Ventura County Wildlife Trackers

07/12/2023

06/21/2023

K-rat!!

06/07/2023

The local mtn lion who patrols the Ventura River

05/07/2023

A small sampling of the weekend playing in the dirt

04/28/2023

Best eval ever. The average score was 99 and 4 people made Specialist!

On April 1-2, 2023, the Ventura County Wildlife Trackers hosted a Track and Sign Specialist Certification in the Los Padres National Forest in California. At Specialist Certifications, participants…

04/21/2023

Travel into the stunning beauty of the natural world with a professional tracker and learn the fascinating skills of wildlife tracking.

04/10/2023

A great week in the field w/these amazing trackers.

03/14/2023

Looking for volunteers to help make track casts.

A Nature Treasure Adventure to Support SMMNRA Wildlife Research & Habitat
Venue: King Gillette Ranch
Launch Party: May 13, 2023
1 pm to 4 pm

Event Description

A Nature Treasure Adventure to support the wildlife research & habitat of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

The adventure starts on May 13 with a launch party at the scenic King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas, where guests can learn about this groundbreaking research and meet the scientists who make it all happen. The following six days allow guests to explore nature's treasures anywhere you choose.
May 13 will feature: Displays, activities, a nature trail, interactive activities, a silent auction, snacks, and live music.

Looking for volunteers to help make track casts

CONTACT: Julie Newsome
[email protected]

02/28/2023

I know this is very short notice but one spot just opened up on our March 6-7(Mon-Tues) Trailing Workshop. Trailing Workshops in this area are rare so this is a great opportunity to learn or improve your trailing skills. The Workshop will be guided by Preston Taylor, a well known and respected tracker, who is a Cybertracker Senior Tracker (Specialist in both trailing and animal track and sign identification. This is a 2 day field workshop where you will learn and practice how to: find and identify fresh tracks, follow a trail with the goal of actually seeing the animal, how to regain a lost trail and how to use bird language, animal signs and behavior to anticipate the animal's movement.The cost is $350.

If you're interested let me know ASAP so I can get your contact information to Taylor. Because the workshop date is so close you'll need to bring your payment the first day of the Workshop. Exact location will not be known until later this week.

02/25/2023

Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are the most common wild cat in the U.S. and Canada. They get their name from their short “bobbed” tail. They also have distinctive tufts on their ears. In terms of size, they are considerably smaller than adult mountain lions but larger and slightly heavier than the average housecat.

Bobcats are carnivores and eat a variety of small mammals and birds. They can help control rodent populations, but unfortunately, they are also known to eat chickens. CDFW’s Human Wildlife Conflict Toolkit often provides this information on how to keep chicken coops secure from bobcats https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Laboratories/Wildlife-Health/HWC-Program #551962503-bobcat.

CDFW was tasked by the State Legislature to conduct a statewide population assessment of bobcats officially known as the California Statewide Bobcat Population Monitoring Project. The monitoring project will help inform the statewide bobcat management plan which is scheduled to be completed in 2025. It will cover all aspects of bobcat management including demographic information, population health, conservation and management needs in addition to effects of habitat loss, wildfire, drought and human-wildlife interactions. More information on the project is available at: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Bobcat #573981135-conservation-and-management

02/23/2023

Join Casey McFarland for next week's free online Tracker Tuesday presentation, "The Wholistic Skillset of an Earth-reading Ape." What makes tracking unique, useful, and so well-suited to the human mind and imagination, and what sets it apart from other nature-based fields? Come find out Feb 28 at 5 p.m. Pacific/8 p.m. Eastern.

If you're already registered for the March 18-19 TCNA conference, we'll send you the Zoom link for this Feb 28 talk as a special pre-conference kick-off event. Or register at one of the links below:

Tracker Tuesday sign-up: www.trackercertification.com/tracker-tuesdays

Conference registration: www.trackercertification.com/confrence (sign up by Feb 28 for early bird rates!)