Wisconsin Public Radio
US House passes bill to remove federal protections for wolves
The bill now heads to the US Senate where its prospects are uncertain
By Danielle Kaeding, December 18, 2025
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that would remove federal protections for gray wolves nationwide.
U.S. House Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, cosponsored the bill this year with Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and 30 other lawmakers, including Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation. The bill passed 211-204, largely along party lines.
The most recent data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows the plan would remove Endangered Species Act protection from more than 4,500 wolves in the western Great Lakes region, as well as nearly 2,800 wolves in seven western states.
The legislation would also bar courts from reviewing the decision. Animal rights and environmental groups have mounted multiple legal challenges over the years to ensure protections for wolves. On the House floor, Tiffany said the wolf’s status has bounced back and forth between being listed and delisted.
“Wisconsinites know best when it comes to managing Wisconsin’s wolf population, and it’s long past time we empowered Wisconsinites to be able to manage the gray wolf population,” Tiffany said.
Tiffany, a GOP candidate for governor, argued that pets and livestock in rural areas are being “slaughtered” due to lacking wolf management.
In 2022, a federal judge ruled wolves should be placed back on the endangered species list, saying federal wildlife regulators failed to show wolf populations would remain sustainable without federal protections.
Wisconsin law mandates a wolf hunt when federal protections are removed.
In February 2021, state-licensed hunters killed 218 wolves in less than three days, consuming Ojibwe tribes’ share of the harvest and surpassing a 200-wolf quota. In 2021, Idaho passed a law that could result in the killing of up to 90 percent of the state’s 1,500 wolves.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Donald S. Beyer Jr. of Virginia said wolves continue to face threats to their survival that include poaching and habitat loss.
“The protections of the (Endangered Species Act) have allowed gray wolf populations across the country to stabilize and regain strength,” Beyer said. “If delisted nationally, gray wolves will once again be hunted and trapped to the point of extinction.”
The bill is similar to one that passed the U.S. House last year, but it failed to advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate. With Republicans in control of the Senate and the White House, the bill has better odds of passing. But its prospects in the U.S. Senate remain unclear.
Ben Greuel, national wildlife campaign manager for the Sierra Club, said the group is confident that protections will remain for wolves.
“If there’s a small minority that wants to advance it, we feel confident that our champions in the Senate will stand up, and we won’t see any movement on this front,” Greuel said.
In the past, Wisconsin Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin introduced a bill that would expand the threatened status for Minnesota’s wolves to include Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. A spokesperson for Baldwin said that legislation has not been reintroduced in the current session.
A survey of more than 1,000 Americans conducted by Michigan Technological University this summer found 78 percent of respondents support continued protection for gray wolves. The project was supported in part by the Humane World for Animals, which did not have a role in designing the survey or analyzing results.
Most recent data from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources shows the state’s population has grown to nearly 1,200 wolves and appears to be stabilizing.
Randy Johnson, DNR large carnivore specialist, said the agency’s position is that science shows the wolf population in Wisconsin has biologically recovered — a statement disputed by some scientists. Johnson said the agency has updated its wolf plan and harvest regulations, and the state is ready to assume management if and when delisting occurs.
Tiffany’s legislation has received support from the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association and Wisconsin Cattlemen’s Association. They have pointed to attacks on pets and livestock.
Wisconsin has seen 76 confirmed or probable wolf depredations so far this year, according to the DNR’s website. The most recent wolf monitoring data shows 40 farms had verified wolf conflicts out of the state’s 58,200 farms.
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Earthjustice
House Republicans Advance Bill to Gut Endangered Species Act
Bill would reduce critical protections for imperiled plants and animals
December 17, 2025
Washington, D.C. — A bill that would dramatically weaken the widely popular Endangered Species Act (ESA) is set to advance in the U.S. House of Representatives today, following a markup by the House Natural Resources Committee.
The “ESA Amendments Act of 2025,” sponsored by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR), would substantially reduce the critical protections the ESA provides for thousands of imperiled plants and animals. It proposes to:
*upend the scientific consultation process that has successfully guided American species protection for over 50 years;
*significantly slow listings while fast-tracking the removal of listed species, and
*enable increased exploitation of threatened species while also shifting their management from federal agencies to states, despite those species remaining nationally listed.
“The vast majority of Americans do not want Congress to gut the Endangered Species Act. We’ve seen this as hundreds of thousands of people have submitted public comments in opposition to the Trump administration’s attacks on the ESA this year,” said Earthjustice Legislative Director for Lands, Wildlife, and Oceans Addie Haughey. “If this bill passes, protections for species like the Florida manatee, monarch butterfly, and California spotted owl would immediately decrease. Voters should keep in mind the elected representatives who are enabling this assault on our iconic American wildlife during the midterm elections next November.”
Background
Westerman’s anti-ESA attack arrives after a series of attempts by the Trump administration to weaken the law, including a proposed rule that would allow for the destruction of species’ habitat for the first time in the 50-year-history of the ESA. President Trump has also spent the year reducing the federal workforce responsible for implementing the ESA, making the potential consequences of the Westerman bill even worse with fewer biologists, park rangers, and wildlife staff in service.
The ESA is responsible for saving 99% of species under its protection from going extinct, including iconic wildlife like the bald eagle, humpback whale, polar bear, and American bison, as well as lesser-known plants and animals which are no less critical to keeping our ecological networks intact and functioning. The ESA acts as a safeguard for ecosystems that humans rely on for everything from access to clean water to crops.
In addition to its success, the ESA remains one of the most popular laws in country, with more than four out of five Americans in support of it, regardless of political affiliation.
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Sierra Club
D.C. Rally to Call Out Trump’s Plan to Dismantle Endangered Species Act
Event at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, December 18, outside Interior Department
WASHINGTON, D.C. —(December 16, 2025)—Conservation groups including Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity will deliver hundreds of thousands of comments on Thursday, December 18, to the Department of the Interior from people protesting Trump’s plan to dismantle the Endangered Species Act.
The groups, accompanied by Frostpaw the Polar Bear and members of Congress, will hold a rally and news conference urging the Trump administration to withdraw proposed rules that would dismantle the Act and drive hundreds of animals and plants closer to extinction.
The public comment period on the proposed rules ends December 22, just 30 days after they were issued.
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Center for Biological Diversity
U.S. Protections Sought for Imperiled Malaysian Purple-Femur Tarantula
Illegal International Exotic Pet Trade Threatens Spiders
WASHINGTON—(December 16,l 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity formally petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to list the Malaysian purple-femur tarantula as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The tarantula’s population decline is driven primarily by illegal trade for the pet market.
“It’s unacceptable that international pet demand is robbing Malaysia of irreplaceable wildlife like this stunning tarantula,” said Chris R. Shepherd, Ph.D., senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “To stop extinction, countries like the United States must work with Malaysia to strengthen enforcement, close trade loopholes and reduce consumer demand. We can’t let Malaysia’s extraordinary biodiversity be lost to frivolous illegal wildlife trade.”
This striking spider occupies only one small hilly region in West Malaysia called Fraser’s Hill. Despite Malaysia’s ban on collection and export, the tarantula continues to surface in international markets. That includes the United States, where demand from the exotic pet trade is strong.
Immediate U.S. action would stem illegal imports, protect remaining populations and prevent the extinction of this unique Southeast Asian spider.
The Malaysian purple-femur tarantula (Coremiocnemis hoggi) constructs burrows sealed with silk webbing in steep, shaded areas of montane tropical rainforest. Poachers dig the spiders out of these easy-to-identify burrows for trade. The tarantula’s tiny, fragile habitat is only about 10 square miles.
Global trade in tarantulas remains largely unregulated, leaving many species at risk. The United States is a major importer of tarantulas and other exotic species, driving demand that fuels illegal collection and trafficking. According to a recent Center report, the country imports on average more than 90 million live pet trade animals each year, about 30% of which are captured directly from the wild.
Collecting and exporting purple-femur tarantulas is illegal in Malaysia, but enforcement challenges and weak global oversight allow trade to persist. Collecting tarantulas for the pet industry is recognized as a significant threat to several tarantula species worldwide, underscoring the urgent need for stronger international cooperation and regulation, including under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. If the government of Malaysia listed the tarantula under a CITES provision called Appendix III, importing countries like the United States would be obligated to regulate, monitor and report international trade in the species.
“Purple-femur tarantulas need U.S. protections now, but Malaysia and other importing countries also need to take more action to stop trade,” said Shepherd. “The exotic pet market is international, and it will take a global effort to keep this amazing tarantula safe at home on its hill in Malaysia.”
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Daily Beast
Climate Change Is Forcing Polar Bears to Rewrite Their DNA
A new study suggests polar bears are adapting to climate change to survive.
Tamilore Oshikanlu, Breaking News Intern, Published Dec. 15 2025
A new study suggests polar bears may be genetically adapting to survive a rapidly warming Arctic—in what researchers describe as a “glimmer of hope” for the endangered species. Researchers at the University of East Anglia analyzed blood samples from polar bears in northeast and southeast Greenland and found evidence of genetic changes linked to diet and metabolism, NBC reported. As global temperatures rise, Arctic sea ice is shrinking, leaving bears without the frozen platforms they rely on to hunt seals.
The study’s lead author, Alice Godden, told NBC News that prolonged food scarcity appears to be driving biological shifts that allow some bears to better process plant-based and lower-fat diets when prey is unavailable. While the adaptation doesn’t mean polar bears are suddenly thriving, researchers say it suggests the species may have more resilience than previously understood.
Godden says the bears were projected to go extinct by the end of the century, but hopes that with these new findings we are able to reduce our carbon emissions to buy the bears enough time to adapt to their changing environment. The findings highlight both the urgency of climate action, and the remarkable lengths wildlife may go to survive it.
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ABC News
Nearly 30,000 trafficked animals were rescued in a monthlong global operation
Interpol says a monthlong operation led by the international police body resulted in the rescue of nearly 30,000 live animals that were being trafficked
By The Associated Press, December 11, 2025
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Nearly 30,000 live animals were rescued in a monthlong global operation against wildlife trafficking that resulted in a record number of seizures, the international police body Interpol said on Thursday.
Operation Thunder 2025 from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 involved law enforcement agencies and wildlife and forestry authorities from 134 countries and resulted in more than 4,600 separate seizures that included tens of thousands of protected animals and plants and tens of thousands of cubic meters of illegally logged timber.
The animals rescued included 6,160 birds, 2,040 tortoises and turtles, 1,150 reptiles, 208 primates and 10 big cats, including endangered tigers, Interpol said.
Wildlife trafficking for animals’ body parts or for their sale as exotic pets is the most prominent danger to many endangered species and has become a major transnational organized crime.
Interpol said wildlife crime was worth at least $20 billion a year, and likely more because of the difficulties in tracking it. The global operation identified more than 1,000 suspects involved in the illegal wildlife trade, Interpol said.
“Operation Thunder once again exposes the sophistication and scale of the criminal networks driving the illegal wildlife and forestry trade,” Interpol Secretary-General Valdecy Urquiza said in a statement.
Animal body parts were also seized, including 1,900 pieces of elephant ivory, more than 200 tons of marine species and seven tons of pangolin scales and meat. Pangolins are small, nocturnal mammals covered in scales and sometimes called scaly anteaters. They are often ranked as the most trafficked animal in the world because of their scales, which are used in traditional medicines, and their meat, which is considered a delicacy.
Interpol said the monthlong anti-trafficking operation, which happens every year, led to seizures across the world, including in Europe and North America. More than 40 shipments of insects and 80 shipments of butterflies originating in Germany, Slovakia and the U.K. were intercepted at a U.S. mail center, Interpol said.
Another shipment intercepted at a North American mail center contained more than 1,300 primate body parts, including bones and skulls.
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Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
Oregon Coast Chinook salmon denied federal endangered species listing
Zach Urness, Salem Statesman Journal, December 9, 2025
Federal wildlife officials decided Dec. 4 not to list Oregon Coast Chinook salmon as threatened or endangered, ending multiple requests from conservation groups to give extra protections to the iconic fish.
The National Marine Fisheries Service issued a final decision not to list Chinook, in coastal watersheds from the Columbia to the Klamath, under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Three conservation groups that sought the listing said the fish’s numbers had declined by more than half compared to its historical numbers, and often more. They were particularly worried about spring Chinook.
“By denying protected status to Chinook salmon on the West Coast, the Trump administration put political and private interests ahead of our dwindling wild spring Chinook salmon runs,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the group’s that sought the listing.
Across years of study, NMFS decided the fish “were at low risk of extinction” with “high overall abundance with numerous, well-distributed spawning populations across their ranges,” NMSF spokesman Michael Milstein said.
The conservation groups — the Native Fish Society, Center for Biological Diversity and Umpqua Watersheds — first petitioned to protect only the spring run of Chinook in 2019. NMFS responded that it couldn’t consider only the spring run, and not the fall run, so denied the petition.
“It was frustrating because good science shows these fish are genetically unique,” Miller said.
The groups refiled the petition in 2022, which was denied earlier this month.
Chinook, Oregon’s largest species of salmon, once numbered a half million spawning fish from the Columbia to the Elk River. Today, those numbers are between 100,000 to 200,000. From the Elk to the Klamath, historic numbers were around 300,000 while today, those numbers are between 40,000 to 150,000.
Conservation groups said spring Chinook are in much more dire shape, with 2,500 to 5,000 fish from the Columbia to the Elk, and 3,000 to 10,000 fish in the southern range.
“If they considered the spring-only run, it would clearly warrant listing,” Miller said. “In general we disagree with their analysis. They’re downplaying the threats facing Chinook. The hatchery production of fish masks the decline of our wild fish.”
Milstein said, even in just the southern range, there were more than 50,000 naturally spawning fish, “most of which are natural-origin and not from hatcheries,” he said in an email.
“Their high productivity takes advantage of the healthy habitat in many coastal streams, allowing the fish to maintain their abundance even with relatively high exploitation rates from fishing or other factors,” Milstein added.
Miller said that by not listing the fish, they won’t get funding for removal of dams that could easily come out and expand spring-run habitat. He said they’d look toward state programs to improve fish habitat.
While Chinook have struggled in general across Oregon, coho salmon have been a major success story on the Oregon Coast. Listed as threatened in the 1990s, they may end up being removed from the Endangered Species list in coming years.
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National Parks Traveler
Analysis Shows Trump Administration Proposals May Push Seven Species Into Extinction
By NPT Staff, December 8, 2025
An analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity identifies seven endangered animal species that would be pushed to the brink of extinction by a Trump administration effort to radically weaken protections laid out in the Endangered Species Act. The Center’s analysis focuses on the alligator snapping turtle, the California spotted owl, the Florida panther, the monarch butterfly, the Saltmarsh sparrow, the sunflower sea star, and the wolverine.
The proposed regulations would prohibit critical habitat designation for species threatened by climate change and allow economic impacts to be considered in species protections. They would also remove nearly all protections for species newly designated as “threatened” under the Act and allow special interest groups to block habitat protections by overriding recommendations from scientists.
These species are found in national parks across the country, including in Yosemite, Everglades, Channel Islands, and Denali national parks.
*The alligator snapping turtle faces a predicted 95% decline in 50 years and may be doomed to extinction in as few as 30 years even under the most optimistic predictions, according to the Center. The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the alligator snapping turtle as threatened in 2021 but has failed to finalize protections. Under the Trump administration’s proposed regulations, the turtle may never get the full protections it needs to avoid extinction.
*California spotted owls were proposed for protection as endangered in southern and coastal California mountains and threatened in the Sierra Nevada in 2023, but under the Trump proposal, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will have to conduct an economic analysis before protections are finalized, further slowing needed protections.
*On average 20 to 30 Florida panthers are killed each year by cars when they try to cross in their last remaining occupied range, but under the Trump administration’s proposed regulations, increased traffic on roads won’t be considered when new developments are permitted. This could spell the end for the approximately 200 panthers that remain in the wild.
*Monarch butterflies have declined by more than 90 percent due to pesticides that kill milkweed, a key food source during their migrations. Last year, the monarch was proposed as threatened with final protections due December 12, a deadline the Trump administration is not expected to meet.
*The saltmarsh sparrow’s habitat is quickly disappearing, and the species has experienced an 87 percent population decline since 1998. The sparrow needs endangered species protections in order to avoid extinction, but Trump’s regulations specifically state that species threatened by climate change won’t receive critical habitat designation.
*Since 2013, 90 percent of the Pacific population of sunflower sea stars has been lost to sea star-wasting disease, leading NOAA Fisheries to propose the sea star as threatened in 2023. Because sea star-wasting disease outbreak is driven by climate change, with warmer oceans making the effects more severe and deadly, the Trump administration will likely refuse to protect the kelp forests that sea stars need to survive and recover.
*There are likely fewer than 300 wolverines left in the lower 48 states. They need persistent spring snowpack for denning, but the snow is melting earlier due to climate change, meaning the wolverine may not get protected critical habitat under the Trump administration’s proposals.
“Animals often go extinct by human choice and Trump has chosen a deadly path for our nation’s most cherished wildlife,” said Stephanie Kurose, deputy government affairs director at the Center. “If the president gets his way, the next generation won’t ever witness the magic of a fluttering monarch or realize that the wolverine is more than a comic book character.”
The proposals are currently open for public comment until December 22, and the Center is seeking a 60-day extension.
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Wyoming Tribune Eagle (Cheyenne, WY)
Conservation group to sue over wolf decision
Mark Davis Powell, Tribune Via Wyoming News Exchange, Dec. 5, 2025
POWELL — A conservation organization has once again filed notice of its intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for “violations” and failure to develop a national gray wolf recovery plan under the Endangered Species Act.
The lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity is in response to the Service’s November decision that protections under the Endangered Species Act for the gray wolf are “no longer appropriate,” and therefore, writing a recovery plan would be a fruitless endeavor.
“We found that recovery plans would not promote the conservation of the gray wolf … [and are] no longer appropriate under 4(a)(1) of the Endangered Species Act,” according to a statement by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Fish and Wildlife Director Brian Nesvik (formerly the director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department) are cited in the notice.
A consequence of the Service’s findings is that recovery plans are “no longer statutorily required under the Act, and the Service will not develop recovery plans,” they reported.
The Center claims the Service is abandoning recovery efforts for the species.
“We’re challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful decision to once again abandon wolf recovery, and we’ll win,” said Collette Adkins, a senior attorney and the carnivore conservation director at the Center. “The Fish and Wildlife Service must live up to the reality of what science and the law demand. That means a comprehensive plan that addresses gray wolf recovery across the country.”
Previously, the Center sued the Biden administration, resulting in an agreement to publish a plan that would have been a central feature of its “long-term and durable approach to the conservation of gray wolves.”
That announcement stemmed from an agreement following a 2022 lawsuit in a District of Columbia federal court, ruling the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must draft a new recovery plan.
“The draft plan must be completed within two years unless the agency finds that such a plan will not promote the conservation of the species,” according to the results of the 2022 lawsuit.
“It neglects other places where wolves live and could recover, like the West Coast, southern Rocky Mountains and northeastern United States,” according to a statement made by the Center on Tuesday.
News of the new suit was met with concern by Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.
“For far too long, radical environmentalists have weaponized the Endangered Species Act to impose their will on Wyoming and the West,” she said in an email exchange with the Tribune. “Now that the Trump administration is taking action to return the ESA to its intended mission and rightfully return species management to states, environmental extremists like the Center of Biological Diversity are panicked and throwing Hail Marys as a last ditch effort to maintain their power, scientific evidence of recovery notwithstanding.”
A Game and Fish official said the department can’t comment on the news of pending litigation.
It offers hunting licenses inside the trophy zone surrounding the state’s border with Yellowstone National Park. Gray wolves have a dual-classification management structure, as defined in Wyoming state law. Wolves in northwest Wyoming’s Wolf Trophy Game Management Area are classified as trophy game animals, and wolves outside this area are classified as predatory animals. A third management area in western Wyoming classifies wolves as predatory or trophy game animals, depending on the time of year.
The gray wolf population in Wyoming usually exceeds 300 wolves annually, including around 100 wolves in Yellowstone National Park, according to the department, which actively monitors wolf populations in Wyoming, primarily using telemetry collars.
Organizing wolf populations into social packs that maintain exclusive territories allows Game and Fish officials to collar individual wolves in most packs, allowing the entire pack to be monitored throughout the year.
As a result, the department can census, rather than estimate, the minimum number of wolves in the population annually. In addition to censusing numbers, the department monitors pack composition, reproduction, genetic integrity, and survival of pups and adults to determine the relative health of the population.
The mandatory reporting of all wolves harvested in the state and the tracking of collared wolves enable large carnivore biologists to monitor wolf mortality and assess the effectiveness of management actions.
In 2020, the first Trump administration removed all Endangered Species Act protections nationwide for gray wolves. A federal court vacated that rule in 2022 and restored the wolf’s federal protection in the lower 48 states, excluding wolves in the northern Rocky Mountain states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
The Fish and Wildlife Service’s appeal of that ruling remains pending before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Wyoming regulations allowed 44 wolves to be harvested by hunters in 2024. This year, most hunt areas close Dec. 31, though one region remains open through March 31.
Wolves classified as predatory animals can be harvested year-round without a license. Any wolf harvested in the predatory animal area must be reported to the department within 10 days of harvest, according to the department.
The Endangered Species Act requires parties to submit a 60-day notice of intent to sue before a lawsuit can be filed. The Center said it intends to file its formal lawsuit in early February, seeking to include areas where wolf reintroductions are “in their infancy,” including in California and Colorado. Neither state has a federal plan to guide wolf recovery, the Center said.
The previous national recovery plan was written in 1992. Decades later, there’s still no comprehensive plan that addresses gray wolf recovery across the country, the Center reported.
Although the gray wolf’s current Endangered Species Act protections do not extend to wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, the Center and other conservation allies won a lawsuit last August aimed at restoring federal protections to wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, along with portions of Washington, Oregon and Utah.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is appealing the ruling in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, as are the state of Utah, the state of Montana and a trio of sportsmen’s groups.
The appellees will lay out their specific objections to the lower court’s ruling in a series of upcoming briefs.
Fish and Wildlife’s opening brief is due to be filed with the Ninth Circuit by Christmas Eve. The lawsuit was brought by the Center, Humane World for Animals, the Humane World Action Fund and the Sierra Club.
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Yahoo! News
Experts stunned as rare predator population tops 200 for first time in 80 years: ‘They are trying to stay’
Doric Sam, December 4, 2025
A recent discovery in Oregon indicates promising progress for a rare species that was once on the brink of extinction.
As explained by the Bulletin, a recent report from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife found in December that the wolf population in Oregon increased from 178 to 204 over the last year. OPB revealed that the 15% increase marks the first time in eight decades that the population of the endangered species surpassed 200.
According to OPB, gray wolves once thrived in Oregon and throughout the West Coast before “a 19th-century extermination campaign led by ranchers had almost wiped them out by 1950.” The species wasn’t seen again in Oregon until 1999 when a lone wolf was discovered, and the numbers have steadily increased over the years.
Susan Prince, co-founder of the Sisters-based Wolf Welcome Committee, an advocacy group dedicated to protecting wolves in Central Oregon, told the Bulletin that the increasing wolf population is a sign of a thriving environment.
“They’re an indicator of a healthy ecosystem, especially the Metolius area. There is a lot of continuous land there that can support these wolves. That is a real benefit, it’s a great sign that these wolves came here on their own and they are trying to stay,” Prince said.
Aaron Bott, a wolf biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the Bulletin that evidence from radio collar data, trail camera images, aerial surveys and track surveys was used to track a minimum count for Oregon’s wolf population, but the actual number could be higher.
“While we know more wolves are out there, we report only what we can document with confidence. This method provides a conservative and verifiable baseline, reflecting only those wolves we can confirm were present at the end of the year,” Bott said.
The increasing number of wolves is not without opposition, as some have raised concerns about the safety of local livestock and the stress placed on cattle and sheep herds, which can have significant health effects. Still, wolves in certain parts of Oregon are listed on the federal Endangered Species Act, and decisions regarding the killing of wolves in the area belong to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
Bott said the goal of wildlife managers is to help grow the wolf population to a manageable number that is safe for all.
“What matters most is not just the number of wolves in one place, but the ability to maintain a connected, genetically diverse population across the landscape,” Bott told the Bulletin. “Our goal is a recovery that is sustainable, resilient, and grounded in practical coexistence.”
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International Fund for Animal Welfare
Victory as hundreds of species given new protections at UN summit
December 4, 2025
Numerous wild animals at risk from over-exploitation due to international trade, have been given a lifeline as world leaders voted overwhelmingly for better protections.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, was widely celebrated as a sweeping success by conservationists from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
Over 70 species of shark and rays were granted higher protections, along with numerous wild animals in demand for the pet trade. Bids to weaken protections for some of Africa’s iconic wildlife were also rejected.
“Wildlife is in crisis, and world leaders overwhelmingly recognised the pressing need to take decisive action,” Matt Collis, Senior Director of International Policy, IFAW said. “But while we celebrate the successes for wildlife at this conference, it highlights the plight of so many species that are up against exploitation, needing urgent protection. This may be a win for wildlife but comes bearing urgent warnings”.
IFAW advocated for a number of key species to receive stronger protections, those being:
Sharks and rays
*Oceanic whitetip shark—uplisted to Appendix I
*Whale sharks—uplisted to Appendix I
*Manta and devil rays (mobulids)—uplisted to Appendix I
*Guitarfishes and wedgefishes received a zero-export quota, effectively halting legal international trade.
*Tope and smooth-hound sharks added to Appendix II, meaning trade can only go ahead if demonstrated to be sustainable
*Gulper sharks added to Appendix II
Wild animals traded as pets
*Two species of sloth—Linneaus’ and Hoffman’s sloths added to Appendix II
*Songbirds—great-billed seed-finch is moved from Appendix II to Appendix I and seed-finches added on Appendix II
*Australian Mount Elliot leaf-tailed gecko and the ringed thin-tailed gecko are included on Appendix II
*Galapagos marine iguana moved from Appendix II to Appendix I
*Galapagos land iguana moved from Appendix II to Appendix I
African megafauna – bids to weaken protections
*African elephants remain on Appendix I, with no ivory stockpiles trade reopened
*Black rhinoceros remains on Appendix I, with no horn stockpiles trade reopened
*Southern white rhinoceros remains on Appendix I with no horn stockpiles trade reopened
*All giraffes populations remain on Appendix II
“Every listing, every regulation, and every loophole closed has real-world consequences for wildlife traded internationally. From the smallest gecko to the largest shark—species pushed toward extinction by human demand are finally gaining the protections they need”, Collis added.
CITES CoP20 opened in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on November 24th and concluded on December 5th. All decisions taken during the conference were endorsed by the final plenary session on December 4 and will take effect 90 days after the conference ends (unless otherwise agreed).
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Center for Biological Diversity
Imperiled Birds Win Crucial Protections at Global Wildlife Summit
Threatened Hornbills, Songbirds Receive International Trade Limits
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan—(December 3, 2025)—Governments today adopted critical international trade protections for hornbills and songbirds, two groups of birds suffering steep declines due to rampant illegal and unsustainable trade.
The measures passed at the 20th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES.
“The governments at CITES deserve major credit for passing these proposals, which offer essential protections to African hornbill species and other birds that are truly on the brink,” said Chris R. Shepherd, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Without international regulations and controls, there are simply no mechanisms to confront the organized criminal networks driving this crisis.”
Eight African nations successfully proposed listing seven African hornbill species in the genera Bycanistes and Ceratogymna. Sporting large upper beaks, or mandibles, these iconic birds are increasingly targeted for their heads, sold internationally as curios, and to a lesser extent, for traditional uses across the region. Several species have already vanished from much of their historical range and are teetering on the edge of extinction. The listing in Appendix II of CITES means exporting countries must now ensure that trade is sustainable.
Hornbills are essential seed dispersers, shaping and sustaining Africa’s forests. Their distinctive breeding system, in which females and chicks are sealed inside tree cavities for safety, makes them extremely vulnerable. When males are killed during this period, entire nesting attempts collapse, leaving females and young to starve, trapped inside the tree.
The nations at CITES also adopted proposals to list six species of Sporophila songbirds. The critically imperiled great-billed seed-finch, Sporophila maximiliani, received the highest level of protection under Appendix I with a full ban on trade. Five additional seed-finches will be included in Appendix II with trade controls. Persistent global demand for these birds in the songbird trade has pushed the great-billed seed-finch dangerously close to extinction. The birds are used in songbird competitions and as pets.
“Globally, the illegal and unsustainable trade in birds is accelerating, threatening more species every year,” Shepherd said. “Listing these birds is a vital first step, but we’ll need effective enforcement and strong public support to make the protections meaningful.”
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ABCNews
Endangered species convention proposes new rules for growing exotic pet trade
Conservationists are hoping to strengthen regulations at a wildlife trade conference on birds, reptiles and other animals that are seeing their numbers decline due to the exotic pet trade
By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press, December 1, 2025
A growing exotic pet trade has conservationists calling for stronger regulations to protect the reptiles, birds and other animals in the wild that are increasingly showing up for sale on internet marketplaces and becoming popular on social media.
The two-week Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora is scheduled to run through Friday in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Several proposals related to the pet trade will be considered Tuesday.
Participants have proposed tighter regulations or complete bans on the trade of several species including iguanas from the Galapagos Islands, more than a dozen species of Latin America tarantulas and an odd-looking turtle from Africa.
“What we’re seeing is the pet trade much more looking at reptiles, amphibians. People want rare species and they don’t have to go into a pet shop,” said Susan Lieberman, vice president for international policy at the nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society. “They go online and there are thousands of animals, including endangered species, illegally obtained species, all available on the internet.”
In the past, the trade was dominated by sales in animal parts like elephant ivory and tiger bones. But Matt Collis, the senior director of international policy at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said live animals for the pet trade are increasingly turning up on the internet.
“The dramatic growth in online marketplaces has put consumers directly in touch with wildlife traders and criminals around the world,” Collis said. “In today’s society where pretty much anything can be bought with a click of a button and shipped anywhere in the world in a matter of days, no wildlife is safe.”
Social media influencers, who have made owned exotic pets cool, are also contributing to the problem, Collis said.
Several of the species proposed for greater protection at the CITES conference are in Latin America, where an IFAW report last year found illegal trade is on the rise. The report, covering 18 Spanish speaking Latin American countries, says there were more than 100,000 animals seized or poached from 2017 to 2022, with seizures increasing every year.
The report found the live pet trade accounted for a growing piece of the trade, with reptiles representing about 60% of the animals, while nearly 30% were birds and more than 10% were amphibians. Many animals were traded locally or regionally but there also was evidence of animals shipped to collectors in Europe, Asia and the United States.
More than 90% of the seized wildlife destined for Europe were live animals, confirming the demand for pets was a key driver of the illegal trade, the report said.
Among the reptile species up for tighter trade controls is Home’s Hinged-back Tortoise, a critically endangered turtle found in West Africa that has a unique hinge on its back allowing it to close off its back legs and tail.
There are proposals to regulate the trade in two vipers species endemic to Ethiopia, two species of rattlesnake found mostly in Mexico, the leaf-tailed gecko from Australia and two species of sloths from South America, which are increasingly turning up in sloth-themed cafes in Asia.
A proposal from Ecuador would ban the trade in marine and land iguanas from the Galapagos, which are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered or vulnerable. There are concerns that the illegal trade could further destabilize the population, which already faces threats from invasive species, rising tourism and fluctuations in weather associated with the El Nino.
In its CITES proposal, Ecuador said it doesn’t permit commercial export of iguanas and collecting them from the Galapagos has been prohibited for decades. But Ecuador raised concerns that traders are capturing and transporting young iguanas by boat or overland to ports and evading authorities by mislabeling them as captive bred. Most of the iguanas are destined for Japan and other Asia countries and can sell for as much $25,000 on the black market.
The United States supports the iguana, sloth, viper, tortoise and gecko proposals but is opposed to the rattlesnake listing.
A species can be banned for trade in its home range but sold online by traders who abuse the CITES permitting process and captive breeding rules and then take advantage of importing countries that don’t bother to check if the animals come from the wild, Collis said.
“In theory, under CITES rules, the countries issuing those export permits should be checking that these animals, and crucially their parentage all the way back to the founder stock, were legally acquired in order for an export permit to be granted,” Collis said. “But that is not happening.”
Countries issue permits without verifying animal origins, which helps traffickers launder animals from illegal sources, “undermining the very framework meant to protect these species,” he said.
The CITES proposals draw attention to a long-running problem with captive breeding of exotic species, according to Lieberman of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
“When the treaty was drafted in the early 1970s, there wasn’t a lot of captive breeding and people thought, ‘Well, if they’re bred in captivity, it’ll take pressure off the wild,” she said. “Sounds good, except it doesn’t work that way. Breeding in captivity also creates a market, but they’re cheaper from the wild. And also it’s a great way to launder.”
A proposal has also been submitted at the convention to regulate the trade in more than a dozen species of tarantulas. Bolivia, Argentina and Panama note they are “among the most heavily traded groups of invertebrates” with more than half all species available online. The proposal would permit the trade in the spiders as long as there is proof the sources are legal, sustainable and traceable.
“Some tarantula species are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation due to their long life span, limited geographic range and low reproductive rate,” according to the proposal. “Alarmingly, most of them are not regulated internationally, despite the high availability of hundreds of species in international trade.”
The United States Association of Reptile Keepers opposes the tarantula listing, which it called “incongruous” for rolling many species into a single proposal.
The association, which advocates for responsible private ownership and trade in reptiles and amphibians, suggested other reptile proposals reflect government overreach, noting the proffered changes to iguana sales are unnecessary since current regulations “provide adequate protection.”
“Most species have limited trade in captive bred specimens which is not a threat to wild populations,” David Garcia, the organization’s legal counsel and its delegate at the CITES conference, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, many countries, groups, and individuals take the nonsensical position that the way to limit threats to wild populations is to make the captive reproduction of those species more difficult.
But a report from the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, shared with The Associated Press and due to be released Dec. 8, found that the United States was among the biggest markets for the pet trade, importing on average 90 million live amphibians, arachnids, birds, aquarium fish, mammals and reptiles each year.
“Wildlife exploitation, including for the pet trade, is a major driver of the global extinction crisis,” the report said. “One million species are on track to face extinction in coming decades unless action is taken to address species loss. Addressing the United States’ role in the exotic pet trade must be a top priority to stem this crisis and protect biodiversity for future generations.”
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Oceanographic Magazine
History made as highest protection granted to manta and devil rays
In a show of international solidarity, member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) have uplisted all ten species of manta and devil rays to the strongest possible safeguard.
Words by Rob Hutchins, November 28, 2025
In an extraordinary show of international solidarity, member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) have voted to uplist all ten species of manta and devil rays to Appendix I – the Convention’s strongest possible safeguard.
It’s a consensus decision, adopted without opposition, that effectively shuts down all international commercial trade in manta and devil ray products, marking a pivotal moment for some of the ocean’s most threatened and charismatic megafauna.
Manta and devil rays have long captivated scientists and divers alike. These pelagic filter-feeders, recognised by their sweeping wingspans and acrobatics, occupy a unique evolutionary niche. Their specialised gill plates – used to sieve zooplankton and small fish from the water column – set them apart from all other rays.
