Special Animals of the California Central Valley

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Special Animals of the California Central Valley
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Exotic

• Animal or plant species that have been introduced
  into an area
• (non-native)

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Muskrat

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

Introduced species in California

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

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. 
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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

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Opossum

• Omnivorous eats insects, snails, rodents,
  berries, over-ripe 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 Americas only marsupial

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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.

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Starling

• 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.

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Endemic

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

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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

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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, low-gradient streams, and adjacent
  uplands
• feed primarily on fish and amphibians
• Predators include raccoons, skunks, foxes,
  opossums, hawks, egrets, bullfrogs

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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

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Extirpated

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

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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

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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.

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Grey Wolf

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

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Feral

• Domesticated Animals that have been released into
  the wild

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Feral Cats

• Cause a serious threat to native animals
  especially birds
• Carry disease

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Feral Pigs

• 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