- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Four Pacific fisher kits who were returned to the wild last week will be closely monitored by UC Berkeley wildlife biologists who are interested in knowing how the animals assimilate to the forest after being reared in captivity, according to the Fresno Bee.
The kits were rescued last May, when their mothers - part of a multi-year Pacific fisher study - were killed, one by a bobcat, the other by a car. UC Berkeley wildlife biologist Rick Sweitzer delivered the animals to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo, where...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Davis researchers' recent confirmation that Sierra Nevada red fox is still roaming the forest 200 miles further south than thought could ignite a political battle about endangered species, according to an article by Michael Doyle of McClatchy News Service.
The story appeared in the Sunday Fresno Bee, but online was only available on the Miami Herald website.
California law currently protects the fox, but the federal Endangered Species Act does not. According to the McClatchy story, it is a long, politically charged process to add an animal to the federal list, and the local...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Five Pacific fisher orphans were featured on Fresno's KSEE Channel 24 news last Friday. The story includes great video of the five tiny, weasel-like animals now being cared for at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo.
The orphaned fishers were rescued by an Oakhurst-based UC Berkeley team that is studying the Pacific fisher population in the southern Sierra Nevada. The animals are the offspring of two fisher females that were part of the study. One was killed by a bobcat, the other hit by a car. Get all the rescue details in this UC news release.
Unfortunately, the Channel 24 story omitted the...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Berkeley wildlife ecology professor Reginald Barrett will present a 15-page letter to the California Fish and Game Commission at their meeting in Monterey tomorrow explaining that a new Department of Fish and Game report about the Pacific fisher misrepresents his input.
The Pacific fisher is a small, nocturnal carnivore that typically perches all day high in large, old-growth pine and oak trees. Related to the mink, otter and marten, fishers historically ranged throughout the mountainous West, from the southern Sierra into Canada. However, only two isolated populations remain today, one in the Sierra...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
In a move that might only occur in a county named for a body of water, the Lake County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency last week after Fish and Game officials decided not to stock several local lakes and streams with fish.
Fish and Game made the decision after the Pacific Rivers Council and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit that blamed the fish stocking program for threatening native fish and amphibians, such as the hardhead minnow, spring- and winter-run chinook salmon, California red-legged frog, arroyo toad and foothill yellow-legged frog.
Fish and Game had decided to drop Upper Blue Lake, Cache Creek, Indian Valley Reservoir and Pillsbury Reservoir from...