Bye Bye, Blue Pike
By: Stephanie | September 10, 2009 | Category: General
Today Jane Goodall, famously known as the woman who lived with chimpanzees in Tanzania and noted conservationist, is lecturing at the Library of Congress on endangered species. Conservation efforts like Goodall’s were on my mind last weekend as I walked past endangered Galapagos Tortoises and Madagascar lemurs at a zoo. Seeing those animals made me curious about endangered species in the United States.
I learned that the U.S. currently has 1,320 endangered or threatened animal and plant species. An endangered species is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range, and a threatened species is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the current rate of extinction is much higher now than in the past, mainly due to habitat loss. Other reasons are disease, pollution, the introduction of harmful nonnative species, and over-exploitation of wildlife for commercial purposes.
You can search for a specific species of plant or animal to find its status, or see the status of some of the more popular species.
A number of species have been removed from the endangered or threatened list. It’s chilling to me to see the species that are no longer on the list because they’re now extinct: the blue pike, the Santa Barbara song sparrow, and the Mariana mallard, to name a few.
Still, other species are no longer on the list because they’ve been saved by conservation efforts. The gray wolf, the Yellowstone grizzly bear, and, as GovGabber Jake noted, the bald eagle, are some of the success stories.
Learn more about endangered and threatened species from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And consider buying Federal Duck Stamps, where 98 cents of every dollar go directly to buying or leasing wetland habitat for protection in the National Wildlife Refuge System.
What do you think about wildlife and plant conservation?
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