The Bugman of Mt. Washington

The Bugman has a list of top SoCal bugs that he wants to see one of these days: the long-horned California prionus beetle, the luxurious ceanothus silk moth and the lovely Pacific green sphinx moth. He’s also itching to see the rain beetle in action. “The males are the only ones that fly and the females are 8-10 feet underground,” he says. “They mate only during the winter rains in the early morning or late twilight hours.”

Snorkel local waters with Birch Aquarium

Get off the beach this summer and explore the wonders of SoCal waters with a variety of outings, courtesy of the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. Join aquarium naturalists who lead two different weekend excursions to get face-to-face with the marine life that lives just off the La Jolla coast. Choose [...]

Weaseling around with wildlife trivia question of the week

Also known as the stoat or ermine, the short-tailed weasel is one of those furry but ferocious critters. Test your knowledge of this light-weight – but by no means a light-weight – animal.

Rare Native Tadpoles Hatch at L.A. Zoo

Rock star status? Nope? Cuddly and colorful? Nope. Slippery when wet? You bet.

The nearly extinct mountain yellow-legged frog is not your typical poster-animal for endangered species. Sure it’s not a sexy beast (well, maybe in a Mick Jagger sort of way…) but this little hopper is gaining attention and getting a frog’s leg-up from local organizations that want to see the rivers and ponds of SoCal once again filled with extended froggy families.

Bears in the Foothills

We’re sorry to hear that last month a California black bear lumbered out of the foothills and snooped around the upscale homes of La Canada, stopping to eat four backyard chickens at a home on Bonita Vista Drive. This incident was only one of several recent bear sightings in the Northeast Los Angeles area. We [...]

Cactus Wrens Under the Microscope

The 2007 Witch Fire was a devastating fire for people and wildlife, especially for the troubled cactus wren which has seen its habitat slowly squeezed down and out for decades now. It’s bad enough the songbird was struggling for survival pre-fire, but with the conflagration destroying much of the bird’s shrunken habitat, it’s a down-right [...]

Illegal Killing of Mountain Lions at Tejon Ranch?

SoCal’s big wild cats are the subject of a state investigation that’s trying to discover just what the heck is going on at 270,000 acre Tejon Ranch. The California Department of Fish and Game is looking into claims by a former employee who alleges that he was fired because he complained about the company engaged [...]

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.

Dilemma in the Desert

Green technology, that clean, eco-easy and eco-friendly savior to America’s dependency on fossil fuels, has just met its foe: the evasive and extremely endangered desert tortoise. In a script that smacks of complicated irony that only short story author O. Henry could compose, the events unfolding in the eastern Mojave Desert are creating a modern day [...]

Amphibian Awareness

Whaddaya know about these water-loving hoppers? Take this week’s Wildlife Trivia quiz (5/6/2011) about the housing habits of the red-spotted toad.