For Animals, the Wet Season Is a Time to Cope : Nature: Coyotes have chosen to seek shelter during the rains in non-urban areas of the county. However, ants have started their march into homes.
As Southern Californians reel from another severe storm, they’re not alone in scurrying for shelter. Wild animals, household pets and even ants are hunkering down and letting their instincts be their guide.
From the recently released endangered California condors in the wilderness of Ventura County to mountain lions in the saturated foothills of Los Angeles and Orange counties, wildlife is doing what it has always done: It copes. In some cases, like the scarab rain beetle and trapdoor spider, they even thrive.
The males of both insect species know that rain means soft ground, and soft ground means the females will be out burrowing to build their nests.
“Rain beetles actually come out and fly in the rain. They love the rain and fly in the middle of the worst storms,” said Charles Hogue, curator of insects at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
For the most part, however, the storm has been no picnic for wildlife. The torrents that have hammered Southern California have swept away untold numbers of burrowing animals such as rodents, rabbits, ground squirrels, lizards and snakes.
“For certain species, it’s a real disaster. A lot of these animals I’m sure have been killed,” said Dennis Kroeplin, a city of Los Angeles wildlife officer assigned to the San Fernando Valley. But in the economy of nature, their carcasses have become a feast for scavengers. Kroeplin spotted turkey vultures feeding on dead rodents Friday at the Chatsworth Reservoir, a wildlife refuge.
Many wild animals stick to their natural ways despite the weather.
For instance, experts said, there is little likelihood that the storms will drive the shy mountain lion into urban areas.
“Normally what drives critters out of the mountains is lack of food. When it gets stormy like this they just hole up,” said Robert Mesta of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The condors too were downright stoic in the storm’s fury. They made no effort to move to the dry comfort of a man-made cave in the rugged wilderness of the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in Ventura County. “They just sat out there and got soaked,” Mesta said.
But coyotes take another tack. They leave the wilderness in search of food in residential areas because heavy storms drive their usual prey--such as rabbits, rodents and gophers--underground.
“It’s harder for coyotes to find food. This makes them a little more desperate,” Kroeplin said. That means danger to household pets, which should be brought inside at night, along with any pet food.
The opportunistic coyotes also can be unnerving to humans. Earlier this week, one actually tried to break into a home in the West Hills area near Sherman Way and Platt Avenue, Kroeplin said.
“The lady heard a commotion at the front door. She thought it was a burglar and called LAPD. They found muddy prints of animals and (weather stripping) on the door ripped apart. . . . It definitely was a coyote.” He said the animal, which has a keen sense of smell, picked up the scent of a 50-pound bag of dog food inside the door.
But an Orange County wildlife expert reported Friday that fewer coyote incidents have occurred here since the heavy rains began this past week.
“We’ve had less coyote activity, and this is what usually happens here when we get rain,” said Sgt. Marie Hulett-Curtner of Orange County Animal Control. “We’ve found that coyotes usually seek shelter during the rains. They enlarge rodent burrows, make shelter in dense vegetation, or sometimes they find shelter in concrete pipes.”
But while some animals may be holing up away from civilization during the rains, ants are another story. Some varieties, especially the small, black Argentine ant, need little excuse to become uninvited guests at someone’s home.
Whether it’s hot and dry or rainy and wet, these pesky little insects will beat a path to everyone’s kitchen in search of food and a better climate.
“Usually in the summer they’re after water and food (because) there’s not enough. Now, there’s too much water and they’re coming into the house to get away from it,” said Hogue of the natural history museum. “Just be patient. They’ll go back about minding their own business after things settle down. We’re going to have to live with these things. If there were an easy way to get rid of them, we would have,” Hogue said.
Meanwhile, keepers at the Los Angeles Zoo have been taking special precautions when the weather turns bad.
“Certain animals won’t go out into the exhibits,” curator of mammals Bob Barnes said Friday. Animals from warmer climates, such as the giraffe and the gerenuk, a small East African antelope, are kept in heated barns. Not only is the lower temperature a potential problem, but the steep slippery slopes at the zoo could result in some animals falling and injuring themselves.
Stormy weather also poses a threat to household pets. Pet owners are advised to take precautions.
Times staff writer Bill Billiter contributed to this report from Orange County.
