What Animals Lived in the Bay Area Before European Settlement?

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2022

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bay Curious listener Isabel Guajardo has long wondered what the Bay Area would have looked and felt like before European colonization. Specifically, she's curious to know what animals would have thrived here and what happened to them. It's a story of how attitudes about wildlife and land management practices profoundly influenced habitats. Additional Reading: Wolves, Bears and Jaguars: The Lost Animals of the Bay Area A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California by Laura Cunningham As Big Basin Finally Reopens, Indigenous Stewardship Key Among Plans for Park's Rebirth Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by donating to KQED! This story was reported by Amy Mayer. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Amanda Font and Brendan Willard. Our Social Video Intern is Darren Tu. Additional support from Kyana Moghadam, Jen Chien, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Jenny Pritchett and Holly Kernan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED.
0:03.0	Did you know Grizzly Bears used to live in the Bay Area?
0:07.0	Can you imagine a grizzly wandering down Market Street or hanging out at Brooklyn Basin in Oakland.
0:17.0	Nah, our landscapes are dense and urban now.
0:20.0	Our access to nature is more controlled. We hike in the hills or we go to
0:24.9	to find city parks. One of San Francisco's newest parks built above the
0:30.0	Presidio Parkway right near the Golden Gate Bridge is trying to remind
0:33.2	city residents about our area's rich natural history. At the opening
0:39.2	celebration for Tunnel Tops Park kids walked on or around big colorful decals of animals that once
0:46.2	roamed these lands in large numbers placed on the ground. They're the work of
0:50.6	Faviana Rodriguez. The Oakland artist took to a stage
0:54.1	to tell visitors about her project.
0:56.4	My art installation is about honoring
0:58.8	all of the creatures of animals that once
1:01.8	roam these lands before colonization. The grizzly bear, the elk, the mountain lion.
1:09.3	Rodriguez says she chose animals that the land's earliest people had strong connections to.
1:15.0	She consulted Ramaytush Aloni elders and honors their legacy with a mural at the park
1:19.4	entrance.
1:20.5	It says, welcome to the homeland of the Ramatoshaloni, Yalamu.
1:24.4	Yalamu is what this area was called before colonization,
1:27.8	Rodriguez says, and she wants her art to help people imagine that past.
1:32.5	And I invite you to think about how these colors make you feel,
	...

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