The ringtail is a mammal of the raccoon family. The ringtail is buff to dark brown in color with white under parts and a flashy black and white striped tail that has 14 -16 white and black stripes, and is longer than the rest of its body. The eyes are large and purple, each surrounded by a patch of light fur. Much like the common raccoon, the ringtail is nocturnal and mainly solitary.
The ringtail eats insects, lizards, small rodents, birds, and small mammals such as rabbits, mice, rats and ground squirrels, and occasionally will also eat fish, snakes and carrion. The ringtail also enjoys juniper, black berries, persimmon, prickly pear, and fruit in general.
The ringtail prefers to live in rocky habitats associated with water. These areas can include riparian canyons, caves, and mine shafts. Ringtails mate in the spring and the male will procure food for the female. There will be 2–4 kits in a litter. The kits open their eyes after a month and will hunt for themselves after four months.
The porcupine looks deceitfully cuddly! Their face has short black hair and small dark eyes. Their long guard hairs lay over their specialized hairs so they appears to be soft, but those special hairs are better known as quills. There are up to 300,000 quills covering the porcupine’s body. Their legs are short, with long curved claws on their toes, which help in gripping large tree trunks.
Porcupines cannot shoot their quills, but a SLAP of the tail will send many quills into their attacker. They live in woodland and forest areas. They prefer to escape up a tree rather than face an attacker. They will den in a hollow tree, underground burrow, crevice or tree.
Solitary and nocturnal, the porcupine is a slow, but excellent climber. An herbivore, they feed on leaves, twigs, green plants and inner bark, and they are fond of salt. They can kill trees by stripping bark; they will sometimes gnaw on and damage buildings, furniture and tools with their orange teeth.
One porcupette per year is born in May or June and weighs 1 lb.
This marsupial, or pouched mammal, resembles a large rat. It has a long pointed nose, large ears and is covered with long, coarse hair that is gray mixed with white in color. Each foot is like a hand with 5 toes, the great toes much like human thumbs, being opposable for grasping. Like a kangaroo, the female has a pouch. The female gives birth to many helpless young opossums that are as tiny as a honeybee.
The opossum is often incorrectly referred to as a “possum”, and although there is no link between the possums of Australia and the opossums of America, the opossum is the only species of marsupial that is found outside of Australia and its surrounding islands.
Opossums like to eat fruit, berries, grains, green vegetation, earthworms, insects, eggs, frogs, and small mammals and they prefer to live in moist woodlands, brushy habitats, wetlands, agricultural areas and residential areas that provide abundant food and cover.
The gray fox has rather short legs, which it uses to climb trees in order to get food or seek refuge. The gray fox has a silvery-gray coat with conspicuous patches of yellow, brown, rust, or white on the throat and belly. Black tipped guard hairs form a dark line down its back to the tip of the tail.
The gray fox is the most common fox in California, mainly populating coastal or mountain forests at lower elevations. They rarely dig their own dens. Instead they will rest in crevices, under boulders, or in hollow logs.
Secretive and mostly nocturnal, the gray fox is an excellent hunter. Their main diet consists of small rodents, birds and berries, but they will also eat insects, eggs, acorns and fungi.
Mating begins in January and 3-5 pups are born in February or March. Pups will begin to hunt after 3 months. The family group remains together until the autumn, when the young reach sexual maturity, then they disperse.
The mountain lion is also known as the cougar, puma, panther and catamount, and is the largest wildcat in North America. They are tan colored cats with tawny-beige fur, except for a whitish-gray belly and chest. Black markings decorate the tip of the tail, ears and around the snout. They have powerful limbs and can leap as high as 15 feet and as far as 40 feet.
Mountain lions are stealthy, hunting at night and often lying in wait for prey or silently stalking it before pouncing from behind, delivering a lethal bite to the spinal cord. Typically, they prey on deer, but also feed on smaller animals, and even insects when necessary.
Mountain lions inhabit a wide range of ecosystems, making their home anywhere there is shelter and prey, including mountains, forests, deserts and wetlands. Unlike other large cats, they cannot roar. Instead they growl, shriek, hiss and purr, similar to house cats. Baby mountain lions are born blind and are dependent on their mothers for the first 3 months of their lives.
