Experts to Start Capturing Rare Vaquita Porpoises in Mexico
An effort to capture the few remaining vaquita porpoises in Mexico's Gulf of California will start next week.
An effort to capture the few remaining vaquita porpoises in Mexico's Gulf of California will start next week.
A rare showing of orcas off Southern California last week still has people talking via social media – but anger is the prevailing sentiment.
http://www.grindtv.com/wildlife/anger-spreads-photos-reveal-apparent-jet-ski-harassment-orcas/
Patton, a retired mammologist, is trapping and releasing desert wildlife as part of an ambitious project to repeat surveys conducted by renowned ecologist Joseph Grinnell from 1908 to 1939. Known as the ‘father of field notes’, Grinnell criss-crossed California in his Ford Model T to catalogue its birds and mammals. His descriptions are so complete that researchers today can compare the density and distribution of animal populations then and now.
http://www.nature.com/news/the-ambitious-effort-to-document-california-s-changing-deserts-1.22799
The monument that brought us the ‘super bloom’ also supports rural economies and threatened wildlife.
http://www.hcn.org/articles/opinion-a-national-monument-that-saves-the-last-of-the-last
Why all the time, effort and expense to track the vaquita?
There are fewer than 30 vaquita believed to still exist, and they are all in Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California off the coast of the Baja California fishing community of San Felipe. What Mexico—and the world—faces here is the extinction of a species.
Benioff Ocean Initiative grantees to use acoustic monitoring, thermal imaging and big data to curtail collisions between ships and whales.
To address this growing problem, leading marine scientists are gathering October 17–18 at UC Santa Barbara for the inaugural Benioff Ocean Solution Summit, which will kick off a $1.5 million initiative to reduce fatal collisions between ships and whales.
The Mojave Desert project moves forward without typical environmental review.
Desert bighorn sheep are among hundreds of animals and plants that rely on rare surface water in the Mojave Desert.
A mountain lion made a rare and frightening excursion this week into a Fontana neighborhood miles from the foothills, and was shot and killed Tuesday morning as it lunged at officers trying to capture the w
“Goleta knows firsthand the impacts of oil spills. After the May 2015 oil spill there, over 300 dolphins, seals, sea lions, pelicans and other animals washed up dead. Their beaches were closed and their fishing and tourism industries took a big hit.”
This week, the most prominent local mammal wearing a radio tracking collar isn't P-22, Southern California's most famous mountain lion, it's Beth Pratt-Bergstrom.
The California director of the National Wildlife Federation is participating in a three-and-a-half day, 50-mile hike that follows the cougar's journey from the Santa Monica Mountains to Griffith Park.
The trek ends on Sunday, Oct. 22, also known as P-22 Day, an official Los Angeles holiday as of 2016.
https://www.scpr.org/news/2017/10/21/65685/can-following-a-famous-cougar-s-journey-help-save/