The Dusky-Footed Woodrat at Work

The dusty-footed wood rat is a gentle, tidy, neighborly animal and a skilled architect. This little rodent builds itself an elaborate house-fort of sticks, equipped, like a Hobbit-hole, with a comfortable living room and several food pantries. Woodrat "stickhouses" are easy to find, but their nocturnal inhabitants are rarely seen. Photos © 2013 Suzanne Guldimann

Lately, a mysterious, midnight gardener has been at work, neatly snipping off rose buds and the tender young stems of the citrus trees outside my door and carrying them carefully away. I never see my phantom gardener, but I know it’s the work of a dusky-footed woodrat.

 While I lament the fate of my roses and kumquats, the woodrat is sleeping the sleep of the just, having safely stored the night's harvest of flower bud, fruit and twig in his or her larder, deep inside of a home built of twigs.

This woodrat "stickhouse" is built on an old cinderblock wall.

The dusky-footed wood rat, Neotoma fuscipes, also known as a pack rat, is a California native and a regular Malibu resident. This chubby rodent has a short, fuzzy tail, and pale (rather than dusky) paws. They  can be quite vocal, with an extensive vocabulary of chirps and squeaks. 

Woodrats are rarely seen, but it’s easy to spot their houses. They are master architects and builders who craft large, predator-proof forts—officially known as “stickhouses.” 

Unlike the unfortunate little pig whose twig house is blown away by the wicked wolf, wood rats are experts at surviving sieges. Their homes have walls so thick that they have been known to foil the excavating efforts of coyotes and even badgers. 

Some woodrats prefer a penthouse apartment.

Deep inside its twig fort, the wood rat has a living room and several well-stocked pantries. Woodrats are nocturnal and prefer to lay low on all but the darkest nights. They will wait out the full moon in their burrows, emerging on moonless nights to restock their larders. 

In the wild, woodrats dine on the tender young leaves and twigs of shrubs and trees, including oak, toyon, coffee berry, and even poison oak. They also like to eat mushrooms. In a more urban setting, ornamental shrubs and fruit trees are favorites.  Other twigs are harvested strictly as construction materials. Woodrats in cactus country reportedly gather chola  spines to fortify their houses.

N. fuscipes likes a clean house and keeps living quarters clear of waste. Many stickhouses have a separate latrine, and several studies support the theory that wood rats harvest California bay laurel leaves to use as an insect and parasite repellent in their nests. A study authored by Richard Hemmes published in the Oxford Journal in 2001 concluded that there was significant evidence to support the contention that evidence that "dusky-footed wood rats place bay foliage around the sleeping nest with the effect of reducing their exposure to nest-borne ectoparasites.

Just like their human neighbors, wood rats like to collect shiny, pretty things. Most collections consist of things like pebbles and bottle caps, but there are reports of woodrats with stashes of everything from silver teaspoons to diamond rings.

Although wood rats often form colonies, and some wood rats will tolerate squatters—including mice, individuals appear to value their privacy. Each animal lives alone in its own apartment, except during breeding season. Stickhouses are often passed from one generation to the next sometimes for hundreds of generations. Humans aren't the only species on the planet who value the concept of home as castle.

The dusty-footed woodrat is a true California native and an important part of the local ecology. Life is tough for this little animal—it's on the menu for coyotes, bob cats, badgers, weasels, and especially owls. It's also a frequent victim of rodenticide poisoning, despite the fact it doesn't pose a threat to humans. If a wood rat takes up residence in an attic or other place where large piles of twigs are unwelcome, excluding the animal by sealing up any access points usually works to discourage it from returning. If not, snap traps are effective and more humane than poison for the wood rat and the animals that depend on it for food. 

The Last Butterfly of Autumn

November is monarch season in Malibu, frail orange and black wings flutter everywhere, long distance travelers pausing on an impossible journey to rest in garden refuges or roost among the eucalyptus trees, looking like flame-colored autumn leaves.

