India, Sept. 29 -- Los Angeles is a city of traffic, freeways, and nonstop noise. Despite all of this, bobcats and coyotes still call the area home. According to a 2003 study in Conservation Biology, researchers radio-collared 50 bobcats and 86 coyotes between 1996 and 2000. The authors note that for bobcats, protecting enough good open space for adult females is necessary to keep the population viable. That idea might help explain a gift from 1998, when "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek bought land in the Hollywood Hills and donated it for public use.

The Los Angeles Times reported on January 14, 1998, that Trebek purchased 74 acres of open land for 2 million dollars and donated it to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. John Diaz, the co...