Santa Susana (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

for " St. Susan") is a former

railroad town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated, or was expanded, as a result of a railway line being constructed there. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporary, ...

located mostly within the City of

Simi Valley Simi Valley (; Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in the valley of the same name in southeastern Ventura County, California, United States. It is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. Simi Valley borders Th ...

. A small portion of the community, outside the Simi Valley city limits to the south of the Ventura County Metrolink rail line, is an unincorporated area and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP). The community is in the eastern part of the

. The town by the

Santa Susana Mountains The Santa Susana Mountains are a transverse range of mountains in Southern California, north of the city of Los Angeles, in the United States. The range runs east-west, separating the San Fernando and Simi valleys on its south from the Santa ...

in the Simi Valley was founded in 1903, shortly after the

Southern Pacific Company The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names ...

built the Santa Susana Depot.Appleton, Bill (2009). ''Images of America: Santa Susana. Arcadia Publishing''. Page 7. . It is also spelled Santa Susanna, while it is currently more commonly referred to as the Santa Susana Knolls, which is the officially designated name,Appleton, Bill (2009). ''Images of America: Santa Susana. Arcadia Publishing''. Page 97. . or the Simi Knolls. The name of Santa Susana is now more generally applied to a larger area at the very east end of the Simi Valley (often called east of East Simi Valley) in easternmost Ventura County, which was the name of the early settlement located at Tapo Street and East Los Angeles Avenue that is now within the city limits. The historic Santa Susana Depot was located there before being moved farther east along the coast route railroad and made into a museum. The Simi Valley train station opened in 1993 about midway between the historic site and the museum location next to Santa Susana Knolls. The 2010 United States census reported the Santa Susana CDP's population as 1,037. It is a sparsely populated rural area with rustic housing and no set-houses, in a hilly and relatively forested part of the valley. The area was inhabited by the

Chumash Indians The Chumash are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the central and southern coastal regions of California, in portions of what is now Kern County, California, Kern, San Luis Obispo County, California, San Luis O ...

as early as 500 AD and there have been numerous Chumash artifacts found in the area, in addition to the pictographs in

Burro Flats Painted Cave The Burro Flats site is a painted cave site located near Burro Flats, in the Simi Hills of eastern Ventura County, California, United States. The Rock art of the Chumash people, Chumash-style "main panel" and the surrounding 25-acres were liste ...

. In the 1920s, the Knolls became home to brothels and also a religious cult. During the late 1960s

Charles Manson Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934 – November 19, 2017) was an American criminal, cult leader, and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some cult members committed a Manson ...

and the

Manson Family The Manson Family (known among its members as the Family) was a Intentional community, commune, gang, and cult led by criminal Charles Manson that was active in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The group at its peak consisted of a ...

partially lived at Spahn's Movie Ranch.Mitchell, Robert and Hannah (2015). ''Raising Drug Addicts: A Father’s Account, with Lessons Learned and Sections by my Daughter from the Orange County Jail''. WestBow Press. Page 37. . During the 1950s and '60s, the

Corriganville Movie Ranch __NOTOC__ Corriganville Movie Ranch was a working film studio and movie ranch for outdoor location shooting, as well as a Western-themed tourist attraction. The ranch, owned by actor and stuntman Ray "Crash" Corrigan, was located in the foothill ...

and other areas was utilized as movie sets for Western movies. Films and TV-series filmed here includes ''Gunsmoke'', ''

Bonanza ''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running Western, the second-longest-running Western series on ...

'', ''The Lone Ranger'', ''Adventures of Superman'', ''

The Adventures of Robin Hood ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 American Epic film, epic swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and written by Norman Reilly Ra ...

'' (1938), ''The Three Musketeers'', ''

Tales of the Texas Rangers ''Tales of the Texas Rangers'' is a 20th century Western old-time radio and television police procedural drama which originally aired on NBC Radio from 1950 to 1952 and later on CBS Television from 1955 to 1958. Film star Joel McCrea voiced the ...

