Sacramento County Animals Digest

On October 4, the Sacramento Zoo announced the resignation of Executive Director Jason Jacobs and named a new team as the zoo prepares to move to Elk Grove.

H5N1 bird flu has been reported in three California dairy herds.

The Sacramento Observer shines a light on the hundreds of thousands of bats who make their home in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, and how they benefit local sustainable agriculture (and eat a lot of insects.)

A resident of the Roseville Road homeless shelter in Sacramento talks about their experience there.

The Citrus Heights City Council heard concerns expressed at a recent meeting about the increase in feral cats locally, many sick and starving, and some possibly carrying a deadly virus.

For the second year, the California Fish and Game Commission is banning salmon fishing in the Sacramento, American, Feather, and Mokelumne rivers.

The Elk Grove City Council voted to approve the move of the Sacramento Zoo to a 100 acre lot at Kammerer Road and Lotz Parkway.

Several bills making their way through the California Legislature seek to address overcrowded animal shelters and streamline how animals receive care.

Each year, a herd of 7,000 sheep graze and goats tend to the grass with their kids, or baby goats, in creeks and channels throughout the city, clear vegetation grow during the wet season to cut down on wildfire dangers.

California has released 500,000 salmon into the Klamath River. As dams are removed, the fish will be some of the first to return to a free-flowing river.

Obstacles are mounting for officials who are attempting to rescue a young gray whale that was discovered entangled in a gillnet off Laguna Beach was recently sighted off the coast of Thornton State Beach in Daly City .

Although Elk Grove taxpayers will shoulder most of the $302 million cost of the initial phase of the relocation and construction of a new Sacramento Zoo, other parties including the Sacramento Zoological Society will share the burden.

Captains of fishing boats on the California coast are bracing for salmon fishing to be severely restricted — or possibly canceled for a second year.

The goal is to eliminate habitat competition between "invasive" owls and native owls.

If hikers, bikers, campers, hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts haven't encountered a mountain lion while in the California wilderness, they might know somebody who has.

A man was fatally attacked and his brother injured by a mountain lion in a remote area near Georgetown.

Unlike the record low Chinook salmon returns on the Sacramento River this year, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife noted a new record for the number of steelhead returning to the Mokelumne River.

The City of Elk Grove has released information about the financing for the $400M multi-phase project to move the Sacramento Zoo to Elk Grove, but questions remain.

There was a time not so long ago when trained observers were overwhelmed by the number of whales migrating through Monterey Bay.

The Wildlife Conservation Board voted to award $10.3 million to the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County to preserve the 27,000-acre Camatta Ranch in Santa Margarita.

While temperatures aren’t warm enough for mosquitoes to run rampant, now’s the time to prevent breeding grounds.

Ten conservation groups filed an intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its failure to list western wolves under the Endangered Species Act.

An extinct species of walrus was unearthed in Santa Cruz County, evoking a time when California was teeming with odd creatures that feel closer to fantasy than reality, researchers said.

Each fall, millions of hunters across North America bag deer. Over the winter, people chow down on the venison steaks, sausage, and burgers made from the animals.

Chinook and other salmon runs are collapsing. Conservation groups call it too little, too late. Plan includes dam removals and restoring river flows.

Monarch butterflies have a long way to go before reaching stable population numbers.

Those pandemic puppies are growing up to be a public health concern.

For months, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has been waging war on the oriental fruit fly, a voracious pest that can attack hundreds of types of fruits and vegetables.

The removal entered a critical phase with the lowering of dammed reservoirs on the Klamath River. “This is historic and life-changing,” tribal attorney Amy Cordalis said. “And it means that the Yurok people have a future.”

New rules took effect Jan. 1 permanently protecting the most fragile deep sea corals off Southern California. Simultaneously, more than 4,500 square miles of ocean waters are now reopened to fishing after more than 20 years of closures.

Research shows that a mountain chickadee facing deep snow is like a canary in a coal mine—its survivability tells us about the challenges ahead.

An outbreak of the avian flu that began in California in October has killed 5.5 million birds throughout the Golden State. About 20% of the deaths have come in Sonoma County.