Pliny 2.0

Natural History Encyclopedia 2.0

A Local Legend

A beautiful cypress tree found along West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. Photo by Sarah Khosla.

Despite rough climatic conditions and deadly fungal diseases, the Monterey Cypress stands tall.

Mountain Lion

Mountain lions—also called pumas, panthers, cougars and catamounts—can weigh over 200 pounds. Photo by Tony Hisgett / Creative Commons.

The mysterious ways of the Santa Cruz Mountains' apex predator.

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

A fine example of a chestnut-backed chickadee. Photo by Minette Layne/Creative Commons.

In the Great Chickadee Treaty divvying up North America, this chipper bird got the prize of the West Coast.

Coast Redwoods

Photo credit: Paul Hamilton/Creative Commons.

If you were to strap on climbing gear and make your way up the tallest tree in the world, it would be like scaling a 35-story building. Seasoned window washers on skyscrapers might not think the 370-plus-foot coast redwood so high, but they may be surprised at what they’d find near its crown: soil, huckleberry, crickets, salamanders, seabirds and flying squirrels.

Northern Elephant Seal

An elephant seal and her pup bask on the beach. Photo credit: NOAA.

Each December northern elephant seals heave ashore beaches from Baja to central California after completing another lap of the most demanding mammalian migration on earth. The only animals known to migrate twice annually, the seals have been known to log 13,000 Pacific miles a year.