'', '' Billy the Kid Versus Dracula'', ''Fort Apache'', ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'', ''Wagon Train'', and hundreds of other mostly

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

-inspired movies and TV-shows. The rural Santa Susana is home to numerous species of native wildlife, including large amounts of

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...

hawk Hawks are birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are very widely distributed and are found on all continents, except Antarctica. The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks, and others. This ...

s and

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...

s.Johnson, John R. 1997. ''Chumash Indians in Simi Valley in Simi Valley: A Journey Through Time''. Simi Valley, CA: Simi Valley Historical Society. Pages 488-489. .

Etymology

The name "Santa Susana" traces back to the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

and the Santa Susanna-church built in the 4th century, dedicated to

Saint Susanna Susanna of Rome (fl. 3rd century) was a Christian martyr of the Diocletianic Persecution. Her existing hagiography, written between about 450 and 500 AD, is of no historical value and the relations it attributes to Susanna are entirely fictitio ...

, a

Roman Catholic saint In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Ortho ...

that was martyred and beheaded in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in the 3rd century. The name has since then been applied to numerous locations, including a town in the

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

region of Spain, as well as the transverse mountain range of Santa Susana in Southern California, which the town is named after. The Santa Susana Knolls of Simi Valley have historically also been written Susanna with double N's. Former names designed to the area have been Green Haven and Mortimer Park.

History

Pre-colonial period

The hills of and immediate foots of the

have been inhabited for thousands of years, proven by

Chumash Chumash may refer to: *Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism *Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California *Chumashan languages, Indigenous languages of California See also

* Pentateuch (dis ...

artifacts found by the Santa Susana Depot and Chumash

pictographs A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...

dating to 500 AD in the

. The area has likely been populated by

Native-American Native Americans (also called American Indians, First Americans, or Indigenous Americans) are the Indigenous peoples of the United States, particularly of the lower 48 states and Alaska. They may also include any Americans whose origins lie ...

peoples for as much as 8,000 years-12,000 years ago The Burro Flats Painted Cave, now situated on the protected private

Santa Susana Field Laboratory The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), formerly known as Rocketdyne, is a complex of industrial research and development facilities located on a portion of Southern California in an unincorporated area of Ventura County in the Simi Hills betw ...

property, was the setting for a

winter solstice The winter solstice, or hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's geographical pole, poles reaches its maximum axial tilt, tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern Hemisphere, Northern and So ...

ritual for the Ventureño Chumash people. The cave, which is on the back wall of a sandstone shelter about 16 ft long and 4 ft high, was discovered at the turn of the 20th century The Chumash of Santa Susana were unlike other settlements in the Simi Valley not only located near other Ventureño Chumash settlements, but the Chumash here traded with the

Tataviam people The Tataviam (Kitanemuk: ''people on the south slope'') are a Native American group in Southern California. The ancestral land of the Tataviam people includes northwest present-day Los Angeles County and southern Ventura County, primarily in ...

who also settled in the

, as well as the

Gabrielino The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . In the precolonial era, the people lived in as many as 100 villages and primarily identified by ...

people who inhabited the opposite side of the

Santa Susana Pass The Santa Susana Pass, originally Simi Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Simi Hills of Southern California, connecting the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth, to the city of Simi Valley and eponymous valley. It h ...

Township period

In 1887, the Simi Valley Land and Water Company first surveyed the area to sell parcels as ranches. With the Santa Susana Depot establishment by the

in 1903 as its cornerstone, the town of Santa Susana a few miles east of

in the

was founded.Appleton, Bill (2009). ''Images of America: Santa Susana''. Arcadia Publishing. Page 7. . Before this train station, all residents of the Simi Valley had to travel to

San Fernando San Fernando may refer to: People *Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252), called ''San Fernando'' (Spanish) or ''Saint Ferdinand'', King of Castile, León, and Galicia Places Argentina *San Fernando de la Buena Vista, city of Greater Buenos ...

for the closest railroad station. The first businesses surrounding the new train station was also vital for the town’s establishment, and the discovery of oil on El Rancho Tapo in 1910 brought a population boom to the little town. A general merchandise store on the opposite side of Los Angeles Avenue from the railroad station was the first store established in town, established by Horace Crinklaw and his wife in 1909. In 1914, the town was home to eight buildings: Four owned by the Crinklaw family, a schoolhouse, the Santa Susana Depot, the Southern Pacific Warehouse and a blacksmith shop. Oil production was started by the Scarab Oil Company in 1910 and opened with a production of 300 barrels of oil per day. The little town soon became well known as a filming location for

