WILDLIFE ESCAPES THE FLAMES CONDORS, SHEEP AND TOADS BELIEVED SAFE.Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer Soaring condors, mountain-loving bighorn sheep Bighorn sheep a tall (up to 3 ft), heavy (up to 300 lb body weight) wild sheep that lives in inaccessible mountain country where it exercises its principal achievement of prodigious leaping and climbing. Called also Ovis canadensis. Several regional varieties, e.g. O. c. and little toads that dig sand -- those are just some of the animal species in the Los Padres National Forest Los Padres National Forest is a forest located in southern and central California, which includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast from Ventura to Monterey, extending inland. Elevations range from sea level to 8,831 feet. . The Day Fire, which has burned more than 110,000 acres in 18 days, has burned into animal habitats. With the fight against the flames ongoing, biologists have only limited access to those areas to see how the animals are doing. But the animals probably avoided the fire, biologists say. Even for the 30 bighorn sheep living in the park's Cobblestone Mountain, which was scorched scorch v. scorched, scorch·ing, scorch·es v.tr. 1. To burn superficially so as to discolor or damage the texture of. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. by flames, biologists believe their flight response was enough to keep the animals safe. In the case of a flightless flightless see ratite. condor chick living in a cliff-side cave in the Sespe Condor Sanctuary The 53,000 acre Condor Sanctuary was created in 1947. On January 14, 1992, two captive bred California Condors and two Andean Condors were released into the Sespe Condor Sanctuary, overlooking the Sespe Creek, near Fillmore, California. , biologists think the fire and smoke were too far away to hurt the animal. That's important to them, because the 20-pound chick is part of a project to revive the endangered species endangered species, any plant or animal species whose ability to survive and reproduce has been jeopardized by human activities. In 1999 the U.S. government, in accordance with the U.S. of carrion-eating birds, with their giant wingspans. About 20 condors spend at least part of the year in the Sespe Condor Sanctuary, which is just west of Lake Piru Lake Piru is a lake located in Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County and was created by the construction in 1955 of the Santa Felicia Dam on Piru Creek which is a tributary of the Santa Clara River. and was partly burned by the fire. If it moved fast enough, the fire might have killed animals from the forest's more common species -- black bears, mountain lions and deer. But biologists expect most of those animals can get out of a fire's way. ``By and large, most of the (animal) populations ... these are cycles they've been going through for thousands of years -- fire and flood,'' said Maeton Freel, biologist with the Los Padres National Forest. ``And so they're fairly well adapted to the fire cycles.'' One of the complaints of forest fighters battling the Day Fire is the heavy vegetation that hasn't burned for decades. Before the fire, hikers had noticed the same thing on trails. ``There's certainly trails that have become overgrown overgrown said of a part that has not been kept trimmed. overgrown hoof overgrown hooves put unusual stresses on bones and tendons and allow for distortion of the wall and sole. , and the (U.S.) Forest Service doesn't have the budget that they used to to maintain all these trails,'' said Jeff Kuyper, executive director of the nonprofit Los Padres Forest Watch. Covering 1.7 million acres of public land, from Big Sur Big Sur Scenic region along the Pacific coast of California, U.S. It comprises a ruggedly beautiful stretch of seacoast 100 mi (160 km) long. Popular with tourists and naturalists, it extends southward from Carmel to the Hearst Castle at San Simeon. to just north of Castaic, Los Padres is one of the most visited natural parklands in California. The area that has burned in the Day Fire is west of Interstate 5, between Pyramid Lake and Lake Piru. Recently it has entered Ventura County, advancing on Lockwood Valley. No homes have been damaged, but firefighters Friday had engines in Ojai to protect that community. Even in the areas where the fire has burned, pockets of untouched vegetation are interspersed with the lunar landscape of scorched black earth. In recent days, the fire has encroached on the habitat of the hundreds of endangered arroyo toads living in Sespe Creek, Freel said. The toads can get down into the water to avoid the flames. But the toads, which either live in the creek water or dig into nearby sand banks, could be killed as firefighters trudge into their habitat to take water out of the creek and dump it on the fire. But there are several natural resource advisers working with firefighters on the Day Fire, and one of their jobs is to keep an eye on to watch. - Shak. See also: Eye the arroyo toad habitats, Freel said. After the fire, a team of scientists that includes hydrologists and geologists will go into the burn areas and check for the potential of erosion and landslides. Scientists and hikers expect the vegetation will grow back quickly. ``In an awful lot of cases, it's just remarkable how things spring back to life,'' said John Holroyd of the Los Padres chapter of the Sierra Club Sierra Club, national organization in the United States dedicated to the preservation and expansion of the world's parks, wildlife, and wilderness areas. Founded (1892) in California by a group led by the Scottish-American conservationist John Muir, the Sierra Club , a retired computer programmer who has hiked and backpacked in the forest. Biologists said the fire could help the 30 bighorn sheep in Cobblestone Mountain, by clearing away chaparral and oak trees so they can get a better view of their predators and avoid them. alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com (661) 257-5253 |
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