The call of American bullfrogs was deafening when scientists from the University of California, Davis, first began researching the impact of invasive bullfrogs on native northwestern pond turtles at Yosemite National Park.
“At night, you could look out over the pond and see a constellation of eyes blinking back at you,” said UC Davis Ph.D. candidate Sidney Woodruff, lead author of a study chronicling the effects of removal. “Their honking noise is iconic, and it drowns out native species’ calls.”
Home is where the perch is: Two peregrine falcons may be turning the UC Davis water tower into their new nesting spot. Andrew “Andy” Engilis Jr., ornithologist and curator of the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, spotted a pair of the birds during the first week of April after hearing a loud, high-pitched “scree, scree” outside his office in the Academic Surge building.
Almost everywhere in California, salmon are on the decline. But in Putah Creek — a restored stream running through the University of California, Davis, campus — wild salmon are not only increasing, they also are completing their life cycle.
It doesn’t require a degree in ornithology, a lab test or even an app for most growers to determine whether bird poop near their crops presents a food safety risk. They just need to ask themselves a simple question: How big is it?
Mountain lions in greater Los Angeles are proactively shifting their activity to avoid interacting with cyclists, hikers, joggers and other recreationists, finds a study from the University of California, Davis, Cal Poly Pomona and the National Park Service.
The story of Arctic greening has overlooked some main characters. At center stage are climate change and warming temperatures. Meanwhile, large grazing wildlife, such as caribou and muskoxen, also play a key role in the timing and abundance of Arctic plants, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.
Chinook salmon are facing unprecedented challenges as their once-thriving populations struggle to survive. A new study published in the journal Ecosphere suggests that decades of human activities, including ocean harvest, artificial propagation and reservoir construction, have not only reduced the size of these fish, but also disrupted their ability to spawn successfully.
Wading through flooded rice fields, a team of UC Davis students and researchers release thousands of shimmering fish into the water. These small golden shiners hold the promise of significant contributions to the dual challenges of climate change mitigation and sustainable food production.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries production and management potential, indicates a study from the University of California, Davis.