Western movies The Western is a film genre defined by the American Film Institute as films which are "set in the American West that mbodythe spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier." Generally set in the American frontier between the Californi ...

with its rural and rugged surroundings with plentiful sand rock formations; Western films were filmed here as early as in 1920 on the main street of Santa Susana. By 1918, there were 101 registered voters in Santa Susana. In 1929, the town was used as a set in the movie ''

Welcome Danger ''Welcome Danger'' is a 1929 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Clyde Bruckman and starring Harold Lloyd. A sound version and silent version were filmed. Ted Wilde began work on the silent version, but became ill and was replaced by Bruck ...

'' The Santa Susana Airport started as a dirt landing strip in a tomato field in the late 1930s, and later became a paved landing site for hundreds of airplanes in the 1970s. It was officially designed by the FAA in 1944. During all of the 1930s and 1940s, the

functioned as a Western movie set for hundreds of Western films and TV series, and later an amusement park for visitors to explore the Western film sets. Films shot here include for instance ''

Jungle Jim Jungle Jim is the fictional hero of a series of jungle adventures in various media. The series began on January 7, 1934, as an American newspaper comic strip chronicling the adventures of Asia-based hunter Jim Bradley, who was nicknamed Jungle ...

'', the '' Jungle Boy'' TV-series, '' Lawman'', ''

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral The gunfight at the O.K. Corral pitted lawmen against members of a loosely organized group of cattle rustlers and horse thieves called the Cowboys on October 26, 1881. While lasting less than a minute, the gunfight has been the subject of ...

'', '' Adventures of Robin Hood'', '' Adventures of Superman'', '' Fort Apache'', ''

Rin-Tin-Tin Rin Tin Tin or Rin-Tin-Tin (October 10, 1918 – August 10, 1932) was a male German Shepherd born in Flirey, France, who became an international star in motion pictures. He was rescued from a World War I battlefield by an American soldier, ...

'' TV-show, and hundreds of others. The ranch became a tourist attraction in 1949 and drew thousands from across America and was rated among the "10 most interesting places in America". The first larger housing developments started in 1958. The area has been home to numerous

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

s, including the

Pisgah Grande Pisgah Grande (1914-1920) was a Pentecostal Christian community in Las Llajas Canyon north of Simi Valley founded by Dr. Finis E. Yoakum.Kagan, Paul, ''New World Utopias''. Penguin Books. 1975. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 74-78929. ...

(in

Las Llajas Canyon Las Llajas (pronounced YAH huhs) Canyon within the Marr Ranch Parkland contains the 1920s residential subdivision called Marrland and the surrounding open space area administrated by the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District (RSRPD) and is l ...

, seven miles northeast of town) and May Otis Blackburn's " Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven", sometimes referred to as "the Sixth Cult", high up in the Susana Knolls. In 1949, messiah Krishna Venta's cult "WKFL Foundation of the World" lived in Box Canyon right by the Santa Susana Pass. Krishna was killed in 1958, when former members exploded twenty dynamites in a suicide attack against Krishna and other cult members. It was also here that

and the

partially lived during the late 1960s. The Santa Susana Nuclear Disaster in July 1959 was the worst in American history, and was kept hidden by the

United States Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by the U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President Harry ...

for more than twenty years when it was exposed by students from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

in the

LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the large ...

. By a 2-1 margin in 1969, voters decided to be incorporated in the City of Simi Valley. On October 10, 1969, the majority of Santa Susana went from being an unincorporated town in the Simi Valley to a part of the city of Simi Valley, which now comprised most of the eponymous valley. The remaining unincorporated part of Santa Susana is currently mostly known as the Susana Knolls and occupies the hilly, rustic, and rural areas southeast of eastern Simi Valley proper. This area includes the

, a government facility previously used for research and design of rocket engines and nuclear reactors.

