Nature: Despite sprawling urbanization, animals from hawks to deer to mountain lions still make their homes in parks and remote areas of the Valley.

Paul Edelman, a biologist for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, was admiring the fortitude of a cactus that had survived the recent freezes in Caballero Canyon, near the southern tip of Reseda Boulevard.

Suddenly there was a rustle and a sharp thumping noise in the nearby brush. “ That’s a deer,” he whispered, and he turned quickly to look up a canyon hillside.

Sure enough, a large deer was quietly disappearing into the thick brush near the top of the hill. “He’s a big one,” Edelman said with a smile. “He’ll move away as quietly as possible so that we don’t see where he is going.”

Edelman stayed still and listened, but after a bit more rustling the only sound that could be heard was the constant grinding from giant earthmovers about 1,000 yards away, digging out an extension of Reseda Boulevard. Then came a helicopter flying low overhead.

“It’s ironic that we have that,” Edelman said, pointing toward where the deer was seen, “practically right next to that and that,” he continued, pointing toward the man-made noises. “And it’s all right in the middle of a gigantic city.

“It could only happen in Los Angeles.”

When you are stuck in traffic on the Ventura Freeway, it does not seem possible that human beings, let alone wild animals, could survive in such a harsh urban landscape. Yet, there are pockets of wilderness strewn throughout the residential sprawl of the San Fernando Valley that are home to deer, bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, skunks and even mountain lions.

“Even though you are in the middle of an urban area, there are places here where you could swear you were miles from other people,” said Suzanne Goode, a resource ecologist for the Santa Monica Mountains district of the California Department of Parks and Recreation.

Traces of this wildlife can be seen by any casual hiker roaming around undeveloped areas in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. And with a bit of luck, the larger animals can be spotted and even photographed.

Because most of the major mammals found in local wilderness areas are nocturnal, the best time to see them is at dawn or near dusk, according to Lynn Barkley, a mammologist at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. “It’s best to catch them either when they are just coming out for the night or when they are heading back to their homes in the mornings,” she said.

Barkley also suggested looking near water sources, especially during this time of drought when animals are likely to congregate near streams, ponds and lakes. “Staying on the trail is OK because a lot of the mammals love the trails,” she said. “It gives them easy passageways through the woods.”

“You should try and go alone if you want to see wild animals,” said Sabrina Keen, a wildlife biologist for the Tujunga Ranger District of the Angeles National Forest. “Most people don’t understand how far the sounds that humans make carry. Even if they laugh just once when they are walking, it’s enough to spook animals for a great distance.”

“We don’t walk with nature very well,” added Valerie Vartarian, ranger supervisor at the Placerita Canyon State Park in the Santa Clarita area. “Animals can tell when we are in the area and they steer clear. The best thing to do is to find a spot, sit down and be quiet and try and be a part of nature. Then you have a chance of the animals coming out.”

Vartarian oversees a nature center in Placerita park that is home for animals that are found injured in the wild and brought in to be nursed back to health. A junior ranger volunteer, Ian Swift, 12, went into a closet-sized cage and brought out a great horned owl named O.J. “O.J. fell out of his nest and we took care of him, but he was here so long that he became imprinted with a different kind of life than he would live in the wilderness,” Vartarian said. “He would not be able to survive out there anymore.”

One of the most enchanting animals found in and near Los Angeles is the Mule Deer, common to most wilderness parks and reserves, except for those in desert regions. A full-grown deer is about 3 feet high at the shoulder and can weigh up to 200 pounds. They are usually yellow-brown or blue-gray in color and have black-tipped tails, giving them the nickname “black tail” deer. They can sometimes be found near streams or ponds and like to feed in oak woodlands.

Also fairly common are coyotes. Although in the movies they are usually depicted as barking or giving long, mournful howls, in real life they are more likely to be seen quietly sitting on a hillside or in a field, surveying an area. When they move, they move --up to 35 miles per hour.

On his walk up Caballero Canyon, Edelman saw lots of evidence that several coyotes had been there in the area, probably just the night before.

