{"id":571483,"date":"2026-04-08T09:19:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/571483\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T09:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T09:19:18","slug":"san-diego-scientists-are-uncovering-bajas-mysterious-creatures-their-new-research-shows-theres-still-a-lot-to-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/571483\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego scientists are uncovering Baja\u2019s mysterious creatures. Their new research shows there\u2019s still a lot to learn."},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the Trail Report, a weekly email newsletter from reporter Maura Fox about hikes and San Diego County\u2019s outdoors.\u00a0Sign up<\/a> to get it in your inbox first, every Friday.<\/p>\n

I was hunched over a Baja hillside last October looking for arachnids with a San Diego Natural History Museum entomologist when I heard a shout from scientists just a few yards up the canyon.<\/p>\n

They had spotted a snake \u2014 a cape striped racer \u2014 and it was\u00a0devouring\u00a0a San Lucan rock lizard.<\/p>\n

I raced over to watch the painfully slow-motion lunch taking place on the canyon floor. The energy among all of us \u2014 the scientists and me and the Union-Tribune\u2019s photographer \u2014 seemed to be:\u00a0What are the odds that we\u2019d be here to see this?<\/p>\n

It was one of many incredible moments on an\u00a0expedition last fall<\/a>\u00a0with NAT scientists in the Sierra de las Cacachilas, a mountain range just outside of La Paz in Baja Sur. But this one was particularly special.<\/p>\n

Very little is known about the diet of the cape striped racer, says Adam Clause, collections manager for the NAT\u2019s herpetology department.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust about every field guide says something about what it eats,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when we dug into that literature and tried to find the actual evidence behind what people were saying the snake ate, we kept coming up dry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Predations like the one we saw in Las Cacachilas are a big deal because they give scientists the\u00a0real-life evidence\u00a0they need to better understand these snakes.<\/p>\n

And in fact, the one we saw is now part of a\u00a0research paper<\/a>\u00a0published late last month by the NAT\u2019s herpetology apprentice Sahamara Ruiz-Ornelas, along with Clause and other colleagues from the NAT and Baja.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s based on about a decade\u2019s worth of research on the cape striped racer, Clause says \u2014 and it\u2019s not a long paper, meaning there\u2019s still a lot to learn about the snake. There have now been two confirmed predations: one in 2017 when the snake was seen eating a moth pupa, and the one I watched.<\/p>\n

The cape striped racer is endemic to the Cape region of Baja Sur, but it\u2019s not the only snake that Clause is eager to learn more about. The rat snake, which he also describes as an\u00a0elusive species<\/a>\u00a0in California and throughout the U.S., is also on his list. So is the Sonoran lyresnake \u2014 common in Arizona but only seen once in California, back in 1938.<\/p>\n

This spring, Clause will set out to a small town along the Colorado River to search for it. He says the mysteries behind his work never gets old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like learning about these enigmatic animals that few people have ever seen,\u201d he said. \u201cI like trying to bring more awareness to the fact that there are these things out there in the world that we all live in that maybe nobody knows about.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read the full research paper\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In other news, the Sierra Nevada and mountain ranges across the western U.S. are seeing some of the\u00a0lowest snowpack levels<\/a>\u00a0in decades, leaving experts worried about how this will affect the region\u2019s water availability and wildfire risk. For those of us who spend a lot of time outdoors, I\u2019m also thinking about all the ways it might affect what we do, and when. I\u2019d love to speak with people who are concerned about it for an upcoming story, so\u00a0send me an email\u00a0if you\u2019d like to chat.<\/p>\n

Plus, the Trump administration wants more oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, where the\u00a0endangered Rice\u2019s whale<\/a> lives. Scientists say the noise could impact the whale\u2019s foraging behavior, and the pollution could harm its health.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re done reading this week\u2019s news, take a\u00a0hike in Sandrock Canyon<\/a>\u00a0in Serra Mesa, where I enjoyed a short, 2-mile skip while being serenaded by dozens of frogs.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all for now. See you next week.<\/p>\n

\u2013Maura<\/p>\n

Hike of the week: Sandrock Canyon Trail mixes terrain and scenery for a funky little hike<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Outdoors: Watching hummingbirds is almost hypnotic<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Record low Colorado mountain snow won\u2019t bode well for water in the drought-stricken West<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Things to know about Rice\u2019s whale, a rare species at risk from Trump plans for more Gulf drilling<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

If the giant sequoia is dying out, why are there tens of thousands of seedlings and saplings?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hike of the week: 9 canyon hikes in San Diego for spending time in nature<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Nevada lithium mine clears major hurdle despite conservationists\u2019 worries for rare wildflower<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the Trail Report, a weekly email newsletter from reporter Maura Fox about hikes and San Diego…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[2356,14788,3,7156,79,2628,2557,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-571483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-hiking","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-san-diego-county","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-things-to-do","14":"tag-top-stories-sdut","15":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}