Study documents local extinction of pikas from the largest area yet reported and projects climate change will cause drastic decline for the charismatic mammal within decades.
Vehicle collisions with animals cost California $276 million in 2016, up 20 percent
Fencing along the most severe roads would pay for itself within 2 years or less
San Francisco Bay Area roads experience the highest rates of wildlife-vehicle collisions
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/what-roadkill-costing-california
Deer are the most numerous big game in California, but the deer population is estimated to be down after a severe winter took a toll.
http://www.ocregister.com/2017/09/16/how-california-manages-its-deer-population/
When the staff at the Marine Mammal Center received a call about a sluggish sea otter hanging out at the trail leading down to Mavericks Beach they knew something was up.
“It’s very unusual for a sea otter to be out of the water and on the beach,” said Dr. Shawn Johnson who serves as the director of veterinary science for the center. “He was lethargic and not moving away from people.”
An uncanny bellowing beckoned me off the road last winter. On that trip, I joined a crowd on a boardwalk looking down in delight and wonder as these mega-sized marine mammals jockeyed for dominance on the beach. (Males get up to 5,000 pounds and 16 feet long, and this was mating and birthing season.)
For the most part, the once great, mass migrations of the large, wild herds, from the high Sierra Nevada to the foothills above the Central Valley, are gone, blocked by highways with no passage and expanding cities. That’s what happens in a state that has grown to 39.5 million people and counting.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/outdoors/article/Savvy-deer-know-when-hunters-are-afoot-12222624.php
That being said, a jackrabbit is actually a hare, which is not a rabbit, but a relative within the order Lagomorpha.
An outstanding difference between a hare and a rabbit is that a hare will freeze in place when threatened, while a rabbit will make a bee-line to its burrow to escape a predator.
The red fox was imported to California for its fur.
California black bears are typically active and foraging between April and mid-fall, but in autumn, black bears experience changes in metabolism that drives the need to consume as many rich calories as possible. This metabolic spike is an important signal to the bear to bulk up and gain the fat that will sustain the animal through hibernation and periods of lean food sources. Scientists estimate that black bears may forage as many as 20 hours a day at this time.
