More different kinds of mammals live in San Diego County than in almost any other county in the nation. Scientists are still finding out about all of them. A new book called the San Diego County mammal Atlas is out this month, the result of more than a decade of work by researchers at the San Diego Museum of history. It's full of photographs and maps and charts of animals that many of us don't even know are just outside our door.We have a guest to is working on this. Thank you for being here.Thank you for having me.This is an enormous book. It's absolutely beautiful, more than 400 pages. As you mentioned, San Diego is one of the most bio diverse regions. Were you ever daunted? Many mammals are in this book?Originally a started planning to write this book all by myself and then realize there were many more mammals with which I had no expertise. We have brought aboard 47 authors to write 121 species accounts picsIn fact, some of the species no longer exists, for example Elk which hasn't been seen since the 50s. Grizzly bears, tell us about that.Even the pronghorn; some of our earliest explorers on a first arrived noted the many different species that were quite plentiful which included pronghorn. Some people know that as long horned antelope. The host animal that roams with many other individuals in large groups, they were all noted even in Otay Mesa and Kearny Mesa back in the 1700s, late 1700s, some of the early explorers found them. They were still in San Diego County until the early 1920s.I understand there was an enormous grizzly population. Why was it so big here?I don't know. Generally you would expect it to be smaller on the coast and this far south but they ate well. They roamed the shores of much of San Diego and even the backcountry. The one specimen covered in the book that had great interest to us is at the Smithsonian now. The label on it, I think the date is 1901 -- you can correctly on that one. It was written in poor Spanish, near Santa Ana Mountains. I went back to get the old topographic maps from -- maps from those dates. It was actually on Camp Pendleton which is now an area we call case Springs on Camp Pendleton. This last grizzly was collected, unfortunately shot, back then. To let's talk about some of the animals that are still in existence now. There is some really information about this. Badgers, how do they hunt?That's really interesting. We have a great photo. The photographer was doing great work in San Felipe oh Valley and was -- Sanfilippo Valley and she captured this. You would not normally see two carnivores like this side-by-side but it's been noted many times with the coyote and badger hunt together. The batteries unearthing the ground squirrel boroughs and the coyote will sift out the other entrances. Normally there are many entrances to any ground squirrel Borough. The coyote will wait at the other end in the ground squirrel presumably runs out and sees a coyote and changes its mind and goes back to the badger and the badger gets it or the coyote gets it. They work together. One of them benefits.You specialize in rodents and there are a lot of rodents in this book why do you work with rodents?Not very many people do and we have an incredible variety in San Diego, 39 species. There is so much to learn. In the face of all of the threats, with all of the urbanization, there's a lot that needs to be learned now. Very few people work on rodents. --, As you might expect.There's a lot of backs in the book as well -- bats in the book as well.We have Drew Stokes, an expert who worked on that.So the ideas to help conserve the species that are here. What you say that mammals are underrepresented?Because there's a great lack of information in this book will give land managers the information necessary to allow these species to persist.There's one thing I wanted to mention about the book which is it has very nice graphs of what you have done with some of these animals. Is it designed to help with areas that still need to be covered?We call it the statement of knowledge. We are not afraid to admit what we don't know. These are the gaps. At the end of every species account we list the major research needs that will guide research by professional allergists and gradual students from now until the next time this book is written which will probably be after my lifetime.Another century, this is really an encyclopedia and a beautiful one. Scott, thank you for coming. He is the lead author of the San Diego County mammal Atlas. He will be speaking at the San Diego natural history Museum this evening. Thank you for joining us.Thank you.
San Diego is the most biodiverse county in the United States. That means on top of the dolphins and bighorn sheep, there are a lot of rats and bats. The county is home to 36 species of rodents, along with 22 different types of bats.
“I could change your mind in three minutes on some rodents in the field,” San Diego Natural History Museum mammalogist Scott Tremor laughs. “Kangaroo rats are just not bitey animals. They’re beautiful, very soft animals. They will sit in your hand for minutes at a time.”
Tremor is the lead author of the San Diego County Mammal Atlas, a book detailing the more than 100 species of mammals that live or have lived here. And yes, he is a rodent specialist.
The Nat has already put out similar works about birds, plants and lizards, but the atlas on mammals took much longer. The book is the product of nearly two decades of research, detailing not just what scientists know about these animals, but highlighting what they still need to learn. Mammals, Tremor says, have been underrepresented in San Diego’s conservation plans so far.
“If you think of birds, your grandparents have always had binoculars. There’s a huge following of birders. We had 300 volunteers for the bird atlas,” Tremor said. “There’s a subculture of people who like to catch lizards and snakes. For mammals, it’s different. You just can’t get volunteers to get people to help capture rodents or bats.”
Tremor joins KPBS Midday Edition on Tuesday with to discuss some of the surprising discoveries documented in the book.