Geography

The CDP is nestled up against the northern slope of the

Simi Hills The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges in eastern Ventura County, California, Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, of Southern California, United States. The range runs ma ...

and surrounds the

at an average elevation of . It is a hilly and mountainous area, with trees and sand rock formations separating custom-designed homes. It is situated in the easternmost part of

in Ventura County. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the CDP covers an area of 1.1 square miles (2.9 km²), all land. It is an

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

, sometimes referred to as a neighborhood, community, village or settlement. The northern border of the CDP follows the Metrolink

Ventura County Line The Metrolink Ventura County Line is a commuter rail line serving Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles, in the Southern California system. The line is the successor of the short lived C ...

, across which is the city of Simi Valley. The CDP extends roughly from Rainey Road in the west to Box Canyon Road in the east, and extends south to the limits of development on the lower slopes of the Simi Hills. There are numerous open-space nature areas near Santa Susana and in the northern Santa Susana Mountains, including

Rocky Peak Rocky Peak, located in Rocky Peak Park, is the fourth-highest point in the Santa Susana Mountains, and overlooks the San Fernando Valley and Chatsworth, the Simi Hills, and the Simi Valley in Southern California. The peak, which is in eleva ...

Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park is a California State Park of located in the city of Los Angeles, in Los Angeles County on the boundary between Ventura and Los Angeles counties, between the communities of Chatsworth and Simi Valley. Geol ...

Sage Ranch Park Sage Ranch Park is a and wildlife corridor located at a height in the northwestern Simi Hills on the northwestern plateau of the Simi Valley, bordering Los Angeles County and its San Fernando Valley.Stone, Robert (1998). ''Day Hikes in Ventura ...

, Corriganville Park, Indian Springs Open Space, and other parks and open-space nature areas. Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District administers most parks in Simi Valley’s outlying areas, including in Santa Susana Knolls,

Bell Canyon Bell Canyon is a major drainage of the Santa Ana Mountains in Orange County, California, Orange County, California in the United States. Bell Creek (also known as Bell Canyon Creek or Arroyo de las Campanas) flows about in a southerly direction ...

, and Oak Park. The

Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is an agency of the state of California in the United States founded in 1980 and dedicated to the acquisition of land for preservation as open space, for wildlife and California native plants habitat Na ...

operates certain open-space parks, including Sage Ranch Park by the

Demographics

The 2020 United States census reported that the CDP portion of Santa Susana had a population of 1,160. The population density was . The racial makeup of the CDP was 846 (72.9%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 20 (1.7%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 3 (0.3%) Native American, 51 (4.4%) Asian, 2 (0.2%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 69 (5.9%) from other races, and 169 (14.6%) from two or more races.

Hispanic or Latino ''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While many use the terms interchangeably, for example, the United States Census Bureau ...

of any race were 193 persons (16.6%). The whole population lived in households. There were 470 households, out of which 120 (25.5%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 238 (50.6%) were married-couple households, 38 (8.1%) were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 111 (23.6%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 83 (17.7%) had a male householder with no partner present. 128 households (27.2%) were one person, and 64 (13.6%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.47. There were 300

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(63.8% of all households). The age distribution was 213 people (18.4%) under the age of 18, 52 people (4.5%) aged 18 to 24, 249 people (21.5%) aged 25 to 44, 400 people (34.5%) aged 45 to 64, and 246 people (21.2%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 49.1years. For every 100 females, there were 100.3 males. There were 489 housing units at an average density of , of which 470 (96.1%) were occupied. Of these, 346 (73.6%) were owner-occupied, and 124 (26.4%) were occupied by renters.

Landmarks

Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village, also known as Bottle Village, is an art environment, located in Simi Valley, California. It was created by Tressa "Grandma" Prisbrey (1896–1988) from the 1950s to the 1970s. Prisbey built a "village" of shr ...

(California State Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as a Ventura County Cultural Landmark) *

Old Santa Susana Stage Road The Old Santa Susana Stage Road, or Santa Susana Wagon Road, is a route taken by early travelers between the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley, California, Simi Valley near Chatsworth, California, via the Santa Susana Pass. The main route cli ...