But these same traits are what have made them, historically, acutely vulnerable. Manta rays are slow to mature, with males reaching adulthood at around nine years old and females roughly fifteen. They give birth to just a single pup every two to seven years and can live half a century or more. Such life-history traits leave their populations unable to rebound from even modest fishing pressure.
Meanwhile, seasonal mass gatherings, while a spectacular natural display, make the species easy targets for fishers.
For more than a decade, the primary threat has been the trade in gill plates, sold in parts of Asia as unproven “health tonics.” Despite a lack of scientific or historical evidence supporting these purported medicinal benefits, demand persists – and increasingly thrives online.
Recent research from The Manta Trust highlights rising prices, expanding digital marketplaces, and growing difficulties in identifying processed products to species level. Together, these trends point to widespread non-compliance with existing CITES regulations and an increasingly opaque trade landscape.
Compounding the issue is the overlooked international trade in manta and devil ray meat, often dried and salted for transport. With consumption documented in at least 35 countries, the meat trade adds further pressure to species already in steep decline.
In many regions, populations have plummeted by 80-99% within just one to two generations, despite existing protections under CITES Appendix II, the Convention on Migratory Species, and national laws in more than 40 countries.
Global estimates from The Manta Trust suggest that roughly 265,000 manta and devil rays are caught each year across 92 countries – numbers that far exceed sustainable limits.
While the Appendix I listing represents a landmark win, experts stress that global momentum must now shift to implementation. Nations are being urged to bolster national protections, particularly in high-mortality hotspots, by enforcing retention bans, eliminating incidental catch allowances, and closing legal loopholes. Sustainable, community-led approaches – alongside investments in monitoring, enforcement, and traceability technologies – will be essential to turning this vote into real-world recovery.
“This is a momentous day for manta and devil rays, and the fact there was a consensus in the room shows that not only was the science clear, but that the world’s countries are standing up for the survival of our natural heritage,” said Nuno Barros, Fisheries & Policy Assistant Manager at The Manta Trust.
Rebecca Carter, the organisation’s Director of Conservation Programmes, echoed the cautious optimism: “While we celebrate this unprecedented step, our work is far from over. The implementation of these protections will require vigilance, commitment, and collaboration across governments, communities, and enforcement agencies worldwide. Together, we can ensure that these ocean giants have a future in our seas.”
As the international community moves from promise to practice, one thing is clear: the fate of manta and devil rays now hinges not on global consensus—but on global follow-through.
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IFAW
Oceanic whitetip sharks granted international protections
27 November 2025
The first of over 70 species of sharks and rays proposed for greater protections, the critically endangered Oceanic whitetip shark, was granted the strongest level of protection today at a UN wildlife summit. The move was welcomed by conservationists from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), that say this could save the species from extinction.
Oceanic whitetip sharks have been uplisted at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to Appendix I. This level of protection bans all commercial international trade of these species and their products.
These sharks are considered the world’s most threatened open-ocean shark—and remain heavily exploited despite existing protections. CITES trade data has documented significant ongoing trade while recent surveys of major fin trading hubs have shown widespread illegal trade, 70 times the volume of trade reported to CITES, underscoring the urgent need for this uplisting.
“This development has come at the eleventh hour, and couldn’t have come a moment sooner”, said Barbara Slee, Senior Program Manager at IFAW. “This was our last hope for the Oceanic whitetips. For too long, these sharks that have roamed our oceans for millions of years have been slaughtered for their fins and meat. But this listing might just spare them from extinction”.
“Marine conservation has been given a promising head start at today’s negotiations – and we hope that governments will keep up momentum as we go into discussions tomorrow,” said Barbara Slee, Senior Program Manager at IFAW.
These decisions were agreed today at the 20th Conference of the Parties (CoP20) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The listings reflect robust scientific evidence and widespread international concern.
Discussions will take place to discuss the remaining proposals for sharks, including smooth-hound and tope sharks, manta and devil rays (mobulids), whale sharks, giant guitarfishes and wedgefishes and gulper sharks.
Proposals for shark protections were submitted by a broad coalition of governments, with Panama leading efforts to uplist Oceanic whitetip sharks to Appendix I.
Oceanic whitetip sharks received the required two-thirds majority vote, with 83% in favour.
CITES CoP20 opened in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on November 24th and runs until December 5th. All decisions taken during the Conference need to be endorsed by the final plenary session at the end of the Conference and will take effect 90 days after the Conference ends.
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The Cool Down
Researchers encouraged after many rare sightings of critically endangered species: ‘It’s the time to work on the human dimension of the problem’
by Zachary Ehrmann, November 26, 2025
Marine researchers recently spotted up to 10 critically endangered vaquita porpoises during a survey in Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California, causing cautious optimism that the world’s rarest marine mammal might still have a chance at recovery.
The sightings include calves and a potentially pregnant female, signaling the tiny population continues to reproduce despite decades of decline, according to Inside Climate News.
A team of veteran marine mammal researchers conducted a month-long survey in September in collaboration with the Mexican government and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, despite challenging conditions during hurricane season.
“What we’re seeing is so encouraging that we have these females that are reproducing as fast as they can and their young are surviving,” said Barbara Taylor, a biologist who has monitored whales, dolphins, and porpoises for more than 30 years. “I think their recovery could be on the optimistic end, but still, right now it’s the time to work on the human dimension of the problem.”
The vaquita, found only in the Upper Gulf of California, has been pushed to the brink by illegal gillnet fishing. When researchers first began studying the species in the late 1990s, roughly 600 vaquitas existed. Since then, numbers have fallen by more than 90%.
Protecting the vaquita represents a broader global effort to develop sustainable fishing practices that benefit both marine life and fishing communities that depend on healthy oceans. The Mexican Navy installed hundreds of concrete blocks fitted with metal hooks around the protected Zero Tolerance Area in 2022, resulting in more than a 90% drop in illegal net use within the zone.
The government now requires more than 800 small fishing boats to carry satellite trackers showing their movements inside the vaquita refuge. Officials are also developing and testing alternative fishing gear that poses less risk to marine life.
“One thing I think is in our favor is that the conversation with the fishing communities is ongoing and has been very positive,” said Marina Robles García, undersecretary of biodiversity and environmental restoration at Mexico’s Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources.
“We’re not in a confrontational situation, but rather one of coordination.”
Similar conservation success stories have shown how dedicated efforts can bring species back from the edge. Wolf reintroduction programs have restored balance to ecosystems across North America, while marine protected areas have helped fish populations rebound across the world.
Taylor noted the urgency of protecting areas where vaquitas are moving beyond current boundaries. “All of a sudden you go from something that’s a Zero Tolerance Area on paper to a real sanctuary for vaquitas,” she said of the recent enforcement improvements.
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CBS News
9 tigers seized every month as global trafficking crisis decimates big cat populations, report says
Updated on: November 25, 2025
Authorities worldwide have seized an average of nine tigers each month over the past five years, highlighting a worsening trafficking crisis that threatens the survival of one of the planet’s most iconic species, according to research released Tuesday.
A new report by wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC warned that criminal networks are evolving faster than conservation efforts can respond. The global wild tiger population, once around 100,000 a century ago, has now plummeted to an estimated 3,700-5,500, it said.
Despite half a century of international protection, TRAFFIC’s findings showed that tiger trafficking is accelerating and increasingly targeting whole animals, living or dead. Experts say the shift appears linked to captive-breeding operations, but may also reflect tigers being seized shortly after poaching or before being dismembered for their parts. Additionally, it could be driven by a rise in exotic pet ownership or demand for taxidermy, they say.
The report, the sixth in TRAFFIC’s Skin and Bones series examining the illegal trade in tigers, highlights stark trends. Between 2000 and mid-2025, law enforcement agencies globally recorded 2,551 seizures involving at least 3,808 tigers.
In the five years from 2020 to June 2025 alone, authorities made 765 seizures, confiscating the equivalent of 573 tigers, roughly nine a month over 66 months. The worst single year was 2019, when 141 seizures were recorded, followed by 139 in 2023.
Most of the seizures occurred within the 13 countries that have wild tiger populations, led by India with the world’s biggest tiger population, China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Among countries without tigers, a sizable number of incidents were reported by Mexico, the U.S. and the United Kingdom, the report said. While enforcement has strengthened, so has trade.
“This rise reflects improved enforcement efforts but also signals persistent and, in some areas, escalating criminal activity and a widespread demand for tigers and their parts,” said Ramacandra Wong, senior wildlife crime analyst and co-author of the report.
TRAFFIC’s latest analysis reveals a dramatic shift: In the 2000s, tiger parts accounted for 90% of seized products but since 2020 that proportion has dropped to 60%, replaced by a spike in seizures of whole animal carcasses and live tigers. More than 40% of confiscations in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Russia now involve whole tigers.
The report identified entrenched hotspots where interventions should be prioritized: India and Bangladesh’s tiger reserves; Indonesia’s Aceh region; along the Vietnam–Laos border; and Vietnam’s major consumption hubs, including its capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The report also documents growing “species convergence” with almost one in five tiger trafficking incidents involving other threatened wildlife — most commonly leopards, bears and pangolins.
Patterns of consumption vary sharply by geography. In Mexico and the United States, demand trends toward live tigers, often for exotic pet ownership. Europe shows a stronger market for tiger derivatives used in certain traditional medicines and taxidermy for decoration. Earlier this year, Spanish police arrested two people suspected of selling online exotic cats including protected species such as white tigers and pumas.
Across Asia, demand spans skins, bones, claws and whole dead animals for fashion and traditional medicine.
According to WWF, tiger bones are “used in traditional medicines or boiled down to make tiger bone glue or steeped in wine, their skins are used as rugs or clothing, their teeth and claws are made into trinkets and amulets, their meat consumed, even their whiskers are highly prized in illegal markets.”
The report said investigations should not end at the point of seizure. It said strong international cooperation is crucial, and that disruption of organized crime network along the illegal trade chain through intelligence-led, multi-agency enforcement is essential.
Leigh Henry, director of wildlife conservation at the environmental charity WWF, told The Associated Press that the surge in whole-animal trafficking underscored the “prominent role of captive tiger breeding facilities in feeding and perpetuating the illegal trade.”
“Illegal trade remains the greatest immediate threat to wild tigers. If we don’t urgently scale up investments to combat tiger trafficking — at all points along the trade chain — we absolutely face the possibility of a world without wild tigers,” she said.
According to WWF, poachers often set up snares in tiger habitats, but “anything could get caught including tigers, their prey or other wildlife. One thing is for sure whatever is trapped, unless rescued, will die a painful and often slow death.”
Heather Sohl of the WWF Global Tiger Program called Tuesday’s report “a wake-up call.”
“The surge in tiger trafficking and the alarming rise in whole-animal seizures show that criminal networks are adapting faster than our collective response,” Sohl said in a statement. “We must urgently scale up investment in tackling illegal trade of tigers from both captive and wild sources across the tiger range countries. Without this, decades of conservation gains risk being undone.”
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International Fund for Animal Welfare
UN summit to address wildlife species at risk from trade opens
24 November 2025
Animals edging closer to extinction could be given a lifeline as world governments attend a UN summit aimed at safeguarding species from over-exploitation due to international trade.
Today marked the start of the 20th Conference of the Parties (CoP) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Representatives from around the world have gathered in Samarkand, Uzbekistan where decisions will be made that could determine the future of numerous species at risk from international trade.
Experts from IFAW will be on-site recommending governments take decisive action to protect vulnerable species—those already teetering on the brink of extinction, and others that are also at risk without immediate safeguards.
“We are at a critical tipping point. Unsustainable wildlife trade is accelerating the extinction of many species, and addressing the rampant trade in wildlife is essential to prevent irreversible loss,” IFAW’s senior director of policy Matt Collis said.
“Every three years, we have a pivotal opportunity to put protections in place for some of the world’s most vulnerable species. We have an obligation for the future of the planet to make this count.”
“We’re at a critical juncture in time. Take the oceanic white tip shark – what’s decided upon here, could mean the difference between life or death – survival or extinction,” Collis added.
Of the 51 proposals to be discussed, IFAW’s experts will be recommending governments support seven proposals that would ban or regulate the commercial trade of products from several shark and ray species—most of which are classified as endangered or critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. These are due to be discussed on Thursday, November 27.
IFAW will also be recommending governments provide stronger protections for animals at risk of the exotic pet trade which is increasingly putting wild populations at risk.
This is the case for Galapagos iguanas which are being proposed for Appendix I – the highest protection possible. These iconic species, found only in Ecuador’s Galapagos archipelago, have long been targeted by the exotic pet trade.
Appendix II protections have been proposed for Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths and Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths, which are increasingly taken from their natural habitats and sold into roadside “sloth encounter” attractions or as pets.
Two species of Australian leaf-tailed geckos—highly sought after in the exotic pet trade—have also been put forward for Appendix II protections. All these proposals are scheduled to be discussed on Tuesday, December 2.
“The international wildlife has also shifted in recent years, from wanted dead, now to alive. The trade of derivatives from wildlife was what historically dominated these conversations. Now, the exotic pet trade—fuelled largely by social media, has seen a surge in animals being stolen from the wild and sold as pets,” Collis added.
IFAW will once again urge governments to reject proposals to enable government-owned stockpiles of elephant ivory and rhino horn to be sold. These controversial proposals are due to be debated on Saturday, November 29.
Finally, IFAW will be asking governments to keep Appendix II protections in place for all giraffes. This vote is expected on Friday, November 28.
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NBC News
With the rest of the world at a climate summit, Trump administration announces major environmental rollbacks
This week, the administration released a series of sweeping proposals to encourage oil drilling and roll back protections for wetlands and endangered species.
By Denise Chow, November 22, 2025
As representatives from nearly 200 nations were wrapping up talks at the United Nations’ COP30 climate summit this week, the United States was not only absent, but the Trump administration also introduced a series of sweeping proposals to roll back environmental protections and encourage fossil fuel drilling.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference ended Friday in the Brazilian city of Belém, where delegates gathered to hammer out a road map to phase out fossil fuels, boost climate action and limit global warming.
For the first time in the summit’s history, the U.S. — one of the top emitters of greenhouse gases — did not send a delegation. Instead, the Trump administration this week announced a plan to open up new oil drilling off the coasts of California and Florida for the first time in decades and proposed rule changes to weaken the Endangered Species Act and limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to protect wetlands and streams.
“These rules double down on the administration’s refusal to confront the climate crisis in a serious way and, in fact, move us in the opposite direction,” said Jessie Ritter, associate vice president of waters and coasts for the National Wildlife Federation, a conservation group.
The White House told NBC News on Friday that this week’s “historic” announcements aim to “further President Trump’s American energy dominance agenda.”
“President Trump is reversing government overreach, restoring energy security, and protecting American jobs by rolling back excessive, burdensome regulations and creating new opportunities to ‘DRILL, BABY, DRILL,’” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement. “President Trump serves the American people, not radical climate activists who have fallen victim to the biggest scam of the century.”
Ritter said the new proposals signal to the world just how much the U.S. has stepped back from any meaningful climate action.
“I doubt that this surprises folks who have been watching in the international arena,” she said. “But it’s unfortunate, given the example the U.S. sets and what our leadership, or lack thereof, emboldens other countries to do.”
The Trump administration’s announcement on Thursday that it intends to open up roughly 1.27 billion acres of coastal U.S. waters for oil drilling drew bipartisan pushback.
Although the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association for the oil and gas industry, hailed the program as a “historic step toward unleashing our nation’s vast offshore resources,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., pushed to uphold the current moratorium on drilling, which Trump extended during his first term.
“I have been speaking to @SecretaryBurgum and made my expectations clear that this moratorium must remain in place, and that in any plan, Florida’s coasts must remain off the table for oil drilling to protect Florida’s tourism, environment, and military training opportunities,” Scott wrote Thursday on X, referring to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Across the country, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X that “Donald Trump’s idiotic proposal to sell off California’s coasts to his Big Oil donors is dead in the water.”
“We will not stand by as our coastal economy and communities are put in danger,” he said.
The drilling directive came just three days after the Trump administration proposed major limits to the Clean Water Act of 1972 that would undo protections from pollution and runoff for most of the country’s small streams and wetlands. The rule would narrow the definition of which bodies qualify as “waters of the United States” under the act.
If finalized, the changes would mean that the smallest share of freshwater resources would be under federal protection since the law was enacted, according to Jon Devine, who heads the water policy team at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.
“By EPA’s own estimate, only about 19% of the country’s wetlands would be protected against unregulated destruction and development if this were finalized,” Devine said.
Wetlands act as buffers against flooding by absorbing and storing water during extreme rainfall and other high-runoff events. As the world warms, coastal and inland flooding is expected to become more frequent and severe.
“Many of the places that we already have in the U.S. that are increasingly flood-prone due to climate change are going to be even more in harm’s way,” Devine said.
Wetlands and streams also feed into other bodies of water that serve as critical drinking water supplies across the country, so critics fear the policy could make drinking water unsafe in some communities.
The third major environmental rollback announced this week was a set of four rules that would erode protections under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The proposed changes aim to make it easier to remove species classified as threatened or endangered and harder to add new protected species and their habitats to the list. The rules, if passed, would also allow the government to consider “economic impacts” in decisions to list or delist species.
Taken together, Ritter said, these three proposals are consistent with the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda.
“These decisions prioritize short-term gain, often for a few industries and special interests, at the expense of things that have been widely bipartisan and important issues for people for decades,” Ritter said.
The impacts of the changes might not all be apparent right away, she added, but the scale of the long-term consequences could be immense.
“It’s truly not an exaggeration that this is going to touch all Americans in some way,” she said. “Everything is connected, and it’s hubris to think that we can have these massive negative effects on our streams and wetlands, our animals, our coastal waters, without impacts to humans.”
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The Hill
Trump proposes to narrow Endangered Species Act protections
by Rachel Frazin – 11/19/25
The Trump administration is proposing to axe protections for some animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act.
The administration argues that the current rules are too stringent and stifle economic development, while their supporters say they are necessary to protect wildlife from harm.
The administration is proposing to cut protections for species that are newly designated as “threatened,” which is a step below endangered.
Under existing rules, threatened species are subject to protections. Under the Trump proposal, newly designated ones would not get these protections, but they would stay in place for species that are currently listed.
The changes also appear to make it more difficult both to designate species as endangered and to conserve habitat for such species.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum described the changes as striking the right balance between protecting species and promoting the economy.
“This administration is restoring the Endangered Species Act to its original intent, protecting species through clear, consistent and lawful standards that also respect the livelihoods of Americans who depend on our land and resources,” Burgum said in a written statement on Wednesday.
“These revisions end years of legal confusion and regulatory overreach, delivering certainty to states, tribes, landowners and businesses while ensuring conservation efforts remain grounded in sound science and common sense,” he said.
However, critics say the changes will result in harm to wildlife.
“If these rules had been in place back in the 1970s, the bald eagle, the gray whale might not be around today, and if they go into effect now, they will drive animals extinct, and that means a lonelier world,” said Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity.
“This isn’t about protecting endangered species. This is about the biggest companies in the country wanting to drill for oil and dig coal, even if it causes wildlife like the polar bear and other iconic species to go extinct,” Kurose said.
The move is not a surprise. The previous Trump administration similarly rolled back Endangered Species Act protections. Some of the protections rolled back by Trump were later reinstated under the Biden administration.
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Center for Biological Diversity
New California Wolf Pack Confirmed
SAN FRANCISCO—(November 18, 2025)—The California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported late Monday that a new wolf family was confirmed this fall. The Grizzly pack consists of two adults and a pup who have established territory in southern Plumas County.
The Grizzly pack’s confirmation means that California still has 10 existing packs, despite the demise of the Beyem Seyo pack in October from an agency kill action on members of that pack tied to conflicts with livestock.
“This year has brought both joyful and tragic news about wolves’ homecoming to California, but I’m elated there’s a new pack and more than 30 new pups roaming our state,” said Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Wolves are still in the early stages of recovery in California and these new arrivals keep their recovery on a positive trajectory.”
At least six of California’s wolf families had pups this year, with a total of 31 pups reportedly born. The packs confirmed to have had pups this year include the Beyem Seyo pack (six pups), the Lassen pack (two pups), the Whaleback pack (10 pups), the Harvey pack (seven pups) and the Ice Cave pack (six pups).
Known wolf mortalities reported this quarter included the three adults and one pup from the Beyem Seyo pack killed by agency staff in October, two Beyem Seyo pups that likely died of natural causes, a yearling Beyem Seyo wolf found dead in August whose death is under investigation, and the breeding female of the Yowlumni pack, who was found dead in September and likely died from complications associated with mange.
Among several reports issued by the department in its Monday update was one detailing this year’s livestock-wolf predation investigations and conclusions from the beginning of January through Oct. 31. Just over half of livestock losses occurred in the Sierra Valley and were attributed to the Beyem Seyo pack.
“The Beyem Seyo pack’s loss was a tragedy because this family of endangered wolves could still be alive if ranchers had started proactively using conflict-deterrent measures three or four years ago,” said Weiss. “If we strive for success we’ll find it, but if we mistakenly think coexistence with wolves isn’t possible, then failure will find us. Though wolf recovery is still a new thing for people in California, I’m confident we can find pathways to success.”
Background
The first wolf in nearly a century to make California part of his range was OR-7, a radio-collared wolf from Oregon that entered California in late 2011. OR-7 traveled across seven northeastern counties in California before returning to southwestern Oregon, where he found a mate and settled down, forming the Rogue pack.
Several of OR-7’s offspring have since come to California and established packs. Those include the original breeding male of the Lassen pack and the breeding female of the Yowlumni pack residing in Tulare County. The Shasta pack, California’s first confirmed wolf pack in nearly 100 years, was discovered in 2015 but disappeared a few months later.
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is native to California but was driven to extinction in the state by the mid-1920s. After OR-7 left Oregon for California, the Center and allies successfully petitioned the state to fully protect wolves under California’s endangered species act. Wolves are also federally protected in California under the federal Endangered Species Act. It is illegal to intentionally kill any wolves in the state except in defense of human life.
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Daily Montanan
Feds change course, won’t issue national wolf recovery plan
Congress considering several bills that would remove all wolves from the Endangered Species Act
By: Micah Drew, November 13, 2025
The federal government last week said it will not release a National Wolf Recovery Plan, despite announcing a plan was in the works last year, saying the species doesn’t need federal protection.
The move by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service comes as members of Congress are considering multiple bills that would delist the species from the Endangered Species Act nationwide.
Wolves in the United States are grouped into three differently-managed groups.
In the Northern Rockies — Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and parts of Washington and Oregon — wolves were removed from the endangered species list and are managed by their respective state wildlife agencies, which allow hunting.
A population of wolves in Minnesota are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, while wolves in the remaining 44 U.S. states are listed as endangered species.
Under the first Trump administration in 2020, the USFWS had decided to delist gray wolves in the states outside of the northern Rockies where they are protected by the Endangered Species Act. But a federal judge in California reversed that decision in February 2022.
Under the new gray wolf “Recovery Planning Exception Findings,” released last week, the USFWS states that no recovery plan is needed because the species no longer meets ESA requirements.
“The Service’s most recent status reviews for listed gray wolves determined that neither listed entity (44-State or MN entities) meet the definitions of a threatened species or endangered species under the Act according to the best scientific and commercial data available,” according to the Service. “Both listed gray wolf entities are no longer in need of conservation under the Act due to recovery. We therefore conclude that recovery plans for these two entities would not promote their conservation.”
The decision not to release a recovery plan is based on the 2020 status review that was later reversed in 2022.
After the federal government cleared the way for wolves to be removed from the Endangered Species Act in 2020, a three-day hunt in Wisconsin killed 216 wolves, nearly twice the quota allowed by the state.
Several conservation groups, which led the lawsuits against the 2020 decision, decried the latest move by the federal government and said they would once again go to court.
“I’m appalled that Trump wants to strip gray wolves of federal protections and turn their management over to states that are dead set on killing them,” said Collette Adkins, senior attorney and Carnivore Conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Courts have repeatedly made it clear that our country’s gray wolves have not recovered in places like the southern Rocky Mountains and West Coast. We’ll challenge the Trump administration’s unlawful decision to once again abandon wolf recovery, and we’ll win.”
Montana’s wolves in court
Montana’s wolf hunting season is currently underway with new state regulations that allow for hunters and trappers to kill 458 wolves. Another 100 wolves can be killed in management actions by wildlife officials.
But two opposing groups have filed lawsuits against the state over the new regulations.
A pair of Republican lawmakers and the Outdoor Heritage Coalition allege that the Fish and Wildlife Commission, which sets policies and regulations for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, didn’t comply with state laws intended to reduce the state’s population of gray wolves, saying the quota is too low.
On the other side, four conservation organizations filed suit also in hopes of overturning the latest wolf management regulations, but with an opposing argument — that the decision to increase the quota of wolves that can be killed this year threatens the species and flies in the face of the constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment.
A half-day of arguments will take place before Lewis and Clark District Court on Nov. 14.
The conservation groups are seeking a preliminary injunction which would void this year’s wolf hunting regulations.
According to FWP’s wolf harvest dashboard, 62 wolves have been harvested since the general hunting season opened on Sept. 15. The state’s trapping season begins Dec. 1 and runs through March 15, 2026.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Petition Seeks Endangered Species Protection for Imperiled Alabama Fish
Proposed Data Center Would Destroy Remaining Habitat, Pollute Rural Community
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—(November 13, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition today with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Birmingham darter under the Endangered Species Act.
Only six populations of this rare fish remain in a single creek system outside Birmingham, Alabama. They face an imminent threat from one of the nation’s largest proposed data centers.
“These phenomenal fish will slide further toward extinction if this data center is built, so we have to act fast,” said Will Harlan, Southeast director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “They’ve been swimming in these creeks for millions of years, but without immediate protections they’ll disappear forever.”
The Bessemer City Council will vote on the proposed data center on Tuesday, Nov. 18. The city council and developers have refused to release the project’s health and environmental studies.
Birmingham darters are 2-inch-long fish with turquoise fins and red-streaked bodies. They are a newly discovered species that only occurs in Valley Creek and its tributaries, some of which could be completely dewatered if the data center is built.
“The proposed construction of a hyperscale data center in Bessemer poses an imminent threat to the Birmingham darter,” said Charles Miller, policy director at the Alabama Rivers Alliance. “The fact that this, and several other rare darter species found only in Alabama, were first described this year is a stark reminder that we are still uncovering the depth of world-class aquatic biodiversity in our state. Protecting this irreplicable natural legacy will benefit Alabamians for far longer than allowing out-of-state developers to make a quick buck.”
Developers have proposed constructing 18 Walmart-Supercenter-sized buildings that will consume at least 2 million gallons of water a day. Much of the darter’s habitat has already been severely polluted by mining and industrial activity, but the stream where the data center is proposed is relatively undisturbed — for now. The fish also face other threats, including a limestone quarry that has decimated a population, urbanization and climate change.
People living nearby have expressed widespread opposition to the data center because it will dry up creeks, pollute the air and water, and harm their community’s health and rural character.
“Our opposition in the build out of the Bessemer hyperscale data center is in protection of the most vulnerable amongst us,” said the Rev. Michael Malcom, board member of The People’s Justice Council. “This hyperscale data center proposes harm to the Birmingham darter’s existence. As a faith leader and the leader of The People’s Justice Council, it is my call to remind us that the Earth is the Lord’s and all that dwells in it. We are stewards of creation and are being judged as such. Protecting creation is our growing edge. The time is now!”
The proposed data center also threatens the federally endangered watercress darter and the Watercress Darter National Wildlife Refuge only a few miles away.
“The data center would be a death blow to two of the most endangered fish in the country,” Harlan said. “Fortunately, local residents fiercely oppose the data center. They’re fighting for their health, these fish and the future of their community.”
“In a state where polluting industry and development are incentivized and natural resources are overlooked, we must do a better job safeguarding our remaining intact ecosystems, spring-fed streams, and native fishes that call them home,” said Nelson Brooke, Riverkeeper for Black Warrior Riverkeeper.
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The Colorado Sun (Denver, CO)
Amid 10 dead wolves and federal interference, Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program is struggling
Tracy Ross, November 12, 2025
Colorado’s wolf restoration program is struggling amid federal roadblocks over where the state can source new wolves for reintroduction and the death of a 10th translocated wolf.
The latest wolf fatality, announced Friday, puts the survival rate for the reintroduced wolves at 60%. That’s well below the anticipated survival rate of 70% to 85% for the early years of Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program, according to the Colorado Wolf Management Plan. CPW released 10 wolves in December 2023 and another 15 in January 2025.
Luke Perkins, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson, said the agency is “committed to fulfilling the will of Colorado voters in restoring a sustainable wolf population” and is evaluating all options to support wolf releases scheduled for this winter. Their most recent request is to the state of Washington, which will discuss the matter at the Washington Fish and Wildlife commission’s meeting Nov. 15.
But an order by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director has limited those options.
The state signed a contract Oct. 3 with British Columbia to pay its government up to $400,000 for 10 to 15 wolves to bring to Colorado in December and January. But a week later, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director Brian Nesvik said special permitting in the Endangered Species Act allowing Colorado to reintroduce wolves contained rules CPW violated.
Colorado wolves must come from northern Rockies states, Nesvik told Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis in a letter sent Oct. 10. But most of those states — including Idaho, Montana and Wyoming — have said they do not want to be part of Colorado’s reintroduction project.
Colorado sourced wolves for its first releases in December 2023 from Oregon, unleashing a controversy when it was discovered that two had come from a pack blamed for predation.
Colorado’s wolf management plan says wolves with a history of chronic depredation should be excluded as a source population. But CPW spokesperson Travis Duncan said at the time that any wolves that have been near livestock will have some history of depredation, including all packs in Oregon, but that didn’t mean the two in question had a history of chronic depredation.
“If a pack has infrequent depredation events, they should not be excluded as a source population, per the (Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management) plan,” he said.
Eight months later, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Nation in Washington rescinded its offer to give Colorado wolves, stating “necessary and meaningful consultation was not completed with the potentially impacted tribes” in Colorado “when the state created and implemented its wolf reintroduction plan.”
Last year, Gov. Jared Polis blamed ranchers for the high cost of wolf reintroduction, which has cost taxpayers around $8 million since Proposition 114 was passed in 2020. He said the state wouldn’t have had to go to British Columbia if ranchers hadn’t said, “don’t get them from Wyoming, don’t get them from Idaho.” But statements from Wyoming and Idaho officials suggested that wasn’t true, which drove a wedge between the governor and ranchers deeper.
CPW said one of the reasons it sourced wolves from British Columbia last year was to obtain animals with no prior interaction with livestock, thereby minimizing the potential for wolf-cattle conflict in Colorado. Rob Edward, president of Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, said in the 11 months since their arrival, the British Columbia wolves have killed no livestock his group is aware of, “beyond wolf 2505, that was killed in Wyoming for supposedly preying on sheep.” So the block on wolves from Canada has left many scratching their heads and surmising that it was purely political.
The 10(j) rule, approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in November of 2023, declared Colorado wolves an experimental population and authorized certain management techniques, including lethal removal.
Tom Delehanty, an attorney with Earthjustice, says the 10(j) rule at the heart of Nesvik’s block has nothing to do with where CPW can source wolves.
Rather, “it is purely about post-release wolf management” in that “it replaces normal Endangered Species Act protections with customized protections to provide greater regulatory flexibility and discretion in managing the reintroduced species to encourage recovery in collaboration with partners, especially private landowners,” he said.
The rule also applies only to gray wolves found in the wild within the boundary of the Colorado nonessential experimental population area (as seen on page 23 of the 10(j) rule language), he added. And because it “simply changes wolves’ legal status in Colorado, it does not, by its nature, apply to capture activities elsewhere.”
Mike Phillips was heavily involved with the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction in the 1990s and has advised CPW on the Colorado program. He said the block by Nesvik makes no sense if his mandate as Fish and Wildlife director is to advance Colorado’s wolf recovery under the Endangered Species Act.
“It doesn’t say ‘proceed with recovery if you want to,’” Phillips said. “It says, clearly, ‘it’s mandatory.’ So if the gray wolf is listed as endangered in Colorado, the Fish and Wildlife Service is on the hook for advanced recovery.”
What’s more, “if Colorado is doing all of the heavy lifting” by sourcing “top-shelf wolves” from British Columbia, he said, “why in the world wouldn’t the federal government just continue to say, ‘oh gee, this is really good. We’ve got to get this done until we’re told we don’t have to get this done, and we should continue to go out of our way to help Colorado put paws on the ground’ instead of standing in their way?”
And he said he believes the Fish and Wildlife Service is putting up roadblocks because “they fell into a political trap. You could only conclude the director isn’t really worried about wolf recovery, because if he was, he’d be going out of his way to take the path of least resistance, which is to enable Colorado to put in place a population that could count against federal recovery criteria sooner rather than later.”
Many wolf advocates worry reintroduction opponents will continue to create reasons to pause the state’s effort until CPW meets criteria for successful coexistence the agency says it’s already fulfilling.
The criteria were detailed in a petition submitted to the Parks and Wildlife commission last November by 26 ranching and rural groups. The commission rejected it in January because the state was already working on these things.
Phillips said the decree laid down by the Fish and Wildlife Service “is a clear example they’ve been captured by the antiwolf crowd that is hoping for enough of a delay that the next administration in Colorado won’t be so sympathetic to gray wolves, and, more importantly, so sympathetic to the will of Colorado voters.”
Coloradans will vote on a new governor in 2026. Greg Lopez, who served as a U.S. Representative for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District for six months in 2024, is running. He sent a letter to Nesvik alerting him to the alleged violations of the 10 (j) rule.
Exceptions for the capture of wolves may be granted by the federal government, as Phillips claimed, but Lopez said Colorado never filed an amended permit to include capturing wolves in Canada in the Federal Register. CPW has said it coordinated with USFWS throughout the gray wolf reintroduction effort and has complied with all applicable federal and state laws.
Perkins, the CPW spokesperson, told The Colorado Sun that pausing reintroduction now “would introduce long-term costs and complications that far outweigh any short-term logistical or political benefit. A consistent, science-based release schedule as outlined in the Wolf Restoration and Management Plan is not only a commitment to ecological success, but to public transparency, stakeholder confidence, and long-term conflict reduction.”
“Delaying wolf releases, even by a single year, poses significant ecological, genetic and social risks,” he added. “This would also be a divergence from the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan which calls for the translocation of 10 to 15 wolves every year for three to five years with a goal of translocating 30 to 50 wolves.”
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Earth.org
As the End the US Government Shutdown Nears, Wildlife Is in the Crosshairs
Opinion Article, by Born Free USA Americas, Nov. 11, 2025
As Congress prepares to reopen the government after the US’s longest shutdown in history, crucial wildlife and wild habitat protections are on the line.
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) are two flagship US conservation and animal protection laws. Collectively, these laws protect more than 2,500 species from varying harms and can be credited with the recovery of multiple imperiled species. But new proposals threaten to gut these two vital laws, exposing vulnerable animals to possible injury or death and pushing them closer to extinction.
Proposals currently under consideration in Congress include:
*Stripping scientific rigor from Endangered Species Act decisions. It is proposed that any information provided by state and local authorities, as well as tribal communities, supporting or opposing the listing and delisting of species would be automatically deemed the most relevant data available; even if it is false. This will prevent expert organizations like Born Free USA, that provide well-researched, science-based feedback on listing decisions, from having our voices heard.
