Welcomed Visitors

Although it's not really mentioned, San Francisco is named for Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.  San Franciscans love their animals.  In fact, there are more pet owners than parents in the city.  There were certainly animals here when the native peoples crossed the prehistoric Aleutian land-bridge and found their way to what is now California.  Naturally people own cats, dogs, and other household pets.  And yes, there was even a time cows grazed in the bottom of what is now Pacific Heights.  That's where Cow Hollow got its name.

Over the years a number of animal species have found their way to San Francisco who normally wouldn't call the city home.

Telegraph Hill, where the wild parrots originate

Parrots are not indigenous to San Francisco.  But if you saw the 2003 documentary, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, then you know how one decent man living on the fringes of society, took it upon himself to care for a couple of abandoned Conure parrots.  These birds were pets, but escaped their Telegraph Hill-human oppressors, and began to breed and populate the neighborhood. 

This little documentary has legs, because as a hotel concierge I was surprised how many people had seen the movie and asked me where they can see them.  Twenty years after the documentary came out, the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill have become the Wild Parrots of San Francisco’s 46 other hills.   They have now propagated to such numbers that their unique squawk, along with cable car bells and fog horns, have now become part of the soundtrack of San Francisco.

Another non-native visitor is one that showed up, never left, and is one of the most popular attractions in San Francisco.

For almost 50 years Pier 39, on the eastern edge of Fisherman's Wharf, has been well known as one of the most popular attractions in San Francisco.  It's easy to spend a lot of money on cable car keychains and Dungeness crab cocktails.  However, its most popular attraction is one that was not planned, happened as a result of a natural disaster, and costs nothing.  In fact, a whole infrastructure was built around it. 

Pier 39 sea lions

Not long after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, sea lions started showing up on the docks next to Pier 39 and never left.  Some have said the yacht and sail boat owners, whose docks were taken over by the meddling marine mammals, demanded authorities remove them at any cost.  It turned out the sea lions became more popular than the boat owners, and they ended up victorious.  Pier 39 authorities had to capitulate and build another set of docks for the humans, while the sea lions became the most popular destination at Fisherman's Wharf.  So popular in fact, that they opened the Pier 39 Sea Lion Center to exclusively cater to tourists flocking to their noisiest attraction.

https://www.pier39.com/sea-lion-center/ [pier39.com] 

In the early 2000s two Peregrine falcons found their way to 33rd floor of the PG&E Headquarters Building in downtown San Francisco, and nested there.  With a live video feed, anyone logging in to the webcam got to join in their lives, births and other adventures.  But avian voyeurism aside these two-winged celebrities provided a valuable service to the city – eating pigeons! 

Stroll through downtown and you won’t help but notice all of the pigeon-abatement measures on all of the bus shelters, signs, and wherever else pigeons land. This Peregrine-pest control has not only helped revive the species, it has abated a public health nuisance no city department could address as efficiently as a pair of falcons.

Alcatraz, the new home for our Peregrine falcons

This symbiotic arrangement between the pigeon-eating falcons and us humans could have sadly ended when PG&E sold the building.  However now the National Park Service, working with conservationists, have set up a live feed at their new home on Alcatraz.

https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/news/new-peregrine-falcone-webcam-on-alcatraz-island.htm

Pigeons beware!

Goats in the Presidio

In the old days, managers of our open spaces would often employ herbicides to get rid of unwanted plants and grasses, endangering the health of humans and animals in close proximity.  In a stroke of genius which someone should have thought of years ago, those who are responsible for maintaining our green spaces in San Francisco, began using goats instead carcinogens and gas-powered devices to remove unwanted vegetation. 

There is no pollution or poison, and there are many other benefits to using goats.  They poop where they eat, fertilizing as they go, providing nutrients to the other plants around them.  Goats are well known for their ability to eat anything, and I mean anything.  They eat everything from crab grass to poison ivy.  And they don’t make noise.  Who wouldn’t rather hear the gentle bray of goats, than the omnipresent buzz of a weed whackers.