We were surprised all the same to find a monarch chrysalis hidden in the garden. The enterprising caterpillar traveled more than 20 feet from its milkweed plant to spin its chrysalis in a safe place, out of sight among the African daisies that line our driveway.

A cleverly hidden monarch chrysalis, ready to hatch.

The newly hatched butterfly unfolds and dries its wings, preparing for flight.

The empty chrysalis is almost transparent, and far too small to hold a butterfly. 

The new butterfly unfolds and is ready to take flight. It's frail wings will carry it all the way to Mexico. 

Sea Lion Update

Here's a link to an article on the sea lion shootings that I wrote for the Malibu Surfside News. There are no leads in the case, and there are unlikely to be any, at this point.

Spiny Lobsters v Crab Monsters at Leo Carrillo Beach

A lobster diver carries his prize ashore in a hoop net at Leo Carrillo, unaware that the famous beach is also home to filmmaker Roger Corman's monstrous Crab Monster, a creature that would happily dine on divers, given the opportunity. Photo © 2013 Suzanne Guldimann

All summer long, California spiny lobster carapaces wash up on the beach along Malibu, as the lobsters shed their old exoskeleton and grow new, larger shells. Research indicates that these slow-growing arthropods require seven years to reach "legal" harvesting size. They're off limits to humans during the summer months but one of the sure signs that autumn has arrived is the sight of  floats materializing along shallow rocky stretches up and down the Malibu coast like mushrooms after a rain.  

Lobster season got underway in Southern California on Sept. 28 this year. There were so many floats in the water at Deer Creek during the first week that its a marvel there were enough lobsters to go around.  The commercial fishers aren't the only ones dreaming of lobster. Divers equipped with lobster hoop nets are a common sight at beaches like Leo Carrillo and Nicholas. Spiny lobsters may be taken only with the nets or by hand. 

Anyone diving or fishing for lobsters must have a valid California fishing license, a special spiny lobster report card and a measuring gauge to make sure their lobsters are legal size. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, "Daily bag and possession limits are seven lobsters per person and each lobster must measure a minimum of three and one-fourth inches, measured in a straight line on the mid-line of the back."

Longtime residents say that lobsters aren't as big or as numerous as they used to be—anecdotal evidence relates stories of flocks of eight-pound giant lobsters at Point Dume—today 1.5-2 pounds is typical. While recreational divers may anticipate dining on lobster tail—spiny lobsters don't have big claws like their Maine cousins, most of the commercial catch is shipped to Asia, according to the DFW, which estimate that 695,000 pounds (316 metric tons) were caught during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.

Commercial fishing peaked in the 1950s, and the DFW is in the process of developing a management plan for the fishery, which has been  plaguing with issues like "short stock" —lobsters that are too small and are taken illegally, and traps that are illegally wired shut, so undersized lobsters and other bycatch can't get out. 

Humans aren't the only ones with a taste for lobster, sheepshead, sharks, and octopus all pray on lobster. They are also a favorite food of the California sea otter, and with the sea otter missing from so much of its former range, the spiny lobster has reportedly taken over an important ecological role from its former predator: keeping the sea urchin population in check, which helps to maintain the health of the kelp forest.

 More information is available at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/status

A pair of divers carefully navigate through the tide pools to open water at Leo Carrillo at low tide. The beach is popular with all kinds of divers because the kelp beds are close to shore and there's free parking on PCH and an easy to access stairway. Photo © 2013 Suzanne Guldimann

Every now and then the arthropods get their revenge. I can never watch divers at Leo without visualizing scenes from the 1957 Roger Corman film Attack of the Crab Monsters. Corman, the king of Z-grade budget horror, dreamed up a monstrous, radioactive crab that wrecks havoc on hapless humans, after climbing out of  the sea and onto the rocks at Leo Carrillo. "From the depths of the sea, a Tidal Wave of Terror!" the tagline states.

Unlike the California spiny lobster, Corman's crab monster is equipped with impressive front claws. It also speaks in an ominous booming voice, and uses its radioactive powers to melt rocks and cause earthquakes—not something one usually encounters in crustaceans. 