The most vocal of all North American wild mammals, this opportunistic hunter and scavenger is steadily increasing in number through rapid adaptation to human encroachment and a fast reproductive rates. The coyote looks similar to a large dog. Its coat is grayish brown to yellowish gray in color with a white throat and belly and a bushy, black-tipped tail.
Classified as a carnivore, the coyote will eat pretty much anything. 98% of its diet is meat from rodents, reptiles, insects and carrion. The other 2% is made up of fruits and berries. To catch their prey, coyotes will pounce with all of their legs held stiff. The coyote is the dominant wild animal in the food chain.
Found throughout most of North America, the coyote is common in open sagebrush areas, but has adapted to living in urban areas, as well. They have expanded their range due to the decreasing population of their larger competitor, the wolf. Pups are born in litters of 6-7 with the males leaving the pack at 6-9 months.
Screech owls have prominent, wide-set feather tufts with bright yellow eyes. They have different brownish hues with whitish, patterned undersides. This coloration helps them get camouflaged against the tree bark. They have well-developed raptorial claws and curved bills. They use them as a tool to tear their prey into pieces that are small enough for them to swallow. They tend to carry their prey to the nest and then eat it.
Screech owls are primarily solitary. They are known as a “sit and wait” predator.
During the late-winter breeding season, however, males make nests in cavities, sometimes reusing abandoned nests of other animals, to try to attract females. The females select their mate based on the quality of the cavity and the food located inside. During the incubation period, the male feeds the female.
The normal territorial call is not a hoot as with some owls, but a trill consisting of more than 4 individual calls per second given in rapid succession (although the sound does not resemble screeching or screaming).
The “blue jay” of dry western lowlands, the western scrub-jay combines deep azure blue with dusty gray-brown and white. The rounded, crestless head immediately sets it apart from blue jays and steller’s jays. These birds are a fixture of dry shrublands, oak woodlands, and pinyon pine-juniper forests, as well as conspicuous visitors to backyards.
Western scrub-jays have a naughty streak. They’ve been caught stealing acorns from woodpecker caches and robbing seeds and pine cones from other birds. They mostly eat insects and fruit during spring and summer, and switch to nuts and seeds during fall and winter. They eat small animals such as lizards and other nestling birds, and can be seen standing on the back of a mule deer picking off and eating ticks and other parasites.
Living in scrub, open oak woodlands, and suburban yards, nests of 1-5 eggs are made of a basket of twigs lined with rootlets, fine strands of plant fibers, and livestock hair.
The red-shouldered hawk is brown-black with extensive spotting and rusty-red shoulder patches that are not always conspicuous. Under parts from his throat to his tail are barred with brown, red and white, and his tail is banded in black and white. He lives in areas of wooded river bottoms, along streams, and in moist mixed woodland with low-land wet places.
Red-shouldered hawks eat mice, shrews, moles, tree squirrels, chipmunks, and an occasional bird or reptile.
Red-shouldered hawks are residents in California west of the high Sierra Nevadas. They often nest close to a tree trunk. The nests are well built of twigs and sticks; lined with strips of bark, leaves, mosses, feathers, and sprigs of evergreen. The outside diameter is 18 – 24”. Mated pairs have a strong attachment to their nesting territory. They sometimes join forces with crows to drive larger predators, like great horned owl, out of their territory.
They lay 3 to 4 eggs per year and both male and female parents will incubate the eggs for 28 days.
The great horned owl is the second largest owl in California. The “horns” of the owl are actually only feather tufts, colored brown with the rest of the body. They also have some spotted coloration in darker shades of brown. The great horned owl is one of the most common owls, equally at home in deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards and cities.
Great horned owls are fierce predators and are often referred to as “tigers of the sky”. They can take large prey, including raptors such as ospreys, falcons, and other owls. They mainly eat squirrels, jackrabbits, skunks and other small mammals and birds. They also eat much smaller items such as rodents, frogs, and scorpions, which they swallow whole and later regurgitate in owl pellets. They have excellent hearing, specially adapted feathers that dissipate air flow, facilitating silent flight, plus powerful feet and talons.
Females will usually lay 2-3 eggs once a year. These eggs will be incubated by both parents. They will hatch in 4 weeks, and will mature and leave the nest in 1-2 months.