Point Reyes - Ecology

Ecology

Two large mammalian species, nearly extirpated in the nineteenth century, have made a remarkable recovery at Point Reyes: the Northern elephant seal and the Tule elk.

Beginning in the 18th century Northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) were hunted extensively almost to extinction by the end of the 19th century, being prized for oil that could be made from their blubber, and the population may have fallen as low as 20. In 1874 American whaleman Charles Melville Scammon recorded in Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of America, that "the elephant seal...known to the Old Californians as Elefante marino had a geographical distribution from Cape Lazaro (about 1/4 of the way up the Baja peninsula) in the south to Point Reyes in the north". They were thought to be extinct in 1884 until a remnant population of eight individuals was discovered on Guadalupe Island in 1892 by a Smithsonian expedition, who promptly killed seven of the eight for their collections. The elephant seals managed to survive, and were finally protected by the Mexican government in 1922. Subsequently the U.S. protection was strengthened after passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972, and numbers have now recovered to over 100,000. The first breeding pair was discovered on a sheltered beach below Point Reyes' Chimney Rock in 1981 and has multiplied at a remarkable 16% per year to the present population of 1,500 to 2,000 individuals each winter.

In 1978, ten Tule Elk (Cervus canadensis ssp. nannodes) were re-introduced to Point Reyes from the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge near Los Banos. By 2009, over 440 elk were counted at Tomales Point's 2,600 acres of coastal scrub and grasslands. In 1999, one hundred of the Tomales Point elk were moved to roam free in the Limantour wilderness area of the Seashore and above Drakes Beach.

Vegetation native to Point Reyes includes Bishop pine, Douglas-fir, coyote brush, monkeyflower, poison oak, California blackberry, salal and coast redwood, among others.

Nearly 490 avian species have been observed in the park and on adjacent waters.