Red Hills (Tuolumne County) - Fauna

Fauna

In the Red Hills buckbrush and other shrubs provide browse and seeds for small populations of mammals, including mule deer, jackrabbits, rodents. Coyotes, bobcats and fox can also be found in the Red Hills.

88 bird species have been observed in the Red Hills. Some common species include mourning dove, acorn woodpecker, ash-throated flycatcher, scrub jay, wrentit, plain titmouse, bushtit, Bewick's wren, and house finch. Valley quail and mourning doves are the major game birds in the Red Hills. An abundant insect population supports insectivorous birds including western kingbirds, ash- throated flycatcher, tree swallows, barn swallows, black phoebes, and others. Raptors include the red-tailed hawk, Cooper's hawk, prairie falcon, and great horned owl. Fish-eating birds seen in the Red Hills include the belted kingfisher and great blue heron. Roadrunners can also be found.

Reptiles and amphibians are rarely observed in the Red Hills but interestingly two rare species are represented (see below).

Fish in the Red Hills, found in Six Bit Gulch and Poor Man's Creek, include the green sunfish, large-mouth bass, Sacramento sucker, and the mosquito fish. These fish are predators or competitors with the Red Hills roach, a rare taxon of Minnow (discussed below). The presence of these mostly introduced species may limit the roach population.

Rare fauna: Four sensitive species of animals are known from the Red Hills. Wintering bald eagles roost along the shores of Don Pedro Reservoir and have been observed where Six Bit Gulch enters the lake. As many as 20 bald eagles have been sighted during the winter on the shores of Don Pedro Reservoir, roosting in stands of foothill pines.

Although the Red Hills has no perennial streams, it has a number of intermittent streams that have spring fed reaches and pools. Two sensitive riparian animal species are associated with these areas, Hesperoleucus symmetricus (California roach, a minnow; the distinctive Red Hills population has been called the Red Hills roach) and Rana boylii (foothill yellow legged frog).

The Red Hills roach is found in abundance in several pools of permanent water located along the intermittent streams which drain into Six Bit Gulch and Poor Man,s Gulch. It is thought that the permanent pools are spring-fed. During the dry part of the year the fish are confined to these permanent pools surviving in warm shallow water until spring when they move upstream to spawn. A recent study by ichthyologists at the University of California, Davis, and the California Department of Fish and Game has indicated that the Red Hills variety of California roach has unique morphologic characteristics, which make them noticeably different from other roach populations, notably a chisel lip. The chisel lip is used to scrape algae, a major food source, off submerged rocks.

The foothill yellow-legged frog has been found in the western portion of the Red Hills in the Andrews Creek drainage. The western pond turtle has been found in the eastern portion of the Red Hills in Poor Man's Gulch. Both are rare species, formerly candidates for federal listing.