Part 17

=Neotoma fuscipes simplex= True

Dusky-footed Woodrat

These rats were recorded from the yellow pine forests on Blue Ridge, at 8100 feet, down to the lower edge of the juniper belt, at 3800 feet. Their presence there as elsewhere was determined by the occurrence of adequate cover. On Blue Ridge they were taken in and near patches of snowbrush, currant, and choke cherry, and one was taken beneath a pile of logs where no nest was in evidence.

The thickets of choke cherry in hollows on Blue Ridge were favored house-building sites of woodrats. Among the tangle of branches large nests were built, and in September, 1951, the remains of choke cherry fruit and gnawings on the limbs of these plants indicated that woodrats were active throughout these extensive patches of brush.

In the pinyon-juniper association most of the large plants were used as nesting sites, but scrub oak, seemed to be especially preferred. Because it often grew in a twisted irregular form with the foliage nearly reaching the ground, the oak offered good shelter for the woodrat nests. In an acre of scrub oak and mountain mahogany brush one-half mile north of Jackson Lake, at 6100 feet, thirteen occupied woodrat nests were found. In the juniper belt, houses were of more irregular occurrence, and were always beneath juniper trees, usually beneath the largest and most widely spreading individuals.

Those specimens from Blue Ridge, on the crest of the San Gabriels, are intergrades between the coastal race macrotis and simplex of the desert slope. Although specimens vary widely in color, comparison with series of these two subspecies in the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology indicates that all specimens from the desert slope of the San Gabriels are referable to the race simplex. Two specimens of this species from the granite talus above the base of Icehouse Canyon at 5500 feet on the Pacific slope, grade strongly toward simplex. Hooper (1938:231) mentions that specimens of this species taken along the San Gabriel and San Bernardino ranges may be intermediate between simplex and macrotis.

At the head of Grandview Canyon, tracks indicated that a coyote had foraged for about one half mile along the edge of a tract of dense oak and pinyon growth. It seemed as if the animal had been foraging for woodrats. A gray fox trapped near Graham Canyon, in the juniper belt, had in its stomach the remains of a freshly killed adult woodrat. The remains of an adult woodrat were found in the stomach of a rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis helleri) obtained on the desert slope of the mountains.

Specimens examined.--Total, 6, distributed as follows: Los Angeles County: 6 mi. E Valyermo, 5600 ft., 1; 1 mi. E Big Pines, 6600 ft., 2; 1 mi. S and 3 mi. W Big Pines, 6000 ft., 1; 1 mi. S and 2 mi. E Big Pines, 8100 ft., 2.

=Microtus californicus sanctidiegi= R. Kellogg

California Meadow Mouse

Owing to the paucity of extensive areas of grassland in the San Gabriels, this is one of the least common rodents of the area. It inhabits, however, even small patches of grassland up to 4000 feet elevation on the Pacific slope, and is locally plentiful. For example, a small patch of grassland amid the chaparral at the mouth of Palmer Canyon supported many Microtus, and in San Antonio Canyon at about 3000 feet elevation meadow mice were found amid boulders and yuccas in a small grassy area near the stream.

Specimens examined.--Total, 3, distributed as follows: Los Angeles County: San Antonio Canyon, 2800 ft., 1; Palmer Canyon, 2100 ft., 1; 4 mi. N Claremont, 1800 ft., 1.

Family URSIDAE

=Ursus americanus californiensis= J. Miller

Black Bear

Eleven black bears were introduced into the San Gabriel Mountains "near Crystal Lake" in November 1933 from the Sierra Nevada (Burghduff, 1935:83). I do not know whether or not there have been subsequent introductions. There are still bears present in the higher parts of the mountains, especially north of the study area, where they seem to be maintaining their numbers. The grizzly bear that formerly occurred in the San Gabriel Mountains was exterminated there some years before the black bear was introduced.

Family PROCYONIDAE

=Bassariscus astutus octavus= Hall

Ring-tailed Cat

Large sections of the San Gabriel Mountains are uninhabited by this species, while locally, in the chaparral belt near water, ring-tails are common. Many reports of ring-tails were received from owners of cabins and homes who reside in the canyons at the Pacific base of the mountains. Because of the distinctive appearance of this animal it is likely that many of these reports were accurate. The reports testified to the presence of ring-tails in San Gabriel Canyon, Dalton Canyon, Palmer Canyon and San Antonio Canyon. Hall (1927:41) lists specimens from San Antonio Canyon. Kenneth Hill of Upland told me that ring-tailed cats often have been trapped above that town near citrus nurseries that are regularly irrigated. This species probably is not present on the desert slope of the range.

The only specimen that I took was a female weighing one pound and fourteen ounces. It was trapped on March 24, 1951, among granite boulders, beneath scrub oak and bay trees, near the mouth of Icehouse Canyon, at 5500 feet elevation.

=Procyon lotor psora= Gray

Raccoon

The raccoon was one of the most common carnivores in the San Gabriels and was found on both slopes of the range. Tracks were noted and one old male was trapped at the base of the Pacific slope foothills at 1900 feet elevation, and raccoons were captured at several localities from this point up to 5500 feet in San Antonio Canyon. They were noted on Blue Ridge at about 8000 feet elevation foraging around the camp grounds. On the desert slope they occurred down to the lower edge of the pinyon-juniper belt, for example near the mouth of Sheep Creek Canyon.

Sign of raccoons was most often found near water; tracks, however, indicated that these animals, along with other carnivores, used fire roads for traveling through the chaparral. In a small draw one-half mile east of the mouth of Thompson Canyon two raccoons were trapped although the only water was a series of small, disconnected seepage pools beneath the valley oaks.

A raccoon freed from a small steel trap in San Antonio Canyon concealed itself in an unusual but extremely effective manner. When released the coon splashed up the middle of the small creek nearby to a place where some dead alders had fallen over and shaded the water--here the animal squatted down in the stream. The raccoon was mostly submerged, its tail was floating, and its back and the top of its head and snout were above water. With most of its body under water, and with the maze of alder logs above casting a broken pattern of light and shade, it was well hidden. When closely pressed the raccoon hid in the same manner several times before it disappeared up a rocky draw into the scrub oak brush.

In the autumn of 1951, raccoons fed on grapes at the Sycamore Valley Ranch one mile south of Devore. The one specimen (P. C.) saved, an old male from 1/2 mi. W Palmer Canyon, had remains of beetles in its stomach and weighed slightly more than 13 pounds.

Family MUSTELIDAE