ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered

YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1967

CRITICAL HABITAT: None

RECOVERY PLAN: 1985

RANGE: Coastal San Mateo County from Lake Merced south along the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains to Point Año Nuevo and along San Mateo County baylands

THREATS: Urban development, wetland habitat loss, fragmentation of habitat by development and roads, agricultural development, dredging of waterways, disturbance by recreational activities, pesticides, poaching, overgrazing, and nonnative bullfrogs

POPULATION TREND: There are only six known significant populations of the San Francisco garter snake remaining, and at least four of these populations have declined in recent decades. There may be 1,000 to 2,000 individual San Francisco garter snakes remaining in the wild today; the snake is now so imperiled that it is difficult to get enough data to estimate the population with more precision.

Photo © Gary Nafis, CaliforniaHerps.com