narrator: on this episode of "earth focus"...los angeles is known foror its urbrban sprawl d traffific-clgeged system off freewaways rather than its diverse array of living species. the second-most-populated city in america is actually a biodiversese hot--onof jt a few in the entire world. within t the confis ofof this coconcrete jungle, spececieare adng and, in some cases, even thriving. welcome to the los angeles urban wild.

woman: southern california is one of many hotspot areas around the globe which are areas of extraordinary biological diversity. man: if we just think about l.a. county, you're going from sea level to 10,064 feet when you get up to mt.

san antoniowhen you t think about that elevation r range, which is thehe greatestst elevevnal rae ofof in t the united stateses, ther'a diverse s suite of habitats inn there, , and that includess habitat that might be right along the busiest freeway in the country...but it also includes places where mountain lions live. i mean, it's just this place of absolutely incredible diversity when it comes toto thinking abot types of habitat anand types of species s that are thhriving he. man: hey, i thought i told you guys to get out of here. now, go. come on. get out of here. male reporter: we have a mom and her kids all going for a nice, refreshing swim all at the exact same time.

woman: there is a hidden jung in cities like los angeles, andn wetlands, and other kinds of ecosystems. pauly: there's no magic line where natuopsrstnd city it's all a giant matrix. and in the most urbanized parts of los angeles, you can still find literally thousands of species of plplants and animals. heise: the conventional wisdom used to be that cities are biodiversity wastelands, and we're now beginning to rethink that in two major ways. one is that actually, there's a lot of biodiversitycititi, muchch more so than n we had originally known. the other challenge is tonk aboi

this environment that was built by us in terms of buildings, in terms of the parks that we've planted, in terms of the gardens that some of us take care of on. how could we make this habitat more hospitable to non-human species? te byoks] [barks] paulow areas is an area of research that people are really just starting to get serious about studying. things like coyotes and mountain lions and bobcats, species that we may not always think about as being city dwellers but, in fact, with a little bit of research, you realize are actually part of the story of a big cityty like los angeles. heise: the e reason that they now inhababit what we cononsideo has expanded out into their habitat. but coyotes are also

one of those species that do make use of human settlements in often n quite ingenious s ways n that they obviously have learned strewhets and when not to cross them. it turns out that coyotes are very smart about actually observing the change of traffic lights. man: so, this is the backside of the park here. there are almost no limits to coyotes' ability to adapt to the urban environment... because south central l.a. is probably synonymous with the most inner-city neighborhoods in the world.

finding coyotes here is just-- just amazing to me and exciting every time i'm able to collelect some more scacat. here in south l.a. wetlands, there's proof that coyotes use this area because i'm finding coyote scat inside these fences. coyotes are species that most people know live in the l.a. area,ute think that they live in the mountains-- mountainous areas or griffith park, where there's more open space, but really don't think of them as animals able to adapt to this type of landscape. [car alarm beeps] back to the ranger station.

yeah, so, we're in griffith park, and here is one right here. this park isis sun freeway, by urbaniio some major barriers for wildlife. so, we just saw two, maybe 3 coyotes within this picnic area. so, they know that this resource is here on a regular basis. coyotes are doing pretty well in this urban landscape thanks to their adaptability, but the mountain lions are another they really need some help if they're going to have a population here for multiple ggenerations to come.

i use camera traps, which are motion-activated cameras that have a sensor in front that's triggered by motion or heat wildlifeis ut particular area. and each photo or each image is titime- and dadate-stamped to tl e activityty levels of cecertain spspecies. ohoh, there he is. walking right past on the same trail. yeah, he's s looking healthy. he'wa reael is great to see. p-22 kind of adadapted to griffith park, and when i say "kind of adapted," i mean that he has retained the same behavior of his rural nterparts inag

and in the western santa monicas. but at its core, his story is about survival. and a lot of people cann relat 's about an individual bicallyacing some very, seemingly insurmountable odds and defeating thth. his ability to get into this park, cross through freeways that have killed multiple mountain lions before... and live in a space that is an unprecedented amount of space for a mountain lion to survive in. usually, a male mountain lion needs about 200 square miles of space to itself and griffith park only offers 9 squa pauly: we know that the level of urbanization that we are bringing to this landscape is causing immense fragmentation. what are the impacts of freeways like the 405 and the 101 and the 5 going to

do in terms of allowing these populations to continue to have gene flows so that we're not facing massive issues of inbreeding? ordeñana: i'm sure there's a lot of times where he's a lot closer than we think. but he's doing what pumas do best, which is avoiding people at all costs. and d that's why they've been around l.a. fofor so long. that'whwhy th've been able to survive in this area surrounded by people.e. he's not now, because he leses in griffith park, going teter people's chihuahuhuas and petats or kind of f gotten used d to outdtdoor lightingng. he'ss retg deer, but he's somehow, and we don't know how he's doing this, he''s finding enough prey and he's able to avoid peopople even though there's so much more activity in his habitat than other mountain lion habitat.

