San Benito County Animals Digest

A 2021 fire has helped bring wolves back to Southern California for the first time since the 19th century. A rancher is worried about how to keep wolves, which are federally protected, from harming cattle.

The Wildlife Conservation Board is scheduled to consider providing $5.6 million for a wildlife crossing near the San Benito-Monterey county line to address “one of the most significant and least permeable wildlife connectivity bottlenecks in California.”

The Office of Habitat Conservation’s Restoration Center has awarded $27.8 million to bring Central California Coast coho salmon back to California rivers, funding projects by Trout Unlimited, the San Mateo and Gold Ridge Resource Conservation Districts, and the Nature Conservancy.

Researchers tell LAist that half of California’s population of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, which are endangered, died last winter due to record weather. Causes of death include avalanches, starvation and getting eaten by mountain lions after moving to lower elevations for food.

Written by Center for Biological Diversity scientist Tiffany Yap and illustrated by artist Meital Smith, “Tales of the Urban Wild: A Puma’s Journey” takes the reader through diverse habitats, across busy freeways and inside science labs to learn about one mountain lion’s survival story.

A sticky and fluffy substance has been seen falling in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties—a natural phenomenon called ballooning, when spiders use their webs to fly through the air.

Caltrans is looking at a wildlife crossing overpass on Highway 101 near San Juan Bautista. The area was identified in the top 12 locations in the state to maintain a healthy wildlife population.

There’s an official state bird, mineral, tree, fish, insect, lichen, fabric, sport, dance, soil and even dinosaur.

The California Department of Health said three sentinel chickens tested positive for West Nile virus in August—the first indication of the virus in the county in 2023.

Less than 400 of the majestic birds live and fly in the wild.

Daniel Laggner, founder of Santa Cruz-based Wildstag Provisions, is on a mission to protect American wildlife by selling free range game meat.

Following a year that saw 17 deaths from avian flu in the southwestern flock, the Central Coast flock of California condors saw the hatching of five young and the expected fall release of 10 juveniles from the release pen in San Simeon.

The 2022-23 San Benito County Civil Grand Jury report on the Hollister Animal Shelter highlights understaffing. The grand jury has been investigating the shelter over the past two years; the latest probe identifies areas of progress and persisting concerns.

The SPCA Monterey County Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center responded to the unique hawk, found on the ground in San Benito County.

In a new study published Aug. 17 in the journal Science, fossil records at La Brea Tar Pits indicate that the disappearance of California’s sabertooth cats, dire wolves and other large mammals nearly 13,000 years ago was linked to rising temperatures and fire activity spurred by people.

California’s only native sunfish, the Sacramento perch, was once abundant before invasive species decimated it. As the planet heats up and threatens cold-water game fish, the Sacramento perch may be on the cusp of a comeback, thanks to its ability to tolerate warm water.

The new pack consists of at least five individuals not previously detected in California, including one adult female, who is a direct descendant of California’s first documented wolf in the state in recent history, (OR7), and four offspring (two females, two males).

Two baby California condors are healthy and growing at Pinnacles National Park, Named condor 1215 and condor 1238, they are 44 and 68 days old, respectively. It takes about six months for condors to become fully grown.

Luis Yauri Oyola hopes one day to buy a tractor to start a business in Peru; he estimates that he is six years away from that goal, for which he will have spent more than a decade of his life living thousands of miles away from his family. He is on call 24/7 and doesn’t leave the job site except for necessities.

Twelve years ago, Thomas Bray inherited San Benito Gold Honey, the business his father Leon Bray founded 40 years before. These days, he sells his honey and pollen from a little trailer on Hwy 25.

Research by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s snake fungal disease project indicates that the pathogen is occurring in more locations and impacting more snakes in California than previously known.

In December, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County spent $17 million to buy Rocks Ranch, a 2,600-acre property near San Juan Bautista that has been eyed by developers. The group is working to build a crossing so that wildlife can traverse Highway 101 without being killed.

Fresno Chaffee Zoo—in partnership with Fresno State, the Bureau of Land Management, and state and federal wildlife managers—reintroduced ten blunt-nosed leopard lizards from a breeding program at the zoo.

California condors will receive a vaccine for a deadly strain of avian influenza that threatens the already critically endangered vulture species. More than a dozen condors recently died from the bird flu.

A federal regulatory group voted to officially close king salmon fishing season along much of the West Coast after near-record low numbers of the fish returned to California rivers in 2022. The approved closure of the 2023 season is for all commercial and most recreational fishing.

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

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.

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.”

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.

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.