(on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument) * Santa Susana Depot (County of Ventura designated Landmark #29) *

(regional park) *

(California State Park) *

Education

The CDP is located in the

Simi Valley Unified School District Simi Valley Unified School District (SVUSD) is a school district in Ventura County, California. The district serves students from the city of Simi Valley, the census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States ...

Wildlife

The community of Santa Susana is adjacent to the Santa Susana Pass

wildlife corridor A wildlife corridor, also known as a habitat corridor, or green corridor, is a designated area habitat (ecology), that connects wildlife populations that have been separated by human activities or structures, such as development, roads, or land ...

, which connects the

(and the

Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains are a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area encompasses this mountain range. Because of its p ...

) to the Santa Susana Mountains and further wilderness areas such as the

Tehachapi Mountains The Tehachapi Mountains (; Kawaiisu: ''Tihachipia'', meaning "hard climb") are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States. The range extends for approximately in southern Kern County and northwe ...

and

San Gabriel Mountains The San Gabriel Mountains () are a mountain range located in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Transverse Ranges and lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert ...

. It is home to an abundance of

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

, including larger mammals such as numerous

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...

grey fox The gray fox (''Urocyon cinereoargenteus''), or grey fox, is an omnivorous mammal of the family Canidae, widespread throughout North America and Central America. This species and its only congener, the diminutive island fox (''Urocyon littoral ...

es and more common species such as the

Virginia opossum The Virginia opossum (''Didelphis virginiana''), also known as the North American opossum, is a member of the opossum family found from southern Canada to northern Costa Rica, making it the northernmost marsupial in the world and the only marsup ...

, California raccoon,

ring-tailed cat The ringtail (''Bassariscus astutus'') is a mammal of the raccoon family native to arid regions of North America. It is widely distributed and well-adapted to its distributed areas. It has been legally trapped for its fur. Globally, it is list ...

California vole The California vole (''Microtus californicus'') is a type of vole which lives throughout much of California and part of southwestern Oregon. It is also known as the "California meadow mouse", a misnomer as this species is a vole, not a mouse. It ...

desert cottontail The desert cottontail (''Sylvilagus audubonii''), also known as Audubon's cottontail, is a New World cottontail rabbit, and a member of the family Leporidae. Unlike the European rabbit (''Oryctolagus cuniculus''), they do not form social burrow s ...

Botta's pocket gopher Botta's pocket gopher (''Thomomys bottae'') is a pocket gopher native to western North America. It is also known in some areas as valley pocket gopher, particularly in California. Both the specific and common names of this species honor Paul-Émi ...

as well as the spotted- and

striped skunk The striped skunk (''Mephitis mephitis'') is a skunk of the genus ''Mephitis (genus), Mephitis'' that occurs across much of North America, including southern Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico. It is currently listed as least concern ...

. Large undeveloped areas provide natural habitat to numerous species, and saves the wildlife of the Santa Monica Mountains from

genetic isolation A genetic isolate is a population of organisms that has little to no genetic mixing with other organisms of the same species due to geographic isolation or other factors that prevent reproduction. Genetic isolates form new species through an evolu ...

. As in the rest of the

, large areas are assigned parks or open space preserves and are protected wildlife habitats. The dry

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

of Santa Susana also provides a habitat for numerous species adopted to arid climates and temperature extremes. It is home to numerous reptiles, including eleven species of snake: coachwhip,

southern Pacific rattlesnake ''Crotalus helleri'' or ''Crotalus oreganus helleri'', also known commonly as the Southern Pacific rattlesnake, the black diamond rattlesnake, Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Ithaca and Londo ...

San Diego night snake Night snake may refer to: * ''Siphlophis'', a snake genus, the spotted night snakes * ''Hypsiglena'', a snake genus * '' Hypsiglena torquata'', a species within this genus * ''Philodryas agassizii ''Philodryas agassizii'', the burrowing night snak ...

striped racer The California whipsnake (''Masticophis lateralis''), also known as the striped racer, is a colubrid snake found in habitats of the coast, desert, and foothills of California. Description ''Masticophis lateralis'' is in total length (including ...

