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===Flora and fauna=== The county is home to several [[endangered species]] including the [[San Francisco garter snake]] and the [[San Bruno elfin butterfly]], both of which are endemic to San Mateo County. The endangered [[Ridgway's Rail]] is also found on the shores of San Francisco Bay, in the cities of [[Belmont, California|Belmont]] and [[San Mateo, California|San Mateo]]. The endangered wildflower [[Hickman's potentilla]] is found near the Pacific Ocean on the lower slopes of [[Montara Mountain]]. The endangered wildflowers [[White-rayed pentachaeta]], ''[[Pentachaeta bellidiflora]]'', [[San Mateo Woolly Sunflower]], ''[[Eriophyllum latilobum]]'', [[Marin Dwarf Flax]], ''[[Hesperolinon congestum]]'' and the [[San Mateo Thornmint]], ''[[Acanthomintha duttonii]]'', are found in the vicinity of the [[Crystal Springs Reservoir]]. In May 2014, a [[California condor]] was spotted near [[Pescadero, California|Pescadero]], a coastal community south of San Francisco<ref name=Timesherald_1>{{cite web| author=P. Rogers| date=June 14, 2014| title=First California condor spotted in San Mateo County since 1904| url=http://www.timesheraldonline.com/breaking_news/ci_25964337/first-california-condor-spotted-san-mateo-county-since| publisher=[[Vallejo Times Herald]]| access-date=August 28, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903042237/http://www.timesheraldonline.com/breaking_news/ci_25964337/first-california-condor-spotted-san-mateo-county-since| archive-date=September 3, 2014| url-status=dead| df=dmy-all}}</ref>—it was the first California condor spotted in San Mateo County since 1904.<ref name=Timesherald_1/> The condor, tagged with the number "597", and also known as "Lupine", is one of 439 condors living in the wild or captivity in California, Baja California and Arizona.<ref name=Timesherald_1/><ref>{{cite web| title=California Condor Recovery Program (monthly status report)| date=June 30, 2014| url=https://www.nps.gov/pinn/naturescience/upload/Condor-Program-Monthly-Status-Report-2014-6-30-One-Page.pdf| publisher=National Park Service| access-date=August 31, 2014}}</ref> The three-year-old female flew more than {{convert|100|mi|km}} north from [[Pinnacles National Park]], in San Benito County, on May 30, and landed on a private, forested property near Pescadero, on the San Mateo County Coast, where it was photographed by a motion-activated wildlife camera.<ref name=Timesherald_1/> Harold Heath, professor emeritus, of [[Stanford University]] was responsible for the 1904 sighting, {{convert|1|mi|km}} west of the university campus.<ref name=Timesherald_1/><ref>{{cite web| title=Memorial Resolution Harold Heath (1868 – 1951)| year=1951| url=http://historicalsociety.stanford.edu/pdfmem/HeathH.pdf| publisher=Historical Society Stanford| access-date=August 30, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903203733/http://historicalsociety.stanford.edu/pdfmem/HeathH.pdf| archive-date=September 3, 2014| url-status=dead| df=dmy-all}}</ref> [[Puma concolor|Pumas]] (''Puma concolor''), also known as cougars or mountain lions, roam the county.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://abc7news.com/5540036/|title=Mountain lion dies after being hit by car on Highway 280 in San Mateo County|date=September 15, 2019|work=ABC7 San Francisco|language=en|access-date=September 16, 2019}}</ref> [[Tule elk]] (''Cervus canadensis nannodes'') were native to San Mateo County and among the "favored foods" of the [[Ohlone people]] based on ethnohistoric and archeological evidence there.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Contributions to the Archaeology of San Mateo County. I: Introduction, Prior Archaeological Work in the San Francisco Bay Region |author1=Michael J. Moratto |author2=Balbir Singh |year=1971 |journal=San Francisco State College Treganza Anthropology Museum Papers |volume=8 |pages=1–8 |url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/6803254 |access-date=March 24, 2020}}</ref> The discovery of two elk specimens made news in 1962, one a royal elk (royal elk bulls have six [[tine (structural)|tines]] per antler) from a peat bog excavated in Pacifica's historic Laguna Alta, and now in the [[Museum of Vertebrate Zoology]] collection.<ref>{{cite web |title=Royal Elk Fossil Found in San Mateo County, May 1962 |author=Norton Pearl |publisher=San Mateo County Historical Association |date=May 1, 1962 |url=https://historysmc.pastperfectonline.com/photo/D86EC528-CB09-47F0-9F91-747594556178 |access-date=March 24, 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Mammal Collection, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at Berkeley |url=http://arctos.database.museum/SpecimenResults.cfm |access-date=March 24, 2020}}</ref> These may date from the time of Spanish settlement.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Deposit on the San Francisco Peninsula |author=Dale R. McCullough |journal=Journal of Mammalogy |volume=46 |number=2 |date=May 1, 1965 |pages=347–348 |doi=10.2307/1377873 |jstor=1377873 |url=https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article-abstract/46/2/347/853423 |access-date=March 24, 2020 }}</ref> Laguna Alta lay just south of the Interstate 280 and Skyline Boulevard intersection, east of Mussel Rock.<ref>{{cite web |title=Creek & Watershed Map of Daly City and Vicinity |author1=Robert W. Givler |author2=Janet M. Sowers |publisher=Oakland Museum |year=2007 |url=http://explore.museumca.org/creeks/WholeMaps/11_Daly%20City%20Creek%20Map.pdf}}</ref> The [[California Academy of Sciences]] also has an elk skull fragment collected one mile inland from the mouth of [[Purisima Creek (San Mateo County)|Purisima Creek]] in 1951.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cervus elaphus nannodes |url=http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/bmammals/MamColl/index.asp?xAction=getrec&close=true&CollectionObjectID=148981 |access-date=April 7, 2020 }}</ref> Additional coastal elk remains dating from the Middle and Late Periods in Northern California were found in at least five more late [[Holocene]] archeological sites in San Mateo County: SMA-115 ([[Montara State Beach]] site), SMA-118 ([[Bean Hollow State Beach]] site), SMA-244 ([[Butano State Park|Butano Ridge]] site), SMA-97 ([[Año Nuevo State Park|Año Nuevo]] Creek site) and SMA-218 (Año Nuevo State Reserve site).<ref>{{cite thesis |title=Prehistoric native American adaptations along the central California coast of San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties |author=Mark Gerald Hylkema |date=1991 |publisher=San Jose State University |url=https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/131/ |access-date=March 24, 2020 }}</ref> On the eastern side of the [[San Francisco Peninsula]], elk remains were also unearthed at multiple archaeological sites along [[San Francisquito Creek]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Sites and Site Clusters: Middle Period Archaeology of the San Francisquito Drainage |author=Barbara Bocek |year=1988 |journal=Society of California Archaeology Proceedings |volume=1 |pages=299–309 |url=https://scahome.org/download/proceedings/Proceedings.01Bocek.pdf |access-date=March 25, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Subsistence, Settlement and Tribelet Territories on the Eastern San Francisco Peninsula |author=Barbara Bocek |year=1992 |journal=Society of California Archaeology Proceedings |volume=5 |pages=269–297 |url=https://scahome.org/publications/proceedings/Proceedings.05Bocek.pdf |access-date=March 25, 2020 }}</ref>
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