Corman's crew had the herculean task of moving this vast, rubbery monster out onto the rocks and then animating it with the aid of rods and wires. 

The Crab Monster menaces the obligatory assortment of scientists and scantily clad women with a kind of ponderous gravitas, monologuing gravely about the evils of nuclear power before meeting its end. 

The rocks, located just beyond the famous Leo Carrillo sea cave, are fully accessible only at low tide. They're volcanic rock, that manages to be both sharp and slippery at the same time. Ingenuity was required to get the shots.

You can watch the trailer or the whole film on YouTube. And then you, too, can think of the Crab Monster whenever you see divers heading out with hope and round nets to catch an arthropod for dinner. 

The Crab Monster from Roger Corman's "Attack of the Crab Monsters"  is definitely not a "short" catch, and good luck landing this pretty in a hoop net.

Meet the Neighbors: Point Dume's Sea Lions

The Point Dume Sea Lion Colony hangs out on the rocks off the Point. They are familiar local characters who enjoy the surfing and swimming at Little Dume Cove as much as the humans do. They are intelligent, curious and cheeky, and often pop up to check out the action on the beach, and have been known to swim right up to unsuspecting humans. Photo © 2013 Suzanne Guldimann.  

Point Dume's sea lions are survivors. They once had all of Pirates Cove to themselves as a private haul-out beach, now they eek out a more marginal life on the inaccessible rocks at the foot of the Point Dume Headlands and on the rocks called the Pinnacles just off shore. When the weather is sunny and the water calm, you'll see them lounging on their backs, sunning their fins. From the trail that runs along the cliff edge on top of the headlands at the Point Dume Reserve you can watch them vie for a coveted spot on the top of the biggest Pinnacle. When the tide is high and the water is clear, you sometimes see them swimming, sleek, swift shapes in the clear water.

Point Dume's boss sea lion, the alpha bull, and his harem loved to roost on the Coast Guard buoy bell off of Point Dume. The buoy was removed in 2011, much to the dismay of the sea lion colony, which regarded it as their own special property. Photo © 2013 Suzanne Guldimann

California sea lions are gregarious and intelligent. They are members of the "eared" seal family, and differ from Malibu's other seals—harbor seals and elephant seals—in that they can "walk" on land using their powerful front flippers. Fast and acrobatic swimmers, California sea lions spend most of their lives offshore, where they live in large, loud colonies.

According to NOAA, "the deepest dive ever recorded for a California sea lion is 1,760 ft (536 m); the longest dive ever recorded was 12 minutes." It's not unusual for Malibu beachgoers to see a sea lion pop up and watch them, then disappear and reappear a few minutes later in the same place.

California sea lions males—easy to identify because they are much larger, sometimes weighing more than 1000 pounds, are polygamous, living with a harem of as many as 14 females. They are apex predators, who eat fish and squid, and are preyed on only by great white sharks, killer whales and humans.

Sea lions are opportunists, who are happy to take advantage of baited fishing lines or the full nets of the squid fishery. California sea lions, like all marine mammals, are protected from human intervention by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, but according to the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, CA, as much as 20 percent of all sea lion cases that arrive at the non-profit organization's treatment facility are there because of damage caused by humans. Sea lions injest garbage, become entangled in monofilament fishing line and nets or, in a small number of cases they are shot, like the four sea lions that were found dead in Malibu with bullet wounds this year. 

Most Malibuites and beach visitors are glad to share the coast with sea lions. On Point Dume,  the "sea wolves" can be heard barking at night. It's part of what makes this community special, and remarkable and worth fighting for and preserving.

The alpha bull and several members of his harem on the top of one of the Pinnacles.

© 2013 Suzanne Guldimann

Four Dead Malibu Sea Lions May Have Been Squid Season Casualties

Squid season closed on Friday, Oct. 18, at noon. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife closed the commercial fishery for market squid, "Based on landings information and projections, [that] the season’s harvest limit of 118,000 short tons of market squid will be reached," a press release stated. The news was followed by confirmation from the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro that two sea lions appear to have been shot to death in Malibu waters this month. One sea lion was recovered alive at Broad Beach. It later died of multiple bullet wounds. The other marine mammal was found dead with one bullet wound. A third shooting-related sea lion death on Oct. 3 has been confirmed. A fourth animal was found shot in August.

