Monterey County Animals Digest

Bembidion brownorum was last seen in 1966, but it had not been named or described until one was collected near a creek on Brown’s ranch in Colusa County.

The salmon industry, worth about half a billion dollars, is devastated. The culprits: Drought and decades of water diversions and development.

A whale-watching voyage yielded photographs and video of North Pacific right whale, a species nearing extinction.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and many wildlife rehabilitation centers have received reports of sick and dead band-tailed pigeons from locations along California’s Central Coast, the San Francisco Bay Area and Sierra Nevada foothill communities.

“This is a long-term project we're starting from nothing, with very little funding,” said Vincent Christian, of the nonprofit Sunflower Star Laboratory.

Woodland and beach regions known for tick activity across northwest California could be even more prone to the disease-carrying arachnids this year.

A small white deer is the sole survivor of a once-large herd created by famed publisher William Randolph Hearst.

“This is great compared to three years ago; this is not great compared to three decades ago.”

The Monarch and Pollinator Highway Program requires the Department of Transportation to provide grants to states, Indian tribes, and federal land management agencies to carry out pollinator-friendly practices on roadsides and highway rights-of-way.

These birds spend most of the year at sea “but we're finding them in neighborhoods, in backyards, in business parks—places where they shouldn't be,” said Beth Brookhouser, of SPCA Monterey County.

They have been pushed to the brink of extinction by dams, drought, heat and wildfires, but winter-run Chinook salmon now appear to face a new threat—their own ravenous hunger for anchovies.

As whale populations swell along the California coast, Dungeness crab fishermen are struggling to stay afloat. Fear of entangling whales has forced state regulators to delay the traditional start of the commercial crabbing season year.

Repeated delays of Dungeness crab season chips away at the long-term stability of the local industry.

For the past two decades, Marin’s Turtle Island Restoration Network has been supporting efforts to phase out the use of gillnets used for catching swordfish, because they kill sea turtles, dolphins and other sea animals.

It’s been a long road to recovery for the sanctuary and the society’s senior wildlife biologist, Joe Burnett. In August 2020, he watched helplessly over a remote video camera as a ribbon of flame crested over the mountain ridge toward the condor sanctuary.

In 1997, 1.2 million butterflies were flying at overwintering sites along the West Coast. In 2017, researchers counted almost 200,000 monarchs.

Scientists studying otter behavior at the Elkhorn Slough near Moss Landing find that volunteers are as effective as professionals in collecting data.

Spring runs of a large minnow numbering in the millions have nourished Pomo Indians since they first made their home alongside Clear Lake more than 400 generations ago.

A new generation of Olympia oysters has taken up residence in Elkhorn Slough. Scientists hope breeding oysters in the lab and returning baby oysters to the slough will help the mollusks to rebound from the brink of extinction.

Drought, human-caused climate change, invasive species and a “legacy” of environmental issues are permanently altering California’s landscape and placing some communities and ecosystems at increasing risk.

A dozen independent fish scientists are calling for urgent changes to sport fishing rules to save California’s largest freshwater fish after an unprecedented red tide this summer left hundreds of them dead.

For eight straight days this summer, farmers in far Northern California drained almost all of the water out of a river in defiance of the state’s drought regulations. The move infuriated environmentalists and salmon-dependent Native American tribes downstream.

California pet rental laws can get tricky, and are slightly different between subsidized housing and rentals. The Bee breaks down everything that pet lovers need to know.

Confetti-like bits of plastic are increasingly becoming a pollution problem in the world’s oceans, reports a new study by Stanford University.

The iconic monarch butterflies are back and researchers are hoping there will be more to count than last year, when the endangered species reversed the downward trending numbers.

Patrick Belanger, professor of communication studies at CSU Monterey Bay, interviewed representatives from four organizations to help figure out how to help hunters understand the importance of condor conservation efforts.

2022 State of the Birds Report shows decline in more than half of the bird population, with grassland bird species shrinking the fastest. On the bright side, waterfowl are thriving in the nation’s wetlands.

After street repairs disturbed nursing harbor seals, the Pacific Grove City Council unanimously approved an ordinance that imposes road work restrictions during the seals’ pupping season.

Working as a firefighter is physically and mentally stressful. Now, the Salinas Fire Department has a new member on their crew to help with that. His name is Cruz, and he’s the department’s first-ever therapy dog.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sandy Shore & Aviary exhibit is closed until further notice, a precautionary measure against a global outbreak of bird flu that’s now active locally.

Fall is deer mating season on the Central Coast, and deer are significantly more likely to be on the move. SPCA Monterey County is urging drivers to use extreme caution when driving to avoid hitting deer on roadways this time of year.

Marin, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Ventura counties have prohibited nurseries from selling a species of tropical milkweed species after the California Department of Agriculture recategorized it as a noxious weed. But some experts say the focus should be on larger threats such as pesticide and herbicide use.