Exhibit at G2 Gallery Raises Awareness of Crisis in Bobcats’ Health

 

PHOTO BY BARRY ROWAN © “Urban Carnivores” is a photography exhibit which hopes to bring attention to the loss of bobcats caused by exposure to poisons and other impacts of urbanization.

“Urban Carnivores” is a photographic exhibit that is an extension of the work being done by researcher and UCLA Ph.D. candidate Laurel Serieys on the health of bobcats living on the fringes of our metropolis.

Taken by photographer Barry Rowan in a Goleta park, the series of images featured in the exhibit follows a bobcat and her two playful kittens over the course of several months.

Together, Serieys and Rowan hope to bring attention to the loss of bobcats caused by exposure to rat poison and gain support in mitigating human impact on bobcats.

Serieys’ website, urbancarnivores.com, informs the public about research being done on native carnivores in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties by UCLA and National Park Service biologists.

It is also a platform to introduce some of the amazing things biologists encounter in the field, and what they are learning about the impact of urban development on our native wildlife.

Research described on this website focuses on bobcats and mountain lions captured in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA).

Within the study area, nearly 300 bobcats have been humanely captured for the purposes of this research and to learn more about these animals. The National Park Service has thus far captured 22 mountain lions.

“Topanga was the first area we trapped as part of the extended Ph.D. research I did,” says Serieys. “Dirt Mulholland turned out to be the most productive trapping regions of the entire park.”

Most recently, on August 2, 2012, two new mountain lion cubs, around 9 months old, were captured. P25, a female, and P26, a male, are the offspring of female mountain lion, P13. The cubs have been radio-collared, and are now being tracked by National Park Service biologists.

To support this work, tax-deductible donations can be sent to SAMO Fund, a nonprofit organization working in cooperation with and on behalf of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area: SAMO Fund, 401 West Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360.

Donations are applied to an account SAMO Fund maintains for the bobcat research project led by Serieys, on anticoagulant exposure and disease susceptibility among bobcats. Donors are asked to indicate that their donation is to be used for “Urban Bobcats." For online donations linked directly to the SAMO Fund bobcat account: urbancarnivores.com/donate/

G2 Gallery is located at 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291; (310) 452-2842; or
 Info@theg2gallery.com.