los angeles river

Image credit: Great Egret by yetikat, is licensed by Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Instructions:
Now, you will focus on one animal species that has been found in one or both soft-bottom regions of the LA River. You need select one of the species listed in the table below.
To see observations for a species, go to the iNaturalist locations (links below).
Links to iNaturalist places for soft-bottom stretches of the Los Angeles River:
Los Angeles River – Elysian Valley
Los Angeles River – Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve
Each student from your group will need to select a unique animal species from the species list in the table, so make sure that you look at all of the posts that have been submitted in order to make sure that you do not choose the same species as someone else. You will be focusing on this species for the rest of the assignments for the LA River Project, so choose carefully!.
LA River Species
Amphibians Arachnids Birds Fish Insects Mammals Mollusks Reptiles
Baja California Tree Frog ButtonHook Leaf Beatle American White Pelican Green Sunfish Argentine Ant Black Rat Acute Bladder Snail Common Side-Blotched Lizard
Western Toad Spotted Orb Weaver American Goldfinch Fiery Skipper Desert Cottontail Asian Clam Pond Slider
Western Black Widow Cinnamon Teal Jalisco Petrophila Mexican Free-tailed Bat San Diego Gopher Snake
Egyptian Goose Painted Lady Southern Alligator Lizard
Greater White-fronted Goose Western Pygmy Blue
Scaly-breasted Munia Yellow-legged Mud-dauber Wasp
Tips for selecting a species:
Pick a species that sounds interesting to you.
Take a look at the iNaturalist species pages to see how much is known about a species before you select it — this will help you determine if you will be able to find enough information about the biology and ecology of that species to complete the Individual Species Research assignment.
Post Requirements:
Taxonomic group, common name, and scientific name of your species
Post a photo of your species. To receive full credit, you must include a properly-formatted attribution (like a citation for images and videos) for the image. See the image above for an example and check out the helpful resources below for tips on how to find images and attribute the source of the image. Be sure to insert the images into the discussion post, rather than adding them as attachments to your reply.
A link to at least one credible source of information about your species.
Is your species native or introduced to Los Angeles County?
Wait, what are native and introduced species? A species is native to an area if it occurs there ‘naturally’, meaning due only to local natural evolution. An introduced species is a species that is not native to an area, but rather was transported to that location area by humans or due to human activity. For the purposes of this project, migratory birds are considered to be native species.
To determine if if it is native or introduced to Los Angeles County, click on one of the iNaturalist observations of your species that was made in either of the soft-bottom stretches of the river. If it is an introduced species, you will see a magenta exclamation mark icon after the species name. (See red arrow pointing to the icon in the image below.)
American Bullfrog observation from iNaturalist.
Grading
To see how this assignment will be graded, click on the three dots in the upper right corner of this page, then click “Show Rubric”. If you’re reviewing this assignment using the Canvas mobile app, the rubric is included in the Grade tab.
Helpful Resources
General resources for finding images
How do I create a properly-formatted attribution for my image?
How do I insert images into a discussion post?