*Delisting gray wolves across the country. Wolves have long been targeted by those wishing to increase hunting of this important species, with their status under the Endangered Species Act being unstable as populations have been listed and delisted over time. These new proposals, once again, place gray wolves in the crosshairs.
*Delisting grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. If successful, this proposal will see increased hunting of grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas. Reintroduction efforts for grizzlies would also be blocked.
*Reduced protections for marine mammal species. Cetaceans – whale, dolphin, and porpoise species – would have protections regarding “incidental take” removed. Put simply, these changes would significantly reduce controls on permissible levels of deaths of these species resulting from unintentional – but predictable – acts, such as fishing “bycatch” and/or deaths caused by other activities such as military use of explosives at sea, among other practices.
*Reduced protections for sea otters and polar bears. Like cetaceans, sea otters and polar bears will become victims of increased “incidental take” as rules are relaxed. This will lead to more deaths and less accountability.
*Increased danger for manatees. Manatees, whose leading cause of recorded death is from boat strikes, will be made more vulnerable as control of boat access to their natural ranges is relaxed. This will inevitably lead to increased injury and death. Even without the rule change, most adult manatees carry scars from boat strikes.
*Reduced funding for ESA enforcement. While wolverines were listed on the Endangered Species Act in 2023, this positive move is set to lose its efficacy as funding for enforcement is stripped.
These are just some of the alarming changes being proposed, and their implications are far-reaching and devastating. They cannot be allowed to succeed.
Together, we must make our voices heard in Congress to ensure that our precious wildlife continues to receive vital protection and that measures are implemented to increase, not reduce, chances of survival.
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Oceanographic Magazine
Mantas on the brink: Global fisheries driving rays toward extinction
Words by Rob Hutchins, November 11, 2025
A new global study led by the Manta Trust has delivered the first comprehensive estimate of manta and devil ray mortality worldwide – revealing an alarming 265,000 mobulids killed every year.
Published today, Global manta and devil ray population declines: closing policy and management gaps to reduce fisheries mortality paints a sobering picture of widespread, unsustainable exploitation.
Drawing on fisheries records, global databases, and expert input, the study finds that small-scale coastal fisheries (<15 m vessels) account for 87% of mobulid deaths, with mortality concentrated in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Peru, and Myanmar. Most rays die in non-selective drift gillnets, retained primarily for the lucrative gill plate trade and, to a lesser extent, for meat.
“This comprehensive picture of mobulid mortality shows how severe fisheries threats are and provides the context needed to prioritise conservation action,” said Betty Laglbauer, lead author of the study. “We now have a data-driven understanding of global catch and population declines – which underscores the urgency of stronger protections and effective management.”
Despite nearly a decade of international protection under CITES Appendix II, CMS Appendices I and II, and national measures in more than 40 countries, enforcement remains patchy. The result: continued overexploitation pushing these iconic species closer to extinction.
Key findings of the study include:
*264,520 mobulids are caught each year (95% CI: 184,407–344,987).
*Small-scale fisheries cause 87% of global mortality.
*Five nations — India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Peru — account for 85% of global catch.
*The Indian Ocean is the epicentre of mortality, responsible for 74% of deaths.
*Drift gillnets dominate small-scale catches; purse seines drive large-scale mortality.
*Population declines of up to 99% have been recorded in some regions.
“Mobulids are among the most charismatic and biologically vulnerable marine animals,” said Dr Guy Stevens, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of the Manta Trust. “This study provides the strongest evidence yet that overfishing, particularly by small-scale coastal fleets, is pushing these species toward collapse. The solutions are clear – what’s needed now is the political will to implement them.”
The findings land just weeks before the 20th Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP20) on 24 November, where governments will decide whether to uplist all mobulid species to CITES Appendix I – a move that would ban all international commercial trade in their products. The urgency is underscored by the IUCN Red List’s recent uplisting of three oceanic devil rays to Critically Endangered, one step from extinction in the wild.
The study therefore calls for a coordinated, science-based response to curb mobulid mortality. Recommendations include: Uplisting all mobulids to CITES Appendix I to close loopholes in international trade; national-level protection in high-risk nations, including retention bans and live-release practices; restrictions on fishing in aggregation and nursery areas; phasing out drift gillnets and other high-risk gear; and community engagement and livelihood alternatives to support fishers in transitioning toward sustainable practices.
“Many of these animals are dying as retained bycatch from non-selective fisheries,” said Nidhi D’Costa, Manta Trust researcher and co-author. “Reducing mortality means both protecting species domestically and curbing the demand that fuels international trade.”
The Manta Trust and its partners are urging world leaders to act decisively to halt the decline of these vulnerable rays. Individuals can add their voice by supporting the #SaveTheMantas campaign and signing the Only One petition – a call for immediate global action to protect manta and devil rays from extinction.
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Science Daily
DNA in seawater reveals lost hammerhead sharks
November 8, 2025, Source: Florida International University
A scientist at Florida International University (FIU) has created a revolutionary test that can detect small, hard-to-find hammerhead sharks without ever spotting them in the water — a breakthrough that could help save species on the edge of extinction.
This innovative method identifies traces of the sharks’ presence without catching or disturbing them. Acting like faint biological footprints left in the sea, it detects fragments of genetic material floating in the water to reveal where the sharks have been. In a recent study published in Frontiers in Marine Science, FIU marine biologist Diego Cardeñosa, who works with FIU’s Institute of Environment and the Global Forensic and Justice Center, demonstrated how the new test can help scientists locate and protect endangered shark species.
Tracking Elusive and Endangered Species
Smaller hammerhead species such as the scalloped bonnethead, scoophead, and Pacific bonnethead have been devastated by overfishing, leaving so few that researchers struggle to find or study them. Their habitats and movements remain poorly understood, making conservation difficult. Cardeñosa’s new environmental DNA (eDNA) technique could finally change that by helping scientists pinpoint where these critically endangered sharks still live.
“Just by screening different locations along their distribution range from Mexico to Northern Peru, we can identify high-priority areas where conservation resources might be needed,” Cardeñosa explained. “The short-term goal is to find these three species, as they’re likely among the most critically endangered coastal sharks in the world.”
Searching for the Last Refuges
Cardeñosa believes these species were once common before decades of overfishing drastically reduced their populations. They now survive mostly in shallow, remote coastal regions that are difficult to monitor and where fishing regulations are weak. His research focuses on Colombia’s Uramba/Bahía Málaga National Natural Park, one of the few places where these sharks might still be found.
“You can drop a hook and line there and, within 10 minutes, catch one or two of these species,” he said. In most other places, sightings are nearly nonexistent. The scalloped bonnethead was last seen in Mexico in 1994, while the scoophead was last documented in 2007. In Honduras, one of these species was recently rediscovered after decades without a single record.
“That’s how hard it is to find them,” Cardeñosa said. “It’s on us if we want to act to protect them or if we just let them slip away.”
Preserving a Piece of Evolutionary History
For Cardeñosa, the mission is about more than conservation.
“A lot of these are some of the most derived or newest shark species on the evolutionary scale,” he said. “If they disappear, we’re also losing a piece of our planet’s evolutionary history. Extinction is forever, and that’s enough reason for me to do something.”
A Powerful Tool for the Future of Marine Science
Cardeñosa hopes his work will inspire greater awareness and appreciation for these often-overlooked sharks and demonstrate the power of environmental DNA.
“It’s fascinating that you can take a simple water sample and know whether a species was there or not,” he said.
By revealing where hammerheads still exist, this research helps guide conservation priorities and maximize the impact of protection efforts. Beyond hammerheads, the same water samples can hold genetic information about other marine life. Once collected, the DNA can be preserved in laboratories for years, allowing future scientists to study additional species that once swam through the same waters.
(Journal Reference: Diego Cardeñosa. Ghosts of the current: environmental DNA assays to detect conservation priority areas for three critically endangered hammerhead sharks. Frontiers in Marine Science, 2025; 12 DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1688088)
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Center for Biological Diversity
Lawsuit Filed to Protect Beautiful Columbia River Dunes Flower in Washington
PORTLAND, Ore.—(November 6, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for failing to decide whether to protect the gray cat’s eye plant under the Endangered Species Act. These rare plants are found exclusively on dunes along the Columbia River in central Washington.
Gray cat’s eyes are threatened by habitat loss to dams, agriculture and off-road vehicles. Other threats include invasive species (particularly cheat grass), altered fire regimes, loss of pollinators, altered sand supplies and climate change. The Center submitted a petition in May 2024 seeking Endangered Species Act protections for the plants.
“The pretty gray cat’s eye will soon go extinct without our help,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s terribly unfortunate that the Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to the Fish and Wildlife Service and hasn’t taken action to protect these plants and the Columbia River ecosystem they need to survive.”
The flowers were once known to exist in 45 places, but they’re now gone from at least 25 of these sites and most of the remaining are in steep decline. Surveys in 2023 found just three sites harboring viable populations, including the Hanford Dunes, Wanapum Dunes and Beverly Dunes.
“Gray cat’s eye is a spectacular and signature perennial plant species of the increasingly endangered central Washington sand dune communities. It has been recognized as a sensitive plant species for nearly 50 years,” said Mark Darrach, an independent scientist and expert on the species. “Over the last several decades the plant’s habitat and required pollinator populations have collapsed along with much of its associated unique sand dune plant community. Time grows very short to recover this truly beautiful and important species”
The Service had one year to determine if the gray cat’s eye warrants protection as an endangered or threatened species and missed that deadline in May 2025. The agency has often had to be sued to make such determinations, even before the latest Trump administration took steps to gut the already short-staffed agency.
If the flower is protected under the Act, it would force federal agencies like the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Land Management to ensure their actions don’t jeopardize the species’ survival. It would also require development of a recovery plan and bring additional funding for research and conservation.
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Popular Science
Endangered rhino horns and elephant tusks seized in California
Poachers kill over 20,000 African elephants every year for their ivory.
Andrew Paul, Nov. 4, 2025
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) recently broke up an alleged illegal poaching front in Los Angeles County. According to the department, thousands of elephant ivory pieces along with multiple “large, intricately carved tusks,” a sea turtle shell, and at least nine rhinoceros horns were confiscated from an unnamed business.
“The global demand for ivory and rhino horn fuels poaching and organized crime,” CDFW Deputy Director and Chief of Law Enforcement Nathaniel Arnold said in a statement, adding that these and other operations “send a clear message” to black market vendors.
Despite global conservation efforts, poaching remains one of the biggest threats to many endangered species. Illegal rhino hunting has increased significantly in recent years, with an estimated 12,000 of the endangered animals in Africa killed since 2008. South Africa, home to over half the world’s roughly 27,000 rhinos, consistently experiences the biggest burden.
The statistics are even starker for elephants. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that poachers annually kill over 20,000 African elephants for their tusks. Prices wildly fluctuate in the unregulated market, but 2.2 pounds of ivory can sell for well over $500. The consequences aren’t simply a threat to population numbers either. In 2021, researchers discovered that a growing number of elephants are being born without tusks.
Aside from investigating and holding poachers accountable, conservation organizations are getting creative in how to curb the deadly situation. Everything from irradiating rhino horns for tracking purposes to training giant rats to search for contraband has been suggested.
While the Los Angeles County samples still require testing and confirmation from the CDFW’s Wildlife Forensics Lab, the operation comes almost exactly a decade after the state enacted a law to expand its prohibition on ivory and rhino horn sales. Prior to the passage of Assembly Bill 96 , ivory and rhino horn sales were prohibited for any items harvested after 1977. Today, all sales are illegal and can result in tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
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KLCC (Eugene, OR)
Endangered orcas return to Puget Sound without newborn J64, presumed dead
KUOW | By John Ryan, November 3, 2025
Almost the entire population of southern resident killer whales gathered in central Puget Sound on Sunday, but the newest member of J Pod, a newborn known as J64, was not among them.
According to a tally by the nonprofit Orca Behavior Institute, 59 of the endangered population of 74 whales swam, hunted, and splashed as far south as Vashon Island , delighting onlookers on both sides of the sound.
The fish-eating orcas rely primarily on Chinook salmon, but in autumn, they also chase after chum, the second-largest salmon species, returning to the Nisqually and Puyallup rivers and other drainages in south Puget Sound.
Though all of the orcas’ J Pod and K Pod and most of L Pod were present, the newborn J64 was notably absent.
The nonprofit Center for Whale Research announced on Saturday that its researchers had repeatedly spotted J64’s mother, known as J42, swimming without her newborn in October in British Columbia’s Gulf Islands, just across the watery border from Washington’s San Juan Islands.
“We kept seeing J42 surface repeatedly, and there was no calf with her,” the researchers wrote after encountering J Pod near Mayne Island, B.C., on Oct. 23. “After a few long dives and still no calf, we had to conclude that J64 did not survive and was now gone.”
The Center for Whale Research said the month-old whale was its 18-year-old mother’s first offspring.
J64 is the second J Pod baby to die in the past two months. After an unnamed orca died within about 3 days of its birth in September, its mother carried it for at least a day on her nose in an apparent display of grief.
Most of these fish-eating orcas don’t live past their first birthday due to toxic pollution and a shortage of salmon to eat.
The odds are especially bad for firstborns: Orcas offload long-lived pollutants like PCBs in their flesh through the mothers’ milk. The lifetime buildup of toxics is mostly offloaded into their firstborns.
Biologists have said for decades that boosting Chinook salmon numbers is key to bringing the endangered orca population back from the brink of extinction. A well-fed orca is less likely to metabolize its heavily polluted blubber.
“Southern residents need healthy, abundant Chinook salmon populations to sustain themselves and the calves they raise if this population is to survive,” according to the Center for Whale Research.
According to the Puget Sound Partnership, most of the region’s Chinook populations remain far below their recovery targets, established after Puget Sound Chinook salmon were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1999.
As apex predator of local waters, the endangered orca population is viewed as an indicator of the overall health of Puget Sound.
(This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.)
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Everett Post (Everett, WA)
After 50 years of struggles to save Spotted Owl, FWS plan is to kill 500k Barred Owls
November 2, 2025 by The Center Square
The Center Square) – The Spotted Owl is in the headlines again.
U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., filed a resolution to reverse a Biden administration plan to kill nearly half a million North American Barred Owls in the Pacific Northwest.
The two-page resolution provides for congressional disapproval of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule that proposes killing roughly 453,000 Barred Owls in Washington, Oregon and California. The resolution, if passed, states the rule “shall have no force or effect.”
On Wednesday, the Senate rejected a motion to proceed to hear the resolution.
Estimates show the FWS rule will cost taxpayers $1.35 billion, Kennedy said. A $4.5 million contract was awarded in 2024 to kill roughly 1,500 Barred Owls over four years; roughly $3,000 per owl, including babies.
At issue is a Biden administration FWS “Barred Owl Management Strategy” to “address the threat of the non-native and invasive barred owl to native northern and California spotted owls.” The Barred Owl’s habitat is located in the eastern half of the United States, Pacific Northwest and parts of Canada.
Barred Owls are larger and more aggressive and produce more chicks than the Spotted Owl. Over the last century, they have been displacing the endangered Spotted Owl in the Pacific Northwest, disrupting their nesting, competing with them for food and interbreeding.
In order to save the Spotted Owl, the FWS has proposed “a large scale” annihilation of the Barred Owl. Under its Migratory Bird Treaty Act permit, the FWS “may designate interested Tribes, federal and state agencies, companies, or specific landowners” to kill the owls, it says. Public hunting of the owl is prohibited.
The FWS plan is not new, but a continuation of previous policy. From 2013 to 2016, 378 Barred Owls were killed in California, Oregon and Washington, according to Audubon.
The Spotted Owl was added to the Endangered Species List in 1973. For more than 50 years, federal agencies have attempted to implement measures to preserve its habitat in old growth forests. Over time, tensions escalated between the federal government over land preservation and residents reliant on timber jobs.
By 1992, landowners and timber companies sued the federal government. Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Spotted Owl preservation laws could be applied to private land. Prior to the ruling, in 1993, then President Bill Clinton proposed the Northwest Forest Plan to save the Spotted Owl by reducing logging by roughly 25%. In response, timber workers held a mock funeral procession in downtown Portland, Oregon, and sent 70 funeral wreaths to the White House, the Seattle Times reported.
Thirty-two years later, the federal government continues to excel in failure, Kennedy argues.
The FWS’s plan to kill the Barred Owl was another example of “the federal government’s repeated proclivity to do the dumbest thing possible that won’t work,” he said.
Unless Congress stops the plan, hunters hired by the FWS will kill nearly half a million Barred Owls, Kennedy said.
“Who appointed them God?” Kennedy asked.
“Barred owls are expanding their habitat because the forests in the east have been cut down. That’s called adaptive range expansion. And do you know what? Whether you believe in God or nature or whatever, that happens every single day in our ecosystem. It’s a naturally occurring ecological phenomenon. It’s a core behavioral characteristic of animals,” Kennedy said.
“The barred owls are not hurting anybody. They’re just doing what nature teaches them to do. We’re going to change nature? We’re going to control our environment to this extent? We’re going to pass DEI for owls? We’re going to pass quotas for owls? Spotted owls, good. Barred owls, bad. But the barred owls won’t lose their constitutional rights. They will kill them. They will kill 453,000 of them, dead as Jimmy Hoffa. Give me a break.”
Kennedy also cited a FWS biologist who said trying “to control Barred Owls across a large region would be incredibly expensive, and you’d have to keep doing it forever because if you ever stopped, they would begin to come back into these areas.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by Audubon California’s director in 2016 who said killing the owls wouldn’t work over the long term. “Barred Owls are native species, too, and you’re never going to stem that tide,” she told Audubon California nearly 10 years ago. “You have to just make the habitat for the spotted owls the best you can. If you kill Barred Owls, another one is just going to come along. You cannot stop the Barred Owl.”
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Courthouse News Service
Trump 45-era bid to weaken Endangered Species Act on thin ice
Best available science or best possible? Conservationists say the latter could mean doom for many species on the brink.
Carly Nairn / October 30, 2025
OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge said Thursday he’s inclined to hand three environmental nonprofits summary judgment and halt efforts by the Trump administration to weaken the Endangered Species Act.
U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar had a tone of contrition over how long it’s taken him to handle the lawsuit by the Center of Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians against the Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
“I am wrestling with this,” the Barack Obama appointee said. “I should have reached the merits before. My prior conduct of this case has slowed it down. It’s Judge Tigar that has been evading review.”
The dispute started in 2019, when the first Trump administration unveiled a series of “improvements” to the Nixon-era legislation, which officials claimed would eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens while maintaining critical safeguards for threatened species.
The new rules would have allowed economic factors to be considered in species listing decisions. They would have also made it easier to eliminate protections for species thought to be extinct by removing a requirement that scientific data “substantiate” delisting decisions.
The conservationists filed an amended complaint in 2024, unhappy with the Biden administration’s efforts at reducing the scope of the Trump-era changes.
Arguing for the conservationists on Thursday, attorney Benjamin Levitan said the government’s plan to use the “best possible” science when making assessments on listing endangered species is not beneficial. The “best available” science has been a long-practiced standard, he argued, which allows for determinations based on what’s possible and what will do the most good for an endangered animal.
Levitan pointed to the refusal to list wolverine, saying wolverines have the best chances of survival with a snow-covered habitat but climate change is making that habitat far less available. Under the current regulations, he said, the government would want a study to see if wolverines could survive without snow.
“The approach is catastrophic,” he said. “We have no studies of those conditions in recorded history; if we did it could be too late,” he said, adding the Endangered Species Act is designed generally to prevent “exactly that outcome.”
Additionally, the 2019 revisions changed the definitions of terms like “destruction or adverse modification” of critical habitat and “environmental baseline” to raise the bar for what is considered necessary for a species’ survival. The overhaul further lifts requirements that federal agencies be consulted to assess the impacts of land management plans on at-risk species.
Representing the government, attorneys John Martin and Angela Ellis refuted Levitan by saying the act allows for discretion by the agencies to change its language.
Martin pointed to Trump’s recent executive order to create “consistency” within government agencies includes how the Endangered Species Act is implemented. He said a draft of new rules are currently in interagency review, but due to the government shutdown the original deadline for a draft public viewing on Oct. 31 will be missed.
The government opposes the conservationists’ request to vacate the rule changes, and is instead pushing Tigar to remand for further tinkering — a request Levitan opposed.
“The services seek delay, to undertake a third round of rulemaking,” he said. “They are evading judicial review, they have had more than enough time, and counsel is in favor of a swift judicial decision.”
The Endangered Species Act protects 1,600 U.S. plant and animal species with millions of acres designated as critical habitat for their survival and recovery. Since its enactment in 1973, more than 99% of species listed as threatened or endangered have been saved from extinction.
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Oceanographic Magazine
Vanishing variety: “Unusual” sharks face highest extinction risk
Words by Rob Hutchins, October 30, 2025
If current extinction rates hold, Earth’s sharks – species that have mastered the ocean for more than 400 million years – may soon lose much of their remarkable diversity, threatening the delicate balance of marine ecosystems they help sustain.
A new Stanford University study warns that shark species with the most distinctive bodies and ecological roles – from deep-sea specialists to surface dwellers – are also the ones most at risk. Their disappearance could leave behind a far less varied, “homogenized” shark population: mostly medium-sized species inhabiting mid-ocean depths.
“If these extinctions unfold as predicted, sharks will become more alike – simplified versions of what they once were,” said lead author Mohamad Bazzi, a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. “Even small differences between species matter. Each one brings something distinct and important.”
From palm-sized dwarf lanternsharks to bus-length whale sharks, these fish have evolved into one of the ocean’s most varied lineages. But according to previous studies, around a third of the world’s 500 known shark species are now teetering toward extinction, mostly due to human pressures such as overfishing and habitat loss.
The new analysis, led by Bazzi and senior author Jonathan Payne, reveals that the most imperilled species tend to occupy ecological extremes. Their loss, the researchers argue, would erase millions of years of evolutionary experimentation, dulling the once-vivid spectrum of shark forms and functions.
“Those popular shark books for kids would become a lot less fun and interesting,” Payne noted. “You’d be left with fewer shapes, fewer colours, and fewer ecological stories.”
To trace patterns of extinction risk, the team turned to a surprising source – shark teeth. Analysing more than 1,200 teeth from 30 species in the genus Carcharhinus – a group that includes the bull and oceanic whitetip sharks – the researchers found that tooth form and size, reliable indicators of diet and body type, correlate closely with vulnerability.
Of the 35 recognised Carcharhinus species, 25 are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as “Vulnerable,” “Endangered,” or “Critically Endangered.” The data suggest that species with unusual morphologies or specialised feeding habits face the highest extinction risks.
“When extinction removes the specialists, what remains are the generalists – the average ones,” Payne explained. “We lose in basically every way when we drive species extinct.”
This trend toward what scientists call phenotypic homogenization could have cascading consequences. The loss of functional diversity – a key buffer in resilient ecosystems – mirrors what’s already been observed on land. When vultures vanish, carrion piles up. When sea urchins explode in number, coral reefs suffer. The same could soon be true beneath the waves.
Despite the grim outlook, researchers emphasise that change is still possible. Overfishing remains the single greatest threat, but it is also among the most addressable through stronger policy and global cooperation.
Payne points to the northern elephant seal as a symbol of hope. Once hunted to near-extinction in the 19th century, their population has rebounded to more than 150,000 after hunting bans took effect – a living reminder that recovery is achievable.
“Conservation doesn’t have to be a centuries-long process,” Payne said. “With the right action, we could see positive change for sharks within just a few decades.”
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Courthouse News Service
Conservationists sue for endangered species protection for Olympic marmots
The Olympic marmot is endemic to the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and have faced threats from climate change and coyote predation.
Quinn Welsch / October 29, 2025
(CN) — A furry rodent found in the rainy forests of the Pacific Northwest that has been facing a decline in population for decades could be one step closer to an endangered or threatened species status.
The Center for Biological Diversity says in a Wednesday lawsuit that U.S. Fish and Wildlife failed to make a determination to protect Olympic marmots, a large ground squirrel located almost entirely in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
The center claims in the suit filed in federal court in Washington state that the government violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to meet a 90-day decision deadline after it petitioned in May 2024.
Olympic marmots, of which there are only between 2,000-4,000, are listed as Washington state’s “endemic state animal” and reside almost entirely within the alpine meadows of the Olympic National Park. The Olympic marmots are known to hibernate for eight months out of the year, typically emerging from their burrows in May.
“I think the Olympic marmots are such a special animal and so near and dear to so many people, it’s time for them to have the Endangered Species Act protections that they really deserve and need to survive in the future,” Aaron Kunkler, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an interview. “You can go up to these beautiful alpine meadows and bring your family and friends and see a big fluffy marmot tail bobbing across the meadow. They are also emblematic of those alpine meadow ecosystems. It’s the only palace where they live.”
However, the creatures face multifaceted threats from climate change that include the loss of habitat and increasing threat of coyotes, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Olympic marmots’ natural habitats in high alpine meadows have begun to shrink as a result of climate change, Kunkler said. Within 100 years, those alpine meadows could disappear altogether throughout Washington state due to reduced snowpack and an upward creep of the tree line, he said.
The loss of these meadows impacts the marmots’ food source, which includes grasses and flowers, according to John Bridge, president of the Olympic Park Advocates, who described the small critters as the “iconic guardians” of the park. The encroaching tree line also makes it easier for coyotes to sneak up on them, he said.
“It’s not good for them,” Bridge said in an interview. “The marmots like living up high so they can see everything. They have to have good views.”
The impacts of climate change also mean an increasing number of coyotes in the high alpine meadows, which have become more numerous with the eradication of wolves from the Olympic National Park in the early 20th century, the center writes in its lawsuit.
Although wolves prey on smaller mammals, they primarily prey on deer and elk and would be an overall boon to the Olympic marmots because they would keep the coyote population in the peninsula in check, Bridge said.
“Ultimately, the hope is that wolves establish themselves across the state,” Kunkler said. “They are a vital part of the ecosystem up there. Coyotes are the main reason why marmots have declined over the past several decades.”
The Olympic marmots also have low rates of reproduction and are seemingly unable to migrate to new locations, despite these threats, the Center for Biological Diversity says. Additionally, the center writes that the marmots are threatened by increasing forest fires and the isolation of marmot colonies throughout the region.
This type of lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife is common, Kunkler said. The department frequently fails to decide whether an animal could be declared endangered or not, he said.
If the department determines the center’s petition to protect the Olympic marmots as an endangered species is warranted, then it will initiate a scientific review of the species. The department must then publish a finding within 12 months of the petition whether the protection is warranted or not.
If the Olympic marmots are eventually listed as endangered or threatened, Kunkler said he does not expect it will impact tourism in the Olympic National Park.
“That is kind of one of the things that makes it a little easier for the listing process,” he said “Ninety percent of marmot habitat is in a national park. There’s already no logging up there. It seems like a pretty easy lift for Fish and Wildlife to get it drafted up.”
Adding the Olympic marmots to the department’s endangered or threatened species list would allow it to create safeguards and a recovery plan to ensure their survival.
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EurekAlert!
News Release 28-Oct-2025
Environmental shifts are pushing endangered reptiles to the brink of extinction
Climate change is driving many of Australia’s native reptiles toward extinction, and the answers to their future survival may lie in the fossil record
Peer-Reviewed Publication/Museum Victoria
Climate change is driving many of Australia’s native reptiles toward extinction, and the answers to their future survival may lie in the fossil record.
New research published today in Current Biology originates from an international collaboration with Museums Victoria Research Institute and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. The study reveals that the endangered Australian Mountain Dragon (Rankinia diemensis) has been driven into increasingly smaller and more isolated populations over thousands of years as a result of changing climate conditions.
The study combines fossil evidence from natural history museums with genetic data from preserved specimens to uncover how the species has responded to major environmental changes in the past and what this means for its future.
Dr Jane Melville, senior curator of terrestrial vertebrates at Museums Victoria Research Institute, said the research shows the species has been pushed up the mountains by climate change.
‘About 20,000 years ago during the last glacial period, Mountain Dragons occupied a much wider range across southeastern Australia, including regions such as Kangaroo Island and Naracoorte in South Australia,’ said Dr Melville.
‘Today, those populations have vanished. The remaining populations in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania have a reduced distribution and are more genetically isolated than in the past, and if global temperatures continue to rise, these lizards will eventually have nowhere left to go.’
By using advanced micro-CT imaging to identify tiny fossil fragments and combining this information with genomic data from modern specimens, the team was able to track long-term shifts in the species’ range and genetic diversity.
The findings suggest that low-altitude populations have already suffered genetic decline, while cooler, high-altitude habitats are becoming less suitable due to global warming. This makes Rankinia diemensis a clear warning sign for other reptiles that share the same ecosystem.
Reptiles are particularly vulnerable to climate change because they cannot actively regulate their body temperature. Similar distribution and genetic patterns have been observed in other species, such as the blotched Blue-Tongue Lizard, Tiliqua nigrolutea, suggesting that multiple reptile species across southeastern Australia may face the same fate.
Natural history museum collections proved essential to this discovery. Fossils, bones, and preserved specimens housed at Museums Victoria and other institutions offer an unparalleled record of Australia’s biodiversity over time, making it possible to link the past, present, and future of threatened species.
Lead author Dr Till Ramm, former PhD student at Museums Victoria Research Institute, said the study underscores the value of the new research field ‘conservation paleobiology’ and the urgent need to update conservation strategies to account for climate-driven habitat loss.
‘By learning from the past, we can make better predictions and decisions for the future,’ said Dr Ramm. ‘Our findings show just how fast climate change can disrupt biodiversity and why protecting habitats now is more critical than ever.’
‘By studying specimens and fossils preserved in museum collections, we can see how species have responded to past environmental challenges and use those insights to inform future conservation,’ said Dr Nurin Veis, Director of Museums Victoria Research Institute. ‘The past holds critical lessons for protecting the biodiversity we have today.’
Visitors to Melbourne Museum can see 3D models of the Mountain Dragon in the Research Institute Gallery and explore Our Wondrous Planet, Museums Victoria’s newest science and biodiversity gallery, which inspires visitors to care for our planet for generations to come.
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CBS News
Poachers are killing families of spider monkeys, kidnapping their babies and selling them to Americans on social media
By David Schechter, Chance Horner, Nicole Busch, Tracy J. Wholf, October 28, 2025
Bound, sedated and stuffed into bags: Poachers are ripping baby spider monkeys from their mothers in the forests of southern Mexico and selling them as pets on social media platforms in the United States.
Jim Stinebaugh, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says nearly 90 baby spider monkeys have been confiscated at the Texas-Mexico border in the last 18 months – and that’s believed to be just a fraction of the spider monkeys illegally brought into the United States.
Wildlife officials say the spike in spider monkey smuggling is driven in part by viral videos showing the animals dressed up, diapered and treated like human babies. Those clips racking up millions of views may look cute, but experts warn they glamorize illegal pet ownership and fail to show the cruel conditions for monkeys torn from the wild.
Investigative photos document the cruelty of how baby spider monkeys are smuggled across the border. Traffickers smuggle the spider monkeys in horrific conditions, often crammed into tiny compartments with no food or water. Many arrive sick, injured or clinging to life, with authorities racing to save those that survive the brutal journey.
In Mexico, poachers shoot mother spider monkeys out of trees, with their babies still clinging to their backs. And because the moms only give birth every two to four years, the population is slow to recover.
“You’re going to have to kill the mothers to get the babies, and then the rest of the family are going to be protective of the mother and the baby as well,” Stinebaugh explained. “You very well may end up killing dozens of monkeys, just to keep a few of the babies.”
Stinebaugh focuses on catching smugglers who sell through social media platforms. It’s an uphill battle because law enforcement is understaffed, and the penalties are often small.
He warned: “If you’re paying cash for a spider monkey in the parking lot of a big-box store, there’s something wrong.”
Baby spider monkeys can’t be returned to the wild without their mothers, so agents bring them to the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas, where five veterinarians care for 1,600 other animals. But one Texas zoo can’t tackle the problem alone, so the Association of Zoos and Aquariums is piloting a project where facilities house, care for and permanently place spider monkeys at other accredited facilities around the country.
Stinebaugh believes that if people understood the brutality of the spider monkey black-market trade, they would see the truth: that we’re pushing these animals closer to extinction.
His message: “If you care at all about this species, if you don’t want them killed in the wild, if you don’t want the babies smuggled across the border and these abhorrent conditions, don’t make the purchase.”
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Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com
Feisty endangered fish finds new home inside Biosphere 2
Henry Brean, Oct. 25, 2025
After decades spent clinging to existence in a single, spring-fed oasis in southwestern Pima County, the endangered Sonoyta pupfish is giving indoor living a try.
Four dozen of the feisty little desert fish were released on Friday into an artificial spring pool built especially for them inside the glass pyramid at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 in Oracle.
With an enthusiastic crowd of about 50 people looking on, the 48 fish seemed to take to their new habitat right away.
“You can see the males are already starting to fight,” said Peter Reinthal, an adjunct associate professor with the U of A’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “That means they’re happy. They’re already establishing territories.”
Sonoyta pupfish are about the size of a pinkie finger, with bulky bodies, upturned mouths and a sometimes-aggressive demeanor.
“I always think of them as little bulldogs in the water,” said Brett Montgomery, topminnow and pupfish specialist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
The males sport a flashy, metallic blue color that grows brighter during mating season. The females come in a dusky green or brown, with vertical bars or stripes.
The only place the species can still be found in the wild is at Quitobaquito Springs, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which explains why it’s also commonly referred to as the Quitobaquito pupfish.
The species’ historic range includes the Rio Sonoyta south of the border, but the river has mostly run dry as a result of groundwater depletion and deepening aridification. “No fish have been observed there in years,” Montgomery said.
To stave off extinction, backup supplies of pupfish have been established at seven different locations throughout Arizona, including this newest one.
Moving indoors
The Game and Fish Department, Biosphere 2 and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collaborated on Friday’s release as part of a Safe Harbor Agreement designed to make it easier — and less legally perilous — to establish reserve habitats for endangered species in places not under federal government control.
“Ultimately, we’d like to create more refuge populations (of pupfish), just in case something catastrophic happens to Quitobaquito,” Montgomery said.
The Biosphere’s rare new residents arrived in a five-gallon plastic water jug, after Montgomery collected them from a reserve population at a private residence in Phoenix. “It’s just a guy with a pond in his backyard,” he explained.
Other refuge-population sites include Scottsdale Community College, the visitor centers at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and another backyard pond at a house on Tucson’s east side.
Montgomery said he originally wanted to stock the new habitat at Biosphere 2 with pupfish from the National Park Service’s Desert Research Learning Center at Saguaro National Park, but the ongoing federal shutdown kept that from happening.
As soon as the government reopens, Montgomery said, he plans to collect as many as 200 pupfish from the learning center’s pond and add them to the ones he just delivered to the Biosphere.
The new habitat features a gurgling stream of recirculating water that cascades down a rocky slope to a small pool in the desert biome area at the world-famous ecological research facility 30 miles north of Tucson.
It was Reinthal who first floated the idea of building a stream for desert fish at Biosphere 2 during a field trip there with some of his students in 2021. He ended up writing the proposal that secured about $50,000 in federal grant money for the project through the Desert Fish Habitat Partnership.
“It’s nice for an academic to produce something that’s real, not just data or another paper,” he said.
Asked where the inspiration came from, Reinthal smiled and said, “I think about endangered fish all the time.”
A valuable fish
The natural-looking water feature was constructed over the course of four or five months last year by Jason de Leeuw, terrestrial biome manager for Biosphere 2.
The stream is about 80 feet long, two feet wide and runs 24/7, thanks to a pump and some hidden plumbing. It has been landscaped with a variety of plants found in desert wetlands, and there’s a smaller stream that branches off to form a narrow marsh. To create the 3-foot-deep pool where the pupfish now live, de Leeuw and his crew had to dig down to the concrete subbasement of the building, Reinthal said.
It’s more than just a safe home for an endangered species, he said. It’s a living laboratory to study such things as genetic divergence in isolated populations. “This presents good research opportunities for students and faculty,” Reinthal said.
And if all goes well, Montgomery added, another small endangered desert fish called the Gila topminnow could be introduced into the same habitat sometime in the future.
Technically, the Sonoyta pupfish has been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1986, though at the time of its original listing it was still being lumped in with the desert pupfish. Scientists later determined that what they thought were two subspecies of the desert pupfish were actually separate species of their own: the Sonoyta one and a now-extinct pupfish once found only in Monkey Spring, along Arizona Highway 82 north of Patagonia.
Thankfully for the Sonoyta variety, the wild population at Quitobaquito Springs seems to be thriving, especially after a Park Service project in 2023 that reshaped and relined the outflow pond to retain more water. Montgomery said the last time he was out there he saw “thousands upon thousands” of the fish.
But the future hangs in the balance for Quitobaquito itself, after a decades-long drop in output from the artesian spring that feeds the oasis about 170 miles southwest of Tucson. Experts blame the decline on a combination of factors, including rising temperatures, extended drought and unchecked groundwater pumping by farmers and others in Mexico.
The Sonoyta pupfish may be small and isolated and obscure, but it deserves our protection all the same, Montgomery said. “For me, there is a natural, intrinsic value to saving a species that has evolved in the same ecosystem as us,” he said. “It has a value of its own just to exist and not go extinct.”
Friday’s crowd at Biosphere 2 included students from Reinthal’s advanced ichthyology class at the U of A, some of whom jumped at the chance to take part in the release by netting a few of the captive pupfish and lowering them into their new home.
“The real reason I did this is because pupfish are cute,” Reinthal told the gathering of fellow fish enthusiasts. “If you don’t like pupfish, you’re a mean person.”
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San Francisco Chronicle
California wolves are endangered. The state just killed four
By Kurtis Alexander, Staff Writer, Oct. 24, 2025
California wildlife officials confirmed Friday that they took the extraordinary step of killing four gray wolves in a remote, mountain basin north of Lake Tahoe, saying the endangered carnivores were too frequently preying on cattle.
Officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which had spent months in the sprawling Sierra Valley trying to chase wolves off ranches without hurting them, darted three adults with tranquilizers from a helicopter and then gave each a lethal injection. A fourth wolf, a juvenile, was fatally shot from the air after being mistaken as an adult.
The euthanizations follow outcry from ranchers in Sierra Valley, which has seen a spike in wolf attacks on livestock since the grazing season started in spring. Roughly 90 confirmed or probable wolf kills have occurred in the area, which spans Plumas and Sierra counties, according to UC Cooperative Extension. The death count is significantly higher than the total number of livestock killed by wolves across the entire state last year.
This month’s lethal removal of the wolves is the first time the state has sought to kill the predator, which is protected under state and federal endangered species acts.
The unprecedented intervention marks the culmination of growing tensions in California since a small number of wolves began repopulating the state a little more than a decade ago. The apex predators, a century earlier, were pushed out by hunters and trappers.
Scientists and wildlife advocates have praised the wolf’s return as a conservation triumph, while ranching communities, mostly in California’s far north, have struggled with lost cows and sheep.
“This decision was not made lightly nor was it easy,” Chuck Bonham, director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in a statement.
State officials say the wolves had become habituated to cattle as a primary food source, instead of their natural prey of elk and deer. They called it a “behavioral shift” that would have been difficult to correct. State and federal laws provide exemptions for killing endangered species under certain conditions.
The dead wolves are part of what the department named the Beyem Seyo pack. State officials believe that at least two other juveniles in the pack are still alive, and the search for them is ongoing. The intent is to relocate the remaining juveniles, which are thought to be about six months old, to wildlife facilities. At that age, the juveniles could struggle to survive without adult supervision.
Two of the pack’s other juveniles were found dead, likely due to natural causes.
The removal of the Beyem Seyo pack reduces California’s total number of packs to nine, according to state data. Between the packs and lone wolves, at least 50 of the animals are believed to roam the state.
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University of Miami
New study documents functional extinction of two critically endangered coral species following record heatwave in Florida
By News@TheU, 10-23-2025
Miami, Fla. – Florida’s iconic staghorn and elkhorn corals have been declared functionally extinct after a record-breaking marine heatwave devastated reefs across the state, according to new research published in Science. Scientists say the 2023 heatwave caused catastrophic losses of these once-abundant reef builders—marking the ninth mass bleaching event in the region.
The Acropora coral species—staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) and elkhorn (Acropora palmata)—were once the backbone of Florida and Caribbean reef systems and have long been the focus of intensive restoration efforts. Their near-total collapse now signals what scientists call a “functional extinction,” meaning the species still exist in small numbers but no longer play their vital role in building and sustaining reef ecosystems—a stage that often precedes global extinction.
Led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch and Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, researchers at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science contributed data detailing the coral die-off for the study.
While most other coral species in Florida did not suffer losses as extreme as the more heat-sensitive Acropora, the loss of these species deals a devastating blow to the ecosystem and stands as a stark warning for the future of coral reefs worldwide.
“We’re running out of time,” said the study’s co-first author Ross Cunning, a research biologist at Shedd Aquarium and adjunct assistant professor at the Rosenstiel School. “Extreme heatwaves are increasing in frequency and severity due to climate change, and without immediate, ambitious actions to slow ocean warming and boost coral resilience, we risk the extinction of even more corals from reefs in Florida and around the world.”
The study documents that the temperatures reached during the 2023 heatwave were the highest ever recorded on Florida’s Coral Reef in over 150 years, and that the heat stress persisted for 2–3 months. Heat exposure levels were 2.2 to 4 times greater than in any previous year on record.
As the heatwave and mass bleaching event unfolded, the team of researchers conducted diver surveys to track more than 52,000 colonies of staghorn and elkhorn coral across 391 sites. In the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas (almost 70 miles west of Key West), mortality rates reached a staggering 98–100%. Mortality rates were lower offshore in southeast Florida, at around 38%, reflecting cooler temperatures in the region.
“This study quantifies the severe losses of acroporid corals during the 2023 marine heatwave along Florida’s Coral Reef, which has significant implications for its future trajectory and management,” said Rich Karp, a co-author and doctoral student at the Rosenstiel School in the Coral Reef Futures Lab when the research was conducted, and later aided in data analysis as a postdoctoral research associate at the Rosenstiel School’s NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies “Therefore, preserving as much genetic diversity as possible, identifying survivors on the reef, and introducing additional genetic diversity are necessary to protect this essential reef-building species.”
These two species of coral were already in decline due to decades of disease, poor water quality, previous bleaching events and other human-driven stressors, but the 2023 marine heatwave accelerated the near-total collapse of staghorn and elkhorn corals on the reefs in this region. The population is unlikely to rebound without conservation interventions because of low numbers, continued warming, and additional stressors.
What Happens Next
Scientists have already established living repositories to safeguard remaining Acropora in aquarium facilities on land and in offshore coral nurseries, and have rescued more of the survivors of the 2023 heatwave to bolster these collections. Under expert care, corals in these “gene banks” can continue to grow, supporting further research and restoration efforts for the species. Yet, the authors caution that the success of restoration will ultimately depend on the return time and severity of future bleaching events.
To secure a future for these species, restoration efforts must also scale up new approaches to help corals adapt to changing conditions. Introducing resilient genetic diversity from outside Florida or manipulating the types of symbiotic algae that help corals tolerate heat may be the only means to maintain any Acropora populations in Florida.
“Elkhorn corals, in particular, are some of the most important wave-breaking coral species in the region”, said Andrew Baker, professor in the Department of Marine Biology and Ecology, and director of the Coral Reef Futures Lab at the Rosenstiel School. “They used to be common on shallow reef crests in the Caribbean, and if we want our reefs to continue protecting our coastlines from flooding during storms, its worth taking extraordinary measures to ensure we don’t lose these corals altogether”.
Ultimately, the study underscores that ocean warming from climate change is now surpassing the thermal limits of entire populations of corals. Alongside bold, science-based actions to enhance coral resilience, urgent global action to slow climate change is essential to prevent the collapse of these critical reef ecosystems.
The study titled: Heat-driven functional extinction of Caribbean Acropora corals from Florida’s Coral Reef was published on October 23, 2025 in the journal Science. The study involved 47 authors representing 22 institutions. Visit the journal link for complete list of authors.
BACKGROUND ON CORALS: These tiny animals are the building blocks of coral reefs, colorful structures which support 25% of ocean life. In addition to supporting marine life, coral provides food and income for hundreds of millions of people. Corals produce our sandy white beaches and protect our shores from up to 90 percent of potentially damaging waves and flooding. The benefits that coral reefs provide us are estimated to be worth $10 trillion per year globally.
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Humane World for Animals
Most Americans don’t believe in the big bad wolf, new survey shows
October 22, 2025, Author(s): Kitty Block and Sara Amundson
Every year, people flock to places like Yellowstone National Park just to try to catch a glimpse of wolves in the wild. Wolves have long symbolized the powerful allure of our wild spaces—but more than that: As a keystone species, wolves are drivers of balanced ecosystems and a powerful reminder that wild animals are part of complex social structures and have deep bonds with their families—just as we do.
And yet, wolves still have not yet recovered from the intense persecution that nearly caused their extinction in the Lower 48 U.S. states during the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, they inhabit just 15% of their historic range there.
That is why ensuring wolves are protected under the Endangered Species Act is vital, especially in light of renewed threats to their populations.
New survey results confirm just how deeply Americans care about wolves: 78% of those surveyed support continuing federal Endangered Species Act protections for wolves. Moreover, those in strong support of continued protection outnumber those who strongly oppose it by nine to one. This suggests that a better future for wolves is within our reach once we can set aside the political motivations of some of those determined to hunt and trap them—recklessly, dangerously and without regard for their significant status and role in healthy ecosystems.
Importantly, the researchers oversampled rural residents of states with gray wolf populations to provide more precise estimates of attitudes toward wolf protection in areas where wolves and humans share space. Yet, even among those socio-demographic groups one might expect to have more negative feelings toward wolves, the authors found strong support for continued Endangered Species Act protections.
For example, 75% of rural residents in states with gray wolf populations support continuing federal protection, and 79% of people who strongly or very strongly identify as a farmer or rancher support doing so as well. Additionally, three out of every four respondents who identified as politically conservative support continuing protection.
Still, some decision-makers routinely call for delisting in response to pressure from trophy hunting, recreational trapping and agricultural interests. The misleadingly named Pet and Livestock Protection Act (H.R. 845/ S.1306), a dangerous and overreaching federal bill to delist gray wolves and prohibit courts from reviewing that decision passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee in April, and it could come to the House floor soon. There is also a policy provision to delist wolves from endangered species protections included in the House’s version of the FY 2026 Interior Appropriations bill, H.R. 4754.
We are grateful to Dr. John Vucetich, distinguished professor at Michigan Technological University, and Dr. Jeremy Bruskotter, professor at The Ohio State University, who designed and analyzed the results of the nationwide survey, which Humane World for Animals helped to fund.
And we are determined to keep fighting for the protection of wolves, wherever they face threats. In the Northern Rocky Mountain states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, wolves are relentlessly persecuted because they lack federal protections. However, we recently won a lawsuit in federal district court that could force the federal government to reassess whether to protect these wolves. Action for wolves in this region is urgent because of the cruelties wolves are facing:
*In Idaho, entire wolf families are being killed in their dens.
*Montana, which already allows outrageous killing methods and bounties on wolves, just increased the number of wolves that can be killed this season to more than 550 and increased the number of wolves a single person can kill to 30.
*Wyoming maintains what it calls a “predator zone” in 85% of this massive state, where it allows unlimited wolf killing with draconian methods, including purposefully running them over with snowmobiles and other vehicles. (Relatedly, the man who in 2024 ran over a wolf with a snowmobile and then kept her captive and tormented her in a barroom will face arraignment Nov. 10 in Sublette County, Wyoming.)
This is what can happen when U.S. states manage wolves—the risk is that the few who want to see wolves antagonized and killed guide decisions rather than the many who favor conservation and stewardship in guiding decisions about wolf populations. Ethics—even humanity—can fly out the door.
For these reasons, we must ensure wolves are protected by the Endangered Species Act, including in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Removing protections for wolves and paving the way for trophy hunting and recreational trapping is not supported by science. Contrary to their big bad wolf reputation, the reality is that wolves are extremely shy and avoid us as much as possible. In fact, a new study shows they are more likely to flee from the sound of human voices than other noises. The new survey offers yet more evidence that delisting is not supported by the vast majority of people, either.
The war on wolves extends across the globe as well. Earlier this year, the European Parliament voted to support the European Commission’s proposal to weaken the protection of wolves, opening the door for wolf trophy hunting. While EU member states can still choose to keep protections in place, this development is deeply concerning and could be significantly detrimental to the well-being of wolves.
Decision-makers must stop pushing these reckless policies at the behest of a vocal minority that is hostile to wolves and start listening to science and the will of the people. Last month, 77 scientists and scholars sent an open letter to members of Congress urging continued protections for wolves. You too can help wolves in the U.S. by taking action against H.R. 845/S. 1306 and the dangerous delisting proposals in the FY 2026 Interior Appropriations bill.
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EurekAlert!
News Release 21-Oct-2025
Future-focused conservation index identifies reptiles as highest conservation priority
A new conservation tool incorporates future risks and species traits in extinction risk assessment
Peer-Reviewed Publication/PLOS
Reptiles could overtake amphibians as the highest priority for conservation among vertebrates as threats like climate change and invasive species worsen in the future, according to a new conservation index tool developed by Gabriel Henrique de Oliveira Caetano at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel and Université Paris-Saclay, France, and colleagues, publishing October 21st in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.
Climate change, habitat loss, and the overexploitation of nature are driving wildlife population declines and extinctions at an unprecedented rate. Many threats are expected to worsen during this century. However, most existing tools for assessing species’ extinction risk consider past population declines rather than how these threats will change in the future.
To address this gap, researchers developed the Proactive Conservation Index (PCI), which can evaluate species’ conservation priority, factoring in different future threats, such as climate change, land-use change, and invasive species. The index also accounts for species traits that can affect their vulnerability to extinction, including body size, reproductive rate, and geographical range. They used the PCI to estimate the conservation priority of all land vertebrates globally — totaling 33,560 species. They compared the species’ PCI rankings with their classification in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, a widely used framework for assessing extinction risk. Although PCI scores broadly correlated with Red List classifications, there were some key differences. For example, reptiles ranked as the group with the highest priority in the PCI, whereas amphibians have the highest proportion of threatened species on the Red List. Species that have not yet been classified on the Red List tended to have high PCI scores that most resembled species classified as Endangered or Critically Endangered.
The PCI complements existing conservation assessment tools, offering different insights into species’ conservation priority, the authors say. Its advantages include the ability to evaluate understudied species and incorporate different future scenarios. The tool could help conservation managers more efficiently allocate limited resources and facilitate proactive, rather than reactive, conservation strategies.
The authors add, “Our new future-focused method reveals many species and regions that will soon need more conservation attention than those currently suggested by methods that are focused on current and past threats. Our method especially highlights reptile species, arid regions, tropical islands, and tropical montane forests as necessitating further focus. Acting before future threats are fully realized may give us the head start we need to protect this valuable biodiversity.”
(use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology: https://plos.io/4nGIiQa )
Citation: de Oliveira Caetano GH, Murali G, Pincheira-Donoso D, Vardi R, Greenspoon L, Meiri S, et al. (2025) The future-focused Proactive Conservation Index highlights unrecognized global priorities for vertebrate conservation. PLoS Biol 23(10): e3003422. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003422 Author countries: France, Israel, United States, India, United Kingdom, Australia
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CBS News
Latest right whale population estimate is “positive news” for critically endangered species, researchers say
By Neal Riley, October 21, 2025
Researchers say they see “positive news” in the latest population estimate for North Atlantic right whales, but stress that conservation measures are still needed to save the critically endangered species from extinction.
The North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, which is meeting in New Bedford, Massachusetts this week, says the population estimate for 2024 is 384, an increase of 2.1% from the previous year. The past four years have shown a trend of “slow growth,” the New England Aquarium said.
“It’s always a great feeling when we can share positive news about this critically endangered species,” said consortium chair Heather Pettis, who leads the right whale research program at the aquarium.
There have not been any reported right whale deaths this year and there have been fewer injuries detected than in years past, which Pettis said “leaves us cautiously optimistic about the future of North Atlantic right whales.”
Calls for stronger right whale protections
Advocates with Oceana, an ocean conservation organization, said that while the latest population numbers show recovery is possible, the whales are not out of danger yet. They called on the federal government to do more to protect the animals from their greatest threats: fishing gear entanglement and vessel strikes.
“The data is clear and tragic … North Atlantic right whales remain dangerously close to extinction,” Oceana U.S. senior campaign director Gib Brogan said in a statement. “Continued attacks on the Marine Mammal Protection Act and efforts to weaken NOAA’s science-based safeguards put this fragile population at even greater risk.”
The Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation said the slight population increase “falls far short of what these critically endangered giants need.”
“Until the government protects whales from being struck by boats and entangled in fishing gear, New England’s majestic whales won’t recover,” senior counsel Erica Fuller said. “Without strong, immediate intervention, they will go extinct in our lifetime.”
North Atlantic right whale population
The right whale population dipped below 300 in the early 1990s before reaching nearly 500 around 2010, and then falling again. Earlier this year, the whales were seen in the Bahamas for the first time ever.
Eleven calves have been born in 2025, and four whales became mothers for the first time. Still, the number of new calves this year is not as high as what researchers hoped for.
“The road to recovery for this population is long, and we look forward to continued collaborations with our partners to ensure the ocean is safer for right whales,” Pettis said.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Trump Administration Tries to Fire Employees Who Save America’s Wildlife From Extinction
WASHINGTON—(October 20, 2025)—Court documents filed today reveal that the Trump administration intends to fire dozens of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff who play critical roles in securing a future for endangered species and migratory birds across the country. The firings are part of a larger move to cut more than 2,000 jobs at the Interior Department.
Fish and Wildlife employees proposed to be fired include 37 from the Fish and Aquatic Conservation Program, 35 from the Migratory Bird Program, 23 from the National Wildlife Refuge System, 14 from the Office of Conservation Investment, 14 from Ecological Services, eight from the Regional Directors Office and one from the Office of Law Enforcement.
The firings are being pushed by the Trump administration as a response to the government shutdown. The documents were filed in a suit brought by unions representing government employees, who have obtained a temporary restraining order halting the firings, at least for now.
“The Trump administration’s extremely short-sighted effort to gut the Fish and Wildlife Service will throw gasoline on the raging fire that is the extinction crisis,” said Tara Zuardo, a senior campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’ve lost 3 billion birds since 1970 yet the administration is slashing funding for migratory birds. It’s incredibly cynical to cut programs that help struggling fish and other aquatic animals and assist landowners in conserving endangered species habitats. This is just really sad and troubling.”
The cuts will deliver devastating blows to programs put in place to protect, restore and conserve bird populations and their habitats. The cut programs also help connect people with nature, support wildlife and habitat conservation, support the National Wildlife Refuge System and more. Court disclosures also report severe cuts to additional agencies including the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Geological Survey and others.
The restraining order appears to be keeping the administration from moving forward with eliminating these positions during the shutdown, but they can try to continue moving ahead with these layoffs in the future.
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Kiowa County Press (Eads, CO)
Utah unveils Wildlife Action Plan to protect state’s endangered species
Courtesy USFWS/Ryan Moehring, 10/18/2025
Utah’s wide-open spaces are home to hundreds of different animals, and the state has developed a plan to protect them they want to share. The 10-year update of the Utah Wildlife Action Plan, which forms the backbone of state’s conservation effort, is out. The plan lists more than 250 species of animals, insects and plants under the protection of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Paul Thompson, habitat section assistant chief, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said it was a long-term team effort.
“I’ve been working on the 2025 action plan for over three years, and we’ve had over 35 partner agencies and organizations involved in our review and revisions,” he explained.” And that equates to over 150 people who have contributed.”
The new plan will be the theme of the Utah Wildlife Summit this weekend at Salt Lake City’s Hogle Zoo. The event is sponsored by the Utah Wildlife Federation and will feature success stories of saving endangered species, and opportunities to volunteer. There is more information at UtahWildlifeFederation.org for more information.
Isobel Lingenfelter, conservation director for the Utah Wildlife Federation, said the results of climate change and people are the biggest danger to Utah animals.
“There’s three major threats to wildlife in Utah. One is prolonged and increasing drought. Another is the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires. And then the last is development,” she explained.
Lingenfelter and others involved in conservation programs are concerned about recent cuts in federal spending.
“Everyone is concerned about the impact that the changing landscape at the federal level is creating on funding,” she said. “However, the state of Utah already dedicates about $5 million a year to the Utah Wildlife Action Plan.”
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Science
Common research monkey is endangered, conservation group confirms
Listing could affect availability for biomedical studies
17 Oct. 20252, By Dennis Normile
Long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis), a species of monkey commonly used in biomedical research, will continue to be listed as endangered, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced last week. The move has been welcomed by animal rights groups, who hope the decision will lead to restrictions on research and enhanced protection in the wild. But some scientists say the decision could negatively impact drug development and other work that relies on the animals.
“Nonhuman primates are a necessary resource for biomedical research,” says Matthew Bailey, president of the National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR), which advocates for animal studies. IUCN’s Red List carries great weight with government agencies and international bodies that set import and export rules, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Researchers fear additional regulation would increase the cost of these animals and reduce their availability for biomedical research.
IUCN first downgraded the status of long-tailed macaques from vulnerable to endangered in 2022, after an assessment led by anthropologist Malene Hansen concluded the species “may be facing irreversible population loss.” The following year, NABR challenged the reclassification, claiming the assessment “contains numerous errors and misstatements, and does not provide actual evidence of species declines.” After a review, IUCN’s Standards and Petitions Committee asked Hansen and her colleagues for a reassessment to address a number of technical issues, such as confirming how many years long a macaque generation is, a key figure for determining population trends.
In their new report, Hansen, now at Aarhus University, and colleagues conclude the long-tailed macaque population has dropped 50% to 70% over the past three generations. The species, the team says, is facing a similar decline in the next 30 years because of continuing habitat loss and high demand for use in research. In response, IUCN reaffirmed the endangered status of long-tailed macaques and posted the reassessment on its website on 9 October.
NABR quickly criticized the decision, claiming that “information used in the determination are flawed and unsupported.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) celebrated the news, calling it “a blow for the primate experimentation industry.”
PETA has already asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review the status of long-tailed macaques in light of the IUCN finding; if the species is officially listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act this could lead to further restrictions on imports. (A similar petition submitted by PETA and others, including famed primatologist Jane Goodall, was rejected by the agency in October 2024 for not providing scientific or commercial information warranting an endangered species listing).
PETA and other groups also hope IUCN’s decision will influence deliberations at a CITES meeting in November. One issue up for discussion is how to counter the trade in animals that are wild captured but fraudulently reported as bred in captivity. Animal rights groups believe action on the issue has been delayed because of concerns that countermeasures could reduce the number of animals available for research. The latest IUCN assessment and endangered listing “make it even more pressing for CITES to take immediate action to protect these monkeys,” says Amy Meyer, director of primate experimentation campaigns for PETA.
Meyer says the group wants to accelerate an ongoing transition “to using cutting-edge, nonanimal research methods that spare lives and reflect true scientific progress.” But Bailey says primate work is still vital. Ending experimental animal use altogether, he says, “would significantly impact the development of medications for people across the globe.”
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Center for Biological Diversity
Endangered Species Protections Sought for Two Pacific Northwest Fish
PORTLAND, Ore.—(October 16, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to protect two declining freshwater fish species in Oregon and California under the Endangered Species Act. Petitions were submitted for the Umpqua chub in southwestern Oregon and the northern roach in northeastern California and southern Oregon.
“These two unique Pacific Northwest minnows are suffering because of the rapid decline of our freshwater habitats and they need protections now,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center. “The good news is that we know federal Endangered Species Act protections are incredibly effective at preventing extinction. The Fish and Wildlife Service should move fast to make sure these irreplaceable fish survive.”
The Umpqua chub is a small minnow found only in the waterways of the Umpqua River basin: They are identifiable by a distinctive upside-down heart shaped mark on top of the head behind their eyes. Five distinct Umpqua chub populations inhabit the Smith River, Elk Creek, Calapooya Creek-Olalla Creek, Cow Creek-South Umpqua River and North Umpqua River.
Umpqua chub surveys conducted in 1987, 1998 and 2006 showed a decrease in distribution over three decades, corresponding with habitat loss from stream channelization and wetland drainage, and an increase in nonnative and predatory smallmouth bass throughout the Umpqua River drainage.
The northern roach is a small, bronze-colored minnow that occurs only in the upper Pit River basin, upstream of the Pit River Falls in northeastern California, and in a few northern tributaries of Goose Lake in southern Oregon.
In Oregon, northern roach were formerly widespread and common in northern tributaries of Goose Lake such as Dry Creek, Drews Creek, Hay Creek, Dent Creek, Muddy Creek and Augur Creek. But re-survey efforts in 2022 and 2023 documented their disappearance. Northern roach have disappeared from stream reaches in the North Fork Pit River, South Fork Pit River, and mainstem Pit River from Alturas downstream to Pit River Falls.
In California, they may remain only in Ash Creek and Rush Creek in Lassen and Modoc counties; the Bear Creek tributary to the Fall River in Shasta County; and Beaver Creek in Lassen County.
“It’s important we preserve these native fish because they’re an integral part of our Pacific Northwest river ecosystems,” said Miller. “Protecting their habitat can also safeguard the clean water we need for drinking, growing food and recreation.”
Freshwater ecosystems across the United States are highly imperiled, and one in three freshwater fish species face extinction globally. Learn more here.
Background
Umpqua chubs use off-channel stream habitats with slow water velocities, low flow, silty organic substrate, abundant vegetation and cover and feed along river bottoms on midge larvae, diving beetles and mayflies.
The Umpqua chub was thought to be wiped out in the North Umpqua River, but in 2019 a small number of these rare chubs were documented in a short stream reach of the North Umpqua for the first time in 93 years.
Northern roach prefer spring pools, margins of streams, and swampy stream reaches for habitat, feeding on algae, crustaceans and aquatic insects.
Habitat for northern roach has been destroyed and degraded by water diversions for agricultural irrigation, channelization of streams, logging and livestock grazing. Northern roach are eliminated by non-native predatory fishes that have escaped from stock ponds, such as green sunfish, largemouth bass and bluegill.
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Capital Press
Environmentalists aim to limit Trump Endangered Species Act rules
October 16, 2025, By Mateusz Perkowski
As the Trump administration prepares to issue more business-friendly Endangered Species Act regulations, environmental advocates are hoping for a legal victory to limit the looming changes.
Because litigation over the Endangered Species Act is already underway, a federal court may soon weigh in on what’s legally required under the law. Environmental nonprofits are counting on that court decision to potentially prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service from relaxing regulations as much as the Trump administration wants.
“We’re hoping that the court will say that the ESA is clear and that it requires the Services to take meaningful action to conserve endangered species and their habitat amidst the ongoing extinction crisis, not to roll protections back,” said Ryan Shannon, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity nonprofit.
Last year, the Biden administration enacted ESA regulations that satisfied neither environmental advocates nor agriculture and industry organizations.
Farm Bureau lawsuit
A complaint filed by the American Farm Bureau Federation and other groups sought to invalidate the Biden administration’s ESA regulations, arguing they will “devastate businesses and livelihoods,” as the restrictions are more far-reaching than than envisioned under the law and exceed the federal government’s authority.
For instance, the plaintiffs claimed the rules make it easier to designate “critical habitat” for protected species, encompassing areas they don’t actually inhabit, and automatically protect threatened species as if they were endangered, instead of devising less stringent species-specific safeguards.
“Tailoring ESA prohibitions to the conditions of each species can more accurately reflect existing voluntary conservation measures or best management practices,” according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
But now that the Trump administration has taken charge of the federal agencies that enforce the ESA and ordered them to eliminate “unduly burdensome” government restrictions, those rules are expected to change.
The American Farm Bureau Federation and the other plaintiffs recently agreed to suspend their litigation over the Biden-era ESA rules because the federal government is expected to release new regulations by the end of October that may moot their criticisms.
In anticipation of the Trump administration’s rule-making, environmental advocates are pressing for a court ruling that could effectively constrain federal agencies from loosening ESA protections beyond what they believe is legal.
For example, the Center for Biological Diversity already has its own lawsuit against the Biden-era ESA regulations, which the non-profit considers insufficiently protective, in which legal briefs have already been submitted.
Oral arguments in that case are scheduled for Oct. 30, which is around the time the Trump administration said it would issue the new ESA regulations.
Those new rules may eventually attempt to reduce “essential protections for endangered species and the habitat they depend on,” potentially by reverting to 2019 regulations implemented by the first Trump administration, said Shannon of the Center for Biological Diversity. However, the Trump administration may not meet its end-of-month deadline due to the recent government shutdown, since federal agencies may be unable to write them soon enough, he said.
The environmental plaintiffs were recently successful in defeating the federal government’s request to suspend their litigation as well — a request denied by a federal judge after the nonprofits argued it would impair their interests.
That’s opened the possibility for the environmental plaintiffs to prevail in their arguments for more stringent ESA regulations.
“And such a ruling would stand in the way of the Trump administration from proposing new regulations that either seek to reinstate their old, harmful 2019 regulations or go even further in an attempt to remove safeguards for our nation’s endangered species,” Shannon said.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Endangered Species Protection Sought for Legless Southeastern Lizard
Decline of Longleaf Pine Forests Imperils Mimic Glass Lizard
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—(October 15, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today seeking Endangered Species Act protections for the mimic glass lizard. These rare legless lizards currently survive in scattered populations across the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama and southeastern North Carolina.
“The mimic glass lizard’s plight is a warning that the health and integrity of our southeastern forests is unraveling,” said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and senior attorney at the Center. “These charming little legless lizards need healthy, well-managed forests, and so do we. Endangered Species Act protection can drive better management of the forests where these lizards live, benefiting us all.”
Mimic glass lizards have been steadily declining and are at imminent risk of extinction, experts have warned. Their already small and isolated populations are threatened by habitat destruction and degradation, predation, road mortality and climate change.
Mimic glass lizards live in longleaf pine flatwoods and savannas, though they can also be found in nearby hillside seepage bogs — the edges of dome swamps and wet prairies — where they have been observed taking shelter in crayfish burrows. Glass lizard populations remain in only a few isolated places in the lower southeastern coastal plain.
“Species across Florida and the entire Southeast need healthy forests to survive,” said Bennett. “The Trump administration’s disastrous funding cuts and mass layoffs put even more struggling forests at risk of being neglected. That imperils public safety and the web of life that keeps all of us healthy and happy.”
Many endangered and threatened species depend on longleaf pine ecosystems, including frosted and reticulated flatwoods salamanders, red-cockaded woodpeckers, black pinesnakes and eastern indigo snakes.
Longleaf pine forests depend on regular fires for their health. Historically, lighting would naturally ignite these fires, but now forest health depends on “prescribed” fires carried out by knowledgeable land managers. These planned fires boost biodiversity and prevent dangerous wildfires. Recent federal funding cuts, reductions in force, and agency shakeups have created uncertainty about the future of effective fire management on public lands where the lizards live.
The mimic glass lizard (Ophisaurus mimicus) is a small, legless lizard with light speckles and dark black and brown stripes down the back. The animals are named for their close resemblance to eastern slender glass lizards, which can be distinguished only by subtle differences in size, scales and coloring.
Glass lizards are known for breaking off their tails when attacked by predators (or handled by humans), leading to local names like “glass snakes” and “joint snakes.” They can later regenerate their tails.
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California Statewide Law Enforcement Association
Governor Signs CSLEA Supported AB 1319 Extending State Protection to Endangered Species
Posted on October 15, 2025
SACRAMENTO – On October 11, 2025, Govern Gavin Newsom announced that he signed Assembly Bill 1319 by Assemblymember Nick Schultz (D-Burbank) to protect endangered and threatened species from any potential rollbacks of longstanding federal protections.
“California’s dedicated wildlife officers often face difficulties in enforcing the complex laws that regulate the wildlife trade due to the interplay of state, federal, and international laws,” said Association of California Wildlife Officers (ACWO) President Trevor Pell. “AB 1319 provides a new tool to help wildlife officers stop the illegal and inhumane trafficking of wildlife within California. AB 1319 also helps protect California’s wildlife from reductions in federal wildlife regulations. ACWO would like to thank Governor Newsom for his signature on this bill, and CSLEA for their support of the bill.”
The bill allows the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to extend state protections to an endangered species if it loses its federal protections. It also strengthens state protections for hunted international species protected by federal law.
There are two main portions to the bill: the first part makes it a state crime to violate federal wildlife laws; the second part makes a new status of species in the case that a species loses federal endangered species protections.
“We thank the author of this bill, Assemblymember Nick Schultz, the associations in addition to CSLEA and ACWO that supported it, and the Governor for signing it into law,” said California Statewide Law Enforcement Association President Alan Barcelona. “California and its state wildlife officers, pride themselves in protecting this state’s natural resources which contributes to our quality of life in the Golden State.”
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IFLScience (UK)
Officially Gone: Slender-Billed Curlew, Once-Widespread Migratory Bird, Declared Extinct By IUCN
A trio of marsupials has also fallen into extinction.
Tom Hale, October 13, 2025
The list of animals pushed into extinction has grown even longer. In its latest update, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has officially declared several species extinct, including a charismatic bird, Australian marsupials, and a couple of plants.
The update, part of the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, tracks the conservation status of more than 172,000 species worldwide. It serves as one of the most comprehensive gauges of global wildlife health — and this year’s findings are mixed at best.
Among the species newly listed as extinct are:
*The slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris)
*The Christmas Island shrew (Crocidura trichura)
*A species of cone snail (Conus lugubris)
*The Shark Bay bandicoot, aka the marl (Perameles myosuros)
*The south-eastern striped bandicoot (Perameles notina)
*The Nullarbor barred bandicoot (Perameles papillon)
It also includes some plants, including Diospyros angulata, a species in the same genus as ebony trees, last recorded in the early 1850s, and Delissea sinuata, a plant native to the Hawaiian Islands.
Farewell to the slender-billed curlew
Once a familiar sight across Europe, North Africa, and West Asia, the slender-billed curlew has not been officially sighted since February 25, 1995, when one was spotted on a tidal lagoon along Morocco’s Atlantic coast. There was another reported sighting in 2001 by birdwatchers in Hungary’s Kiskunsag National Park, but it wasn’t confirmed.
While the precise cause of its extinction remains unclear, scientists point to unsustainable hunting and habitat loss as key factors.
Given this stark lack of sightings, some organizations had already declared the bird extinct in recent years, but this is the first time it’s been acknowledged by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, one of the most authoritative sources on conservation.
“The extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew is a tragic and sobering moment for migratory bird conservation. It underscores the urgency of implementing effective conservation measures to ensure the survival of migratory species. Hopefully, the loss of this species will help galvanize action to protect other threatened migratory species,” Amy Fraenkel, Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, said in a statement.
The loss of Aussie marsupials
Three extinct marsupials – the marl, south-eastern striped bandicoot, and Nullarbor barred bandicoot – represent yet another blow to Australia’s unique wildlife. The decline of these small mammals has been driven largely by introduced predators such as foxes, feral cats, and dogs, alongside habitat destruction and changing land use.
Other updates from the IUCN
It wasn’t all doom and gloom, however. One positive story in the latest update from the IUCN is the rise of the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), which has improved in status from Endangered to Least Concern. It’s estimated that the global population of this once-troubled species has increased approximately 28 percent since the 1970s, thanks to decades of conservation efforts.
The broader picture, however, remains deeply concerning. The hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) has declined from Vulnerable to Endangered, while the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) and harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) have moved from Least Concern to Near Threatened.
Birds, too, are suffering, with declining populations affecting up to 61 percent of bird species, a rise from 44 percent in 2016.
“Today’s Red List update, launched at the IUCN Congress in Abu Dhabi, shines a light on both the urgent challenges and the powerful possibilities before us. While species like Arctic seals and many birds face growing threats, the recovery of the green turtle reminds us that conservation works when we act with determination and unity,” Dr Grethel Aguilar, IUCN Director General, said in a statement.
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IUCN
Press release
Arctic seals threatened by climate change, birds decline globally – IUCN Red List
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 10 October 2025 (IUCN World Conservation Congress) – Three species of Arctic seal have moved closer to extinction, according to the latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Today’s update also reveals that more than half of bird species globally are in decline. Meanwhile, the global green sea turtle population is rebounding thanks to conservation.
The update was released today at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi. The IUCN Red List now includes 172,620 species of which 48,646 are threatened with extinction.
“Today’s Red List update, launched at the IUCN Congress in Abu Dhabi, shines a light on both the urgent challenges and the powerful possibilities before us. While species like Arctic seals and many birds face growing threats, the recovery of the green turtle reminds us that conservation works when we act with determination and unity. As we look ahead to the Climate COP in Belém, governments and communities have a pivotal opportunity to accelerate action that protects biodiversity, stabilises our climate, and builds a future where people and nature flourish together,” said Dr Grethel Aguilar, IUCN Director General.
Climate change pushes Arctic seals closer to extinction
Today’s update shows that the hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) has declined from Vulnerable to Endangered, while the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) and harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) have moved from Least Concern to Near Threatened.
The primary threat to Arctic seals is sea ice loss driven by global warming. Arctic seals rely on sea ice for breeding and raising their pups as well as for moulting, resting, and accessing foraging areas. Thinning and disappearing sea ice also affects Arctic seals’ feeding habits, and makes the Arctic more accessible to humans, further increasing the overall risk to these species.
Global warming is occurring four times faster in the Arctic than in other regions, which is drastically reducing the extent and duration of sea ice cover. This threatens all ice-dependent seals, walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) and other marine mammals in the Arctic, as well as Antarctic ice-seals, and sub-polar seal species that depend on ice such as the Caspian seal (Pusa caspica).
Ice-dependent seals are a key food source for other animals. In the Arctic this includes polar bears, as well as Indigenous people living throughout the region. They also play a central role in the food web, consuming fish and invertebrates and recycling nutrients. Their disproportionate impact on the ecosystem makes them ‘keystone species’, meaning the health of the entire marine environment is linked to their survival.
“Each year in Svalbard, the retreating sea ice reveals how threatened Arctic seals have become, making it harder for them to breed, rest and feed. Their plight is a stark reminder that climate change is not a distant problem – it has been unfolding for decades and is having impacts here and now. Protecting Arctic seals goes beyond these species; it is about safeguarding the Arctic’s delicate balance, which is essential for us all,” said Dr Kit Kovacs, Co-Chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Pinniped Specialist Group and Svalbard Programme Leader at the Norwegian Polar Institute.
Additional pressures on Arctic seals include shipping, noise, oil and mineral exploitation, hunting, and bycatch in fisheries. Safeguarding key habitats from human activities, reducing bycatch, hunting sustainably, and minimising noise impacts are critical steps to halt Arctic seal declines.
Deforestation driving global bird declines
This IUCN Red List update includes reassessments of 1,360 bird species and completes the eighth comprehensive assessment of all bird species worldwide by BirdLife International. Involving thousands of experts over nine years, 1,256 (11.5%) of the 11,185 species assessed are globally threatened. Overall, 61% of bird species have declining populations – an estimate that has increased from 44% in 2016.
The most prevalent cause of bird population declines is habitat loss and degradation, driven especially by agricultural expansion and intensification and logging – the foremost threats to birds at risk of extinction.
This update highlights Madagascar, West Africa, and Central America as regions where tropical forest loss poses a growing threat to birds. In Madagascar, 14 endemic forest bird species have been uplisted to Near Threatened and three to Vulnerable, including the Schlegel’s asity (Philepitta schlegeli), whose males have vibrant blue and green face wattles. In West Africa, five species are now Near Threatened, including the black-casqued hornbill (Ceratogymna atrata), which is also hunted and traded. In Central America, forest loss has pushed the tail-bobbing northern nightingale-wren (Microcerculus philomela) to Near Threatened.
“That three in five of the world’s bird species have declining populations shows how deep the biodiversity crisis has become and how urgent it is that governments take the actions they have committed to under multiple conventions and agreements,” said Dr Ian Burfield, BirdLife’s Global Science Coordinator (Species) and Bird Red List Authority Coordinator. “The restoration of native forest habitat on Rodrigues Island, facilitating the successful recovery of the endemic Rodrigues warbler (Acrocephalus rodericanus) from Critically Endangered in 1996 to Least Concern today, shows what is possible through partnership and perseverance.”
Birds play vital roles in ecosystems and for people, serving as pollinators, seed dispersers, pest controllers, scavengers and ecosystem engineers. For example, hornbills can disperse up to 12,700 large seeds per km² each day, supporting ecosystem function and carbon storage in tropical forests. However, agriculture, logging, invasive species, hunting and trapping, and climate change continue to pose significant threats to birds globally.
Green sea turtle rebounds thanks to global conservation action
The green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) has improved in status from Endangered to Least Concern, thanks to decades of sustained conservation action. Found in tropical and subtropical waters worldwide, the global population of green turtles has increased approximately 28% since the 1970s, despite ongoing threats to some subpopulations.
Green turtles are keystone species in tropical marine ecosystems such as seagrass meadows and coral reefs, and have held cultural, culinary, spiritual, and recreational importance for people worldwide for millennia.
Conservation efforts have focused on protecting nesting females and their eggs on beaches, expanding community-based initiatives to reduce unsustainable harvest of turtles and their eggs for human consumption, curtailing trade, and using Turtle Excluder Devices and other measures to reduce the accidental capture of turtles in fishing gear. Efforts in Ascension Island, Brazil, Mexico and Hawai’i have been particularly successful, with some subpopulations rebounding to close to pre-commercial exploitation levels.
Despite this global improvement, green turtles remain significantly depleted compared to their abundance prior to European colonisation and their widespread unsustainable use and trade in many parts of the world. The direct, commercial and non-subsistence take of turtles and eggs along with fisheries bycatch remain significant sources of mortality, while unsustainable coastal and marine development destroys vital habitats. Climate change can also negatively affect green turtle habitats, particularly nesting beaches, with impacts already evident in the Southwest Pacific subpopulation – home to the world’s largest nesting rookery at Raine Island, Australia – where several years of declining hatchling production is a cause of significant concern.
“The ongoing global recovery of the green turtle is a powerful example of what coordinated global conservation over decades can achieve to stabilise and even restore populations of long-lived marine species. Such approaches must focus not only on the turtles, but on keeping their habitats healthy, and their ecological functions intact. Sea turtles cannot survive without healthy oceans and coasts, and humans can’t either. Sustained conservation efforts are key to assuring that this recovery lasts,” said Roderic Mast, Co-Chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Marine Turtle Specialist Group.
Extinctions
This Red List update also sees six species moving to the Extinct category, including the Christmas Island shrew (Crocidura trichura) and a species of cone snail (Conus lugubris), both of which have become extinct since the late 1980s; the slender-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris), a migratory shorebird last recorded in Morocco in 1995; and Diospyros angulata, a species in the same genus as ebony trees, last recorded in the early 1850s.
Three Australian mammals, the marl (Perameles myosuros), the south-eastern striped bandicoot (Perameles notina); and the Nullarbor barred bandicoot (Perameles papillon); as well as Delissea sinuata, a plant native to the Hawaiian Islands, were assessed for the first time and enter the Red List as Extinct.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Pacific Pocket Mouse Declared Endangered Species Candidate in California
SACRAMENTO, Calif.—(October 8, 2025)—The California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously today to declare the Pacific pocket mouse a candidate species under the California Endangered Species Act, granting protections for them as the state conducts a yearlong review.
Today’s decision comes after the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the commission to list the imperiled mouse as threatened or endangered. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife will now determine whether the Pacific pocket mouse should be permanently protected under the Act.
“The commission took an important step to protect one of California’s smallest native mammals,” said Elizabeth Reid-Wainscoat, a campaigner at the Center. “Additional protections under state law will give this tiny mouse a better chance at survival. With their habitat constantly under threat, I hope officials will agree that permanent protections are necessary.”
The petition notes that the Pacific pocket mouse is found only in three locations, with the species’ total occupied habitat estimated at less than 740 acres on the coast of Orange and San Diego counties.
Despite having federal protection since 1994, the Pacific pocket mouse remains at great risk of extinction due to continued habitat loss and fragmentation from development, as well as mounting threats of disease, predation and climate change.
With the federal government increasingly weak on protecting imperiled animals and plants, state protection would help ensure the continued survival and eventual recovery of the Pacific pocket mouse. State protections would also help protect the species on non-federal lands in the Dana Point Preserve, which represents one-third of the animal’s existing populations.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services has twice denied requests to designate critical habitat for the Pacific pocket mouse, even though none of the benchmarks in the recovery plan that show species improvement have been met. This show that additional protections are needed to keep the animals from going extinct.
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SF Gate (San Francisco)
Government shutdown threatens survival of one of North America’s rarest animals
By Sam Hill, Pacific Northwest Contributing Parks Editor, Oct. 8, 2025
As the federal government shutdown drags on into a second week, a critical animal recovery program based in Colorado has ground to a halt, delaying a reintroduction plan that could be crucial to the survival of an endangered species.
Fewer than 1,000 black-footed ferrets remain on the planet, including around 280 captive-bred ones currently being housed at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in Carr, Colorado. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had planned to reintroduce them at 15 sites across federal, tribal and private lands this fall, according to the conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife. Instead, the creatures are caught in the political crossfire, with the program at a standstill due to furloughed employees and travel restrictions, the nonprofit wrote in a news release.
“If we can’t get those ferrets on the ground, it would be incredibly unfortunate,” Chamois Andersen, a senior representative with Defenders of Wildlife, told SFGATE in a phone interview.
SFGATE reached out to the Fish and Wildlife Service for information about the reintroduction program but did not receive a response before the time of publication. “Because of the federal government shutdown, http://www.doi.gov is not being updated and will not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted,” the Interior Department website states.
t’s crucial that the ferrets be released during this optimal window, Andersen said, because they need time to acclimatize to the wild prairies of the Great Plains and prepare for the winter months.
“This is the time of year when kits would typically leave their parents and make a living on their own,” she said. “They’ll learn to hunt and survive before winter hits and hopefully den up with one another to bolster the overall population with kits come spring.”
Nonprofits worked to raise $500,000 in emergency funding for this year’s field season in order to monitor wild ferrets and breed a new class of ferrets, with the understanding that they’d be released this year, Andersen added.
Even if the shutdown ended today and the ferrets could be released, not all of them would survive the winter, and not all of them would give birth to kits in the spring. But the delay in getting the captive ferrets into the wild will likely lead to increased mortality, according to Andersen.
The ferrets’ population, once numbering as high as 1 million, declined throughout the 1900s as prairie dog towns throughout the region were repurposed by humans for farming and ranching. According to the U.S Forest Service, there were two occasions between 1950 and 1980 when officials believed the species had gone extinct.
There were significant efforts to rebuild the population in Badlands National Park’s Conata Basin in the early 2000s, but an outbreak of sylvatic plague in 2009 and 2024 has kept the species from recovering. The plague is often spread through fleas and is an ongoing issue. It also affects the species’ primary food source — prairie dogs — making survival even more of a challenge for the ferrets.
Vaccination programs and flea-control treatments — vital for keeping both prairie dogs and ferrets safe from plague — remain key to the continuation of the species.
“We really need to stay on top of sylvatic plague, and we have the tools to do so with vaccination programs,” Andersen said. “But those programs need staff and travel funds to be successful. This is what it takes to recover an endangered species.”
Recovery of the black-footed ferret has long relied on a web of coordinated efforts — from controlled breeding programs at off-site facilities and zoos throughout the country to carefully timed releases into healthy prairie dog towns.
Wildlife officials also scout out new swaths of open grassland where agriculture and reintroduction can coexist without conflict. Once the ferrets are on the ground, teams use spotlighting and telemetry to track their movements across the prairie, monitoring their progress in real time.
This year has proven especially challenging for the program. Back in February, several employees at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center were fired, and funding was reduced as cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, slashed staffing at federal agencies.
If the reintroduction program is stalled for the entirety of the fall, the ferrets that were meant to be released will likely need to stay in captivity — a reality that Andersen calls “unprecedented and unnatural.”
These ferrets are supposed to go off on their own at this point in their lives, Andersen explained, adding that it’s unclear what a longer captivity period would look like or how it would be managed.
“We’re all very nervous about what this could mean for the survival of the species,” she said.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Lawsuit Challenges Failure to Protect Habitat for Endangered Black-Capped Petrels
WASHINGTON—(October 7, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for failing to provide critical habitat protections for endangered black-capped petrels, who are threatened by oil spills, offshore oil and gas extraction and deforestation.
“These intrepid sea birds cross oceans to feed, and they’ll only survive if they arrive to a healthy marine environment,” said Mark Patronella, a staff attorney at the Center. “Federal officials recognize that petrels need and deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act, but keep dragging their heels on protecting the places the birds need to survive. In the meantime, these remarkable birds move closer to extinction.”
In 2023 the Service listed the black-capped petrel as endangered as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Center in 2015, but it has failed to designate any of the petrel’s habitat for protection and its deadline to do so has passed. Today’s lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
These far-traveling seabirds forage in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Atlantic coast, returning to raise their young on Hispaniola, the island of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Black-capped petrels — also called diablotín, or “little devil,” for their eerie night calls — travel hundreds of miles across open oceans in search of food. The petrel’s swift population decline has shrunk its nesting range to just four sites.
The birds face a long list of threats to survival, including oil spills, commercial fishing, offshore oil and gas extraction, climate change, deforestation around nesting sites, invasive predators and government inaction. Critical habitat designation for the black-capped petrel would have immediate benefits, including improved water quality in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic waters off the southeastern U.S., limits on overfishing and offshore energy extraction and reduced human pressure on marine ecosystems.
Endangered and threatened species that have critical habitat protections are twice as likely to recover as those without it.
“The Trump administration is increasingly hostile to our wild places and has repeatedly failed to uphold keystone environmental laws. I’m hopeful the court will force the administration to follow the law and protect the black-capped petrel’s feeding grounds,” said Patronella.
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The Wildlife Society
Seaweed traps sea turtle hatchlings
Sargassum blooms keep the endangered species from reaching the safety of the ocean
October 7, 2025
Massive amounts of sargassum washing up on Florida’s beaches are not only a nuisance to beachgoers but also a threat to vulnerable marine life. New research shows that hatchlings of three species of sea turtles took significantly longer to pass through sargassum—a type of brown seaweed—on their way to the ocean compared to an open beach, leaving them exposed to land-based predators for longer.
Researchers from Florida Atlantic University tested three of the state’s most common sea turtles, leatherbacks (Dermochelys coriacea), loggerheads (Caretta caretta) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) on three beaches: Juno, Jupiter and Boca Raton. Each of these species is listed as federally endangered. The team created crawlways along the beach and added mats of sargassum of differing heights to simulate a hatchling’s natural path to the ocean. They timed how long it took the turtles to reach the water.
Published in the Journal of Coastal Research, their results showed that even the lighter levels of sargassum significantly slowed each species, with loggerheads showing the greatest response. Some hatchlings of all three species were unable to complete the climb within a set time limit.
“The longer a hatchling stays on the beach, the more at risk it becomes—not just from predators like birds and crabs, but also from overheating and dehydration, especially after sunrise,” said Sarah Milton, a professor at Florida Atlantic University and an author of the study, in a press release. “When sargassum piles are higher—some can be over a meter high on South Florida beaches in the summer and extend for hundreds of meters down the beach—we can expect more failed attempts, particularly when hatchlings have to cross multiple bands of seaweed just to reach the ocean.”
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ABC News
Southern right whales awe admirers after coming back from brink of extinction
Southern right whales are swimming in greater numbers off the coast of Argentina’s Patagonia this year
By VÍCTOR CAIVANO Associated Press and RAMIRO BARREIRO Associated Press
October 6, 2025
PENÍNSULA VALDÉS, Argentina — PENÍNSULA VALDÉS, Argentina (AP) — After coming back from the brink of extinction, Southern right whales are swimming in greater numbers off the coast of Argentina’s Patagonia this year, delighting tourists seeking to catch a glimpse of their acrobatics.
Peninsula Valdés, located in the Patagonian province of Chubut, is globally important for the conservation of marine mammals and is home to a key breeding population of Southern right whales — once an endangered species — as well as elephant seals and sea lions.
“I’ve seen whales in Canada and California, but this was the best and probably the largest number of whales I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Tino Ventz, a German tourist who recently visited the peninsula with his girlfriend.
The Southern right whale was nearly exterminated by hunting expeditions up until the last century. Before large-scale whaling began, the population in southern waters was estimated at around 100,000, before it was decimated to about 600. Since then, it has slowly recovered to roughly 4,700 whales around Peninsula Valdés today.
Whale-watching season in the south American country peaks between August and September. This year, more than 2,000 whales have been spotted, though the actual number is likely higher, scientists say.
Ventz, 24, and his partner joined Argentine Andrea Delfino and her children on a boat trip. Southern winds stirred the whales into more acrobatic breaching, a spectacle that leaves an indelible impression on those who witness it.
Other tourists preferred to watch the whales from the shore, as is common in neighboring Brazil or Uruguay.
Watching from the beach, Agustina Guidolín, fulfilled her dream of witnessing “the immensity that borders on the magical and the wild.” The tourists were at El Doradillo Park, a protected natural area in Puerto Madryn, where whales spend time close to shore with their young after giving birth.
In addition to Peninsula Valdés and other points in Patagonia, the whales’ migration route extends along Uruguay’s eastern coast and southern Brazil.
Santiago Fernández, a biologist with Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council, is part of a project that since 1999 has carried out two to three aerial surveys each year along 640 kilometers (400 miles) of Patagonian coastline. This year’s count recorded 2,100 whales — 863 of them mothers with calves, and the rest solitary individuals.
“We’re underestimating the number of whales in the area,” Fernández said of the census, noting that it represents only a snapshot, since whales move in and out of the same region as they migrate.
He explained that in 1999 “about 500 whales were counted along that same route,” and that “we’re currently seeing a 3% annual growth rate.”
Fernández added that another project, “Following Whales,” conducted by several national and international organizations, tracks individual whales via satellite telemetry within the San Matias Gulf to the north, the San Jorge Gulf to the south, and beyond, to better understand their routes.
From that project, which began in 2014, scientists learned that once the calves grow, the mothers lead them deeper into the gulfs — whales that are therefore not included in the aerial census.
The growing population is leading to a dispersal — especially of juveniles and mothers that have already calved — toward the San Matias and San Jorge gulfs, and even as far north as the coast of Buenos Aires province.
This expansion also brings the whales closer to risks posed by human activity, such as fishing nets and boat propellers, researchers have found, based on injuries suffered by whales unable to return to Antarctica at the end and beginning of their natural cycle.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Endangered Fish Protected After Forest Service Pulls Harmful Coal Hauling Permit in West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W. Va.—(October 2, 2025)—A legal challenge to a coal hauling permit in the Monongahela National Forest came to a successful close today after the U.S. Forest Service terminated the permit in September and confirmed that all harmful coal hauling had ceased. The lawsuit was brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and conservation partners to protect endangered fish and other wildlife.
The coal hauling operations posed a significant threat to endangered candy darters and their critical habitat in West Virginia’s Cherry River watershed, an area also valued for natural beauty and recreational activities.
“I’m relieved that the Forest Service terminated this permit for harmful activities in one of the candy darter’s best remaining strongholds,” said Meg Townsend, senior freshwater attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These beautiful fish desperately need clean water and intact stream habitats, so this result protects one of the most endangered animals in the country from coal hauling’s many risks. Endangered wildlife need to be safe from pollution in our national forests.”
The lawsuit, filed in January 2024, challenged the Forest Service’s failure to consider the harm that the activities authorized by the permit would have on the candy darter’s critical habitat.
The permit allowed a private coal company to haul oversized coal loads, coal mining supplies and equipment — including explosives — on gravel roads in the area. The coal hauling operations threatened to degrade water quality and reduced recreational opportunities for people. They also harmed other imperiled species in the area such as the northern long-eared bat, Indiana bat and hellbender salamanders.
“I’m thankful that any new permit will need to be reviewed with an eye toward protecting endangered species like the candy darter,” Townsend said. “The Cherry River watershed is one of West Virginia’s most special places. We have to take care of it to help this gorgeous little fish swim closer to recovery. We’ll continue to monitor the situation and advocate for the protection of the candy darter and other species endangered by coal mining activities in West Virginia.”
The Forest Service would need to undertake a full review under the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act before any future permits to transport coal through the area could be issued. These reviews would assess whether new coal hauling activities could harm the candy darter and other endangered species that live in the area as well as the broader potential environmental harm.
The Center and Appalachian Mountain Advocates represented a coalition of groups in this case, including Appalachian Voices, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, the West Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, Kanawha Forest Coalition and the Greenbrier River Watershed Association.
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AZ Central (Phoenix, AZ)
Five endangered California condors join Arizona’s wild population near Grand Canyon
John Leos, Arizona Republic, October 1, 2025
One brave condor was greeted by sunny skies and a cheering crowd Sept. 27 after spreading its wings and taking its first flight over Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.
Meanwhile, four less-adventurous condors spent the weekend gathering their courage before making the big leap on Monday, Sept. 29.
The five critically endangered California condors were scheduled for release during an annual event organized by the Peregrine Fund, a nonprofit organization that manages Arizona’s condor population in coordination with federal and state partners.
“This is their final destination, and it’s a remarkable celebration in time when we can increase the population through a pretty impressive captive breeding program,” said Tim Hauck, the Peregrine Fund’s California condor program director.
“It always gives us a lot of hope”, said Hauck.
The event coincided with National Public Lands Day, the nation’s largest, single-day volunteer event for public lands, and drew about 600 people.
In what is described as a “soft release,” wildlife biologists open the pen at the top of the cliffs and allow the condors to fly out of captivity when they are ready.
While one condor flew out after about 20 minutes, the other four waited until the start of the week before joining the wild flock, bringing the total number of endangered California condors in the Arizona-Utah flock to 88.
“Different birds have different confidence levels,” said Hauck.
“We don’t want to release birds under conditions where they’re under undue stress, we want that to be as smooth a transition as possible. Some years it’s quick, some years it takes a couple days.”
How captive breeding program has helped condor populations
This year’s group of adolescent condors were hatched and raised as a part of captive breeding programs at the Oregon Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
With a wingspan of almost 10-feet and weighing up to 25 pounds, the California condor is the largest land bird in North America.
Though the ancient species once soared over most of the continent, by the mid-20th century, the population of condors had dramatically declined due to habitat degradation, lead poisoning, shooting and the use of DDT pesticide.
Lawmakers listed California condors among the first species to gain federal protection in the the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, a predecessor to the modern-day Endangered Species Act, but by 1982, the population of condors had declined to only 22 individual birds.
In response, wildlife managers made the difficult decision to bring every wild bird into captivity and begin a captive breeding program.
Since then, the program has evolved into a multi-faceted recovery effort, spanning three states and two countries. The program, led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, now includes state wildlife management agencies in Arizona, Utah and California, multiple zoos and nonprofit partners, as well as the Yurok Tribe in northern California.
Today, there are five free-flying populations of California condors: three in California, one in Mexico, and one along the Arizona-Utah border.
In 2024, U.S. Fish and Wildlife reported 396 individuals in the wild.
Because California condors can typically only produce one offspring every two years, the recovery of the species has been slow.
This year marks the second release of endangered condors in Arizona since an outbreak of avian flu killed 20% of the Arizona-Utah flock in 2023.
The five condors released this year, along with the 24 birds released in 2024, have increased both the population on the landscape and the genetic diversity of the flock.
As wildlife biologists celebrate the latest group of endangered birds to fly free, the majestic species continue to face major threats to recovery.
Grand Canyon fires raise concerns and opportunities for Arizona condors
This summer, two wildfires burning near the Grand Canyon threatened Arizona’s flock of condors.
The Dragon Bravo Fire and the White Sage Fire collectively burned over 200,000 acres on the Kaibab plateau, including areas where California condors have been known to roost.
During the day, the condors are capable of traveling long distances, allowing them to steer clear of the burning forests. But when wildfires spread quickly, nesting condors and chicks incapable of flight are left vulnerable.
In 2020, the Dolan Fire in central California killed 12 endangered condors, including two chicks, that were roosting near Big Sur. The fire also consumed an 80-acre condor sanctuary operated by Ventana Wildlife Society.
The majority of the condors are equipped with GPS trackers, which allow the wildlife biologists to monitor their locations and potential risks to their survival.
Though no condors were roosting near the Grand Canyon area wildfires, the Peregrine Fund evacuated three captive condors in their facilities to a safe location.
“Most of the condors take up residence in the Utah high country during the summer where there is ample food, so overall impact to their normal activity was minimal,” said Hauck, in a news release.
“There also didn’t happen to be any active nest locations near the fire, which would have posed a risk to young birds that cannot yet fly,” said Hauck.
The Grand Canyon fires may end up helping the flock, according to Hauck, because condors prefer open landscapes where food can be easily spotted as opposed to thick forests.
But closure of the North Rim and reduced traffic in the region has also reduced the amount of roadkill for the birds to scavenge. Wildlife managers say this may cause the condors to travel to unexpected locations in search of food.
Lead poisoning remains greatest risk to condors
By far, the greatest threat to California condors in the United States is lead poisoning caused by bullet fragments embedded in dead animals.
When hunters use lead-based ammo, which is often cheaper and more easily accessible than nonlead options, the condors can ingest the bullet fragments that remain in the carcasses and gutpiles left behind.
Condors are obligate scavengers, meaning they will only eat animals that are already dead. The highly social birds also eat in groups, meaning that a single, lead filled animal carcass can contaminate multiple condors at one time.
Wildlife biologists can treat lead poisoning if the condors are captured in time, but the problem continues to plague the endangered condors and limit their recovery.
Between 1992 and 2024, lead poisoning killed 151 condors in the wild, almost 50% of all deaths with a known cause, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
In the Arizona-Utah population, about 60 condors have died from lead poisoning since the birds were introduced to the region in 1996.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department runs a lead reduction program that provides free nonlead ammunition to hunters who draw tags in areas with condors
“This year’s hunters are very engaged in this conservation program and have been requesting lead-free ammo for their upcoming hunts,” said Erin Brown, lead reduction program coordinator for Arizona Game and Fish in a news release.
“Having hunters on board is so essential because lead poisoning is population-limiting for these birds and one of the main challenges to reaching a self-sustaining population.”
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WLRN Radio (Miami, FL)
Conservationist sue U.S. Fish and Wildlife service over an endangered tiny South Florida crayfish
WLRN Public Media, By Jenny Staletovich, September 30, 2025
Conservationists are suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Miami federal court after the Service missed the deadline to add a tiny South Florida crayfish to the endangered species list.
The freshwater crayfish are only found in limestone caves in Miami-Dade County. That’s also where the county and the Keys get some of their drinking water.
But that habitat is now at risk of shrinking because of saltwater intrusion from sea level rise, more intense hurricanes and growing water demands. Half could disappear in just 45 years.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by the Center for Biological Diversity, said the FWS is now more than a year behind schedule in proposing a rule to list the crayfish. The center said protecting the crayfish will also help safeguard water supplies.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Legal Victory Puts Streaked Horned Lark on Path to Greater Endangered Species Protections
PORTLAND, Ore.—(September 30, 2025)—In response to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and Bird Alliance of Oregon, a federal judge found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2022 determination that the streaked horned lark is threatened and not endangered is unlawful. The court ordered the Service to reconsider within one year whether the lark warrants endangered species protections.
Once a common species in the prairies of Puget Sound and the Willamette Valley, the lark has been reduced to very small, scattered populations by urbanization and agricultural conversion of their habitat. The birds are at immediate risk of extinction.
“I’m thrilled the court recognized that the Fish and Wildlife Service shortchanged these stunning larks by dismissing how their small populations clearly increase extinction risk,” said Ryan Shannon, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “I hope these striking little birds will get the protections they so desperately need.”
The court found that the Service failed to consider how the lark’s chance of survival is harmed by small isolated populations, which result in inbreeding and increase the likelihood that groups will be wiped out by weather or other chance events. Many of the larks’ remaining populations are dangerously small, particularly in South Puget Sound and on the Washington coast.
“This court decision is welcome and provides some hope for this imperiled species that is, unfortunately, quickly moving towards extinction,” said Joe Liebezeit, statewide conservation director for the Bird Alliance of Oregon. “The Service now has no excuse but to uplist the streaked horned lark from threatened to endangered.”
Larks are unique because they need open ground created by floods and fire that has largely disappeared. In the absence of natural short-grass prairie habitats, the birds are now primarily found in anthropogenic ones, including grass seed fields, airports and bombing ranges on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Based on the threatened listing, the Service issued a rule exempting all agricultural activities, including those clearly harmful to the larks. Examples include converting grass seed fields to other crops that don’t support the birds or mowing when the larks are nesting. An endangered listing would remove such exemptions and ensure that these larks have the full protections they need to survive into the future.
This lawsuit marks the culmination of years of work by the groups to protect the lark, beginning in 2002 when the Center and other organizations first asked the Service to protect the species. In a 2019 lawsuit, the Center successfully challenged the Service’s decision to list the lark as threatened but was forced to go back to court after the Service doubled down on its decision in 2022.
Background
Streaked horned larks are small, ground-dwelling songbirds with conspicuous feather tufts, or “horns,” on their heads. Generally pale brown with yellow washes in the male’s face, adults have a black bib, black whisker marks and black tail feathers with white margins.
Formerly a common nesting species in prairies west of the Cascade Mountains from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon, the larks were so abundant around Puget Sound that they were considered a nuisance by turn-of-the-century golfers.
With the conversion of extensive prairies in the Willamette Valley and Puget Sound Lowlands to agricultural fields, floodplain control and cities, the larks lost most of their habitat. They’ve now dwindled to an estimated 1,170 to 1,610 birds, and possibly far fewer. They are part of a growing list of species that are imperiled by loss of prairies in the Willamette Valley and Puget Trough to urban and agricultural sprawl.
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WyoFile (Lander, WY)
Yellowstone ecosystem grizzlies dying at record pace in 2025
Biologists list 63 bears confirmed dead in 2025, up from 56 at this time in 2024, which was a record year.
By Angus M. Thuermer Jr. and Mike Koshmrl, September 30, 2025
Federal wildlife biologists list 63 Yellowstone ecosystem grizzly bear deaths this year, a count that’s ahead of last year’s pace, when the highest number of mortalities on record was documented.
Last year, there were 77 known and probably grizzly bear mortalities, surpassing the previous record of 70 in both 2021 and 2018. By this time in 2024, 56 of that total number had succumbed, putting this year’s Sept. 13 “provisional” count ahead of last year’s record pace.
The accounting comes as Wyoming’s rifle elk hunting season — a time of increased conflicts between bears and armed people — gets underway. Double-digit numbers of grizzlies are typically shot and killed in hunter encounters every fall in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
This year’s high tally of preliminary mortalities, which are logged by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, also comes as the ecosystem is in moderate to severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
“There’s no food for the animals to eat — for instance, bears — so they’re coming down into the valley,” said Meredith Taylor, a retired Dubois outfitter who teaches an ethnobiology class. “I was up on Togwotee Pass … in August … and I was absolutely horrified how poor the plants [were] — no berries.”
In September alone, biologists added 17 ecosystem grizzly bear deaths to the 2025 list. The specific dates of seven of those mortalities have not been entered.
On Sept. 21, Wyoming Game and Fish captured and moved two cubs from private land after they were “frequenting a residence” and could not be hazed away. There’s an open debate regarding whether grizzly conflicts are increasing and whether, if so, it’s attributable to having more bears or to more frequent droughts as a result of climate change.
Regardless, there’s a continuing push to remove federal regulations protecting the species. The grizzly is a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, with a population of roughly 1,000 in the Yellowstone Ecosystem “demographic monitoring area” and an untold number on the fringes of that core zone.
‘Recovery goals exceeded’
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman has introduced the Grizzly Bear State Management Act of 2025 that would remove federal grizzly protections for Yellowstone ecosystem bears “without regard to any other provision of law.” The bill passed out of a House committee.
The measure “shall not be subject to judicial review,” the bill states.
The state’s lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives has simultaneously sought to delist grizzly bears through the federal appropriations budgeting process. There is no “preferred” course of action, she told WyoFile in July at a Pinedale town hall meeting.
“Whatever we can get through,” Hageman said.
Hageman was optimistic that she could corral the needed Democratic Party votes for legislative grizzly delisting to pass Congress.
“We might be able to,” she said. “This is a huge success story. Wyoming has spent millions of dollars recovering this species, we’ve done a phenomenal job and we manage them well.”
‘Desk activists‘
In a statement announcing her bill, Hageman pointed out that Yellowstone-region grizzlies have “far exceeded” recovery goals. She blamed “federal lethargy and wildlife policy dictated by special-interest lobbyists under the Biden Administration” as factors that have kept protections in place.
Federal wildlife managers have “disregarded recovery data” and Washington bureaucrats “continue to obstruct delisting with needless delays and politicized decisions,” she stated. She blamed “desk activists” for “a troubling uptick in attacks on people, livestock, and property.”
