mammals

Kawoaka told The Times in an interview that the mutations seen in this particular isolate have appeared elsewhere in past outbreaks in birds and mammals, “so in that sense, it’s a very orthodox mutation.”

But it does have a long history of training marine mammals for military purposes.

Bats, the only flying mammals, provide no-cost pest control by gobbling up insects — including ones that target crops.

Last summer, for example, a red tide bloom released a neurotoxin called domoic acid that sickened sea lions and other marine mammals along the California coast, including in Los Angeles.

The number of threatened trees now outweighs all threatened birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians put together, according to the latest update to the official extinction red list.