Presidio Baby Turtle Discovered in SF’s Mountain Lake

Welcome to the world, baby turtle!

Back in 2015 – after the completion of massive cleanup efforts at Mountain Lake – the Presidio Trust, along with San Francisco Zoo and Sonoma State University, reintroduced native Western pond turtles. Thankfully, The Presidio’s wildlife ecologists recently found a cute baby turtle, the first confirmation the turtles have successfully reproduced.

In April, Wildlife Ecologist Jonathan Young and Biological Science Technician David Harelson discovered a baby Western pond turtle at the lake. “It’s the first confirmation that the reintroduced Western pond turtles have grown up and successfully reproduced, which is big news!” Jonathan shared.

“We now have a new generation to sustain these rare turtles into the future. Proof of concept that urban nature restoration works!”

Hats off to The Presidio’s Natural Resources team which continues to make big strides to increase biodiversity in the park by restoring habitat that enables native species to thrive. To date, they’ve reintroduced five native species at Mountain Lake: chorus frogs, Western pond turtles, three-spined stickleback fish, the San Francisco forktail damselfly, and the California floater mussel.

Read more at Presidio Trust.

Learn more about these adorable turtles: