Wildlife roam the waterways
Prowling coyotes and bobcats. Nesting great blue herons. Schools of carp, tilapia and largemouth bass.
The Los Angeles region, a dense megalopolis of more than 13 million people, does not look like this in the movies.
But a different sort of life exists along the Los Angeles River, an 82-kilometre concrete channel for rain and flood runoff that snakes its way from an inland valley to the Pacific beach. Now, as Angelenos rediscover this backyard waterway via river walks and kayak tours, researchers are attempting to determine just which wild animals live here and in what supply.
Graffiti, trash and homeless encampments remain along the canal. Yet nature holds on. The water may not be safe enough to wade in, but for many animals, including more than a dozen types of birds, the river is a sanctuary.
“Species like coyotes can persist in these small habitat fragments and find a way,” said Justin Brown, a biologist at the National Park Service’s Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. “They can use these wide varieties of landscapes, and we don’t have a full grasp of what they’re capable of doing.”
To find out, a team led by Brown has installed 39 motion-activated remote cameras along 50 kilometres of the basin and tributaries. It’s Step 1 for what’s being called the L.A. River Wildlife Camera Project, an effort that Brown, who has spent three years tracking coyotes in the city’s core, hopes will eventually influence how residents deal with wildlife and reduce human-animal conflict.
The big question that Brown wonders aloud: “What level of urbanization is acceptable for these species? There’s places I see skunks and raccoons and other animals, but there’s no really solid data.”
Preliminary images captured in 2016 and a 2017 pilot program revealed photo evidence of a healthy abundance of wildlife along the waterways. Researchers think these patches of habitat may be used as transportation arteries for animals travelling through the city sprawl.
The project will be part of the Urban Wildlife Information Network, a nationwide wildlife monitoring program in major cities to help study and understand the animals living alongside people.
Brown and the Park Service are teaming with several non-profit to monitor the L.A. River cameras. The images they capture will be uploaded to Zooniverse, a public platform for crowdsourced research, where viewers can tag and identify animals spotted and their precise locations. He estimates the initial funding for the project will last two years.
Brown said he expects to have the photos on Zooinverse and volunteers in the field, monitoring the cameras, by midsummer.