“Families shouldn’t have to live in fear of grizzly bears rummaging through their trash or endangering their children,” Hageman wrote.
In addition to Hageman, the Yellowstone grizzly faces a Trump administration that recently installed former Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik as head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has oversight over threatened and endangered species. As Game and Fish leader in Wyoming, Nesvik proposed a controversial hunting season for grizzly bears that a judge blocked at the last minute.
Taylor said she wrote Hageman to say “delisting the grizzly bear [at] this time is really a bad idea.” Climate change has reduced the annual crop of whitebark pine nuts as warmer temperatures have allowed insects to ravage stands of what was once a keystone grizzly food.
Whitebark pine, also a threatened species, is expected to see its suitable landscape decline by 80% by the middle of this century,” according to a recent paper published in Environmental Research Letters. Notably, federal scientists who’ve studied the importance of whitebark pine to grizzly bear populations have concluded that the adaptable, omnivorous species can sustain without the high-elevation seeds.
Hunting could provide big game gut piles for scavenging, but the season also brings obvious dangers for bears and people.
“Of course, that’s a time when people are out there with guns,” Taylor said.
(Correction: The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s population of grizzlies referenced in this story has been updated. The prior number was from a methodology that’s no longer used. –Eds.)
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Maine Audubon
Maine Audubon Delivers Petitions to Protect the Endangered Species Act
by Nick Lund, September 25, 2025
Last week, staff from Maine Audubon were in Washington D.C. to hand-deliver a petition signed by more than 1,800 Mainers asking Maine’s Congressional delegation to protect the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Maine Audubon Advocacy & Outreach Manager Nick Lund met with staff in the offices of Senators Susan Collins and Angus King, and Representatives Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree. “This petition was Maine Audubon’s largest ever, and shows how committed our members and supports are to protecting the Endangered Species Act,” says Lund.
Since 1973, the Endangered Species Act has been one of the nation’s most popular and effective wildlife-protection laws. It has succeeded in keeping 99% of all listed species from extinction and facilitated the recovery of species including the Bald Eagle and the American Alligator. Maine Audubon works in Maine to protect ESA-listed species including Piping Plovers and Atlantic Salmon.
However, the Endangered Species Act is at risk. The Trump Administration has proposed to cut funding and reduce staffing to implement the Act. Various bills in Congress could undermine the effectiveness of the Act or protections for certain species. Thankfully, Maine’s Congressional delegation understands the importance of the Endangered Species Act. Senator Collins recently shepherded a Senate Interior Appropriations bill that provides adequate funding for the ESA and is free of damaging riders, for example, and both Representative Golden and Representative Pingree voted against a House proposal to exempt Department of Defense lands from ESA compliance.
Maine Audubon’s recent visit to Congress served as an important reminder to Maine’s federal representatives that the Endangered Species Act is as popular as ever with Mainers, and worth protecting.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Trump Administration Set to Remove Look-Alike Protections From 11 Species
WASHINGTON—(September 25, 2025)—The Trump administration today proposed removing protections for several species that look similar to threatened and endangered wildlife, including the puma, shovelnose sturgeon and several species of blue butterflies and turtles.
These protections are critical tools to prevent threats to the federally protected Florida panther, Miami blue butterfly, pallid sturgeon, bog turtle, desert tortoise and Pearl River map turtle.
“It’s disturbing to see the Trump administration moving to strip crucial Endangered Species Act protections from yet more animals, with potentially devastating consequences,” said Lia Comerford, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Nothing has changed for these pumas, blue butterflies, sturgeon and turtles. They still look like they did yesterday and will continue to be easily mistaken for imperiled species. These protections are still sorely needed to protect the imperiled species from further decline and to keep these look-alike animals from becoming threatened or endangered themselves. The Fish and Wildlife Service has offered no good reason for removing or revising protections for these species. This is the Trump administration continuing its bizarre war on biodiversity.”
Many animal and plant species closely resemble one another, making it difficult for wildlife enforcement to distinguish between species protected under the Endangered Species Act and species that look similar to them. The law allows for these similar-looking species to also be protected to ensure threatened and endangered wildlife aren’t harmed. Today’s action threatens both the imperiled species and their look-alike species whose Endangered Species Act protections are being removed or revised.
The Trump administration proposed to remove protections from pumas, which would harm endangered Florida panthers; from cassius blue, ceraunus blue and nickerbean blue butterflies, which would harm the endangered Miami blue butterfly; and the shovelnose sturgeon, which would harm endangered pallid sturgeon. The administration also proposed revising protections for bog turtles, desert tortoises and Pearl River map turtles.
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NOAA Fisheries
NOAA Announces Confirmed U.S. Large Whale Entanglement Numbers for 2024
There were 95 large whale entanglement cases documented in 2024—an increase from 2023 and higher than the historical average.
September 18, 2025
NOAA Fisheries has released the National Report on Large Whale Entanglements Confirmed in the United States in 2024. There were 95 confirmed large whale entanglement cases nationally in 2024. This is higher than the 64 confirmed large whale entanglement cases in 2023. It is also above the average annual number of confirmed entanglements over the previous 17 years, which was 71.4. We will continue to analyze data from 2024 to understand what factors contributed to the increase and whether this increase is temporary or part of a longer term trend.
The report helps us meet our mandates for sharing information about marine mammal health under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Entanglements in fishing gear or marine debris represent a continued threat to the welfare and recovery of many whale species. This includes species that are endangered and approaching extinction (e.g., North Atlantic right whales). Entanglements involving threatened or endangered species can have significant negative impacts on the population as a whole.
Whales unable to free themselves can carry the entanglement for days, months, or even years. Entanglements often interfere with swimming, feeding, breathing, and other vital functions. Severe entanglements can cause injuries that result in death from infection, starvation, amputation (such as flippers or flukes), blood loss, strangulation, or drowning.
Working with Partners to Respond to, Track, and Document Entanglements
NOAA Fisheries’ Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program is proud to work with our partners in the U.S. Large Whale Entanglement Response Network. The Network is composed of highly skilled experts and trained response teams along all coasts. Network members track and document as many of these entanglement incidents as possible.
Scientists and managers use entanglement data to determine the impact of entanglement on individual whales and on populations. They look at different aspects of each entanglement case, including:
*Entanglement rates
*Entanglement severity
*Configuration of the entanglement on the animal
*Type of gear or debris
*Injuries and impact to the animal
Experts use these criteria to evaluate existing management measures and implement new management measures to reduce the threat of entanglement to large whales.
How You Can Help
The U.S. Large Whale Entanglement Response Network relies on entanglement reports from the public. However, you should not attempt to disentangle whales yourself—call authorized professional responders instead. Disentangling large whales is a dangerous activity that requires years of training, specialized knowledge, and skills. Experts use customized tools and equipment to ensure the safety of the animals and the response team. Authorized U.S. Large Whale Entanglement Response Network responders can typically remove more of the entangling gear than members of the public. This leads to better outcomes for the whale and helps us gather valuable information that may reduce future entanglement threats and impacts.
State Entanglement Hotlines
If you encounter an entangled large whale, call your state hotline.
Maine through Virginia: (866) 755-NOAA (866-755-6622)
North Carolina through Texas: (877) WHALE-HELP (877-942-5343)
California, Oregon, and Washington: (877) SOS-WHALe (877-767-9425)
Alaska: (877) 925-7773
Hawaii: (888) 256-9840
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Center for Biological Diversity
California Endangered Species Status Sought for Declining Desert Thrashers
SACRAMENTO, Calif.—(September 16, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission today to protect two declining species of desert songbirds, Bendire’s thrasher and LeConte’s thrasher, under the state’s Endangered Species Act.
Bendire’s thrasher and LeConte’s thrasher are native to arid lands of the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico.
“These thrashers are secretive, adaptable birds who’ve been able to thrive in harsh, dry deserts but they desperately need protections to shield them from habitat loss in California,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center. “These shy birds can’t cope with rapid climate change and other threats that are reducing their sparse habitats in Southern California deserts. Without state protection, there’s a real risk California could lose both desert thrashers.”
About 5% of the global population of Bendire’s thrasher, an estimated 4,400 birds, lives in the Sonoran and Mojave deserts in southeastern California. An estimated 37,000 LeConte’s thrashers, more than 80% of the global population, inhabit California in the Sonoran and Mojave deserts and the southern San Joaquin Valley.
Over the past 50 years the number of Bendire’s thrashers has declined by 90% and LeConte’s thrashers have dropped by nearly 70% throughout their U.S. range.
Significant areas of suitable thrasher habitats have been lost to sprawl development and agriculture. Habitat fragmentation and other threats such as invasive species, altered wildfire regimes, climate change, livestock grazing, off-road vehicles, and mining are pushing both species to the brink.
The spread of invasive plants reduces the insect food and nesting shrubs that thrashers need and increases the intensity and frequency of damaging fire. Increasing temperatures are also eliminating the bird’s food and nesting locations. Rapid climate change poses a serious threat because these birds struggle to adapt to other habitats.
LeConte’s thrashers inhabit some of the hottest, driest and most barren desert habitats within the region. They prefer sandy deserts with saltbush vegetation, where they forage on the ground for insects. The birds rarely fly, instead running on the ground with their tail cocked and scooting into brushy cover when threatened. LeConte’s thrashers are nicknamed the “gray ghost” due to their elusive nature and pale sandy plumage that helps them blend into desert landscapes.
Bendire’s thrashers are also secretive and spend much of their time foraging on the ground for insects. Male thrashers of both species are most noticeable during breeding season, when they perch on shrubs to sing high-pitched, melodious songs. Bendire’s thrashers nest in cholla cactus, mesquite trees, yuccas and Joshua trees. LeConte’s thrashers nest primarily in cholla cactus and saltbush. Both thrasher species require large patches of flat land with desert scrub habitats and adequate prey to survive in their water-scarce environment.
Both Bendire’s and LeConte’s thrashers have been on the California Species of Special Concern list since 1978, but that designation has not been sufficient to halt their population declines. A 2025 U.S. State of the Birds report named both Bendire’s and LeConte’s thrashers as “Red Alert Tipping Point Species” since they’ve lost more than half their populations within the past 50 years and require urgent action to address declines.
Earlier this year the Center petitioned for federal Endangered Species Act protections for both Bendire’s and LeConte’s thrashers. However, the Trump administration’s hostility to environmental protections and attempts to eviscerate the Act make it unlikely that federal protections for these species will move forward anytime soon. Protection for thrashers on federal public lands can no longer be assured given Trump’s executive orders seeking to expand mining and energy extraction and efforts to reduce the size of national monuments in California.
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KOMO News (Seattle, WA)
Southern Resident orca seen carrying dead calf raises concerns for endangered population
Chris Daniels, KOMO News Senior Reporter, September 14
SEATTLE, Wash. — The death of an orca calf this weekend has renewed questions about the health of the Southern Resident population and what other factors are at play.
On Saturday, the SeaDoc Society and Center for Whale Research reported that J-36 was spotted carrying her dead newborn calf in the waters of Rosario Strait. SeaDoc reported that she was approximately four miles behind a larger group of J-pod animals moving south and east of Orcas Island.
It is another discouraging development for those who track the endangered species, which is synonymous with the region.
“They could see her just under the water, carrying that baby over her nose. It was heartbreaking,” said Joe Gaydos, the Science Director for the SeaDoc Society.
Another J pod orca, J35 Tahlequah, previously garnered national attention after she was seen carrying her dead calf for 17 days in 2018, pushing its body for over 1,000 miles through Pacific Northwest waters. J35 lost another calf in 2025 and repeated the process, carrying the body for over 10 days.
Researchers believe this behavior is a sign of grieving among orcas, and it has sparked dialogue over the emotional complexity of animals.
“The parts of their brains that are responsible for things like memory, emotions, and language are very well developed, in fact, in some ways more developed than the human brain,” said researchers from Wild Orca.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the grieving process doesn’t last a lifetime like it does with humans when a baby is lost,” the researchers added.
And, unfortunately, the Southern Residents experience quite a bit of loss.
“There’s a high mortality rate in pregnancy, almost 70% of the females in this population (are) losing their calves,” said Dr. Deborah Giles, who is a killer whale scientist with the SeaDoc Society and was on the scene when the discovery was made. Speaking from an office on Orcas Island, she added, “There’s a lot of different threats facing this population of whales, but I think the general consensus is that it’s a limited prey abundance and quality that’s the biggest issue, the lack of high-quality and high-density Chinook salmon.”
“A loss like this is devastating. A young female calf of a mom who’s not represented yet in the population,” added Dr. Hendrik Nollens, the Vice President of Wildlife Health for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
The Southern Resident Orca population was decimated in the 1960s and 1970s, with roundups and relocation to aquariums. By the early 2000s, the endangered population was believed to have stabilized around 100, but has dropped to 74 now.
“As Bill Clinton said, it’s the economy, stupid. Right now, what we need to remember is that it’s the ecosystem, stupid,” said Fred Felleman, a Port of Seattle Commissioner who first moved to the region to study the species.
He was visibly angered by the loss of the calf.
“You can go to a gift shop, you can adopt an individual whale, but I’ve yet to see a gift shop that sells ecosystems,” he said. “We know salmon are essential to their existence, and Chinook salmon in particular. But salmon need cold, clear rivers that have tree cover and things like that.”
Nollens added that a loss such as this one is also tough to deal with because gestation is 17 1/2 months, and its recovery is not a quick process.
“They have the capacity to live into their 80s or older for females, into their 60s or older for males, but we’re losing males in their late 20s, and we’re losing females in their late 30s and into their early 40s. That end of the population is a concern as well,” said Giles, who also noted that there should be six births a year and only two of the four born in the wild have survived this year.
“We need these animals to have babies. Need them to have females. We need them to grow up, get pregnant, and continue to do that; that’s the way you have a healthy population. I think what we saw was her carrying her baby around. It’s like they’re having the same sort of emotional thing that we would have if we lost a child at birth,” said Gaydos.
He said experts in the field need to figure out why calves have so many issues.
“That’s on us, to bring back salmon, to reduce vessel noise, and to see if there’s any sort of thing, like an infectious disease or something else that could be contributing to this that we can help out with. For us to see that, it just reminded us that we have a lot of work to do,” said Gaydos.
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Radio New Zealand
Good news for critically endangered Australian grey nurse sharks
13 September 2025 , By Marina Trajkovich, ABC
Grey nurse shark numbers along Australia’s east coast are on the rise, in “rare good conservation news” for the critically endangered species often dubbed “the labradors of the sea”.
David Harasti from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries said the often misunderstood species was crucial for the ocean’s ecosystem and harmless to humans.
“It’s one of the more placid sharks, they come and look at you really inquisitively, they follow you around,” he said.
“They’re a very ferocious-looking shark with big pointy teeth, but they’re not known to bite people.”
Growing to more than three metres in length, grey nurses became the first shark species in the world to be protected in 1984.
Harasti said that while there was no accurate population estimate for the time, divers and researchers raised the alarm after noting their decline.
“Divers went actively searching for grey nurse sharks, and where they used to find dozens, they could only find a handful,” he said.
New research from the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and the CSIRO shows the population is slowly bouncing back.
“The adult population is now estimated to be around 1,500 along the east coast and rising,” Harasti said.
“It’s increasing around five percent a year, so this is a really good thing.
“This is one of our first good news marine stories for a threatened species.”
Harasti said the study used genetic modelling to estimate population size, including techniques involving “sneaking up on the sharks” to collect samples at crucial dive and aggregation sites.
“Quite often, underwater, you’re contorting your body to get these samples,” he said.
“The results back up what divers have been noticing in the wild.”
Accurate population picture
CSIRO principal research scientist Toby Patterson said getting an accurate sense of endangered populations was crucial for conservation work.
“The popular view is that it’s easy to see how numbers are going – the reality is it’s quite hard to get that fundamental data,” he said.
Patterson said the CSIRO was also looking to use catch-and-release tagging methods like smart drum lines on more animals and species.
“We’ve used it on white sharks, sawfish in the north, river sharks and also terrestrial animals in Australia,” he said.
“That then supports better decision making, better management responses, and to work out where funding and resources are most needed.”
Threat remains
University of the Sunshine Coast researcher Ross Dwyer said while the results of the study were exciting, there was still work to be done.
“These results are really promising, it shows the population does seem to be increasing, but the numbers are still very low,” he said.
“The genetic testing is exciting, but it’s still in its infancy and needs to be corroborated.”
Dwyer said grey nurse sharks were slow to reproduce and remained vulnerable to both recreational and commercial fishing.
He said more research into aggregation sites would inform new green zones, and called for divers to submit sightings and photographs to research projects like Spot a Shark.
“Particularly those spot patterns on their sides … that allows us to get a better understanding of shark interactions with fishing gear and how sharks are faring in terms of population numbers,” he said.
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National Parks Traveler
California Taking Steps To Protect Threatened And Endangered Species
By NPT Staff, September 12, 2025
Concerns that the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans will try to weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has prompted state legislation in California to protect listed species.
The measure, awaiting Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature, “protects endangered and threatened species in California from federal rollbacks and streamlines protections under the California Endangered Species Act for federally listed species that have been substantially impacted by federal rollbacks,” according to a release from Assemblymember Nick Schultz (D-Burbank).
The Trump administration already has taken some steps to weaken the ESA. Earlier this year it initiated steps to redefine what it means to “harm” a threatened or endangered species. Staff at the Center For Biological Diversity say that under that change “harm” would “no longer be interpreted to include habitat destruction.”
“There’s just no way to protect animals and plants from extinction without protecting the places they live, yet the Trump administration is opening the flood gates to immeasurable habitat destruction,” said Noah Greenwald, the organization’s codirector of endangered species, back in April.
The Republican-led Congress also is striving to overhaul the Endangered Species Act itself in ways that would weaken species protections. This week U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-OR), introduced a bill that seeks to delist gray wolves in currently protected areas of Oregon and Washington from the Endangered Species Act.
“This bill is the latest in a series of attacks on gray wolves that are senselessly attempting to strip protections away while the species continues to recover,” said Colin Reynolds, senior advisor to the Northwest program at Defenders of Wildlife. “As has been reported in both Oregon and Washington’s most recent annual wolf reports, wolves have not yet reached a sustainable population threshold, making this bill nonsensical and a direct affront to science and continued recovery efforts.”
Under the ESA, the gray wolf is listed as endangered in most of the Lower 48, threatened in Minnesota, and is not listed in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming and portions of Washington, Oregon and Utah.
The half-century-old ESA protects such vulnerable plants and animals as grizzly bears in Yellowstone, tiny birds found only in Hawaii’s tropical forests, blubbery-looking manatees in Florida, and close to 1,000 rare plants across the country. Signed by then-President Richard Nixon, the ESA is the government’s promise to fend off their extinction.
Under the act listed species are due recovery plans and myriad survival aids — things like habitat protection and restoration, removal of invasive predators and non-native vegetation, and even captive-breeding efforts to push their populations back from the maw of extinction. The strategies often spark conflict over use of land that’s also in demand for non-conservation goals. During his first term, Trump redefined what constitutes critical habitat for listed species and allowed economic impacts to be considered when listing species. The Biden administration partially reversed the changes, but it’s expected Trump will revert the rules.
Schultz said he was motivated to draft the legislation because “California is home to more species of plants and animals than any other state in the nation, and for decades we’ve protected our most vulnerable native and iconic species through the California Endangered Species Act.”
“With threats looming at the federal level, AB 1319 bolsters those protections with a thoughtful, science-based process to shield at-risk species from federal rollbacks and strengthens our ability to stop the illegal trade of fish and wildlife in our state,” the legislator added in a release. “I’m grateful to my colleagues for their support and look forward to Governor Newsom signing this bill into law.”
California staff for Defenders of Wildlife said threats to the federal ESA place a responsibility on states to protect threatened and endangered species.
“If signed into law by Governor Newsom, AB 1319 will give California the opportunity to proactively respond to the imminent loss of protections by all species only protected by the federal ESA,” said Pamela Flick.
Under AB 1319, “a new, faster and more efficient process in which CDFW can quickly protect federally listed species that have been substantially impacted by federal rollbacks,” according to Defenders. “These species will remain on this new ‘provisional’ endangered species list until 2031 unless they are formally listed as state endangered or threatened through the existing listing process or they are removed from the list under the current de-listing process. AB 1319 also includes improvements to state wildlife trafficking laws by providing a state backstop if federal wildlife trafficking laws are weakened, providing more time for wildlife trafficking investigations, and updating fines and penalties for wildlife trafficking.”
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Wisconsin Public Radio
Wisconsin wolf population is up to 1,200 under revised estimates, improved tracking
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources revised population estimates following collar failures last year
By Danielle Kaeding, September 11, 2025
State wildlife regulators say Wisconsin’s wolf population has grown to more than 1,200 and appears to be stabilizing, according to revised population estimates.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources presented the revised estimates Thursday at the first meeting of its wolf advisory committee since a 2014 federal court ruling placed wolves back on the endangered species list.
The agency monitors wolves through winter surveys of tracks, live trapping and monitoring of GPS collars. The DNR previously estimated the state had about 1,000 wolves in 2023, but the agency didn’t produce an over-winter population estimate last year due to a lack of snow and collar failures.
Since then, the agency has switched collar companies and made improvements to its monitoring and population models, said Lydia Margenau, the DNR’s wildlife population monitoring and modeling research scientist. The revised population estimate for this year is based on a likely range between 1,087 and 1,379 wolves.
“The current population remains nearly as large and widespread as it’s been in modern time,” Margenau said. “All biological indicators point to a secure and healthy population.”
Wildlife regulators said the population has stabilized and is no longer expanding.
“The population is really settling in where we would anticipate it,” Margenau said.
DNR research has previously found the state has a biological carrying capacity of 1,242 wolves.
Randy Johnson, large carnivore specialist with the DNR, said the number of wolves is leveling off due to a number of factors, including availability of prime habitat. As those areas fill up, the animals are forced into subpar habitat, which reduces their ability to survive.
“It’s basically a combination of running out of space and some of these internal mechanisms of increased mortality, lower pup survival, things like that,” Johnson said.
He added other factors such as illegal kills might also limit the wolf population. The DNR recorded 12 wolves that were killed illegally or a third of the 36 deaths detected during the 2024-25 monitoring period. Most wolves died in vehicle collisions, which staff say is largely due to animals spreading across the landscape.
The DNR also revised population estimates from 2020 to 2024. Under the changes, the number of wolves was down from the previous two years.
The DNR’s wolf advisory committee is made up of two dozen members representing state and federal agencies, farmers, environmental groups and Wisconsin tribes. They’re tasked with providing input and recommendations to the agency on carrying out the state’s wolf management plan, as well as developing policies and harvest quotas.
Johnson said he recognized the committee might not reach consensus on wolf harvest quotas, but he urged members to work together to reach an outcome they could “live with.”
Republican lawmakers on the state Senate’s sporting heritage committee have sought changes to wolf harvest regulations that implement the DNR’s updated wolf management plan, citing concerns about the lack of a population goal.
Gov. Tony Evers recently told agency leaders not to wait for GOP-controlled committees to sign off on rules, citing a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling in July. The decision struck down parts of state law that allowed a Republican-led joint committee to indefinitely suspend rules.
In a Sept. 4 letter, the DNR said it would not change its wolf harvest regulations. Review of the rules by the Senate’s sporting heritage committee ends next week, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are seeking to remove wolves from the federal endangered species list. U.S. House Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, introduced bills this year that would require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue a rule removing federal protections for gray wolves and barring courts from reviewing the decision.
In late 2020, the Trump administration delisted the wolf, but a federal judge restored protections in February 2022. Federal wildlife regulators are appealing that decision.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is required to monitor wolf populations for five years following any delisting. In Wisconsin, a 2012 law requires a wolf hunt each year when the animal isn’t under federal protection.
Animal advocacy groups and Wisconsin tribes have expressed concerns about state management of wolves if the animals are delisted, citing the 2021 wolf hunt. In February of that year, state-licensed hunters killed 218 wolves in less than three days, going over quota.
Hunters and farmers have pointed to wolf conflicts with hunting dogs and livestock, saying nonlethal methods to manage wolves are ineffective or too costly. The DNR received more than 100 verified wolf complaints in the most recent 2024-25 monitoring period.
Agency data shows wolves killed 27 hunting hounds and two pet dogs. There were also 40 farms that had wolf conflicts involving livestock, representing a small fraction of the state’s 58,500 farms.
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Oceanographic Magazine
Critically endangered shark being sold as food in US grocery stores
Meat from great hammerhead sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks, and tope – species all listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN – has been found in samples taken from grocery stores, seafood markets, and online vendors across North Carolina in the US.
Words by Rob Hutchins, 9/10/25
US shoppers with a taste for shark meat found at grocery stores, seafood markets, and online vendors are more often than not consuming endangered species that have been erroneously labelled, a shocking new study has revealed.
According to research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as much as 93% of the study’s samples were found to be either ambiguously labelled or mislabelled entirely and included meat from 11 different shark species.
Among those identified were the great hammerhead and scalloped hammerhead sharks both of which are listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). And, despite global declines in shark populations, their meat was found to be sold to American consumers sometime for as little as $2.99 per pound.
The study’s first author and co-instructor of the seafood forensics class that conducted the research, Savannah Ryburn Ph.D, said both mislabelling and ambiguous labelling remove the ability of the consumer to choose what they are purchasing and consuming.
“For example, two species in our study – scalloped hammerhead and great hammerhead – were ambiguously labelled as ‘shark’, even though they are strongly advised against such consumption due to their very high mercury levels,” said Ryburn. “Without accurate and precise labelling, consumers cannot avoid purchasing these products.”
Shark meat is known to contain high levels of mercury which can pose serious risks to human health, particularly for children and pregnant mothers. Meanwhile, the conservation status of species such as great hammerhead sharks and the scalloped hammerhead sharks lists them as critically endangered, with some areas showing population drops of somewhere between 90 and 98%.
The study – now published in Frontiers in Marine Science – found that out of the 29 products tested, 27 were simply labelled as ‘shark’ or ‘mako shark’, without a species designation. Even among the two products that were labelled with a species name, one turned out to be incorrect.
It all highlights the major gap in seafood transparency and consumer safety, says the study’s authors.
“The United States should require seafood distributors to provide species-specific names for the products being sold,” said John Bruno Ph.D, a co-instructor of the seafood forensics class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The study contributes to a limited but growing body of research using DNA barcoding to investigate the accuracy of shark product labelling in the US while its authors join those calling for stronger regulations and oversight of seafood labelling practices not just in the US but worldwide.
“Sharks such as great and scalloped hammerheads are the ocean’s equivalent of lions, and we were shocked by how cheaply the meat of these rare, long-lived apex predators was sold,” said Ryburn. “Some samples were only $2.99 per pound.”
Samples analysed in the study included 19 filets sold in grocery stores, seafood markets, and Asian specialty markets – mostly in North Carolina – and 10 ordered online as ‘jerky’. Some 93% of those samples were ambiguously labelled while of the two that were labelled to species, one incorrectly labelled itself as blacktip shark when it was, in fact, shortfin mako shark.
Overfishing has caused dramatic declines in shark populations worldwide. As a result, one-third of shark species are threatened with extinction and designated as Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable by the IUCN. A recent study found that despite international efforts to conserve and protect sharks, global shark mortality from fishing is still rapidly increasing.
Sharks are not just harvested for their meat but also for by products such as squalene which is commonly used in moisturising skincare products. In many regions they are targeted specifically for their culturally and economically valuable fins. Although shark finning is generally considered the main threat to shark populations, the market for shark meat has been increasing globally. In fact, it has now surpassed the market for fins in terms of both volume and value.
“The troubling growth in the global trade of shark meat is due to several factors, including growing consumer demand for seafood, the overfishing of other stocks, and – quite perversely – regulations designed to reduce shark finning,” the study’s authors said.
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Columbian White-tailed Deer: A Conservation Comeback in the Pacific Northwest
Sept. 9, 2025, Written By Jodie Delavan
Once on the brink of extinction, the Columbian white-tailed deer is one step closer to a remarkable recovery in the Pacific Northwest. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed a 5-year status review for the Columbia River population of this unique subspecies and found that it has met the criteria outlined in its recovery plan. As a result, the Service is recommending the deer be removed from the federal Endangered Species List. This recommendation is not a final decision, and the subspecies remains federally listed for now. Any change in status would require a formal rulemaking process, including public comment and further scientific review.
This encouraging development marks a major milestone in the decades-long effort to save the Columbian white-tailed deer, a conservation journey defined by collaboration, science, and persistence.
From the Brink to Rebound
Columbian white-tailed deer were once plentiful in Oregon and Washington. By the 1940s, their numbers were reduced to fewer than 1,000 individuals due to habitat loss and human development. In response, the deer were among the first species listed under the Endangered Species Act.
While one population in Douglas County, Oregon, met its recovery goals and was removed from the list in 2003, the Columbia River population remained listed as endangered until it was reclassified as threatened in 2016.
Thanks to years of collaboration among federal, state, tribal, and local partners, the Columbia River population of deer have made a strong comeback. The National Wildlife Refuge System has been especially critical to this success. Established in 1971 to protect this subspecies, the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-Tailed Deer has long served as a stronghold. In recent years, translocated deer have also established a thriving population at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, helping create a stable foundation for the deer’s recovery.
In addition to refuge lands, the deer inhabit private lands, with several subpopulations located between the Julia Butler Hansen and Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuges. With funding from Bonneville Power Administration and support from state wildlife agencies, some deer were relocated to a Columbia Land Trust property, creating a vital steppingstone between Cottonwood Island and Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. This network of safe habitats has helped the deer populations expand, migrate, and stabilize.
Science Leads the Way
The Service’s recommendation to delist the Columbian white-tailed deer is grounded in the best available science, including a Population Viability Analysis (PVA) and a comprehensive independently peer-reviewed Species Status Assessment. The PVA found that the risk of extinction for the Columbia River population is extremely low, further supporting the recommendation to consider delisting.
Ongoing Stewardship and Partnerships
The success of the Columbian white-tailed deer recovery is a testament to long-standing partnerships. The Deer Working Group, which includes the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Columbia Land Trust, and others, continues to support the implementation of deer conservation efforts.
Even with the recommendation for delisting at the federal level, the deer remain listed as threatened in Washington State. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife continues to oversee the listing and recovery of species in Washington.
National Wildlife Refuges such as the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-Tailed Deer will continue managing for the subspecies well into the future, supporting habitat, monitoring population health, and fostering resilience in the face of environmental changes and other challenges.
A Conservation Win—But Not the End of the Road
“It’s incredibly exciting to see the deer reach this milestone,” said Bridget Fahey, acting Regional Director of the Pacific Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We want to acknowledge the significant role that our national wildlife refuges, state and tribal partners, and land trusts have played in this recovery. This effort shows what’s possible when we work together to recover a species.”
The story of the Columbian white-tailed deer is not just one of survival—it’s a powerful reminder of what science-based conservation and strong partnerships can achieve.
To learn more about the Columbian white-tailed deer and the recovery efforts for the Columbia River population, visit the species profile page and check out our resources on 5-year status reviews and Species Status Assessments.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Appeal Aims to Restore Lesser Prairie Chicken Endangered Species Protection
Judge Granted Trump Administration Request to Revoke Birds’ Safeguards
WASHINGTON— (September 8, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity and Texas Campaign for the Environment filed an appeal today challenging a Texas court’s decision to strip federal Endangered Species Act protection from imperiled lesser prairie chicken. The decision came in response to a Trump administration request to strike the birds’ safeguards against oil and gas development and other threats.
“Courts can’t snatch away this bird’s chance at survival just because the Trump administration wants its protection gone,” said Jason Rylander, legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “Lesser prairie chickens deserve a fair day in court when their existence is on the line. Instead the court blindly accepted the Trump administration’s bogus claim of error without even considering the opposition.”
The iconic grassland birds, known for their elaborate mating dances, finally received Endangered Species Act protection in 2022 after nearly 30 years of agency delay and litigation. The Texas and New Mexico population was listed as endangered; a separate northern population in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado was listed as threatened.
Some of the affected states, oil and gas interests, and agricultural groups challenged the rule. Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reversed its previous support of the rule, alleging there had been a “fundamental error” in the original listing decision. This was despite the rule having been developed after careful scientific review and public comment.
“The lesser prairie chicken listing was carefully considered and checked all the legal and scientific boxes,” Rylander said. “This is a pure Trump power play to put oil and gas industry profits ahead of these birds’ survival.”
Conservation groups tried twice to intervene in the case to defend the listing, demonstrate the fallacy of this alleged “error,” and oppose the Trump administration’s efforts to vacate the listing rule without public process. Judge David Counts in Texas’s Western District denied the motions to intervene and, without even holding a hearing, accepted the government’s offer to settle and vacate the rule.
The groups are appealing both the court’s denial of their right to intervene and the final order vacating the listing rule to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Background
The Center’s predecessor organization, the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, petitioned to list the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species in 1995.
In 2014, after lawsuits, the Fish and Wildlife Service finally listed lesser prairie chicken as threatened. But the following year, the oil and gas industry successfully challenged the listing in Midland, Texas, based on a poorly implemented and largely ineffective conservation agreement.
In 2016 the Center and its allies petitioned for emergency protections for lesser prairie chickens. A subsequent lawsuit by the Center and allies, and comments submitted in April 2021, led to a final rule in 2022 listing two Distinct Population Segments of the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act.
Lesser prairie chickens’ decline to a fraction of their historic numbers is the result of the degradation and fragmentation of the southern Great Plains. Conversion to crops, cattle grazing, the raising of powerlines and telephone poles, oil and gas drilling, and the incursion of woodlands, as well as drought and high temperatures linked to global warming, all harm the birds.
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ABC News
Endangered mountain frog breeding program success after years of work
By Emma Rennie, September 6, 2025
Rare and endangered mountain frogs have been released into the wild after being successfully bred in captivity for the first time.
After years of work, researchers from Southern Cross University were able to successfully breed the red and yellow mountain frog in a bid to help save the species from extinction.
Research fellow Liam Bolitho said the team had to replicate the frog’s unusual habitat — wet and muddy underground burrows in the rainforests of northern NSW and south-east Queensland.
“There’s temperature that we have to try to mimic, the substrate, plants and also the sound, so we play them frog chorusing calls that we’ve recorded from the rainforest,” Dr Bolitho said.
“All of these things we have to get perfectly right for them to breed, otherwise it’s not successful.”
The species is found on a small number of mountains, but there are distinct colouration and genetics between each population which must be carefully protected.
And with the mature adult only about three centimetres in size, associate professor David Newell said it could also be visually challenging to monitor the frogs’ development.
“They don’t have a free-swimming tadpole, so their tadpole basically just develops from the egg yolk … and when they hatch out, they’re three millimetres in size,” he said. “But to get from egg to adult breeding stage has taken us four years … so it’s a much longer project than we ever envisaged.”
Risks to mountain frogs’ future
As with many of the more than 2,000 native Australian species under threat of extinction, habitat loss, invasive species and climate change are the major threats for the mountain frog.
“When you live on a mountaintop, you’ve got a very narrow thermal niche in which your habitat exists, and as the temperature increases, you can only go so far,” Dr Newell said.
Feral pigs are exacerbating the problem.
“They go for a swim in the creek and they wallow and everything and that obviously causes damage,” Dr Bolitho said. “But if we have a drought, it dries out all the rainforest and you have drying of creeks and then pigs concentrating on where the frogs are.”
