"I've got one!"—is a phrase the herpetology team at the San Diego Natural History Museum has grown accustomed to in past years. This year, the phrase sends a rush of relief and excitement through the team, who are recording significantly less California red-legged frog eggs than in previous seasons. Read more.
As the rainy season is (finally) getting started in Southern California, you may notice mushrooms popping up around town. This blog is a short introduction to the 10 most commonly seen mushrooms in Southern California. As always with fungi, be careful with identification, and reach out to an expert or check out our resources for more information. Read more.
Our land and water ecosystems are vital to our local species and essential for people’s well-being. However, threats like development and climate change are putting these natural spaces at risk. Learn how local conservation leaders are tackling these challenges and helping sustain our region’s legacy of biodiversity conservation. Read more.
Museum apprenticeships are a wonderful way for students to gain experience in their field of interest—and here at The Nat, we’re proud to offer them. This year, we were joined by Desiree Simental and Lynna Thai—both of whom contributed to the health of our museum’s collections and to the scientific research we lead. Read more.
A recent three-day expedition to both the Channel and Coronado Islands surveyed marine life in borderland waters. The crew—made up of marine biology experts and community members from Mexico and the U.S.—recorded observations for the Border BioBlitz. Read more.
You could say he never met a rattlesnake he didn’t like. And he met more than 12,000 of them. Read more.
She was a paleontologist. He was a mammalogist. They fell in love. The rest is natural history. Read more.
The San Diego County Plant Atlas project has officially reached 1 million observations on iNaturalist! This is a monumental milestone in botanical discovery and conservation in our region. Read more.
In 1928, a group of nature lovers proposed a protected park in the Borrego desert. Voters rejected a bond to fund the project, and the idea stalled. But one nature lover—a member of the San Diego Society of Natural History—wouldn’t give up. Read more.
After the financial crash of 1929 and her husband’s death, Ethel Bailey Higgins was alone in the world. She was widowed, age 67, with 14 cents to her name. But her life was about to bloom. Read more.