Category Archives: California

New Legless Lizards in California

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lizard_head_hr_jparham photo creditFour new species of legless lizards have been discovered in California, joining the one species of legless lizard that was previously known in the state.

An NBC News report notes that the four new species were not found in the wilderness, but in some heavily trafficked areas including: “dune bordering a runway at Los Angeles International Airport; an empty lot in downtown Bakersfield, Calif.; a field littered with oil derricks; and the margins of the Mojave Desert.”

The paper describing the four species was published in the journal Breviora and is open access. (The paper was the top link on this page at the time this was posted.)

Lots of people like new legless lizard species, apparently, so you can find coverage in:CNN.com (the most detailed coverage)
Reuters
Popular Science (refers to Reuters coverage)
the previously mentioned NBC News report
and last but not least, the California State University, Fullerton press release.

The reports even include a handy clue for telling a legless lizard apart from a snake. If it blinks, it’s a lizard.

Photo: This legless lizard, which has a purple belly, is among four new species discovered in the state by CSUF scientist James Parham and a research colleague at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at Berkeley. Credit: James Parham, used courtesy of CSU-Fullerton

 

August Research Round-up

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NYS bobcat– Ohio Department of Natural Resources is studying how and why bobcats have returned to the state, by tracking 21 collared bobcats, The Madison Press reports. Previous research showed that there are two distinct populations of bobcats in the state. DNA analysis showed that the bobcats in both populations are from Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. Read more in The Madison Press, here.

– David “Doc Quack” Riensche, an East Bay Regional Park District biologist, has been studying western pond turtles in in the eastern foothills of Mount Diablo outside Clayton, California for three years, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The study has collected information on where the turtles winter and lay eggs. Western pond turtles are the only turtle native to California, but they face competition from non-native turtle species. Read more in the San Francisco Chronicle, here.

– Nearly 100 research volunteers surveyed the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma for bats for this year’s “Bat Blitz,” organized by the Southeastern Bat Diversity Network, the Catoosa Times reports. One of the goals of the blitz is to document bat diversity before white nose syndrome harms bat populations in Oklahoma. Read more in the Catoosa Times.

Photo: This bobcat was in New York State. Photo courtesy NYS DEC

More Mountain Lions

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mo mountain lionWhere are there more mountain lions? There are increases Puma concolor sightings just about everywhere, recent news reports say.

An article in The New York Times focuses on mountain lions’ expansion east from their strongholds in the Rocky Mountains and Texas. The article says that mountain lion sightings are now common in the Midwest, and it includes a map that shows recent sightings, including several in New England.

Read The New York Times article here.

In Arizona, an abundance of mountain lions in the Catalina Mountains has some folks worried about a planned release of bighorn sheep there, says an Arizona Daily Star article. A management plan calls for killing mountain lions that kill the bighorns, although the mountain lions should have plenty of other prey, the article quotes Jim Heffelfinger, regional game specialist for the Arizona Game and Fish Department as saying.

An increase in deer in the area likely lead to the increase in mountain lions, the article says.

Read the Arizona Daily Star article here.

Mountain lion populations have been going up in California for at least 20 years, with hundreds of sightings annually, but that doesn’t mean the sight of two mountain lions in Redlands, California isn’t news. Redlands is near the San Bernardino Mountains, east of Los Angleles.

Read the Los Angeles Times article here.

Photo: One of the increasing number of Midwestern mountain lions, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

More Mountain Lions

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mo mountain lionWhere are there more mountain lions? There are increases Puma concolor sightings just about everywhere, recent news reports say.

An article in The New York Times focuses on mountain lions’ expansion east from their strongholds in the Rocky Mountains and Texas. The article says that mountain lion sightings are now common in the Midwest, and it includes a map that shows recent sightings, including several in New England.

Read The New York Times article here.

In Arizona, an abundance of mountain lions in the Catalina Mountains has some folks worried about a planned release of bighorn sheep there, says an Arizona Daily Star article. A management plan calls for killing mountain lions that kill the bighorns, although the mountain lions should have plenty of other prey, the article quotes Jim Heffelfinger, regional game specialist for the Arizona Game and Fish Department as saying.

An increase in deer in the area likely lead to the increase in mountain lions, the article says.

Read the Arizona Daily Star article here.

Mountain lion populations have been going up in California for at least 20 years, with hundreds of sightings annually, but that doesn’t mean the sight of two mountain lions in Redlands, California isn’t news. Redlands is near the San Bernardino Mountains, east of Los Angleles.

Read the Los Angeles Times article here.

Photo: One of the increasing number of Midwestern mountain lions, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

Non-native Lice Impact Cal. Deer Population

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hair loss syndrome CDFWCalifornia Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) researchers have captured and collected hair and blood samples from more than 600 deer and elk in an effort to understand “deer hair-loss syndrome,” says a CDFW news release.