Squid fishers are authorized to use a type of loud firecracker or paint gun to scare off sea lions, but it is illegal to kill or harm the animals in any way. However, sea lion shooting reports seem to coincide with peak squid season in the fall as sea lions, attracted to the fishing activity, compete with the boat crews for a share of the squid take. Two men on a squid fishery light boat were arrested last year and charged with deliberately harassing sea lions. All marine mammals are protected under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. Individuals convicted of harming a sea lion can be fined and jailed, depending on the circumstances.

The squid fishing season runs from April through the following March of each year. Because the quota has already been met, the fishery will remain closed until March 31, 2014.

The Malibu Times has a good article on the incidents. Any one with any information about the sea lion shooting incidents is encouraged to contact:

Special Agent David L. Reilly
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Office of Law Enforcement
501 West Ocean Blvd Suite 4300 Long Beach, CA 90802
(562) 980-4056 Office
(562) 9804058 Fax
(800 ) 853-1964 Hotline 24/7

Between the Tides

October low tides this week, generated by the full moon, reveal the hidden world of tide pools at Point Dume. 

It's a strange and perilous world inhabited by ethereal and alien beauties and swift and deadly predators. The afternoon low tides generated by the full moon on Friday offered an opportunity to explore that hidden world, which  exists between the tides along Point Dume's rocky shore.

Volcanic rock, which weathers more slowly than the surrounding matrix of sedimentary stone, forms an elaborate network of pools along the shore from Paradise Cove to Point Dume. The entire area is now a Marine Protected Area. It's also an Area of Special Biological Significance. It's easy to see why: the rocks and colorful seaweeds hide an amazing variety of species, including crabs, snails, fish, anemones, urchins, starfish, octopus, barnacles, mussels, chitons, nudibranch, and a host of other organisms, that range from the mundane to the extraordinary.

Anthropleura elegantissima, the aggregating anemone, lives up to its Latin name, with elegant but deadly tentacles that it uses to paralyze small prey. The green color is generated by symbiotic algae. 

A great egret forages for supper among the tide pools.

Life in the intertidal zone is challenging. Organisms face pounding surf, periods of exposure during low tides. They are also impacted by pollution, and in some places are being loved to death by humans, who inadvertently trample habitat and disturb or remove plants and animals.

According to the OC Marine Project, a study conducted by Richard Ambrose, and J.R. Smith, in 2004,  "found that rocky intertidal sites within Santa Monica Bay were subjected to an alarming number of visitors at high use sites (25,000-50,000 visitors per year per 100 m shoreline)."

Point Dume's tide pools are still fairly pristine, due mostly to the fact that the visitors have to walk to the location, unlike areas that are located close to Pacific Coast Highway and easy parking. Humans enjoy exploring the tide pools for fun and education, but birds, like the great egret, above, and other coastal species depend on the intertidal zone for survival.

For thousands of years, humans also depended on the rocky shore for survival. One has only to climb to the top of the Point Dume headlands to find the evidence: scattered all over the cliffs are the shattered remains of sea shells. Bits of mussels and clam shells are everywhere. Abalone shell fragments, still iridescent and beautiful even after hundreds of years, are a reminder of a vanished era when the Chumash made their home here. Abalone where abundant then. They were plentiful even when I was a child. Today, the shards that surface from the ancient Chumash settlement are almost the only reminder that this species flourished here once. It's a sobering reminder of just how fragile the balance really is.

Ochre stars, which are more often orange or purple than anything that could be called ochre, and a colony of mussels occupy the rocks off Point Dume. These tide pools, located at the eastern edge of the headland, are constantly battered by powerful surf, but they are also protected from terrestrial predators, because they are only accessible by during the lowest tides.