Wildlife

Muir Woods’ nearness to cities has been detrimental, but it is buffered by surrounding undeveloped land. This has helped to maintain the integrity of the Redwood Creek watershed and its wildlife—best seen during the early morning hours.
You may notice the relative silence in these woods. Observable animal life in a redwood forest is limited because the shaded conditions do not provide an abundance of food. Many animals that do not live here will come to feed, including owls and bats at night and deer in early morning or dusk. The mammals most often seen are the Sonoma chipmunk and blacktail deer. Other smaller mammals include the gray squirrel, wood rat, broad footed mole and red backed vole. Bobcats and Gray Foxes will come to the woods at night to hunt voles, wood rats and mice, while raccoons and skunks in the area may feed on crayfish, salmon, worms and acorns. Also living in the area although rarely sighted are coyotes and mountain lions (or cougar). Grizzly bears were once common in the area, but are now extinct in California. Black Bears and Tule Elk are also gone from the area but can still be found in many other parts of California.
Fifty species of birds can be found in the area. You may hear the Steller’s jay or the cawing of raven. Along the creek you may see winter wrens, blue herons and kingfishers. Other birds include warblers, kinglets, woodpeckers, owls and thrushes.
Western garter snakes, rubber boas, several species of lizards, salamanders, and newts represent reptiles and amphibians. Banana slugs are also common in the wet season and ladybugs come in swarms in the fall.

Redwood Creek
There are 22 streams in California named Redwood Creek. The creek in Muir Woods is one of the smallest – it forms on the side of Mt Tamalpais and drains into the Pacific around 3 miles downstream of Muir Woods. The largest redwoods grow in the alluvial spots inside the curves of the creek. Many attempts have been made to tame the stream from frequent flooding. In the 1930’s a team of Government workers (through the New Deal Public Works Program) lined the creek with rockwork and cleared all debris, trees and branches. Since then, it has been discovered that natural streams are far healthier and will contain more fish. Since 1980 the creek has been largely left to itself.

It is home to Steelhead trout and Silver (Coho) salmon. The salmon will hatch from tiny orange eggs in the spring and spend around a year feeding on insect larvae and small aquatic animals. The following winter, at around 3 inches long, they will make their way down to the ocean. Around one in 50 will survive to live in the ocean. They will spend the next 2 – 4 years there, and will always return to the exact stream they were spawned. Between 50 and a 100 will swim back up the creek when the early winter rains break the sand bar at Muir Beach. You can see the salmon spawning from late December to the middle of March. Like all Pacific salmon, they will die after spawning.
The Steelhead Trout will follow a similar pattern. They also spawn and travel to the ocean. However, they will spend their first two years in the creek and will return several times to spawn.
You may also see crayfish, and pond turtles in the creek.