p-22 has gone through a lot of misadventures. because he's a celebrity, he's been able to kind of survive a lot of these circumstances. one of those incidences m getting stuck under a house and wildlife officers shooting him wieanbag rounds and tennis ball guns. he kept his cool to the point where he waited for those people to tire themselves out before he left, and he left without anybody y seeing him. and that's him being able e to kind of use those natural skills of being elusive to keep his distance and stay safe. evenen the most adaptable e spes t re, arguguabhe c cote or the raccoon, have trouble in thisis landscape because o of rs and olo urban dangers. pauly: and the reality is the decisions that we make today are going to be all the difference as to whether those mountain lions are in the l.a. area 100 years n

heise: we have been overall, over the last 150 years, been very successful at d displacing espa ecllt of the animalsls out of the city tha to t reme degree rmful human hlt-bng 'were now also reaealizining that in some sense we have overdone that. ordeñana: i believe it's our responsibility to o facilitatete and for mountain lions and wide-ranging species that also include deer, we need to allow for safe passage across these very formidable barriers that we've created. what's being proposed along the 101 freeway in agoura hills is a widlife crossing. this is not a new concept. a lot of other countries have already built ththese wildlife crossings. what these are t just bridgbut they're bridgese vegetated, that have nice restoration that's done leading

up to these crossing points and fencing that funnel these animals. heise: the cost is comparative't will invesin mouain lion habitat that we won't invest in something else. so, i think there to needs democratic si extensive consultation about whether we want to do this and who will raise the monney for this, who ll what do we owe mountain lions, what do we owe to other species of plants as barriers for lots of species bu a of rareas.

non-native species to thrive. the big momt for thinking about wate aeles is 1913. once you hahave perermanent watr on the landscape, lots of non-native species, if they get introduced, can now make it. 's happened is tve spe introduced to southern california, that are fryb mortropicla make it here because'e' much more water. and one of the ways that a lot of these species are coming in is actually via the nursery plant trade. [animalsls calli] things like brown anoles and green anololes and various species of geckos and now a thing called ththe coqui frog. "coqui, coqui, coqui,"," and it might do ththis all nigight lon.

so, if you live in a neighborhood with a coqui frog, you might find it incrediblyly aggravating. so, the coqui frog was introducedo hawaii i in the 198. . once they y get esestablished inin hawaii, they start comining into califora a n nursery plants. a and so, now we have them established at two nurseries herere in soututhern california. we currently have 15 people out helping us search ffor these coqui frogs, and that includes b biologist with the california department of fish and wildlife as well as biologist with thehe natural histmuthere's these real implicaseon coqui frogs showing up and having these impactsts and it'ss just all b because they're doing what a a lot of other spececiese doing, which is hitchhikining a ride into ththe nursery plantt trade. a as a biologist, my interest is understanding how species are dealing with urbanization, whether those are native species that are trying to adapt to these urbansettingsr non-native species thahat have beeen introduced as a sultff human acactivityd are also trying to find d a way toto makt here in the l los angngeles are.

we were here specifically to look for slender salamanders. give me a hand grabbing these. and we were able to find 7 slenender salamanders, and on tp of that we found two other native specieie-a westernrn fene lizard and a southern a alligatr lizard. yoy blotd snake? no way! they're super squirmy. woman: yeah, so, we've got a brahminy blind snake here. pauly: yeah, we don't have any-- i don't have any reports of brahminy blind snakes right around here. wi we were able to use some swabs to swab their skin, and those swabs will then be--the dna in

