And the Official Animal of Los Angeles Is…
What would you vote for if they held a contest for the Official Animal of Los Angeles? How about the annoying, distracting and yet clever raccoon?
Local Wild Things: Natural History Museum’s Nature Lab & Garden
Proving that scientists don’t have to travel to exotic and far-flung locations to discover new species, encounter biodiversity and track wildlife on the move, the folks at the Natural History Museum will open their much-anticipated Nature Lab and Nature Gardens to the public on Sunday, June 9, 2013. A combination outdoor lab, learning center and very pretty […]
Reptile Hunting in Malibu Creek
It’s not every day you get to watch two grown men wrestle a young Southern Pacific rattlesnake from its hiding place underneath a pile of sticks into a Plexiglas tube. All in the name of education – and with a certain amount of scientific machismo – Drs. Robert Espinoza and Greg Pauly held up the […]
Wildlife, Present and Absent, at the Sepulveda Basin
About four months after the Army Corps of Engineers ripped apart 48 acres of the Sepulveda BasinWildlife Area in the San Fernando Valley, wildlife continues to surprise and amaze – even though the absence of so many birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians still serves as a reminder that nothing in this life is ever a sure […]
Grunion Love, SoCal Style
While a weekend in Barbados watching mama sea turtles lay eggs in the beach sand DOES sound pretty darn nice, Southlanders don’t need to travel far to experience a sea creatures exiting the water with the purpose of procreation. The Southern California Grunion Run is a bona fide rite of passage and an annual event that celebrates that slippery silver fish that has found beach sand the perfect incubator.
Blue Whales In February? Not So Crazy
Those early blue whales that have been spotted off the coastline in Southern California this week and last may not be as unusual as you think. For the past five years, the first sightings of these behemoths have been in April; last year, there was a February sighting as well. A few early blues have […]
Oiled Murres Overwhelming Bird Rescue
Volunteers and staff at the International Bird Rescue’s (IBR) Los Angeles center are putting in extra hours to wash, rehabilitate and care for an unprecedented number of oiled seabirds that are being delivered almost daily to the San Pedro facility.
Record Number of Cal Sea Lions Need Help
They have loose, rolling skin and their ribs show through their tiny brown bodies. There is a glaze in their large round eyes. When they flop or lay down on the cement dry areas, it’s not the normal lounging that healthy California sea lions typically do for hours on end. Even their whiskers seem droopy. […]
Where Are The Monarchs?
Seeing any orange and black flappers this year? No? Not too many? Those giant monarch clusters…not so big? Not surprising. The monarch in Southern California has been experiencing dramatically depleted populations and last year was no exception. Every year around Thanksgiving, scores of citizen scientists – under the guidance of the Xerces Society – head […]
Ready for Their Big Cat Close-up
The dramatic story of the two Burbank mountain lions — Olive and Leno, now living in Paso Robles at a conservation education facility Zoo to You – is being filmed by Elkins Eye Visuals and Totem Pictures , San Francisco-based film companies under the auspices of directors David Elkins and Aneeta Akhurst. Elkins has “always […]
No Longer Cubby – Burbank Mountain Lions Thriving in Paso
They were once malnourished, fearful and full of parasites, but now these former SoCal two mountain lion cubs have grown into strapping young cats ready for the world ahead of them, a world that doesn’t involved being poked at with sticks by strangers on the streets of Burbank. Found in December of 2011 under a […]
Stay in Your Own Lanes
With the news about the upcoming change in shipping lanes in the waters off Southern California – which means more room for whales to roam in their traditional feeding areas free of potential collision with shipping vessels – there was a big surprise on a recent whale watching expedition. There she was, a fin whale […]