Wildlife

Natural History Museum Turns Angelenos Into Spider Catchers and Ladybug Hunters

On a May afternoon, the butterfly pavilion at the Natural History Museum is buzzing in the heat — with kids, with insects and with lust. Two zebra longwing butterflies are perched on a vine in the corner, stuck together in a twist of sex. Close to the heart of downtown Los Angeles, the Natural ... More >>

The Search for Jumbo Squid in Southern California

See also: *Living on Mars Time: What If Your Day Lasted 24 Hours, 39 Minutes and 35 Seconds? *Lily Simonson's Paintings of Yeti Crabs and Other Creatures Merge Art and Oceanography Once a year, or maybe every four years — no one knows for sure — jumbo squid make their creepily delightful ... More >>

Brown Widow Spiders Have Taken Over Southern California, And They Bite ...

If you're getting sick of all these brown folks invading Southern California, they're not done yet. A new research paper co-authored by Richard Vetter, professor of urban entomology at UC Riverside, confirms a long-feared invasion of brown widow spiders in SoCal. The spiders are indeed coming fro ... More >>

USS Iowa Is Caked in Marine Life, Will Need a 2-4 Day Hull Cleaning Before Arriving in L.A.

What happens to a battleship docked in airtight "mothball" mode for 20-plus years? It gathers itself a good thick coat of barnacles and bottomfeeders, according to Pacific Battleship Center, the company who's spent the last six months preparing the 1940s-era USS Iowa for its journey from the Bay Ar ... More >>

Peter Wallerstein: This Sea Lion Walks Into a Sandbar ...

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. An anxious crowd quickly encircled the sea lion. Lying prone on El Porto beach, it was foaming at the mouth, with red bulging eyes. "Do something," a fat man in a too-tight Lak ... More >>

Turtle Smuggler Busted at LAX Sentenced: Atsushi Yamagami Gets 21 Months

Atsushi Yamagami had quite an import-export business going, according to federal authorities. Not only did he bring protected tortoises into the United States for sale, but he used that cash to export snakes, turtles and tortoises native to America back to Japan, they said. Savvy, yes, except he ... More >>

Why Did the Department of Fish and Game Kill an 80-Pound Mountain Lion in Sunland?

An officer-involved shooting in Sunland last Friday afternoon -- between a warden and a young male mountain lion -- has L.A. animal advocates calling for justice. According to Department of Fish and Game (DFG) spokesman Andrew Hughan, a resident of the foothills near the Angeles National Forest cal ... More >>

Ovo

Cirque du Soleil's Ovo: How to make costumes that look like bugs

Bushmeat Smuggled Into U.S. Poses Virus Threat

Flickr/freedom-studiosLeave the wildlife eating to the wildlife.​Eating monkey meat is a really bad idea -- that's the bottom line. According to BBC News, scientists have documented potentially dangerous viruses entering the U.S. through illegally imported "bushmeat" (African wild animal meat) ... More >>

SeaWorld Whales Are Slaves Held in Violation of 13th Amendment, PETA Says in SoCal Lawsuit

PETA's a FAIL on this one if you ask us.​Updated at the bottom with reaction from SeaWorld and L.A. author Earl Ofari Hutchinson. First posted at 11:27 a.m. Animal rights -- perfectly normal, perfectly healthy. Yet where does the movement go too far, surpassing even the best wishes of a life- ... More >>

Capybara, World's Largest Rodent, Spotted in Paso Robles: Is It Wrong to Lust for a Carcass?

AnimalPhotos.infoHydrochaeris hydrochaeris, aka the capybara​The Los Angeles County Natural History Museum has plenty of bizarre beasties in stock, many of them from creatures not found within a thousand miles of L.A. -- or within a thousand years of 2011. Which is why the museum is captivated ... More >>

VIDEO: Redondo Beach Kayaker Nearly Overturned by Massive Blue Whale

MrRJCtube via YouTubeA kayak's worst nightmare​Whale-watching enthusiasts have been jizzing their wetsuits over the latest handheld footage of a big California blue off the coast of Redondo Beach. The video was shot by YouTube user MrRJCtube, who happened upon his gorgeous specimen while kaya ... More >>

One-Third of Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs in Existence Just Died in Fresno

mylfrog.infoOne of 200 Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs left in the universe.​A rare breed of frog with leopard-like markings and funny haunches -- and absolutely no relevance to your everyday life, except that it's an L.A. native, and hey, neighbors look out for neighbors -- was wiped of 1/3 of i ... More >>

Sea Lion Shot in Waters Off Venice: $5,000 Reward Offered For Info Leading to Capture of Killer

