California drought brings new behavior
Print Edition
THE scarcity of food in the wild has been blamed for unusual animal activity during California’s drought including a recent bear attack, mountain lion sightings and an uptick in orphaned animals.
But the devastating four-year drought that’s dried up streams and vegetation isn’t the sole cause, state officials and experts say.
Instead, they say the drought is exacerbating long-term trends and natural animal behaviors in a state that is becoming increasingly developed
Pools and lush gardens in residential areas are attractive to animals forced out of their normal homes. The construction of roads and business developments, along with man’s increased movement into rural areas, had begun fragmenting habitats before the drought.
“You have a longer-term trend exacerbated by this acute change in water availability,” said Dick Cameron, a scientist who studies habitat fragmentation for The Nature Conservancy in California.
Diane Nicholas believes a dearth of water and vegetation in the Sierra Foothills is behind what’s been the busiest year for her Kindred Spirits Fawn rescue in Loomis, near Sacramento.
The 63-year-old interior designer, says she is on track to rehabilitate a record 200. Some were found stuck in canals where they had looking for water.
Fraser Schilling, co-director The Road Ecology Center at the University of California-Davis, says his study of 29,000 road kill reports from volunteers over five years makes him think animals are crossing more roads searching for food.
“There are so many stresses on wildlife populations from things that are our responsibility that when drought comes along, it really slams them up against the ropes,” Shilling said.
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