A non-native louse appears to be a key factor in the syndrome, which also sometimes includes internal parasites. Deer with the syndrome are skinny, and the fawns don’t survive. A report from Fox 40 in Sacramento notes that the syndrome has been known in Oregon for years.

“Some of us speculate that the louse-infested deer spend so much time grooming they become easy targets of predation by coyotes or mountain lions,” said CDFW senior wildlife biologist, Greg Gerstenberg in the release.

The researchers have counted and identified lice on the captured deer, are following them through radio collars, and have treated some for lice. They hope to have answers soon.

Read the brief CDFW news release, here.
The Fox 40 report is here.

Mule deer are in decline throughout the West, and California is no exception. This article from 2010 in the San Francisco Chronicle discusses the decline.

Photo: Deer with hair-loss syndrome, courtesy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife

New Sierra Bighorn Herd in California

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Sierra bighorn“Our recovery goals are both numeric and geographic,” said Tom Stephenson, California Department of Fish and Wildlife bighorn recovery program leader, in an article in The Los Angeles Times about the recent establishment of a new herd of federally endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep.

“This is the first reintroduction effort of a new herd of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep since 1988,” he said in a CDFW press release. The release explains:

During the week of March 25, 2013, ten female and four male bighorn sheep were captured from two of the largest existing herds in the Sierra Nevada and reintroduced to the vacant herd unit of Olancha Peak at the southern end of the range in Inyo County.

The newly created herd is the tenth herd of Sierra bighorn between Owens Lake and Mono Lake, the release says. Three additional herds are needed to meet recovery goals. There are now 500 Sierra bighorns, which as an increase from the low of just over 100 of them.

Read more in The Los Angeles Times, here.
Read the CDFW press release here.

Photo: A Sierra bighorn is released in a new area to create a new herd. Courtesy CDFW.

California Bites the Bullet

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condor_ScottFrierCalifornia banned lead ammunition within the range of the endangered California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) in 2008. Now environmental groups are moving to take the ban statewide to protect the condor and other large scavenging birds such as bald eagles from lead poisoning. The National Rifle Association protests.

An article in the San Jose Mercury News reports the NRA saying that because copper bullets cost $40 a box and don’t fly as true, while lead bullets cost $20 a box, the ban is equivalent to a ban on hunting, and that the groups’ ultimate goal is to ban guns. (The article also quotes an Audubon spokesman saying that of course the group does not oppose either hunting nor guns.)

An article in the British newspaper The Guardian links to a recent Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences paper detailing the condors’ vulnerability to lead poisoning from ammunition. It seems the condors are such effective scavengers that even if only one percent of the carcasses or gut piles contain lead ammunition, 30 to 50 percent of the condors will feed from one of them.

Read the San Jose Mercury News article here.
Read The Guardian article here.
Find the PNAS abstract here. (Fee or subscription needed for full access.)

Photo: California condor by Scott Frier, courtesy Arizona Game and Fish Department

Cancer Virus in Raccoons

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More raccoons survive rabies with shotsIt’s just 10 raccoons. Let me make that clear up front. There were 9 in California (north of San Francisco) and one in Oregon. But a paper in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases has generated a bit of publicity.

The paper describes a virus that has caused brain cancer in these raccoons. It’s notable because brain cancer, or any cancer, is rare in raccoons.

Nothing is known about where the virus came from (another animal host species, or humans) or if it infects other animals, there are some scientists, though, who are willing to speculate. (See the blogs at the bottom of this post for the speculation.)

I put this out there simply as a new thing that is killing raccoons, which is very different from the other things that generally kill raccoons — even different from other raccoon diseases.

Read the Wired blog story here.
Read the Discover blog story here.
Read the Huffington Post story here.
See the paper here. (It’s open access.)

Photo: a healthy raccoon, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service.

State Wildlife Departments Are No Longer Game

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In January, the California Department of Fish and Game will become the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. With that change, only 12 state wildlife management entities will continue to use the term “game” in their names, according to an article in the Sacramento Bee.

The title of the Bee article is “California sporting groups leery of department name change,” which about sums it up.

The article notes that the name change came from the state legislature, not from the department itself and that California created the nation’s first state fisheries commission, back in the 19th century.

Read the Sacramento Bee article, here.

And, of course, you will want to know which states still have “game” in the name of their wildlife management agency or department. The Sacramento Bee’s information came from the membership rolls of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies.Those 12 members are: Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming.

However, several states list their agencies of natural resources as members, when those agencies also have a department for managing wildlife. For example, Alaska has a Department of Fish and Game (number 13!), whose relationship to the listed Agency of Natural Resources is hard to parse. (It is not listed among the agency’s departments on its website.) Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources has a Department of Fish and Wildlife.