Between Lake Elsman and Lexington Reservoir, the creek is pristine and closed to the public. Here, along with rainbow trout, beaver, bobcats ("Lynx rufus"), wild boar ("Sus scrofa") and puma ("Puma concolor") are extant. The beaver were restocked to the portion of Los Gatos Creek where it enters Lexington Reservoir sometime before spring 1992, and recently, a beaver reportedly served as "a hearty meal" for a local mountain lion. Historical evidence of beaver in the area includes reference by Captain John Sutter who around 1840 recorded that 1,500 beaver pelts were sold "at a trifling value" by the Indians to Mission San José, the latter only 25 miles from the town of Los Gatos. Physical proof of golden beaver in south San Francisco Bay tributaries is a "Castor canadensis subauratus" skull in the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History collected by zoologist James Graham Cooper in Santa Clara, California on Dec. 31, 1855. Cooper lived in Mountain View, California from October to December 1855 and collected most of his specimens on Saratoga Creek (then "Quito Creek").