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The Presidio of San Francisco is a park surrounded by a sprawling urban area. It encompasses approximately 3 square miles and contains a wide variety of microhabitats. These habitats range from open ocean and bayshore beaches, to serpentine scrub and grasslands, to sand dunes, forests, cultivated lawns, streams, and salt marshes. This diversity of habitats allows for an equally diverse wildlife which includes both native and introduced species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, as well as insects. The Presidio is perhaps the most remarkable in its diversity of birds, which are represented by over 200 species.
Inhabitation by the Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. military has dramatically changed the landscape and vegetation from that present here when the Ohlone Indians lived here. Through the centuries many non-native species have been introduced and some native populations have declined or have been extirpated from the Presidio. The Presidio also has the dubious distinction of being the site of the first documented butterfly extinction in North America, that of the Xerces Blue Butterfly in 1949.
Select a link on the left to learn more
the Presidio's wildlife.
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