While garter snakes are the most abundant and widely distributed snakes in North America, the San Francisco garter snake is an endangered species.
Known for its bold colors, this reptile has a reddish-brown head, turquoise chin and belly, and pair of black and red stripes bordering each side of the body. To say it is beautiful is an understatement.
This snake has lost much of its habitat. Roads, housing, pesticides, and drained wetlands have all taken a toll. It prefers ponds lined with dense vegetation and sunny slopes where it can sun itself, making the Peninsula Watershed an ideal home.
San Francisco garter snakes mainly eat amphibians. California red-legged frogs are a favorite food. They can even eat toxic newts. When a garter snake eats a newt, it absorbs the toxins and becomes poisonous to predators, such as birds.
The San Francisco garter snake thrives in the wetland habitats of the Peninsula Watershed, as well as parklands in San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties. San Francisco Public Utilities Commission staff protect and restore wetland habitats this snake depends on.
Touch the snake model. The coils are loose and the head rests attentively, alert to possible danger as well as a meal that happens to hop by.