Special Animals of the California Central Valley

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Special Animals of the

California Central Valley

Exotic

 Animal or plant species that have been introduced into an area

(non-native)

Muskrat

Habitat: Marshes, edges of ponds, lakes, and streams; cattails, rushes, water lillies, open water.

Diet: aquatic vegetation, clams, frogs, and occasionally fish

Introduced species in

California

Predators: chief predator is the mink, but while on land they also fall prey to foxes, coyotes and lynx as well as some of the larger avian predators.

American Bullfrog

 Native to Eastern U.S.

 Introduced to California probably during gold rush as a food source for miners

 Diet: voracious appetite, will eat almost anything that moves and that it can swallow, including invertebrates and small vertebrates such as mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, even turtles and other frogs.

 This aggressive frog is a big threat to native animals of all kinds

Opossum  Omnivorous: eats insects, snails, rodents, berries, overripe fruit, grasses, leaves, and carrion; occasionally will eat snakes, ground eggs, corn or other vegetables.

 Solitary and nocturnal:

 predators: humans (and cars), dogs, cats, owls, and larger wildlife

North America’s only marsupial

Ring-necked Pheasant

 descended from stock brought from several different parts of the Old World

 Adult pheasants feed on berries, seeds, buds and leaves; chicks feed largely on insects.

 approximately 100 birds introduced in New York

City's Central Park in the early 1890s. A society dedicated to introducing into America all of the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare set these birds free.

 Diet: invertebrates, fruits and berries, grain, will also scavenge through garbage .

Starling

Endemic

 Any species of plant or animal which exists only in a certain geographical area

Yellow-billed Magpie

 feeds mainly on animal matter, including insects, bird eggs, nestling, and carrion, They will also eat acorns, seeds, grass, and berries

 Habitat: oak woodlands and urban area

 Endemic to Central

Valley California

Giant garter snake

 found only in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys

 inhabit agricultural wetlands and associated waterways. These include irrigation and drainage canals, rice fields, marshes, sloughs, ponds, small lakes, lowgradient streams, and adjacent uplands

 feed primarily on fish and amphibians

 Predators include raccoons, skunks, foxes, opossums, hawks, egrets, bullfrogs

Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle

 Endemic to the upland riparian areas of the Central

Valley of California

 Adults feed on the elderberry leaves and flowers, eggs are laid on the stem or leaves of an elderberry plant, and the larval and pupal stages develop within the elderberry stem pith

Extirpated

 A species of plant or animal that no longer exists in a certain geographic are that used to be its home

Grizzly Bear

 omnivores, they feed on a variety of plants and berries including roots or sprouts and fungi as well as fish, insects and small mammals

 Became extinct from the Central Valley by the mid 1800s due to hunting and habitat destruction

Pronghorn Antelope

 Pronghorns were extirpated from

California by the end of the 1800s

 The destruction of the herds of pronghorn and tule elk may have dealt a critical blow to the

California condor, which relied on their carcasses as a primary food source.

Grey Wolf

 Human fear, superstition, and outright hatred of this animal decreased its population drastically and eradicated it from

California.

Feral

 Domesticated Animals that have been released into the wild

Feral Cats

 Cause a serious threat to native animals especially birds

 Carry disease

Eat wide variety of vegetation, including roots, acorns, tubers, grasses, fruit, and berries, but also eats crayfish, frogs, snakes, salamanders, mice, the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds, young rabbits, and any other easy prey or carrion

Chief predator is human

By wallowing and rooting around the edges of watercourses and swamps, they destroy the vegetation that prevents erosion and provides food and nesting sites for native wildlife

They compete with native animals for food, pose a threat to ground-nesting birds, and can spread environmental weeds.

Feral pigs can be a serious agricultural pest. year. In some areas, they kill newborn lambs, carry diseases crepuscular

Feral Pigs

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