Author: A. Rentner

Philologists (those who study b’s) would go bonkers without the letter b: no more begat, begin, beguine or buckminsterfullerene. Melittologists (those who study bees) would be equally upset because there would be no bees (OK,...

Catching sight of one during daylight hours maybe hit-or-miss, but they’re out there or down there. American badgers (Taxidea taxus) are mostly nocturnal creatures that live in burrows they dig underground in open areas with...

Late winter and early spring bring so many colors to the Central Valley: White almond blossoms, pink peach blooms, dark green valley oak leaves and in the sky, flashes of brilliant orange. Bullock’s orioles (Icterus bullockii)...

It is a fine line between feisty and fierce, one defined by the beholder. The long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata) straddles that line, feisty as it stands up to a curious coyote and fierce as it attacks and kills a rabbit for...

The zoological term sexual dimorphism doesn’t define anything as weird as one might think. Translated to common speak it means male and female birds have different colored feathers. In general, the boys sport the brightly...