NSW National Parks and Wildlife has undertaken feral pig trapping programs and fenced off several important frog habitats, but it is also asking landholders to report pig sightings on properties adjoining national parks.
Threatened Species Commissioner Fiona Fraser said the mountain frogs were one of 110 priority species in the federal government’s Threatened Species Action Plan.
“We’re pretty keen to work with species where there’s some partnerships underway already, and in the case of the mountain frog, we’ve got these scientists from the university, NSW government and also Githabul traditional owners who are all playing a role,” she said.
“For threatened species recovery, that is one of the key ingredients for success, having enduring partnerships in place.”
A chance at survival
A small ceremony was held at a secret location in the Tooloom National Park yesterday as seven red and yellow mountain frogs were released.
Dr Bolitho said more frogs would be released and the populations would be monitored over coming years.
“There’re some really remote places that have been severely impacted and we’d like to bolster those populations, too,” he said.
As commissioner, Dr Fraser said captive breeding was not the answer for all species, but that this occasion was a cause for celebration.
“In many cases it is sort of an end-of-the-road effort where you no longer have lots of populations in the wild to draw from,” she said.
“But where you’ve got species which have really limited habitat left and their numbers are really low, captive breeding can be a really, really crucial part of keeping that species around in the wild.”
Dr Newell said that was the outcome he was hoping to see.
“Our predictions are that the climatic niche that these frogs live in is going to reduce by greater than 60 per cent by 2055 on the track that we’re on at present,” he said. “If we’re able to bolster the populations by reintroducing frogs, we’re hopeful that we will be able to help save these frogs.”
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Fox Weather
Biologists to begin capture of grizzly bears for research in Yellowstone National Park
All areas where work is being conducted will have major access points marked with bright-colored warning signs, the park said.
By Hayley Vawter, August 29, 2025
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – Biologists are set to capture grizzly bears for research in Yellowstone National Park starting on Monday and are warning visitors of the process.
The plan to capture the bears is part of an effort by the U.S. Geological Survey and Yellowstone to document the recovery of grizzlies in the Yellowstone ecosystem under the Endangered Species Act, the National Park Service said.
“Monitoring of the grizzly bear population is vital to ongoing research and management of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,” the park said.
The captures will take place starting Monday, Sept. 1 and last through Oct. 15.
Biologists use natural food sources such as recent road-killed elk and deer to bait the bears, then use culvert traps or foot snares to capture them.
Once captured, the bears are handled in accordance with strict safety and animal care protocols developed by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) and approved by the USGS, the park said.
The main objective of the scientific research and the IGBST is to monitor the status and trend of the grizzly bear population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and determine patterns of habitat use by bears, the group’s website stated. They’ll also research the relationship of land management activities to the welfare of the bear population.
All areas where work is being conducted will have major access points marked with bright-colored warning signs, the park said.
The NPS stressed the importance of park visitors heeding the warning signs and staying out of areas where warning signs have been posted.
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Seeks Public Comment on Draft Recovery Plan for Endangered Sonoyta Mud Turtle
Freshwater turtle occurs in one of the driest regions in the Southwest
Aug. 28, 2025
PHOENIX – The public can now review and comment on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s draft recovery plan for the endangered Sonoyta mud turtle, a freshwater turtle found in southern Arizona and northwestern Mexico. The recovery plan’s goal is to recover the subspecies so it no longer needs protections under the Endangered Species Act. The 30-day public comment period opens on Aug. 28 and closes on Sept. 29, 2025.
The recovery plan describes actions that are considered necessary for the recovery of the Sonoyta mud turtle, establishes downlisting and delisting criteria and estimates the time and cost to implement these recovery actions. The recovery strategy focuses on ensuring existing Sonoyta mud turtle populations continue in the wild within the U.S. and Mexico, conserving their habitat, monitoring the turtles and their habitats, improving turtle management through scientific research, increasing the number of individuals and populations, and establishing refuge populations.
Considered a small turtle, the Sonoyta mud turtle measures up to 5.2 inches (13.5 centimeters) long and has mottled patterns on its head, neck and limbs. The Service listed the subspecies as endangered in 2017. It has a limited distribution, occurring as a single population in the U.S. at Quitobaquito Springs in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, and as three to five populations in the Rio Sonoyta basin in Sonora, Mexico.
Primary threats to the turtle include the loss and decline of its aquatic and riparian habitat due to drought and groundwater pumping. Thanks to conservation measures implemented by the National Park Service and Quitobaquito Rio Sonoyta Work Group, the only Sonoyta mud turtle population in the U.S. persists.
The Service, in collaboration with stakeholders and partners, develops and implements recovery plans to support the conservation and recovery of endangered and threatened species. These are not regulatory documents, and implementation of actions is not required by the ESA. Instead, recovery plans serve as road maps with specific management actions to foster cooperation in conservation for listed species and their ecosystems.
The Service encourages the public, federal and state agencies, tribes and other stakeholders to review the Sonoyta mud turtle draft recovery plan and provide comments. Submit comments by mail to the Arizona Ecological Services Field Office, 9828 North 31st Avenue Suite C3, Phoenix, Arizona 85051 or by email at incomingAZcorr@fws.gov.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Southern Hognose Snake Proposed for Endangered Species Act Protection
Wrongly Denied Safeguards, Rare Snake Now Recommended for Threatened Listing
RALEIGH, N.C.—(August 28, 2025)—In a legal victory for the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed today to list the southern hognose snake as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. However, the proposed listing decision exempts logging and herbicide use and fails to provide critical habitat for these snakes.
Southern hognose snakes live in the coastal plains of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, but they already have disappeared completely from Alabama and Mississippi.
“It’s good that one of the South’s most distinctive and imperiled snakes will receive protections they urgently need, but I’m troubled by the loopholes in this proposal,” said Will Harlan, southeast director at the Center. “The Fish and Wildlife Service needs to remove the exemptions for logging and pesticides and designate critical habitat to give these snakes a fighting chance.”
These unique snakes have distinctive upturned snouts, which help them burrow underground, where they spend most of their lives. When threatened, they will often puff up dramatically or play dead, opening their mouths and letting their tongue hang out.
Southern hognose snakes live in the longleaf pine ecosystem, a fire-dependent forest habitat that once covered 92 million acres in the Atlantic and Gulf Coast regions. By the 21st century, 97% of longleaf pine forests had been lost to forest clearing and fire suppression.
The snakes’ remaining populations are threatened by a number of stressors, including habitat loss, urbanization, climate change, collisions with vehicles, invasive species, disease, human persecution and collection for the pet trade.
The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the Service in 2012 to protect the snake. Despite agency scientists predicting that three-quarters of its populations would be lost in the near future, the agency denied protection to the species.
The Center successfully challenged the denial in 2023 and required Fish and Wildlife Service to issue a new decision.
“We will keep fighting for these extraordinary snakes and their longleaf pine forests,” said Harlan. “These snakes cling to survival in uniquely Southern landscapes that are vital to our own health.”
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Alaska Beacon
Federal officials deny Endangered Species Act listing for rare western Alaska flower
By: James Brooks, August 26, 2025
Officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have declined to advance the listing of the Alaskan glacier buttercup flower as threatened or endangered, saying there is little evidence that a planned nearby graphite mine or climate change are threatening the flower.
The service published its determination Monday in the Federal Register alongside seven other petitions for environmental protection. Six of the petitions were deemed worthy of further study; the buttercup and the eastern population of the golden eagle were denied further review.
“We know this administration doesn’t think that climate change is a problem. It’s disappointing but it’s not surprising that they really chose to dismiss the bulk of the climate change problem here,” said Cooper Freeman, who filed the buttercup petition for the Center for Biological Diversity, a national environmental group active in Alaska.
In most cases, Endangered Species Act protection for an animal or plant will result in development restrictions in areas where that animal or plant lives.
The Alaskan glacier buttercup has been found on only a handful of rocky slopes within the Kigluaik Mountains of the Seward Peninsula.
Those slopes are near the planned site of Graphite One, a planned graphite mine intended to supply raw material for high-tech battery manufacturers outside the state.
Last year, the Center for Biological Diversity asked the federal government to protect the buttercup, citing both long-term climate change and the prospect that the mine could disrupt the flower’s habitat.
But in its analysis, the Service concluded that there is no evidence so far that construction of the mine or its supporting infrastructure would disturb the slopes where the flower can be found.
While there is some evidence that the flower could be affected by climate change and thus warrant protection, the service concluded that it isn’t clear whether climate change affecting the buttercup’s sister species would also affect the Alaskan subspecies.
“Based on our review of the petition, sources cited in the petition, and other readily available information, we find that the petition does not provide substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing the Alaskan glacier buttercup (Ranunculus glacialis subsp. alaskensis) as a threatened species/an endangered species may be warranted,” wrote the staff of the Northern Alaska Fish and Wildlife Field Office in their final analysis.
Freeman, speaking Monday by phone, said the filing was not intended to interfere with construction of the graphite mine, though he doesn’t think the mine is a good idea.
Instead, he said, the petition was one of a number of measures the center is taking in an attempt to protect plants and animals that form the foundation of Arctic ecosystems.
Other animals and plants can simply move north, or to higher elevations when their environment warms, he explained.
“For species in the Arctic, you’re already at the north end. There’s nowhere to go,” he said.
Freeman said he was alarmed by a 2023 scientific paper that estimated that by 2040, more than 60% of plant species common to the Beringian Arctic — the area around the Bering Strait — could lose some or all of their survivable range due to a warming climate.
“We could be looking at a complete demolition of the base of the Beringian Arctic ecosystem in 15 years. That’s astounding,” he said.
The paper examined 66 species of plants, and while the buttercup wasn’t one of them, he believes it’s similar enough to be threatened by the changing environment.
“We are trying to ring the alarm bells that if we don’t get a handle on this soon, it’s going to be bleak,” he said.
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Seeks Public Comment on Draft Recovery Plan for Endangered Chupadera Springsnail
Aug. 26, 2025
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking comments on the draft recovery plan for the Chupadera springsnail, an endangered freshwater snail currently found in one isolated location in Socorro County, New Mexico. The recovery plan’s goal is to recover the species so that it no longer needs protections under the Endangered Species Act. The 30-day public comment period opens on Aug. 26 and closes on Sept. 26, 2025.
The Chupadera springsnail was listed as endangered under the ESA in 2012, with critical habitat designated at its native site in the Chupadera Mountains. The species currently lives in one desert spring on private land in Socorro County, New Mexico, within the northern Chihuahuan Desert. This freshwater snail has a tan to brown shell and is tiny, measuring 0.06 to 0.12 inches (1.6 to 3 millimeters) long. The species’ most significant threats are unmanaged livestock grazing, groundwater pumping, spring modifications, and water pollution.
The Service, in collaboration with stakeholders and partners, develops and implements recovery plans to support the conservation and recovery of endangered and threatened species. These are not regulatory documents, and implementation of actions is not required by the ESA. Instead, recovery plans serve as road maps with specific management actions to foster cooperation in conservation for listed species and their ecosystems. The draft recovery plan defines actions that contribute to the recovery of the Chupadera springsnail, describes the time and cost estimates for implementing those actions, and outlines objective and measurable criteria for downlisting and delisting.
A crucial component of this recovery plan is the restoration and protection of the Chupadera springsnail’s aquatic habitat. Water is necessary for the viability of this freshwater snail, as it is a fully aquatic species that uses gills to breathe. In addition, the species does not disperse from one habitat to another without assistance, due to its small size and dependence on isolated springs.
The draft recovery plan’s strategy includes ensuring adequate water quantity and quality, managing and protecting the species’ aquatic habitat, addressing threats to the species, increasing knowledge about the species, collaborating with partners and stakeholders to achieve conservation goals, and engaging in community outreach.
The Service encourages the public, federal and state agencies, tribes, and other stakeholders to review the Chupadera springsnail’s draft recovery plan and provide comments.Submit comments by mail to the New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office, 2105 Osuna Road NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87113 or by email at nmesfo@fws.gov.
The Chihuahuan Desert is a priority ecoregion for global conservation, and its desert spring systems have high biodiversity, including sensitive, rare aquatic invertebrates. The Service will work cooperatively with partners, private landowners and other stakeholders to minimize or eliminate threats to the Chupadera springsnail and to close knowledge gaps that are critical for informing recovery efforts.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Leatherback Sea Turtle Habitat in Puerto Rico One Step Closer to Protection
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—(August 25, 2025)—As a result of a petition filed by conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that nesting habitat for leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in Puerto Rico may warrant protection as designated critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act. The revised habitat would protect three important leatherback nesting beaches in Puerto Rico and may also include several other beaches on the island.
Friday’s decision, known as a 90-day finding, is the first procedural step toward protecting leatherback nesting beaches on Puerto Rico’s California Beach, Maunabo; Tres Hermanos Beach, Añasco; and Grande Beach, Arecibo. The Fish and Wildlife Service must now conduct a thorough review of the best available science before determining whether to increase habitat protections under the Endangered Species Act.
Amigos de las Tortugas Marinas, Vida Marina Center for Conservation and Ecological Restoration, Yo Amo el Tinglar and the Center for Biological Diversity submitted the petition in February 2024.
“After 25 years of hard work and community collaboration to protect leatherback turtles and the California beach in Maunabo, we are proud that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recognized the importance of this beach for the species. We are deeply grateful to all the volunteers who have worked with us over the years — this achievement belongs to all of you. Special thanks to the Center for Biological Diversity, Mr. Carlos Diez from Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, and Dr. Jessica Castro for their invaluable support,” said Luis Crespo, president of Amigos de las Tortugas Marinas and Puerto Rico WIDECAST country coordinator.
“We are excited to see the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recognize the significance of our local nesting beaches for leatherback sea turtles. This consideration for nesting critical habitat is crucial for the protection of these endangered turtles in Añasco and the other areas,” Mariela Muñoz, director of Vida Marina Center for Conservation and Ecological Restoration at the University of Puerto Rico. “We are dedicated to enhancing our conservation efforts and collaborating with the community to ensure these vital habitats are preserved for future generations.”
“We are very grateful for this advancement in the process and truly believe it will play an important role in ensuring the safety and protection of the beaches involved,” said Myrna Concepción, project leader from Comité Arecibeño por la Conservacion de las Tortugas Marinas, known as “Yo Amo el Tinglar.” “For over 10 years Yo Amo el Tinglar has been collecting data across multiple nesting beaches, with Playa Grande consistently documented as the most used nesting site by leatherbacks, yet it remains the most vulnerable to habitat loss due to the sale of adjacent lands and habitat destruction. For this reason, we deeply value the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to launch a biological status review and consider the revision of critical habitat. We also recognize the importance of providing supplementary information during this process and will gladly contribute any relevant data to support the agency’s efforts.”
“We are glad the U.S. federal government recognizes the importance of these nesting beaches for leatherback sea turtles and is willing to provide additional protection by considering them as part of the ‘nesting critical habitat,’” said Carlos E. Diez, Sea Turtle Project coordinator at the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources and member of the IUCN Sea Turtle Specialist Group. “This action encourages us to continue our management and conservation efforts to help recover this endangered species.”
“Designating the most important nesting beaches for leatherbacks in Puerto Rico as critical habitats would be a key step toward the recovery of this endangered species,” said Jessica Castro, Ph.D., former Caribbean Conservation Coordinator at the National Wildlife Refuge Association, a contributor to the petition.
“I’m encouraged that the Service will consider protecting more nesting beaches for leatherbacks in the Caribbean,” said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “To secure a future for these massive turtles, their most vital habitat in Puerto Rico must be protected.”
Leatherback sea turtles are the largest turtles in the world and existed at the same time as dinosaurs. They are highly migratory, travelling thousands of miles a year, and they can dive to great depths — nearly 4,000 feet.
Leatherbacks have been federally protected as endangered since 1970. They are threatened by fishing gear bycatch, direct harvest, habitat destruction, ocean pollution, vessel strikes and climate change. A recent federal review of leatherback sea turtle science concluded that all seven distinct populations of leatherback sea turtles worldwide remain endangered.
The leatherback sea turtle currently has terrestrial critical habitat on just one stretch of beach at Sandy Point, St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and marine critical habitat in waters off Sandy Point in the North Atlantic Ocean, and off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington in the Pacific Ocean.
Puerto Rico, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands host the most important nesting beaches for leatherback sea turtles under U.S. jurisdiction.
Species with federally protected critical habitat are more than twice as likely to recover as species without it. The Endangered Species Act requires federal agencies to ensure any activities they authorize do not destroy or damage areas essential for the survival of endangered animals and plants.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Southern Cascades Sierra Nevada Red Fox, Three River Mollusks Move Toward Endangered Species Protection
West Coast Fisher Again Denied Protection
PORTLAND, Ore.—(August 22, 2025)—In response to advocacy from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced positive 90-day findings on petitions to protect the southern Cascades Sierra Nevada red fox and three mollusks — cinnamon juga, Great Basin ramshorn and montane peaclam — under the Endangered Species Act. The Service now has one year to decide whether to protect these animals, who have suffered extreme population declines.
The Service today also denied protections for the Northern California-southern Oregon population of fishers despite drastic threats facing the rare forest carnivores.
“I’m ecstatic that this population of red foxes and these freshwater mollusks are one step closer to receiving vital protection in our rapidly warming world,” said Tara Zuardo, a senior advocate at the Center. “I’m also deeply concerned about the fisher and the old-growth forests they call home. These carnivores needed Endangered Species Act protection decades ago.”
Like other freshwater species facing extinction, the mollusks have small habitats with highly restricted ranges. They are threatened by pollution, overuse of water, warming stream temperatures because of climate change, and habitat degradation from livestock grazing, agriculture and development. Their very limited ranges make them especially vulnerable to any habitat disturbances.
The southern Cascades population of the Sierra Nevada red fox once ranged throughout high-elevation areas of the Cascades in forests and alpine meadows. However, the species has been lost from large portions of their range, including Mt. Shasta. Today the fox is threatened by habitat loss caused by fires, logging, livestock grazing and development, as well as increased recreation and climate change which are destroying the foxes’ mountaintop habitat.
Fishers are mid-sized forest carnivores. The Northern California-southern Oregon distinct population segment of the fisher is now limited to two native populations in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains, plus another in Northern California and southwestern Oregon. Their range has been significantly reduced due to logging, historic trapping, rodenticide poisoning and climate change.
The Service also announced today that two foreign species — the painted woolly bat of South and Southeast Asia and a freshwater turtle from Indonesia — may warrant protections due to trade. Known for their striking orange and black wings, painted woolly bats are in demand for goth décor in the United States.
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Determines Northern California–Southern Oregon Fisher Not Warranted for Federal Protection
August 22, 2025
PORTLAND, Ore. – Following a thorough review of the best available scientific and commercial information, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that listing the Northern California-Southern Oregon distinct population segment of fisher under the Endangered Species Act is not warranted.
Although fishers face threats including wildfire and toxicants, the Service found that the Northern California–Southern Oregon is not currently in danger of extinction or likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. This assessment considered population trends, distribution, connectivity and habitat conditions across the DPS.
“The Service’s decision reflects a rigorous science-based assessment of the species and the power of collaborative stewardship,” said the Service’s Oregon State Supervisor Kessina Lee. “While threats to fisher remain, coordinated efforts across public and private lands are helping to sustain and support this population.”
Fishers are managed as a sensitive species across many federal lands, which are roughly half of this population’s range. Additionally, several tribal governments recognize the cultural importance of fishers and have incorporated fisher-specific considerations into forest management practices. These practices support the restoration of old-forest structures such as retaining cavities in large trees and preserving woody debris — while enhancing overall habitat and forest health.
Long-term voluntary conservation planning has occurred with state and private partners, resulting in candidate conservation agreements with assurances covering more than 3.4 million acres and habitat conservation plans spanning over 575,000 acres. These partnerships with the timber industry and other land managers include a wide range of measures that actively contribute to the protection and recovery of fishers in the region.
The Service remains committed to collaborating with state and federal agencies tribes and industry partners to support the long-term conservation and resilience of fishers, while also promoting sustainable, productive working lands.
A notice of this finding and relevant documents will be available on August 25 in the Federal Register at www. federalregister.gov or http://www.regulations.gov by searching docket number FWS–R1–ES–2023–0123.
For more information on fisher, please visit: https://www.fws.gov/species/fisher-pekania-pennanti.
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ABC News
4 giraffe species officially recognized in major conservation shift
New classification could trigger urgent protection as three species face threat.
By Dakota Bennett, August 21, 2025
LONDON — Giraffes, long considered a single species, have now been recognized as four genetically distinct species in a major decision by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that scientists say could reshape conservation efforts across Africa.
The announcement comes after more than a decade of research by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) and Germany’s Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre where scientists found that the genetic differences between the four species — Masai, northern, reticulated, and southern — are as significant as those between brown bears and polar bears.
“This recognition is more than academic,” said Dr. Julian Fennessy, GCF’s Director of Conservation. “Each giraffe species faces different threats, and now we can tailor conservation strategies to meet their specific needs.”
The most at-risk is the northern giraffe, with fewer than 6,000 individuals left in the wild, while the reticulated giraffe, mostly found in northern Kenya, is estimated at around 16,000 — though that is more than a 50% decrease from the 36,000 individuals estimated to have lived 35 years ago.
The Masai giraffe, a common sight in Tanzania’s national parks, has a population of approximately 45,400. Only the southern giraffe, whose numbers count approximately 49,850 individuals, is considered relatively stable by GCF.
According to GCF’s 2025 status report, giraffes have disappeared from almost 90% of the regions once considered prime habitats, including several West African countries where they are now extinct.
“This announcement will surprise many — how could we have overlooked something so fundamental?” said Fennessy. “But it underscores the importance of combining fieldwork with genetics to drive real-world conservation outcomes.”
The current classification had remained unchanged since 1758, when all giraffes were placed under a single species. That view persisted until 2016 when researchers first published genetic data suggesting deeper divisions.
The studies involved DNA samples from thousands of giraffes collected across 21 African countries, along with a recently published morphological study of giraffe skulls. The findings led the IUCN’s Giraffe and Okapi Specialist Group to formally recognize four species this week.
“To describe four new large mammal species after more than 250 years of taxonomy is extraordinary,” said Prof. Axel Janke. “Especially for animals as iconic as giraffe, which roam Africa in plain sight.”
The new classification could lead to a change in global conservation policies and each species will now be independently assessed for the IUCN Red List, opening the door to targeted protections under agreements like the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which is currently considering a listing for giraffes.
The move also allows countries to potentially direct conservation funding more precisely.
The GCF says the next step is to implement species-specific strategies, including habitat protection, anti-poaching patrols and community conservation, instead of treating giraffes as a uniform population.
“What a tragedy it would be to lose a species we only just learned existed,” said Stephanie Fennessy, GCF’s Executive Director.
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Center for Biological Diversity
North American Environmental Commission Confirms Mexico’s Role in Imperiling Vaquita
MONTREAL—(August 19, 2025)—A commission under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement released a report today confirming that Mexico’s unwillingness to enforce its own wildlife protection and trade laws is driving the extinction of the critically endangered vaquita porpoise.
In its “factual record,” the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, which investigates nations’ environmental enforcement under the USMCA, detailed how illegal gillnet fishing and totoaba trafficking continue unabated in the porpoise’s Upper Gulf of California refuge.
“This report confirms a heartbreaking reality. Illegal gillnet fishing is squeezing the last breaths out of the poor vaquita,” said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Mexico needs to shut down all gillnet fishing immediately and start round-the-clock enforcement throughout the vaquita’s habitat to give these little porpoises even a sliver of hope to avoid extinction.”
The CEC Secretariat’s factual record found that Mexico’s claims that it is taking enforcement actions are undermined or not supported by on-the-ground observations. For example, despite Mexico’s ban on certain fishing gear since 2020, interviews and eyewitness accounts confirmed that “fishing activities continue at the similar levels and with the same [gear] as before the restrictions,” the report said.
The Secretariat also found that fishermen “elude” fishing bans in the vaquita habitat by sending their illegal catch to processors in other regions. Mexico has failed to provide sufficient information, the report said, leaving central enforcement questions unanswered.
Fewer than 10 vaquitas remain. Earlier this summer, hydroacoustic devices in the porpoise’s habitat recorded 41 acoustic encounters with vaquitas, proving that the species continues to survive in its core habitat, called the “zero tolerance area,” as well as in the larger vaquita refuge. While efforts to prevent illegal fishing in the zero tolerance area have been successful in recent years, gillnet fishing remains rampant outside the area.
The use of illegal gillnets to catch shrimp and totoaba has caused the vaquita’s decline. Totoaba are large fish whose swim bladder, or maw, is in high demand in Asia due to its purported medicinal value.
“The commission’s report documents how insatiable demand for totoaba maw incentivizes the illegal take of this endangered species,” said DJ Schubert, senior wildlife biologist at the Animal Welfare Institute. “Transnational criminal networks engaged in the trafficking of totoaba parts won’t stop until Mexico and its trade partners step up enforcement and prosecute the kingpins.”
Under a Compliance Action Plan adopted by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Mexico was required to expand vessel inspections, install satellite monitoring units on vessels, and develop alternative gear to replace gillnets. Little progress has been made, however. As of June, Mexican officials had fitted only 10 of the 850 promised satellite trackers to monitor small boats fishing in the Upper Gulf.
In 2021, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Animal Welfare Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Investigation Agency petitioned the USMCA commission to investigate Mexico’s failure to enforce its fishing and trade laws. The CEC Secretariat called for the development of a factual record in 2022. Political wrangling between Mexico, the United States and Canada delayed the report’s completion for three years.
“This report makes painfully clear what we’ve known for years — Mexico’s failure to enforce its own laws is driving the world’s rarest marine mammal to extinction,” said Michael Jasny, director of NRDC’s Marine Mammal Protection Project. “There’s no time left for half-measures. The U.S. must use every tool under the USMCA to hold Mexico accountable and stop the illegal fishing that’s pushing the vaquita over the edge.”
“Stronger actions through the USMCA remain our last chance at giving the near-extinct vaquita any glimmer of hope at survival,” states CT Harry, EIA’s senior ocean policy analyst. “With the Mexican government’s continued failure to prevent illegal gillnet operations, time is running out before these unique animals take their final breaths.”
Now that the report is public, the United States, through its Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, can use the information to further press Mexico to combat illegal fishing in ongoing USMCA consultations. If those negotiations stall, the office can escalate to a dispute panel, which can authorize import penalties until Mexico fully enforces the gillnet ban in vaquita habitat.
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World Animal Protection
TikTok Linked to Illegal Sale of Endangered Pangolins
New research exposes TikTok’s role in the illegal wild meat trade in Togo, putting pangolins and other endangered species at risk.
19 August 2025
An investigation by World Animal Protection has revealed that endangered wildlife is being openly sold through TikTok in Togo, West Africa.
Researchers found traders based in the capital, Lomé, using the social media platform to advertise and sell dead wild animals, including the endangered white-bellied pangolin.
The study, conducted between November 2022 and April 2024, examined 80 videos from two public TikTok accounts. These videos featured more than 3,500 carcasses of smoked wild animals, including at least 130 white-bellied pangolins.
The species is classified as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is protected under international law through a ban on global commercial trade.
Despite these legal protections, researchers found no evidence of enforcement on the platform. The videos reached nearly 1.8 million views, were liked over 53,000 times, and shared more than 6,000 times.
The most viewed video, which showed smoked pangolins, had been watched more than 216,000 times.
Social media shifting the scale of the wildlife trade
Dr Angie Elwin, Head of Research at World Animal Protection, said the platform is accelerating a shift in how illegal wildlife products are being sold.
“We are seeing social media becoming the new marketplace for endangered wildlife. It is easily accessible and massively unregulated, placing a direct threat to species’ survival.
TikTok’s current failure to enforce its own rules is giving traders access to global buyers and puts endangered species, like white-bellied pangolins, a few clicks away from extinction.
The white-bellied pangolin, also known as Phataginus tricuspis, is one of the most trafficked mammals in the world.
Its meat and scales are used in some forms of traditional medicine, particularly across parts of Africa and Asia. Although international trade is banned, the study found that local and regional demand is now a growing driver of the wildlife trade.
Some TikTok videos encouraged consumers to choose wild meat for its taste or supposed health benefits, contributing to the normalisation of illegal activity.
Public health and animal welfare concerns
Alongside conservation risks, researchers warned of the public health dangers linked to the handling and consumption of wild animals.
Some of the species featured in the videos, including pangolins, rodents, mongooses and jackals, are known carriers of zoonotic pathogens. These diseases can pass from animals to humans and have the potential to spark future health crises.
Animal welfare was also identified as a major concern. Evidence from previous cases suggests that pangolins and other species are often subjected to extreme cruelty.
Reports include animals being boiled alive or burned to remove scales.
A growing global threat
Lead researcher Delagnon Assou, from the University of Lomé, said the wild meat trade in West and Central Africa has traditionally served local communities, but is now being reshaped by global demand.
“In West and Central Africa, wild meat has long been valued for its taste, cultural importance, and role in local livelihoods. But the rise of social media sales is transforming the scale and nature of this trade.
What was once a largely local, traditional practice is now reaching audiences far beyond national borders. This shift raises urgent concerns – not just for the survival of wild species, but also for public health, sustainability, and the communities that depend on wildlife.
Calls for urgent action
The latest research calls for immediate steps to be taken by TikTok, governments and conservation authorities.
It recommends that TikTok improve enforcement of its Community Guidelines, develop automated systems to detect illegal content, and provide in-app education on endangered species.
It also urges national governments to invest in alternative livelihoods, harmonise and enforce wildlife laws, and improve monitoring of online marketplaces.
Public education campaigns are needed to help reduce demand and increase awareness of the legal and ethical consequences of wildlife consumption, particularly among urban consumers.
Dr Elwin said the situation demands a global response.
“Online platforms are driving new patterns of demand, especially among urban consumers, and posing fresh challenges for enforcement and regulation. If social media platforms don’t act, extinction could unfold in real-time on their apps. This is a wake-up call. We must ensure platforms like TikTok do not become safe havens for wildlife traders. We need bold action – not just in Africa, but globally.”
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WCIA-TV (Champaign, IL)
Illinois scientists reassess threatened species for first time in nearly 40 years
by: Molly Sweeney, Aug. 14, 2025
HAMPAIGN-URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — For the first time in nearly four decades, a team of Illinois scientists reassessed the endangered or threatened status of plants in the state. The team, led by researchers from the University of Illinois, found that although three plant species have been wiped out in the Illinois, many others are faring better than previously thought.
Scientists from the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources began updating conservation status ranks — also known as S-ranks — two years ago. S-ranks are based on factors like rarity, threats, and trends. The last time Illinois updated S-ranks was 1987.
Brian Charles, an INHS scientists who led the effort, said the team began with data from a national network of scientists that work to preserve threatened species. The researchers also gathered records from regional conservation districts, interviewed local experts, and searched for rare species in the field.
“Going out to find historical records is kind of like a rare-plant treasure hunt,” Charles told the University of Illinois News Bureau.
After collecting and analyzing the data, the team updated the S-ranks for each species. The team learned that the Laurentian fragile fern, the small whorled pogonia, and a plant known as goosefoot corn salad have been wiped out in Illinois. But, they also learned that 71 species are now less endangered than they were in 1987. Only three species are more endangered today, compared to 40 years ago.
The improved outlook for some of these plants could be attributed to better survey methods and documenting.
“There are a lot more folks on the ground looking, so of course, we’re going to find more populations of these plants,” Charles said. “Many species are still not doing well at the individual population level but are simply less rare overall than we previously thought. And some of the rare plants that are increasing are in areas that are being managed to preserve them, so their comeback is evidence that such approaches are working.”
States often serve as the first line of defense in identifying declining or threatened plant population. And, the work states do to document the status of their plants help create federal threatened and endangered lists. Currently, eight Illinois plant species that are threatened or endangered are also listed at the federal level.
Charles said the list has important implications for the future. It can allow states to help each other save plants from extinction. If one state has a thriving population of a rare plant, it could share seeds with another state where the species is declining.
Charles also encouraged Illinois residents to volunteer with organizations dedicated to monitor and help endangered plants, like Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves or with Plants of Concern.
“I should note that this project was possible due to the regional, national and international expertise of the botanical team at INHS, including Paul Marcum, David Zaya, Greg Spyreas, Eric Ulaszek and Brenda Molano-Flores,” Charles said.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Five-Year Status Review Recommends Delisting of Lloyd’s Mariposa Cactus
Big win for tiny plant found only in southwestern Texas and eastern/central Mexico
Aug 14, 2025
AUSTIN, Texas – Lloyd’s mariposa cactus shows signs of full recovery after a rigorous five-year status review, part of the process mandated by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s review recommends to the Secretary of the Interior removal of the cactus from federal protections under the ESA due to recovery. This finding is based on the best available scientific and commercial information and reflects ongoing conservation efforts and improved scientific data on the species. A five-year review does not automatically change a species’ protections or status; it only presents recommendations.
The range of Lloyd’s mariposa cactus is in Brewster County, Texas, and Coahuila, Mexico, at an elevation of about 2,100 to 3,800 feet. The Service listed the cactus as a threatened species in 1979, with commercial harvesting causing the biggest threat to its survival. The Service has determined that threats to the species have been eliminated or sufficiently reduced to the point that the species no longer meets the definition of a threatened or endangered species under the ESA.
Progress toward recovering Lloyd’s mariposa cactus has been made through close partnerships with local governments, state and federal agencies, private organizations as well as the federal government of Mexico. In addition, the degree of threat is now known to be less than when the cactus was listed. Several large populations have recently been documented at protected sites, including Big Bend National Park, Black Gap Wildlife Management Area, and Big Bend Ranch State Park. The species has also been documented at the Area de Protección de Flora y Fauna (Flora and Fauna Protection Area; APFF) Ocampo and APFF Cuatro Ciénegas in the Mexican State of Coahuila. These conservation areas on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border will continue to conserve these populations and their habitats. In addition, recent scientific data indicate the species is more abundant than previously known at the time of listing.
Lloyd’s mariposa cactus thrives in full sun within the open desert scrublands, and sweat bees likely pollinate its white to pink flowers. The plant is covered with white to gray spines; its stems form a globe-like shape that reaches up to 4 inches (10.1 cm) in height by 2.4 inches (6.1 cm) in diameter.
The Service conducts five-year status reviews of listed species to ensure that classifications under the ESA are current and, where appropriate, may recommend changes in status. The reviews are based on the best available scientific and commercial data and involve contributions from scientific experts, including an independent peer and technical review by federal, state, and local partners as well as academic researchers.
The Lloyd’s mariposa cactus is still currently listed as a threatened species and may be removed from the ESA list in the future through a transparent rulemaking process, which would include public review and comment. The five-year status review for the species can be found online and more information about the species is on the Service’s website.
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Sierra Club
Sierra Club Statement on Ruling Stripping Endangered Bird Species of ESA Protections
August 14, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A federal court in Texas has granted the Trump administration’s request to remove protections for the lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered Species Act.
The ruling came in a lawsuit by the State of Texas and various oil and gas industry groups against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its 2022 rule granting ESA protections to the species. The Trump Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to defend the lawsuit and asked the court to vacate the rule, arguing the Biden administration listing was defective. The court denied intervention by environmental groups who sought to defend the rule or prevent its vacatur, which meant no party in the lawsuit objected to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s about face or acted to protect the species.
