Check out our latest stories! Morro Bay Kangaroo Rat and Smoth's Blue Butterfly

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Check out our latest stories!   A Silver Lining for Rare Smith's Blue Butterflies To the keen observer, Smith's blue butterflies can be seen fluttering the coastal dunes or perched upon buckwheat plants around Monterey Bay from the Salinas River National Wildlife Refuge where this photo was taken, southward to Sand City. Credit: Diane Kodama/USFWS By Ventura FWO Staff November 29, 2016 With a wingspan of only one inch, Smith's blue butterflies are a challenge to spot with the naked eye. Despite their small size and rarity, the attractive bright blue coloring of the males and bright orange and brown coloring of the females never fails to catch the attention of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service senior fish and wildlife biologist Jacob Martin. Martin, based in Santa Cruz., is a native Californian and works to help recover threatened and endangered wildlife.  He has studied the butterfly for more than 10 years. "Much of my work involves thinking and writing about how human activities affect the Smith's blue butterfly; it is always refreshing to get out and see them behaving naturally in relatively undisturbed habitat," Martin says. Over the past two years, Dr. Richard Arnold of Entomological Consulting Services Ltd, has trained Martin and other U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff in techniques to survey for the Smith's blue butterfly. In addition to survey techniques, Arnold helped develop a protocol for long-term monitoring efforts at Salinas River National Wildlife Refuge, a safe haven for Smith's blue butterflies and many other native plants and animals that live within the coastal dune ecosystem. Continue to full story...   If You Build It, They Will Come: Bitter Creek Wildlife Refuge Creates Ideal Habitat for Giant Kangaroo Rat Habitat improvements on Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge lead to first capture of a giant Kangaroo rat. Credit: Larry Saslaw / CSU Stanislaus With over 14,000 acres of habitat supporting hundreds of animal and plant species, there is no such thing as a "typical day" on Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge (Bitter Creek)—but some days stand out more than others. That was certainly the case on September 30, 2016 when a giant kangaroo rat was discovered in the north-western portion of the refuge. "It's nice to get the documentation that it's on the refuge," said California State University (CSU), Stanislaus Research Technician Larry Saslaw. He set the live trap that caught the giant kangaroo rat and thinks Bitter Creek can be the link connecting several neighboring areas that already serve as habitat to the species, thereby broadening its range. Continue to full story.... Stay Connected with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region     SUBSCRIBER SERVICES: Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe All  |  Help This email was sent to mantiskhiralla@gmail.com using GovDelivery, on behalf of: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region · 2800 Cottage Way · Suite W-2606 · Sacramento, CA 95825