likely not the last.
Wildlife:
Climate change is a serious issue, but a couple of recent studies remind us that it may not be the biggest threat to life on Earth as we know it. What else is there? Loss of biodiversity.
Wildlife:
You might find the notion that Southern California's Mojave River has a native fish a bit surprising. After all, for most of its 110-mile run from the San Bernardino Mountains out to Baker the riverbed is dry as a bone, its water flowing underground if at all.
Wildlife:
It's that time of year again in the desert when throughout the urban desert, mockingbirds start to defend their nests again, harassing just about every living thing that comes near.
Wildlife:
The desert slender salamander, declared endangered soon after its discovery in 1969, has not been seen in the wild since the 1990s. Still, wildlife biologists aren't ready to declare it extinct. At least not yet.
Commentary:
Rattlesnakes are timid, generally gentle animals. Given any choice at all, they will always do what they can to avoid biting you.
Wildlife:
White pelicans are common this time of year along the California coast and in the estuary of the Colorado River, but in a few weeks, they will pick up and head for other parts of the country.
Wildlife:
If you see a bunny in the Southern California desert, ask yourself if you'd call it "lanky." If so, that's a jackrabbit. If not, it's a cottontail. Cottontails are compact and pudgy looking. Jackrabbits are neither of those things.
Wildlife:
They have returned to Southern California, soaring over beaches, across freeways, and into the northwest on their annual migration route.
Wildlife:
This lizard isn't just a pleasant companion on walks; it's one of the niftiest evolutionary curiosities the desert has to offer.
Botany:
A sea of sagebrush may appear monotonous to the casual observer, but it turns out sagebrush is a pretty complex thing.
Wildlife:
Woodrats are popularly called "packrats," and with good reason. They're forever collecting little pieces of their surroundings.
Commentary:
The deadly, highly contagious disease affects dozens of animal species, including coyotes. The virus is mainly spread through contact with infected bodily fluids, urine among them.
'Seeking The Greatest Good' Documents a New Geography of Hope
A new documentary, "Seeking the Greatest Good," identifies key steps we can take to restore the Earth -- and ourselves.
Watch
- Ballot Brief
The latest about elections in Southern California and across the state. - Rewire
Tracking renewable energy in California. - The Back Forty
News and views on land use, wildlife, and environmental issues in California. - Confluence
The latest in stories related to the revitalization of the Los Angeles River.
