Reprinted from The Glenite [newsletter of the Residents of Beverly Glen], Spring 2024, p. 6 One of the delights of the Glen is the abundance of Coast Live Oak trees. They are part of the indigenous vegetation that would have been found along the canyon bottom, which this winter has forcefully reminded us is a … Continue reading Oak Titmouse: Royalty in the Canopy
Reprinted from The Glenite [newsletter of the Residents of Beverly Glen], Summer 2023, p. 6 Of all the nocturnal bird calls in our canyon, the most frequently heard is that of the Great Horned Owl, with a higher and lower stuttering call of hoo-h’HOO-hoo-hoo. But during spring evenings in the Glen [Beverly Glen, eastern Santa … Continue reading Encounter with a Common Poorwill
Reprinted from The Western Tanager 89(4):1-3. A fact that has stuck with me from the research for the Los Angeles County Breeding Bird Atlas in the 1990s is that there was not a single neighborhood in the county that did not have at least ten breeding bird species. Residents can enjoy birds wherever they live. … Continue reading An Urban Forest for the Birds
Conservation Conversation Reprinted from The Western Tanager, 89(3): 9–11 (January/February 2023). Farewell, P-22 P-22’s reign as the biggest cat in Griffith Park has come to an end. The news was front page, not just in Los Angeles but farther afield, to those who found inspiration in a mountain lion living in the midst of the … Continue reading Wildness in Our City
Last session, the California Legislature passed, and the Governor signed, SB9, which allows by-right splits of any single-family residential parcel and then construction of a duplex on both parcels (at least four dwelling units where there was one before, and potentially accessory dwelling units, ADUs, in addition). Cities across the State are left with implementing … Continue reading On Mountain Lions, Woodside, and the Definition of “Habitat”
Feral cat activists, who desperately would like excuses to avoid euthanasia, return time and again to the delusion that outdoor cats reduce rat numbers. The latest report on the variations on the “working cats” theme is a report about the Tree House Humane Society in Chicago, which dumps feral cats outside homes and businesses on … Continue reading No, Chicago, Feral Cats Don’t Control Rats
Things have to be a bit dire to take hope from a roadkilled squirrel, but today, that’s where I found it, north of Sunset, between the 405 and the 101. Continue reading The Californians: Western Gray Squirrel edition
We cover the natural history of Toxoplasma gondii (it is a parasite that only reproduces in the gut of members of the cat family), then lay out the impacts on humans, domestic animals, and wild animals. The take-home message here is that the effects of toxoplasmosis are worse than you imagine and certainly worse than you would think if you listened to people who have a vested interest in downplaying its impacts. Continue reading New paper: taking toxoplasmosis seriously
Colleagues Scott Loss, Tom Will, Pete Marra and I published an article a month or so in Biological Invasions, titled “Responding to misinformation and criticisms regarding United States cat predation estimates.” The purpose of the article was to address the spurious criticisms that have been leveled against estimates of predation by free-roaming cats published by … Continue reading Not your usual correction
Shishir Paudel, Travis Longcore, Beau MacDonald, Melissa K. McCormick, Katalin Szlavecz, Gail W. T. Wilson, and Scott R. Loss Ecology Volume 97, Issue 3, March 2016, Pages 605–614 Abstract. A mounting body of research suggests that invasive nonnative earthworms substantially alter microbial communities, including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). These changes to AMF can cascade to affect plant communities and vertebrate populations. Despite these … Continue reading Belowground interactions with aboveground consequences: Invasive earthworms and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