“Here’s a kill,” he said, spotting a small mass of brown fur just off the trail. “Looks like a rabbit.” Up ahead there was a larger mass of white fur, mixed in with bones and possibly teeth. “That was somebody’s white Persian cat,” Edelman said. “Probably got caught down where there are houses and then dragged out here.”

Several of the wildlife experts predicted that as the drought goes on, wild animals will get braver about venturing into populated areas. Edelman said that members and officials of the Braemar Country Club, which is right on the edge of the wilderness area, have recently complained that the coyotes and other animals have occasionally wandered onto the golf course.

“The golf course is sort of a safety valve for animals,” he said. “There is usually water around there and something green to nibble on.”

There are two kinds of foxes--gray and red--that have been regularly spotted in the area. “Twice I have seen a red fox near Scholl Canyon Park, which is mostly made up of softball fields in the hills above Glendale,” said JoAnn Kiefer, community service coordinator for the Glendale Parks and Recreation department. “It was really neat.”

What you see is in part a function of where you look. “Los Angeles County is the most ecologically diverse county in the entire nation,” Edelman said, pointing out that it has alpine, desert and coastal areas, plus woodlands, grasslands, valley bottoms and more.

For example, there are no deer to be found up in desert parks, such as Saddleback Butte State Park, a 2,875-acre area near Lancaster in the Antelope Valley. But hikers there do have a chance of seeing animals that are not found to the south. “We do have a significant population of desert tortoises that are seen mostly in the spring and some cute little mammals with a long tail and large hind legs known as kangaroo rats,” said John Crossman, a ranger at Saddleback.

Many of the smaller critters--including the desert cottontail rabbit, California ground squirrel, striped skunk and raccoon--are found in almost all local wilderness areas. And there are numerous bird species to see, including commonly seen hawks and owls.

But the mystique lies with the larger animals, including the biggest prizes for animal spotters, bobcats and mountain lions.

Many of the rangers who spend time in wild areas of the Santa Monica Mountains have reported seeing bobcats, which are generally solitary animals. Sean Manion, who works for the state as a conservation research consultant and is known for his nature photography, once shot a close-up picture of one by patiently tracking him. “I had seen this bobcat once and I knew that if I wanted to get a picture, I had to do it within a few days,” Manion said. “Bobcats tend to tour an area for a while and then move on to hunt somewhere else.

“I went back to the same area, got downwind and just sat there. He went walking by and I got my picture.”

The grand prize for animal spotters in these parts are mountain lions, the largest predators remaining in the Santa Monica Mountains. (There were grizzly bears here, but they were wiped out about 50 years ago.) Of all the rangers, conservationists and other wildlife officials interviewed, only Manion had ever actually seen a mountain lion in the local wilds.

Because of the drought, a few reports are popping up of sightings in populated areas. Earlier this month, a Valencia woman found a wounded mountain lion in her back yard and there was one sighting on the campus of Cal State Sacramento.

But the mountain lion is still a rare prize for the animal spotter.

“It was when I was a kid, in the late ‘60s,” he said. “I was hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains out near the Malibu area when I happened to see one. It was pretty exciting.

“That area is now a housing tract.”

Where Wildlife Comes Close

Among the park and recreation areas where wildlife can be seen:

* Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area: This vast area includes Malibu Creek State Park and Topanga State Park along the southern edges of the San Fernando Valley. (818) 888-3770.

* Brand, Stough, Wildwood, Verdugo, La Tuna and Henderson canyon parks: These parks in the Verdugo Mountains above Glendale and Burbank include hiking areas and recreational facilities. (818) 956-2000.

* Placerita Canyon State Park: This park in the Santa Clarita area features popular hiking trails and a nature center where injured animals are kept and children’s programs are presented. (818) 259-7721.

* Saddleback Butte State Park: Near Lancaster, this desert park is not only the place to see wildlife, but also has some of the largest and oldest Joshua trees in the world. (805) 942-0662.