, California black-headed snake, two-striped garter snake, San Diego gopher snake, coast mountain kingsnake, California kingsnake, coast patch-nosed snake and ringneck snake. Lizards found here are also plentiful, including the

San Diego horned lizard The San Diego horned lizard or Blainville's horned lizard (''Phrynosoma blainvillii'') is a species of phrynosomatid lizard native to southern and central California in the United States and northern Baja California in Mexico. As of 2016, the co ...

, California horned lizard, San Diego alligator lizard,

western fence lizard The western fence lizard (''Sceloporus occidentalis'') is a species of lizard native to Arizona, New Mexico, and California, as well as Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Northern Mexico. The species is widely found in its native range ...

, California side blotched lizard,

western skink The western skink (''Plestiodon skiltonianus'') is a species of small, smooth- scaled lizard with relatively small limbs. It measures about 100 to 210 mm (about 4 to 8.25 inches) in total length (body + tail). It is one of seven species of ...

western whiptail The western whiptail (''Aspidoscelis tigris'') is a species of lizard in the Family (biology), family Teiidae. The species is found throughout most of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Most of its populations appear stable, and ...

, and silvery legless lizard. Birds in the area are mostly raptors, including the California vulture,

turkey vulture The turkey vulture (''Cathartes aura'') is the most widespread of the New World vultures. One of three species in the genus '' Cathartes'' of the family Cathartidae, the turkey vulture ranges from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of Sou ...

white-tailed kite The white-tailed kite (''Elanus leucurus'') is a small raptor found in western North America and parts of South America. It replaces the related Old World black-winged kite in its native range. Taxonomy The white-tailed kite was described in 18 ...

American kestrel The American kestrel (''Falco sparverius'') is the smallest and most common falcon in North America. Though it has been called the American sparrowhawk, this common name is a misnomer; the American kestrel is a true falcon, while neither th ...

Cooper's hawk Cooper's hawk (''Astur cooperii'') is a medium-sized hawk native to the North American continent and found from southern Canada to Mexico. This species was formerly placed in the genus ''Accipiter''. As in many birds of prey, the male is small ...

sharp-shinned hawk The sharp-shinned hawk (''Accipiter striatus'') or northern sharp-shinned hawk, commonly known as a sharpie, is a small hawk, with males being the smallest hawks in the United States and Canada, but with the species averaging larger than some Neo ...

, marsh hawk,

red-tailed hawk The red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members of ...

red-shouldered hawk The red-shouldered hawk (''Buteo lineatus'') is a medium-sized buteo. Its breeding range spans eastern North America and along the coast of California and northern to northeastern-central Mexico. It is a permanent resident throughout most of its ...

, and the

common nighthawk The common nighthawk or bullbat (''Chordeiles minor'') is a medium-sized crepuscular or nocturnal bird of the Americas within the nightjar (Caprimulgidae) family, whose presence and identity are best revealed by its vocalization. Typically dark ...

. Owl species include the

great horned owl The great horned owl (''Bubo virginianus''), also known as the tiger owl (originally derived from early naturalists' description as the "winged tiger" or "tiger of the air") or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extreme ...

short-eared owl The short-eared owl (''Asio flammeus'') is a widespread grassland species in the family Strigidae. Owls belonging to genus ''Asio'' are known as the eared owls, as they have tufts of feathers resembling mammalian ears. These "ear" tufts may or ...

long-eared owl The long-eared owl (''Asio otus''), also known as the northern long-eared owlOlsen, P.D. & Marks, J.S. (2019). ''Northern Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)''. In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook o ...

barn owl The barn owls, owls in the genus '' Tyto'', are the most widely distributed genus of owls in the world. They are medium-sized owls with large heads and characteristic heart-shaped faces. They have long, strong legs with powerful talons. The ter ...

, and the

burrowing owl The burrowing owl (''Athene cunicularia''), also called the shoco, is a small, long-legged, primarily terrestrial—though not flightless—species of owl native to the open landscapes of North and South America. They are typically found in gra ...

. There are also

peacocks Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred to ...

and numerous other species of wildlife found in the eastern Simi Valley. Scorpions are also common.

References

{{authority control Census-designated places in Ventura County, California Census-designated places in California