Several projects near Chino Hills State Park and the Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority lands have had impacts to the California gnatcatcher and its habitat. It is nice to see the law is being upheld. Read the EarthJustice article.
Did you know bobcats are the most numerous wild cats in the Americas and are found in the Puente-Chino Hills Wildlife Corridor? They are much smaller than cougars and have smaller territories. Unlike cougars whose tails are nearly as long as their body, bobcats have a short, sometimes stubby tail. Bobcats are solitary animals who avoid human contact.
A lot of attention is now being paid to the Santa Ana Mountains and its highest predator: the cougar. Check out this article from a few weeks ago on the effort to list this “genetically distinct” population which is facing extinction without additional protections. Hills For Everyone connected the Santa Ana Mountains to Chino Hills State Park in the late 1990s, but more work is needed at the southern end of the Santa Anas. Read the Los Angeles Times article.
There are many ways to die if you are a cougar in Southern California: poisoning by rodenticide, collision with a car, inbreeding/genetic defects, burns from a wildfire, depredation permit, etc. The question has come forward about what we are willing to do to preserve our top predator? Would we be willing to stop building in their habitat to preserve the species from going extinct? View the Los Angeles Times article.
Wildlife bridges are coming to California to reduce animal-vehicle related collisions, keep wildlands connected, and retrofit transportation projects. Wildlife in the Santa Ana Mountains face inbreeding and extinction if the natural lands aren’t connected to other protected lands. But alas, work is already being done in the Puente Hills. In fact, the Puente Hills Habitat Authority undercrossing is featured in the article. Read the San Gabriel Valley Tribune article.