MARThe victim.​Warning: Disturbing photos after the jump. The group Marine Animal Rescue is offering $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whomever fatally shot a sea lion off Venice last week. The shooting was reported about 3:30 p.m. Aug. 3, according to the organi ... More >>

Backwards Beekeepers, L.A.'s Bee Rescue Service

​ Modern talk of bees tends to dwell on their deficiencies more than their benefits. Colony Collapse Disorder. Fatal bee-sting allergies. Killer bees both Africanized and Saturday Night Live. But honey is a food that keeps indefinitely, much like the Metro trains that buzz incessantly on this ... More >>

Love to Bug Ya, or My Fair Ladybug

I'M A WHALE WATCHER

Animal-Rights Activists Send 'AIDS-Tainted' Razor Blades, 'Hell Awaits You' Note To UCLA Professor

UCLA MagazineWhatcha got for me today, Doc​UCLA neuroscientist David Jentsch, who performs drug tests on vervet monkeys at the university, was the target of a particularly gnarly animal-rights protest this week. He received a package at his home containing alleged AIDS-infested razor blades a ... More >>

Looking for Lizards

So how many lizards are there in L.A.?

The Orangutan Angel

Birute Galdikas' quest to save a vanishing habitat

Give Your Opossum a Proper Pedicure with ME Pearl

Yeah, I don't know what's going on with this woman and her opossum, but I'm going to file it under "Pets" (because she seems to keep opossums as pets), and "Science" (because it is an instructional video), and "Weird" (for obvious reasons), and "Art" (because when a video is this sublimely good, it ... More >>

Shark Warning North Of L.A. Issued By National Park Service

​Great white sharks? In Southern California. Nice way to start off the summer season. The National Park Service issued a shark warning for the Santa Barbara area on Wednesday following a great white shark sighting off East Beach. A shark might have also attacked a sea lion pup that ended up de ... More >>

Taxidermist Humor

Squirrel Chili

Hungry Sea Lion Pups Coming Ashore In Southern California

​The organization Marine Animal Rescue reports that " ... the rescues of sea lion pups in very fragile physical conditions are continuing to increase" on the shores of L.A. area beaches this month. KCAL9/CBS2 reported Friday that some of the rescues have happened on Dockweiler State Beach near ... More >>

County Dogs Sniff for Illicit Produce

Courtesy: Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's Web site​Because practically nobody covers the county anymore, the job of writing light feature stories about the nation's largest local government has fallen to... Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's press staff.Today they turn in a nice piece on Ebony and Tahoe (p ... More >>

SAVE THE WHALE WATCHERS

The Cove: Free Willy, Seriously

Documentary exposes the horrific treatment of dolphins, but who will save the salmon?

Talking with the Institute for Figuring’s Margaret and Christine Wertheim

Masters of the Woolen Reef

The Tortoise and the Tank: August 21, 2008

Relocated tortoises are dying in large numbers, next phase of Fort Irwin expansion put on hold

Urban Owl Pellet: Raptor Vomit Has Never Been So Hip

In college, my friend Ryan who had a mild crush on me gave me a mouse skeleton. He assembled it out of an owl pellet. An owl pellet is basically what the owl throws up (which is a lot, apparently, because FYI, owls don't chew.) It's all the undigested bits of prey--the bones, the fur--mixed in with ... More >>

L.A. Weekly Follow-Up: A Tortoise Reprieve — High Casualties Put Halt to Fort Irwin's Expansion Plans

"Sadly, we've been proven right," says spokesperson from Center for Biological Diversity, which is suing to stop tortoise moves

Best Ape Hoots and Howls: Gibbon Conservation Center

The Insect-Human Duet: A Field Guide

Bug-eyed home companion

Best Way to Get All the Way Through Moby-dick in a Weekend

Venice Oceanarium Beach Reading

Blue Whale Requiem

Mystery reigns as sonar tests pit military training against beloved Southland pods

Catch a Whale

Finding your inner Ishmael

The Bird Lady Vs. The Tree Outlaw

An environmental unlove story

Best Anachronistic Bird Watching

The Bird Man of Elysian Park

Best Place to Pet a Shark

Native Sun

Monkey News

2005 was a big year for primates and the primatologists who study them

You Say Lemur, I Say Tapir

Monkey News

An Elephant Man

Don’t Mince Birds

Wind power for Los Angeles faces down a new foe

Gene Scott’s Last Roundup

Military-Industrial Complex, Anyone?

Kipling, Meet Turgenev – Sort Of

Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Two Brothers and Alexander Sokurov’s Father and Son

The Exterminators

Rats and roaches and the men (and women) who kill them for us