Most people have never seen a San Francisco garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia). Native only to California’s San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, the brilliantly colored reptile was one of the initial entries in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s first endangered species list in 1967. After nearly 60 more years of droughts, invasive species, disease, low genetic diversity, and poaching, researchers estimate only a few thousand San Francisco garter snakes still exist in the wild. However, conservationists recently scored a major win for the snakes. For the first…
