Princess, a heritage Berkshire sow, and her piglets, born yesterday/Photo: James Wilson Princess, a heritage Berkshire sow, gave birth to four piglets at 9 am yesterday morning at Tilden Little Farm. Mother and piglets are all doing fine. Ilana Peterson at the Tilden Nature Area reports that Welsh Black Mountain Sheep lambs are expected next […]
Animals
Posted inBusiness
The rats of Telegraph Avenue
One of the most graphic moments at Berkeleyside’s inaugural Local Business Forum on Monday night was when Marc Weinstein, the co-founder 20 years ago of Amoeba Music, stood up and described a scene he encounters regularly on the vacant lot near his store on the corner of Telegraph and Haste. “I don’t want to turn people […]
Posted inNature
What’s with the ailing gray foxes?
The gray fox, the only tree-climbing canid. Photo: Alan Vernon Berkeleysider and occasional contributor Kelly Cash writes in: Last week, in the lowlands off Claremont there was a sick gray fox in our neighborhood, and I just saw a second one in the suburbs near Panoramic. Do we need to know anything? Do they have […]
Posted inCommunity, Nature
Hey scoop evaders, we’ve got a (graphic) message for you
Photo: Tracey Taylor. Making a point in no uncertain terms. Sign spotted in the Claremont neighborhood.
Posted inCrime & Safety, Nature
Mountain lion sighted near Berkeley Labs Wednesday
A mountain lion was seen walking away from a building at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on Wednesday this week at approximately 8:22 a.m., according to the UC Berkeley police. There have been several sightings of mountain lions in Berkeley in recent months. Last August a mountain lion was shot and killed after being found walking […]
Posted inCrime & Safety, Nature
Do the Berkeley police need wildlife training?
A deer spotted in Berkeley. Photo: Keoki Seu It was recently reported that the Oakland Police Department is to undergo mandatory annual training in handling dogs and wildlife. This came in the wake of two cases in which officers shot respectively a fawn and a dog in the city. Berkeleyside was curious to find out whether […]
Posted inCrime & Safety, Nature
Mountain lion seen ‘sauntering’ on Park Hills Road
Following the Gourmet Ghetto mountain lion and the lion and cubs seen near LBL, Mark Rieffel reported the following sighting on the Park Hills neighborhood listserv: This morning (Sunday) shortly before 9 AM my wife Jan drove south on the segment of Park Hills Rd between the island where it meets Woodside and the island where it […]
Posted inNature
Berkeley in midst of an arachnid-style invasion
Pity the arachnophobes out there, it won’t have escaped your notice it’s spider season in northern California. This beautiful photo was taken by “Merriweather”, aka the father in the Berkeley family known as the Derringdos who chronicle their everyday adventures on the Derringdos blog.
Posted inCrime & Safety
Mountain lion and two cubs spotted in Berkeley hills
Officials at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the Lawrence Hall of Science in the Berkeley hills are warning visitors to beware of mountain lions after a mother and her two cubs, along with deer and goat carcasses, were sighted recently, according to a report in the Contra Costa Times. A spokesman for Berkeley Lab said the […]
Posted inCrime & Safety, Nature
The Gourmet Ghetto mountain lion: final word
The Department of Fish and Game has completed the necroscopy of the mountain lion found in the Gourmet Ghetto on Aug. 31. According to Warden Patrick Foy, the lion was a 2-year-old male, and had a “reasonably healthy weight.” Memorial to the Berkeley mountain lion Foy said that there were two possible explanations for the […]
Posted inNature
In memoriam: Berkeley’s mountain lion
A memorial set up for the mountain lion shot by the BPD on Tuesday. Photo: John Bennett. Some Berkeleyans, saddened by the mountain lion shot by police early Tuesday morning, have established an informal memorial to the animal at Shattuck and Cedar. As Berkeleyside has reported previously, wildlife experts say that the Berkeley police had […]
Posted inNature
Mountain lion calls swamp police, including 911 calls
The shooting of the Gourmet Ghetto mountain lion has provoked enormous debate here on Berkeleyside. It has also generated a wave of calls to the Berkeley Police Department. According to Sergeant Mary Kusmiss, the BPD public information officer, many calls have expressed “gratitude and sadness”, but there has also been “outrage” and “many whys”. There […]
