The National Park Service announced today that a new book entitled Urban Carnivores: Ecology, Conflict, and Conservation is now published and available to the public. The book is the first to address the topic, and covers the ecology and behavior of well-known urban carnivore species around the world. Several of the chapters were authored by National Park Service wildlife ecologist Seth Riley and are based on carnivore research done in Southern California. These chapters discuss the impact that urbanization has on mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes in the Santa Monica Mountains region, and represent one of the most comprehensive accounts of wildlife activity in the mountains to date.
Residents and frequent visitors to the Santa Monica Mountains sometimes catch glimpses of coyotes and bobcats, and much more rarely, mountain lions. With over half of the world’s population living in urban environments, and a significant number of those living in the Los Angeles region, carnivore interaction is a growing area of research for wildlife managers, conservationists, urban planners, and the public at large. Urban Carnivores will be of particular interest to Southern California residents who are curious about the wildlife of the Santa Monica Mountains, and want an insider’s view of animal activity that is sometimes difficult for the citizen scientist to observe.
