Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
in the arctic Bering Sea, down to southern breeding grounds off Baja California - and then
all the way back up again, making a 6000-mile round trip.
Also almost hunted to extinction by the late 19th century for their oil-rich blubber,
northern elephant seals have made a remarkable comeback along California's coast. Año
Nuevo State Reserve, north of Santa Cruz, is a major breeding ground for northern ele-
phant seals. California's biggest elephant seal colony is found at Piedras Blancas, south of
Big Sur. There's a smaller rookery at Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County. For
California's best whale-watching spots and boat tours, see (
Click here
)
.
CALIFORNIA'S DESERT CRITTERS
California's deserts are far from deserted, but most animals are too smart to hang out in
the daytime heat, coming out only at night like bats do. Roadrunners, those black-and-
white mottled ground cuckoos with long tails and punk-style mohawks, can often be
spotted on roadsides. Other desert inhabitants include burrowing kit foxes, tree-climbing
grey foxes, hopping jackrabbits and kangaroo rats, slow-moving (and endangered) desert
tortoises and a variety of snakes, lizards and spiders. Desert bighorn sheep and myriad
birds flock to watering holes, often around seasonal springs and native fan-palm oases -
spy them in Joshua Tree National Park and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
Land Mammals
California's most symbolic land animal - it graces the state flag - is the grizzly bear. Ex-
tirpated in the 1920s after relentless persecution, grizzlies once roamed California's
beaches and grasslands in large numbers, eating everything from acorns to whale car-
casses. Grizzlies were particularly abundant in the Central Valley, but retreated upslope in-
to the Sierra Nevada as they were hunted out.
California's mountain forests are still home to an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 black
bears, the grizzlies' smaller cousins. Despite their name, their fur ranges in color from
black to dark brown, cinnamon or even blond. These burly omnivores feed on berries,
nuts, roots, grasses, insects, eggs, small mammals and fish, but can become a nuisance
around campgrounds and cabins where food and trash are not secured.
As foreign settlers moved into California in the 19th century, many other large mam-
mals fared almost as poorly as grizzlies. Immense herds of tule elk and antelope in the
