Wildlife Management

Wildlife biologist Aimee Byard took it as a hopeful sign when she spotted 11 bighorn lambs, including a rare set of twins, nibbling encelia and ambrosia high above the multimillion-dollar homes of Rancho Mirage this spring. But as fall approaches, biologists such as Byard are growing concerned that the peninsular bighorn sheep, an endangered species, soon may lose some of the protection that has helped them survive. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working on the final details of a map that would cut by nearly half the habitat the agency had previously considered to be critical to the species' survival.

Nobody knows why the birds have staked their claim on this farm town 90 miles north of Sacramento. But it's the third consecutive year and, by all accounts, the worst. "The community has had enough," said Steve Holsinger, Willows' city manager. "They're just fed up." Memorial Park, a square-block stretch of green near the center of town, is encircled with yellow police tape and is off limits to normal use.

The California condor, rescued from extinction in an elaborate and expensive recovery effort, has become tantamount to a zoo animal in the wild and can't survive on its own without a ban on lead ammunition across its vast Western ranges, a scientific study has concluded. The majestic scavengers, bred in captivity and released to nature in recent decades, require "constant and costly human assistance," a blue-ribbon panel of the American Ornithologists' Union reported this week.

Environmentalists were elated when the state made a blanket decision to save an all but extinct coastal plant. But their joy evaporated when officials decided that the best way to preserve the endangered Ventura marsh milk vetch was to cover a corner of the Ballona Wetlands in Playa del Rey with an actual blanket.

The state sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, seeking to reverse his decision to list polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. State officials fear a listing will cripple offshore oil and gas development in its northern waters, which provide prime habitat for the only polar bears under U.S. jurisdiction. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., claims the federal analysis did not adequately consider polar bear survival through earlier warming periods centuries ago.

What had been for the last six months a vibrant stream teeming with migrating waterfowls and shorebirds early last week became a dry San Gabriel River channel where vultures gorged themselves on ducklings that died when the flows dried up.

A deadly fish virus has been found for the first time in southern Lake Michigan and an Ohio reservoir, spurring fears of major fish kills and the virus' possible migration to the Mississippi River. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources invoked emergency fishing regulations June 30 to stop the spread of viral hemorrhagic septicemia, or VHS, often described as "fish Ebola," which was found in round gobies and rock bass tested at a marina near the Wisconsin border in early June.

Federal officials are considering euthanizing wild horses to deal with the growing population on the range and in holding pens, authorities said. Wild horses have overpopulated public lands and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management can't afford to care for the mustangs that have been rounded up, Henri Bisson, the agency's deputy director, said in Reno. Also, fewer people are adopting the horses, he said. The agency is also considering whether to stop roundups to save money. There are an estimated 33,000 wild horses on the range in 10 Western states, Bisson said, and 27,000 is the maximum the agency can handle.

A rash of coyote attacks on children in the Inland Empire in the last week has led to the closure of a Chino Hills park, and wildlife officials are warning parents to be more cautious around the increasingly bold animals. "People cannot be ambivalent about coyotes," said Harry Morse, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game. "When that coyote starts toward you, it's not coming to be nice." Since Friday, two children have been attacked.

Investigators theorize that the killer of six sea lions on the Columbia River arrived by boat and was familiar with trapping methods, closing the doors of two metal cages before firing a high-powered rifle at the animals within. The sea lions' carcasses were found Sunday. Wildlife agents had begun trapping sea lions last month to keep them from eating endangered chinook salmon. The trapping has been suspended. American Indian tribes protecting their fisheries and state governments representing commercial and sport fishermen had promoted the sea lion removal.