The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has recently seen an increased number of confirmed and suspect cases of canine distemper virus (CDV) in wild gray foxes in the Mount Shasta and Scott Valley areas in Siskiyou County.
Without a serious effort in terms of intelligence collection, investigation and law enforcement to thwart totoaba traffickers, we can say goodbye to the vaquita.
https://www.ecowatch.com/vaquita-extinction-cartels-2630379398.html
No one really knows why pods of whales spontaneously drive themselves aground. Military sonar may be one culprit, and the need to train and test submarine tracking technology in open water could put the US Navy in conflict with the gentle cetaceans that feed and pass through military ranges. Although solitary endangered blue whales are rarely victims of sonar stranding, this does not mean that they are unaffected by high intensity sonar.
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-sonar-disturbs-blue-whales.html
A species of elk native to California is making a significant comeback in the hills around San Jose after once dwindling to precariously low numbers.
https://kcbsradio.radio.com/blogs/matt-bigler/tule-elk-return-santa-clara-county
The recent big fire closed canyon passes and the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, to continue this natural destruction. The size and scope of the fire damage to the environment, and the wildlife habitat, is hard to imagine.
A former Tiburon man has pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges in connection with the fatal shooting of a doe and a fawn in 2017.
Experts said Wednesday that only 22 vaquitas remain in the Gulf of California, where a grim, increasingly violent battle is playing out between emboldened fishermen and the last line of defense for the smallest and most endangered porpoise in the world.
A sickly female mountain lion who makes her home in the central Santa Monica Mountains was tracked down and captured by biologists and is being treated for a parasitic disease of the hair and skin known as mange, usually associated with exposure to rat poison, the National Park Service announced on Thursday.
Researchers know little about a potential link between rat poisons and mange, but one thing is clear: when wild cats who have somehow ingested rat poison get mange, it's severe.
“Usually when we encounter humpbacks, we see one or two animals traveling north or south along the coast. We had up to 20 whales surface lunge feeding.”Biagini said such behavior was rarely seen off San Diego.
