Sunday Sketch: River Otter

The North American River Otter (Lontra canadensis) is known for being a skilled predator, consuming a variety of animals like crabs, fish, small mammals, reptiles, birds and more! They will choose to attack larger prey first, to maximize the amount of energy they receive from their food. Art by @miri_leshem_pelly [Edited by Isabelle McDonald] Reference:…

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Field Frame Friday: Rural Raccoons

Raccoons are versatile mammals that can adapt to both city and wilderness settings. Contrary to their “trash panda” perception, rural raccoons are cunning foragers, seeking out seasonal diets of worms and insects in the spring, and fruits and nuts in the fall. Encounters with them are invariably special.

Sunday Sketch: Brown bears

Brown bears (Ursus arctos) are native to an expansive home range, including Eurasia and North America. Their diet consists of a wide variety of foods like meats, berries, and other plants. They perform a behavior called caching, which is where they hide food to save it for later; they will often need to guard their…

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Creature Feature: Native Freshwater Mussels

California’s freshwater streams are home to a surprising variety of shellfish. Clusters of bivalves nestle themselves among the small pebbles and overhangs of riverbeds, sometimes almost indiscernible from their surroundings. Though these organisms may not be in the spotlight, each one of the species plays an important role in riparian ecosystems. None are more important…

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Sunday sketch: the Yeti crab

The Yeti crab (Kiwa hirsuta) live in what are called cold seeps, which are areas of the ocean floor where there is a plethora of sulfides and methane that seep from fissures in the ground. In order to thrive in these harsh conditions, Yeti crabs have an epibiotic relationship with bacteria that live on the…

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Field Frame Friday: Foxes and Food

Island Foxes (Urocyon littoralis) inhabit the California Channel Islands. Over the course of the last 150 years or so, the ecology of each island has changed substantially, leading to different outcomes for different fox populations. The fox above is from Santa Cruz Island, where the population is currently healthy, although the foxes there are famous…

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