Wild Los Angeles: We had Grizzlies (video)

Xochitl, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; "Lost L.A." (kcet.org)

With only a 3% vacancy rate and exorbitant rents, teepees in L.A. are looking good.

Bear on state flag, Hollywood sign over L.A.

The premiere episode of "Lost L.A." on KCET (PBS) is Wild L.A. It unwraps the complicated relationship between the city and its natural environment.

Los Angeles once had an amazing diversity of wildlife in a place that is not a desert, as we are so often told, but a semi-arid region with marshlands, woods, rivers, lakes, and a magnificent ocean with many beaches.

Why did you kill me after centuries?

This program explores the Native American origins of Tongavar, "the world," to the Tongva Indians who were the original inhabitants of the area for ten thousand years before invasion and displacement by genocidal Europeans.

Before gun-toting fortune seekers became a blight on the land, a friendly and frolicking giant roamed wherever it listed, down from the mountains and foothills to play in the sand, swim in the bay, and gorge on washed up whales.

(National Geographic) "How Wolves Change Rivers" shows the need for apex predators.

Sasquatch, European, black and brown bear.

What led to the demise of the grizzly bear in Southern California? It was once the apex predator, an animal revered by indigenous peoples but soon targeted by Europeans as a threat to safety and security.

Grizzly bears are now EXTINCT in California; the last one, "Big Bear," was killed in 1908 near San Diego and the Mexico border. They do not exist even in Yosemite National Park.

Extinct here, let's hitch to Alaska.

The infamous "Santa Ana winds" of Los Angeles, an infamous weather phenomenon that triggers allergies, frayed nerves, and terrifies fire-prone communities.

The series "Lost L.A." continues on local PBS stations like KCET Los Angeles.

• Mudjekeewis: Spirit keeper of the west winds (native-american-totems.com) Grizzly bear (Mudjekeewis) is the Spirit Keeper of the West and is also Chief Council of all Spirit Keepers and Animal Totems. Its power is strength and introspection due to the West being the season of Autumn. West wind represents a time of strength gained from knowing oneself and a time of stability. The totem colors are blue for spiritual strength and black for looking within. The time of day represented is evening...