The highly-tuned nose of a talented scent dog found mountain lion latrines at the rim of the canyon. Latrines are spots where pumas, often family groups, will repeatedly defecate; they are the mountain lion equivalent of toilets, except instead of flushing, pumas cover their excrement in these locations. But, lions don’t arbitrarily choose places for […]
The 88-acre canyon is a wildlife oasis, regularly visited by puma, coyote, deer and other animals, located in the middle of a suburban landscape. It is shoehorned between homes and businesses, perched on the rim of the canyon, bordered by busy roads and separated from other similar, small wild spaces. Fragments of the Wild Although […]
I just saw a wolf! Last month a woman approached me while I was checking cameras in the canyon in San Mateo. She was certain she spotted a wolf while driving home late at night after a board meeting. He was running near one of the trail heads that lead deep into the canyon. Unfortunately, […]
It isn’t a coincidence that there are a number of small mounds of leaves, twigs and soil grouped in a clearing surrounded by tall redwood trees and oaks. They’re not random; the piles, called community scrapes, were intentionally made by mountain lions. These unobtrusive clumps of forest detritus can be vital for mountain lions to […]
Adapting for survival The wildlife in the little canyon, like in other open spaces that are squeezed in by urbanization, must adapt and adjust to shrinking habitats that are increasingly fragmented by highways and buildings. Predators, being territorial, need lots of open, wild acreage to live and hunt in. Additionally, some predators, such as mountain […]
Life and Death in the Canyon Despite the canyon being only 93 acres, hemmed in by homes and roads, it’s a complete eco-system where plants and animals are interdependent. The death of one organism means many others will live. The lesson hit home a couple of weeks ago when a small deer was killed by […]
Today’s a sad day. Another mountain lion died, hit by a vehicle not too far from the canyon. I’m worried that the victim may be the big male we’ve been monitoring on the canyon trail since early this year. The one who died tried to cross the freeway at 10:00 Friday night. Perhaps the lion […]
The trail cameras do a great job of documenting the seasonal changes. It’s hot and water is becoming scarcer. August wasn’t as active in the wildlife department as in previous months, but we did film some bobs, Coyote 09M and deer. Along with the reduction in predators, the cameras have only caught a couple of […]
It’s hard to describe the anticipation I felt last summer as we waited for the wildlife cameras to finally catch glimpses of adorable bobcat kittens trailing closely behind their mum. We knew that we would soon see them because a couple of months before the cameras had recorded a resident bobcat going through stages of […]
I used to have mixed feelings about coyotes. When I was a child late at night, I loved drifting off to the howls, barks and yips from coyotes—their vocalizations added depth to my sleep. While I felt in awe of coyotes, at the same time I was afraid of them. I grew up hearing stories […]