those swabs will be sequenced. in additition to that, we were able to take some measurements, some length measurements and some weight measumes. woman: go. yeah. .5 grams. pauly: i certainly was hopeful that w we would get one species today. i never imagineed that we would g get 4 specieses. in u urban places, youou have te huhuge matrices of f private propertities, just a giant j jiw puzzzzle of private prproperty,d so, as a biologist, every 10 steps, i'm on a new piece of private property. whwhat we found is t that the et way to do biodiversity reseaearh in urban areas is to enlnlist te help of literally thousands s of people. gr and emily han and other community scieists that have participated in our progra are what allow us to do urban biodersity research. gregeg han: i was just, i dodo't knknow, staring ofoff in thehe dice whi scrubbing dishes ansawwhis litittle bit ofof bright bluee that did notot look like anything you would see in ur backyard. clm toto fam we discov aation

in los angeles. so, we immediatstarte looking for more snails and found a bunch of other really tiny, little snails. he put a picture of the snails on instagram, and once he did that, we a notification that scientistsands snaind. wom looks great back here, emily. emily han: thanks. woman: and i contacted gregory to say, can i come out and get it because we don't have any of those specimens in the collection. yep, that's xerotricha theree. and who'o's this little guy? emily han: is that a cochlicella barbara? realltey,y,y e? vendetti: yepep, that's a juvenile. so, i in february 1 of 2016, i came out here, the hans invited d me, and we just did a little exploration of their backyard and coected xerotricha conspurcata, so, the species we're talking about, but then also this other species called cochlicella barbara, which also is a first record for los angeles county. and then now, almost two years later, i'm back assessing are thosose spieies

still here. and they are. li literally are collaborators. , we have papers together with all of our names on it. so, those are things that-- that collaboratioion makeis ce and standing in this backyard a really meaningful thing. pauly: this one's gonna go right there. we have the specimens that you see behind me, and other specimens all throughout this instititution. over 35 million specimens s and historical colcts.lectio and thos time machine so that we can understand where species were found in the past. when we think about the greatest threats to biodiversity that our planet is currently facing, we think ababout thingsgs like clclimate change,e,eali a t is one of t the biggesest threatsts actualally urbanizization. so, we nonow know thahat as of , 50% of the human population is now living in urban areas, and

so, suddenly, it becomes a huge imimperative on p people to understand howow we ca urban areas s more welcng to native and desired specieses. ahahat better placece to do est [bell rings] man: espers lo ited nee hidensity ighborhoods of downtown [kids speaking indistinctly] i'm thineranza elementarst och the skyscscrapersrs of downtownn the welake neighborhrhood, downtown los angeles. woman: n you wrihe and post it under the correct bird? kids: house finch, mourning dove, european starling, brewer'blkbird, red-tailed hawk, american crow. boy: hooded oriole, gray y egre, gr and a mockingbird.

rumble: the students love this. thlove charging in here and ve deep, profound levelat a what's showing up in our habitat. we observe, we record, we analyze, we share. all of these are important skillss for r stents. so, at the very bottttom, do you see the live spider in there? kids: yeah. rumble: i'm surrounded by deerweed, native sages, encilia, but if you gobacto 201w standing on asphalt. peel back that asphalt, allow the dirt to be there, to plant native plants d create a living laboratory for students to real : my name ison i like the garden because we nd explore ne the garden. what i see in the garden is hummingbirds, mockingbirds, and flowers. second girl: am

jimena pez. we're trying to illustrate pop and dr grass. boy: ty isal flower native to california. rumble: it was a beautiful thing to have a burrowing owl be discovered by a fourth-grade student ago t w ven more incredible was that this little owl stayed with us, and so, i sometimes think of this as a zoo without cages. inhose buildinings right acrosos the street. they wake up in a concrete theyc stairs. there'c' of concrete maybe to boun a bl. they wa across a concrete sidewalk, an asphalt street, another concrete sidewalk, and they come onto a campus which is largely asphalt. then they go home

ty agthe need this connection to nature like every human being. now they have e access to nature ght here on their campus. i lheto calit usti, so, i's to do by people.w do we make the just, a more fair spacfor the different groups of le habit the ci, but t how e o t a bitablac for nohun species that are already here? papauly: there e has been t this geneneral idea o out there t thf you u want to sesee nature, , yu neneed to go o to yellowswstoner yosemite,e, and the reality is that that's not true. and everybody shouould know that that's not true because they just have to start l looking around and they can see the incredible diversity of species that are around ththem at all times. you don't need to travelere to u

just need to start observing. announcer: "earth focus" is made po in ssiblert by the orange county community foundation and the farvue foundation.

anim[s screecng] maman: ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the executive director of the restorative justice for oakland youth, fania davis. [cheers and applause]ia: thank . arprivileged to have had that presentation and to experience the many more wonderful presentations here at this said, ence. what--how amazing. davisd