The Trump administration has consistently worked to undermine the half-century old law, which has protected imperiled wildlife from the fate of extinction, including bald eagles and grizzly bears.
In response, Ben Greuel, Sierra Club’s Wildlife Campaign Manager, released the following statement:
“The Trump administration has demonstrated it is no friend to wildlife. If a decision comes down to protecting an imperiled species or padding corporate bottom lines, Donald Trump will side with corporate polluters every time. This administration is creating an increasingly hostile environment towards wildlife across the country the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades, and Sierra Club will keep working to stop their anti-wildlife agenda dead in its tracks.”
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Honolulu Civil Beat
Report: Hawaiʻi’s False Killer Whales Trending Toward Extinction
A new report finds that efforts to protect the dolphins are not working. Experts blame both fishing vessels and NOAA.
By Marcel Honoré / August 14, 2025
Thirteen years ago, the Main Hawaiian Islands’ dwindling population of false killer whales was officially declared endangered, a move intended to help their numbers recover after years of getting hooked and tangled in nets, mostly set by nearshore commercial fishers.
But instead of rebounding, a new report finds, the vulnerable group has only continued to shrink at a troubling pace.
The report, published Thursday in the journal Endangered Species Research, estimates that the unique population of false killer whales inhabiting the waters around the main islands has shrunk from about 184 individuals in 2012, when it was listed under the Endangered Species Act, to 139 members in 2022.
That’s an average population loss of 3.5% a year at a time when federal and state fisheries managers were supposed to be taking meaningful steps to better protect the mammals and boost their numbers.
“There’s been no specific changes to the way the fisheries are managed,” said Robin Baird, a biologist with the nonprofit Cascadia Research Collective, who helped lead the new study. “There’s been a lot of talk but no action.”
Baird and Kealoha Pisciotta, a Hawaiʻi island-based cultural practitioner, both expressed frustration this week with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s regional Pacific Islands office. They urged it to step up with protections against hookings and entanglements.
False killer whales are actually dolphins that resemble orcas that prey on the same large tuna species prized by fishing boats. The population that hugs the Main Hawaiian Islands thrived there, researchers believe, for thousands of years.
Their decline in Hawaiian waters, likely due to run-ins with those fishing boats, is especially worrisome for a marine mammal species that’s slow to reproduce. Baird said female false killer whales don’t start birthing calves until they reach about 10 years old, then only have a new calf once every six or seven years.
Now, Baird said, the local group is trending toward going extinct unless state and federal fishing managers take meaningful action. It probably won’t happen in his lifetime, said Baird, who’s 61. But it might happen, he said, in his 8-year-old son Bryson’s lifetime.
‘They Came Before Us’
There are actually two other groups of false killer whales that live or visit Hawaiian waters. One inhabits the waters around the Northwestern Hawaiian islands, and another pelagic group migrates between the islands and the deep ocean.
Only the population that hugs the Main Hawaiian Islands chain is listed as endangered. In fact, according to Baird, itʻs the world’s only endangered population of false killer whales.
False killer whales and other marine animals are important in Hawaiian culture, Pisciotta said, largely because they serve as ‘aumakua, or ancestral spirits, to many local families.
“They came before us” in the Hawaiian creation chant, the Kumulipo, said Pisciotta, who co-founded the grassroots marine protection group Kai Palaoa and sometimes responds to whale and dolphin beach strandings.
In that chant, “they helped bring us into being,” Pisciotta said of whales and dolphins. Dolphins, she added, are seen across the islands as messengers.
Researchers have previously released reports estimating numbers of the Main Hawaiian Islands false killer whales, but Thursday’s report is the first to actually examine the trends in those numbers, Baird said, since the group was listed as endangered.
It was completed with satellite tagging data, he said, along with data from annual surveys and photographs taken on the water.
Researchers and federal officials alike believe the biggest threats to the Main Hawaiian Islands’ false killer whales are likely the commercial fishing vessels that operate in the same waters tens of miles offshore.
The biggest hot spots for clashes between those boats’ fishing gear and the false killer whales, according to a separate 2021 Cascadia study, are in the waters just north of Molokaʻi and the northwest Kohala tip of the Big Island.
But those nearshore commercial fishing vessels, unlike the more heavily scrutinized Hawaiʻi longline fleet that fishes in distant waters, lack observers to report those encounters where the false animals get hooked, tangled, maimed or killed.
Instead, evidence of the incidents has been chronicled over the years in photos that Baird and other researchers have taken of the false killer whales that survived with maimed fins and gashes across their mouths and bodies.
NOAA fishery officials, meanwhile, have estimated that to recover the Main Hawaiian Islands group needs to grow to at least 406 individuals.
That estimate comes from a 2021 recovery plan. Beyond issuing such plans, Baird said, NOAA has taken no meaningful actions to address threats caused by commercial fishing.
NOAA representatives this week did not directly respond to Baird’s assertions. Instead, they said via email that NOAA fisheries will release information related to the study after it’s published on Thursday.
Baird, during a lecture earlier this week at the Hatfield Science Center in Oregon, said that he thought fishery officials had avoided taking action since 2012 to avoid any potential political blowback as well as the ire of the local fishing industry.
“It’s a politically unpopular thing to do,” Baird said, “and would require a lot of willingness to piss off people which a lot of people on the management side haven’t been willing to do.”
During the past three years, he added, research surveys have failed to identify any new individual members of the Main Hawaiian Islands’ false killer whale population.
Pisciotta also pressed NOAA’s fishery officials to finally put protective measures in place.
“Nobody’s against fishing,” she said. “We’re just against not doing it thoughtfully, you know?”
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Center for Biological Diversity
Southern California Butterfly Declared Endangered Species Candidate
SACRAMENTO, Calif.—(August 13, 2025)—The California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously today to declare the Quino checkerspot butterfly a candidate species under the California Endangered Species Act, granting protections for the small butterfly as the state conducts further review.
Today’s decision comes after the Center for Biological Diversity and the Endangered Habitats League petitioned the commission to list the imperiled butterfly as endangered due to its extreme population declines. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife will now conduct a review to determine whether Quino checkerspot butterflies should receive permanent protections under the Act.
“I applaud the commission for recognizing the Quino’s plight. These colorful butterflies are fluttering toward extinction, but there’s still hope,” said Sofia Prado-Irwin, PhD, a staff scientist at the Center. “I’m relieved the Quino is now better protected and I look forward to the day these protections are permanent.”
Known for its red, black and cream-colored checkered wings, Quino checkerspot butterflies were once easily spotted throughout Southern California. But sprawl development, climate change, pollution, invasive species and border wall construction continue to threaten the species’ survival.
Quino checkerspot butterflies are now only found in a few small and fragmented populations in San Diego and Riverside counties.
“The Quino checkerspot butterfly was once one of the most common butterflies in Southern California,” said Dan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League. “This action by the Fish and Game Commission will help keep this unique animal part of the world we all share.”
The butterflies will receive state protections while the department determines whether to formally protect them.
Quino checkerspot butterflies were listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1997. The Trump administration’s ongoing attempts to weaken the ESA demonstrate that federal protections alone cannot be relied upon to protect the butterfly or any of California’s imperiled species, making state protection essential.
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes Threatened Status for Borneo Earless Monitor Lizard Under Endangered Species Act
Aug. 13, 2025
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes listing the Borneo earless monitor as a threatened species with a 4(d) rule under the Endangered Species Act. The Borneo earless monitor is a lizard species endemic to the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia.
Earless monitors are threatened by overcollection for the pet trade and deforestation, and existing regulatory mechanisms offer inadequate protections due to a lack of enforcement. Over the past 50 years, Borneo has experienced the world’s highest rate of deforestation, losing approximately 50% of its primary forests since 1973.
The proposed 4(d) rule applies standard section 9(a)(1) prohibitions with exceptions for activities related to legal export, import, and foreign or interstate commerce that comply with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
The Borneo earless monitor is rarely seen due to its secretive nature. It is nocturnal, burrows underground, lives partly in water, and can enter a semi-torpid state, remaining dormant for up to eight days. The species occupies flat, lowland areas and is reliant on freshwater streams in tropical rainforests.
The proposed rule will publish in the Federal Register on Aug. 14, 2025, opening a 60-day comment period. The Service will accept comments received or postmarked before Oct. 14, 2025. The proposal and information on how to submit comments can be found on http://www.regulations.gov under docket number FWS–HQ–ES–2025–0110.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Endangered Species Protections Sought for Rare Desert Tiger Beetle in Arizona
TUCSON, Ariz.—(August 12, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to protect the Willcox Playa tiger beetle under the Endangered Species Act.
The rare tiger beetle lives only on the Willcox Playa, an ancient dry lake at the heart of Sulphur Springs Valley in Cochise County, Arizona. The beetles are about half an inch long, vary in color from green to brown and are known for their running speed.
“These strikingly beautiful insects emerge from their lakebed burrows during the monsoon season to feast on invertebrates and search for mates,” said entomologist Barry Knisley, co-author of the petition and professor emeritus at Randolph-Macon College. “Unfortunately, climate change and declining groundwater levels are threatening their continued existence on the playa.”
The Willcox Playa tiger beetle population is at risk of going extinct because of habitat drying caused by climate change, surface water diversion, and groundwater pumping primarily for agriculture. The Willcox Playa and surrounding Sulphur Springs Valley are part of the Willcox Groundwater Basin, a major agricultural hub where groundwater levels have declined hundreds of feet and millions of acre-feet of groundwater have been lost.
The survival of the Willcox Playa tiger beetle is also threatened by a proposed lithium project, pollution, over-collection and potentially off-road vehicle activity.
Sulphur Springs Valley has the greatest diversity of tiger beetles in the country, with at least 17 known species, including three endemics. The Willcox Playa tiger beetle is the only species that is restricted to the playa and unique in its ability to build a turret, or chimney, several centimeters tall to extend its burrow above ground.
“In addition to being highly charismatic, these speedy insects play an essential role in their ecosystem, both as predators and indicators of the habitat’s health,” said Krista Kemppinen, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Center. “The importance of protecting the Willcox Playa tiger beetle and the broader tiger beetle fauna of Sulphur Springs Valley can’t be overstated.”
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Spectrum News
Endangered dragonfly spotted for the first time in Missouri
BY John Gerding, Aug. 11, 2025
BOLLINGER COUNTY, Mo.—The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) confirms its staff and partners observed a male Hine’s emerald dragonfly, scientifically called Somatochlora hineana, in Bollinger County.
This was the first time the dragonfly was spotted in Bollinger County.
“The Hine’s emerald dragonfly is one of the rarest dragonflies in North America,” said MDC Natural History Biologist Steve Schell. “It wasn’t known from Missouri until 1999, and since then has only been documented from a handful of eastern Ozark counties.”
MDC states that this discovery marks a significant milestone in conserving this federally endangered species. The Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly was found on private land in late June during a routine biological monitoring of a spring-fed wetland. Schell believes this spotting represents a new population in Missouri due to the distance from other known sites.
“The Bollinger County observation extends the known range of the species by over 30 miles to the east, suggesting more suitable habitat in southeast Missouri,” said Schell.
Hine’s emerald dragonflies have a green body, bright green eyes and yellow-striped sides. Schell notes that adult Hine’s emerald dragonflies can be seen flying in spring-fed wetlands during June, their reproduction season.
‘Hine’s emerald dragonflies rely on specific fen habitats linked to ground water saturating small areas, creating shallow semi-permeate pools and rivulets, with plenty of crayfish burrows. And these habitats are sensitive to disturbance and threatened by development, road construction, and other changes that might affect hydrology,’ said Schell, according to an MDC press release.
Due to this discovery, MDC will expand it’s exploration and conservation work in Bollinger.
“Finding a male is exciting, but we hope to find larvae or adults that indicate long-term breeding success,” said Schell. “This moves us closer to keeping them in Missouri, and it might also represent a unique genetics for the species as a whole.”
Though Missouri’s population of the Hine’s emerald dragonfly is lower than other areas of the country like the Great Lakes, Schell says Missouri’s “highest” genetic diversity will likely be important for recovering the species.
Currently, the Hine’s emerald dragonfly is endangered both federally and in Missouri which makes it illegal for people to harm or collect the dragonflies without permits.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Pups Confirmed in Only Three of California’s 10 Wolf Packs
SAN FRANCISCO—(August 11, 2025)—Only three of California’s 10 known wolf families have produced pups this year, according to the California Department of Fish and Game’s quarterly update, which details known wolf information from April through June. The Department also issued a new report, which includes updated information through July.
“I’m glad to know at least three of California’s wolf families had pups this year but it’s concerning that there’s no indication the other seven packs have had pups,” said Amaroq Weiss, a senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Wolf recovery here is still in its infancy and for recovery to stay on track there need to be more wolves in more places.”
The agency’s updates, published Friday, said the Harvey pack had at least seven pups this year, the Beyem Seyo pack had a minimum of six pups and the Whaleback pack produced at least nine pups. No indication of reproduction was indicated for the Ashpan, Diamond, Ice Cave, Ishi, Lassen, Tunnison or Yowlumni packs. Previously, the Lassen pack had litters each year from 2017 to 2024 and the Yowlumni pack had litters in 2023 and 2024.
On Friday the department also released an updated map of each of the 10 known packs’ territories, and additional areas of wolf activity where wolves have been repeatedly spotted but don’t yet qualify as packs. The packs and additional wolves live in portions of seven counties: Siskiyou, Lassen, Plumas, Sierra, Shasta, Tehama and Tulare.
During the second quarter of 2025, one male wolf from the Beyem Seyo pack made his way into Oregon. And a female Beyem Seyo wolf roamed several hundred miles south to join up with the Yowlumni pack in Tulare County. Two wolves of unknown origin were detected separately in the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County.
Wolves are fully protected in California under the federal Endangered Species Act and under California’s own endangered species act.
The reestablishment of wolves in California after a nearly 100-year absence began when wolf OR-7, a radio-collared wolf born in northeast Oregon, made his way across that state in late 2011 and entered California. One of his daughters is a founding member of the Yowlumni pack in Tulare County.
“We hope it turns out more packs had litters this year than the department has been able to confirm so far,” said Weiss. “Wolf recovery in California affirms that when adequate legal protections are in place, even a species that’s been gone for nearly 100 years can return.”
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Utah News Dispatch (Salt Lake City, UT)
Outdoor sporting groups appeal federal court ruling on gray wolf protections
Judge ruled that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must reconsider decision about relisting wolves in the Rocky Mountains under the Endangered Species Act
By: Micah Drew, August 11, 2025
A coalition of outdoor sporting groups intend to appeal the decision by a federal judge in Montana that directed the federal government to reconsider whether gray wolves in the Rocky Mountains require additional protections under the Endangered Species Act.
The Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation, Safari Club International and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation on Wednesday submitted their notice to appeal the decision of U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy of Montana to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“This ruling is the latest string of nonstop litigation by environmental groups seeking to frustrate the original intent of the ESA, which is to recover endangered species and return them to state-based management, not keep them perpetually listed and under the authority of the federal government,” Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation President and CEO Kyle Weaver said in a press release. “Whether it’s the wolf or the grizzly bear, once an animal receives ESA protections, it becomes nearly impossible to remove them, even if populations meet recovery criteria over an extended period of time. The ESA needs an adjustment to renew its focus on real species recovery.”
In Tuesday’s ruling, Molloy vacated a 2024 determination made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that gray wolves in the western United States do not need increased federal protections.
Currently, gray wolves are listed as an endangered species in the contiguous 48 states, except in the Northern Rockies — Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and parts of Oregon and Washington — after management of the species in those regions was given over to the states following Congressional action in 2011.
A coalition of more than 70 environmental and conservation organizations submitted a petition to the federal government in 2021, asking FWS to relist gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, or create a western Distinct Population Segment, or DPS, for the species with added protections.
The coalition argued in its petition, and subsequent lawsuit following FWS’s determination against added protections, that due to concerns that states are using inadequate scientific methods to assess population statistics, harsh political rhetoric and increased mandates in Montana and Idaho to reduce wolf populations, and because wolves do not inhabit the full extent of their historic range — which once broadly comprised the entire western U.S — the species meets the criteria for reconsideration under the ESA.
“Management of Canis lupus must not be by a political yo-yo process,” Molloy wrote, adding that the federal government had “failed to use the best available science” in its species analysis.
Molloy’s ruling requires FWS to reevaluate whether gray wolves should receive increased federal protections.
While members of the conservation coalition praised Tuesday’s decision, officials in Montana, which joined the lawsuit as an intervenor-defendant, and Idaho, which filed an amicus brief on behalf of the federal government, disagreed with the ruling by an “activist judge.”
“Montana has a healthy, sustainable population of wolves. While we are reviewing the decision, it will not implicate our state’s management efforts or our wolf season,” said Kaitlin Price, a spokesperson for Gov. Greg Gianforte’s office. “Unfortunately, we’re not surprised to see another activist decision in favor of environmental extremists.”
Price said that if FWS appeals the decision, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks “will be there to support them.”
Price could not be reached before publication about whether the state and FWP would sign on to the current notice of appeal.
“We’re extremely disappointed with the decision considering Idaho has managed a wolf population above federal recovery goals for decades and sustained more-than-adequate wolf populations since Congress removed them from Endangered Species Act protection in 2011,” Idaho Fish and Game Director Jim Fredericks told the Idaho Capital Sun in a written statement.
Molloy’s ruling does not currently change the status of gray wolves, which are managed by each state’s respective wildlife agency.
In Montana, where gray wolves number approximately 1,100, FWP has proposed new hunting and trapping regulations for the upcoming wolf season that would set a statewide quota of 500 animals — up from 334 in 2024 — and would significantly increase bag limits allowing hunters and trappers to kill up to 15 wolves on a single hunting or trapping license, for up to 30 total wolves.
Arguments from the coalition in support of its appeal are expected to be filed soon, according to Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation staff.
“We had to appeal this decision,” Michael Jean, litigation counsel for Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation, said in a press statement. “This decision seems to hold that unless a species is not recovered across its entire historical range, then it has to stay listed — regardless of thriving populations. It’s difficult to see how the wolf, or other listed species, will ever be deemed recovered under that standard.”
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KTUU (Anchorage, AK)/Alaska’s News Source
Petition to relist gray whales as an endangered species filed, population ‘lowest since the 1970s’
By Justin Mattson, Published: Aug. 9, 2025
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A petition calling for the conservation of gray whales under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been filed with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The petition was filed by retired professor of marine conservation at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Rick Steiner. He is asking for the petition to be expedited.
Gray whales were at one point nearly hunted to extinction by commercial harvests, Steiner said. But he said the under the protection of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the species saw a revitalization of population numbers.
Numbers were also later impacted by an “unusual mortality event” that occurred between 2018 and 2023, according to NOAA.
“Thirty years ago, they were delisted from the Endangered Species Act, NOAA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, thought that they were doing well enough that they could actually come off the endangered species list,” Steiner explained.
“There were at 27,000 whales relatively recently, you know, a decade ago,” he said. “This year, census is down to around 13,000.”
This is supported by information from NOAA in a recent article.
“The new count estimates an abundance of about 13,000 gray whales, the lowest since the 1970s,” the NOAA article states.
“The assumptions create some margin for error, but the models indicate that in 2025 the population is most likely between 11,700 and 14,500. They indicate the number of calves between 56 and 294,” according to the article.
Steiner explained his concern about the low calf numbers.
”There’s poor reproduction, which probably means that the females are not getting adequate food up in the northern Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea in the summertime,” Steiner said.
According to NOAA, scientists said the recent “unusual mortality event” was from ”localized ecosystem changes that affected the Subarctic and Arctic feeding grounds.”
“Most gray whales rely on prey in this region for energy to complete their 10,000-mile round-trip migration each year. The changes contributed to malnutrition, reduced birth rates, and increased mortality,” the NOAA article states.
Steiner said the process is slow, which is why he has put in an expedited petition. He thinks time is of the essence.
”It can take years for the agency to actually get around the concept of going through the public notice and making their initial determination, whether it’s warranted or not, and then going through a proposed rule-making,” Steiner said.
Steiner said NOAA has 90 days to accept or reject the petition before it could be moved to the next stage of the process.
Alaska’s News Source reached out to NOAA for comment Saturday. It said it is not available to comment until Monday.
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Seattle Times
The world’s black rhino numbers have increased but there’s bad news for others
Aug. 7, 2025, By The Associated Press
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The number of critically endangered black rhinos has increased slightly, but there is bad news for other rhino species, according to a global count released Thursday by the International Rhino Foundation.
It said that black rhino numbers went up from 6,195 to 6,788 in the latest estimates. White rhinos had declined, however, from 15,942 to 15,752 since the last count in 2021. Black and white rhinos are only found in the wild in Africa.
The number of greater one-horned rhinos, found in northern India and Nepal, rose slightly from 4,014 to 4,075.
But Javan rhinos have declined from an estimated 76 to just 50, the foundation said, and that was entirely due to poaching. There is only one known population of Javan rhinos left — at a national park on the Indonesian island of Java.
The Sumatran rhino population stands at just 34-47 animals, around the same as previous estimates.
The global population for all rhinos is approximately 26,700.
The International Rhino Foundation says it gets its figures from counts by specialist rhino groups at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the global authority on endangered species. It does not count rhinos in zoos, only those in the wild or in national parks.
The rhino foundation said there were worrying new trends from South Africa, which has more rhinos than anywhere else. There, the average number of rhinos in individual populations was below what conservationists recommend to maintain a viable population.
It also said a new rhino horn trafficking route was emerging between South Africa and Mongolia, and Qatar was becoming a growing hub for horn trafficking. Rhino poaching is still a major problem in South Africa and elsewhere to feed the illegal market for rhino horn products in parts of Asia. South Africa loses between 400 and 500 rhinos a year to poaching.
It is often looking for new ways to deter poachers and one group of scientists launched a project last week to inject radioactive material into the horns of rhinos. The scientists say it’s harmless for the animals but allows horns to be detected by border authorities when they are being smuggled.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Endangered Species Protection Sought for Rare Pacific Northwest Ice Age-Era Flower
PORTLAND, Ore.—(August 6, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to protect the Columbia yellowcress under the Endangered Species Act. Columbia yellowcress are rare flowers in the mustard family which survive in only a few dozen locations across Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
“These tough little plants have survived since mammoths roamed the Pacific Northwest, but habitat destruction by people has pushed them to the edge of extinction,” said Jeremiah Scanlan, a legal fellow at the Center. “Without Endangered Species Act protections these vibrant yellow flowers could slip away forever.”
Columbia yellowcress grow on riverbanks, lakeshores and other wetland areas. The flower’s distribution evolved in response to flooding cycles related to Ice Age lakes that once covered the Pacific Northwest. The plants grow low to the ground and produce clusters of small, yellow flowers in the late spring and summer. Their life cycle matches the natural water cycles of their habitats, growing as waters recede in the spring and dying back as water becomes less available in the fall and winter.
Damming along the Columbia River has already caused many local populations of Columbia yellowcress to disappear, and many that remain have fewer than 50 individual plants. Cattle are also a serious threat, trampling on plants and destroying delicate lakeshores and stream systems. Off-highway vehicles and other human traffic also destroy Columbia yellowcress.
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Montana Free Press (Helena, MT)
Feds violated Endangered Species Act in denying gray wolf protections, court rules
In 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied further federal protections to wolves in Western states.
by Madison Dapcevich, Mountain Journal, 08.06.2025
A federal court in Missoula has sided with a coalition of environmental groups to block a federal decision to remove Western gray wolves from protections warranted under the Endangered Species Act.
n his Aug. 5 decision, Judge Donald Molloy wrote that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the act in its 2024 decision to remove federal protections from gray wolves. Now, the agency must reassess the canine’s status and administer a decision consistent with both the ESA and best available science.
Earlier this year, conservation groups challenged the agency’s denial of their petitions to list a Western distinct population segment, or DPS, of gray wolves under the ESA. Alternatively, the Service could relist the Northern Rocky Mountain DPS, which Congress delisted in 2011.
In June, the groups argued in Missoula before a federal district court that the service violated the ESA by inadequately considering challenges facing gray wolf survival, further petitioning that the species receive federal protections in the Northern Rockies, Mountain Journal previously reported. Plaintiffs, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and Animal Wellness Action, argued that Fish and Wildlife Service misapplied rules and did not accurately incorporate the best available science under law, citing concerns over the wolf’s historic range, population size, genetic diversity and ongoing human threats.
“Wildlife management agencies are likely to find themselves in a Catch-22 as they cannot escape from mutually conflicting dependent conditions: if the federal government succeeds in restoring the gray wolf, leading to delisting, then the state agency will predate the wolf, leading to relisting, engendering a fruitless cycle of delisting and relisting,” Molloy wrote in his 105-page opinion. “Ultimately, management of Canis lupus must not be by a political yo-yo process. As the law intends, a science-based approach negates this management dilemma.”
In particular, Molloy noted that FWS failed to consider the species’ historic range throughout the West, which once covered nearly two-thirds of the country and expanded across North America, from Alaska to Mexico. The agency also failed to evaluate threats to wolves on the West Coast, consider genetic threats from a small population, and arbitrarily relied on state governments to stop killing wolves at certain thresholds. The agency’s earlier decision also did not account for unlawful take.
“The Endangered Species Act requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider the best available science, and that requirement is what won the day for wolves in this case,” Matthew Bishop, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center, said in an Aug. 5 statement. “Wolves have yet to recover across the West, and allowing a few states to undertake aggressive wolf-killing regimes is inconsistent with the law. We hope this decision will encourage the Service to undertake a holistic approach to wolf recovery in the West.”
Following a February 2022 court order, gray wolves in the contiguous 48 states and Mexico were protected under the ESA — except for the Northern Rocky Mountain population found in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Last year, plaintiffs filed a suit challenging the Service’s determination that gray wolves in the Western U.S. no longer warranted federal ESA protections, prompting the species’ delisting.
Yesterday’s decision requires that FWS revisit its determination to consider threats to Western gray wolves in accordance with the ESA.
“Today’s ruling represents a hopeful step towards giving wolves in the Northern Rockies the federal protections they so desperately need,” Patrick Kelly, Montana director for Western Watersheds Project, said in the statement.
“These native carnivores have been subject to years of brutal, unscientific anti-wolf hysteria that has swept legislatures and wildlife agencies in states like Montana and Idaho,” Kelly said. “With Montana set to approve a 500 wolf kill quota at the end of August, this decision could not have come at a better time. Wolves may now have a real shot at meaningful recovery.”
In an email to Mountain Journal, Vanessa Kauffman with FWS Public Affairs said the agency does “not comment on litigation.” The agency did not respond to follow-up questions requesting further information on next steps.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Endangered Species Protection Sought for Rare Virginia Salamander
ROANOKE, Va.—(August 5, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity today petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the imperiled Dixie Caverns salamander under the Endangered Species Act. These salamanders are found in just three locations in Roanoke County, Virginia, and are threatened by deforestation, development, disease and climate change.
“Dixie Caverns salamanders are some of the most imperiled animals in the world and they desperately need Endangered Species Act protections to keep them from going extinct,” said Trisha Sharma, a legal fellow at the Center. “These sparkly little salamanders are an irreplaceable part of what makes caves and forests in the Southeast so special. It’s up to the Fish and Wildlife Service to act urgently to protect them and the places they live before it’s too late.”
Dixie Caverns salamanders are generally small and slender, with white and brassy flecks along their dark bodies. The salamanders were discovered in the Dixie Caverns cave system in Roanoke, where their populations have declined in the last several decades. An interstate highway was built over the cave system, which causes stormwater runoff and pollution from road construction projects to enter the caves and disrupt the sensitive ecosystem.
Climate change also threatens Dixie Caverns salamanders. They breathe through their skin and require a cool, stable climate to keep their skin moist.
Dixie Caverns salamanders have been found in two other locations where they rely on forested canopy cover, fallen leaves and logs to create the cool, moist microclimates they require. At least one of these populations has likely been destroyed by clearcutting of forest habitat for pipeline construction.
Virginia is a global hotspot of salamander diversity, in part because of the many microhabitats associated with the unique geology of the Appalachian Mountains. The state is home to nearly 60 different salamander species, including the endangered Shenandoah salamander.
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Sierra Club
Federal judge rules U.S Fish and Wildlife Service broke the law in denying protections for gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains
Decision brings hope for recovery amid aggressive state policies to kill gray wolves
August 5, 2025
MISSOULA, MT — A federal judge in Montana ruled today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service broke the law last year when it denied a petition to protect gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains under the Endangered Species Act. The agency must now reconsider whether to grant protections to wolves living in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, along with portions of Washington, Oregon and Utah.
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed last year by the four conservation and animal protection groups who authored and submitted the petition in 2021: Humane World for Animals, formerly called the Humane Society of the United States, Humane World Action Fund, formerly called Humane Society Legislative Fund, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club.
“Wolves are deeply intelligent, social animals who play an irreplaceable role in the ecosystems they call home,” said Kitty Block, president and CEO of Humane World for Animals. “Today’s ruling offers hope that we can restore protections to wolves in the northern Rockies, but only if the federal government fulfills its duty under the Endangered Species Act. These animals deserve protection, not abandonment, as they fight to return to the landscapes they once roamed freely.”
“Gray wolf recovery is at a crossroads in the western United States, so they should not be relegated to the crosshairs of the killing campaigns that pushed them to the brink of extinction,” said Sara Amundson, president of Humane World Action Fund. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s attempts to deny these animals much-needed federal protection betrays not only the letter of the law, but countless Americans who want to see wolves protected.”
Ruling faults federal government
Today’s ruling from Senior District Judge Donald Molloy faulted the government for disregarding the potential for wolf recovery across Colorado and the rest of the southern Rocky Mountains including most of Utah, northern New Mexico and northern Arizona.
Molloy found that the Endangered Species Act requires the Service to consider the southern Rocky Mountains region and other portions of the wolf’s historical range. He also concluded that the agency unlawfully disregarded the potential importance of the wolf’s fledgling return to Colorado, through natural dispersal and historic reintroductions, when the agency denied the petition.
“With this court ruling comes the hope of true recovery for wolves across the West,” said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The judge reasoned that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s unambitious view of recovery conflicts with the Endangered Species Act. Recovery requires return to places like the vast southern Rockies, where wolves once lived and can return, as long as they have the life-saving protections of the Endangered Species Act.”
Escalating state-driven threats to wolves
The conservation groups’ Endangered Species Act petition was filed amid escalating hostility toward wolves in several northern Rockies states:
*Idaho – Recent state law changes authorize the state to hire private contractors to kill wolves, allow hunters to purchase an unlimited number of wolf-killing tags and permit hunters to kill wolves by chasing them down with hounds and all-terrain vehicles. Along with Montana, the state allows bounties as “reimbursements” for dead wolves.
*Montana – Recent changes in state law allow wolves to be killed using bait and strangulation snares, and recently proposed regulations, if finalized, would allow a single hunter to kill 15 wolves and trap an additional 15.
*Wyoming – Across most of the state, wolves are designated as “predatory animals” and can be killed without a license in nearly any manner and at any time. Hunters in Wyoming have killed several wolves just a few miles from the border with Colorado, where wolves are finally returning to the state through dispersals and a restoration effort.
“Wolf recovery is dependent on responsible management by the states, and Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have shown that they’re grossly unsuited to manage the species,” said Nick Gevock, Sierra Club Northern Rockies campaign strategist. “Judge Molloy’s ruling means now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must go back to the drawing board to determine whether federal management is needed to ensure wolves survive and play their vital role in the ecosystem.”
Today’s ruling vacates the Service’s denial of the petition, and the agency must now reconsider its response. The agency has 60 days to appeal the decision. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are represented by attorneys at the Center for Biological Diversity and Humane World for Animals’ Animal Protection Law department.
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife proposes removing Virginia sneezeweed from the Endangered Species List
Aug. 4, 2025
The Fish and Wildlife Service proposes removing Virginia sneezeweed from the federal list of Endangered and Threatened Plants due to recovery. This perennial herbaceous flowering plant was listed as a threatened species in 1998 when only 25 populations were known from Virginia.
With support from federal endangered species grants, partners and private landowners have discovered additional populations in Missouri and a population in Indiana.
Today, there are more than 55 known populations in Missouri — even more than in Virginia. Of those in Virginia, six are on land managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and two are on state-owned land within Natural Area Preserves managed by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, specifically dedicated to preserving the wetland habitats used by the Virginia sneezeweed.
The Virginia sneezeweed’s risk of extinction is much lower now than when it was listed due to an increase in the number and range of the known populations, coupled with seed banking, propagation, and partner-led conservation efforts. At the time of listing, the significant threat to the species was habitat changes due to drought and flooding. These may continue to affect some populations but constitute a much lower threat to the species given the greater overall resiliency, representation, and redundancy since the listing.
The Service’s proposal will publish in the Federal Register on Aug. 5, 2025, opening a 60-day public comment period, ending Oct. 6, 2025. To read the proposed rule and relevant documents, including how to submit comments, visit http://www.regulations.gov and search for the docket number FWS-R5-ES-2024-0058.
For more information regarding this species, visit https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/6297.
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Nation of Change
Endangered salmon species returns to Northern California river habitat in over 100 years
Listed under the Endangered Species Act since 1994, this is the first time in almost a century Chinook salmon, the largest Pacific salmon species, returned to the McCloud River, which flows through Siskiyou and Shasta counties.
By Ashley Curtin -August 1, 2025
Winter-run Chinook salmon, once considered to be most at risk of extinction by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, returned to its habitat in Northern California. Wildlife officials confirmed the sighting of an adult Chinook salmon in the river near Ash Camp.
Listed under the Endangered Species Act since 1994, this is the first time in almost a century Chinook salmon, the largest Pacific salmon species, returned to the McCloud River, which flows through Siskiyou and Shasta counties.
“Adult salmon returning and spawning in the cool waters of their historic habitat off the increasingly hot Sacramento Valley floor is seen as critical to the recovery of winter-run Chinook salmon and is a major goal,” the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said.
Since the 1930s, the Shasta Dam cut the species off from the mountain streams that kept them cool when spawning, while the dam also lost its own cold water pool because of the drought and led to the deaths of 95 to 98 percent of eggs and hatched salmon, according to NOAA.
CDFW wrote about the July 15 sighting of the Chinook salmon saying officials spotted a female fish “guarding her nest” with multiple smaller males observed nearby. The presence of the Chinook salmon was likely a year-long journey from the Shasta Reservoir, officials confirmed.
The reintroduction of Chinook salmon into the river was part of an effort on behalf of a 2022 collaboration with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Officials think that the female salmon got into the river after the collaborated team began incubating eggs in the the McCloud River later catching “the juvenile salmon at collection facilities downstream, where they are then transported to the Sacramento River in Redding” and releasing the fish into the Pacific Ocean, SF Gate reported. Any fish that escape are said to go into Shasta Reservoir, which experts believe is how the recent Chinook salmon got there.
This is not the only comeback for the endangered species—experts have also spotted Chinook salmon nearby in the North Fork of Battle Creek.
“This is the first time this has happened since fish passage facilities were constructed as part of the Battle Creek Restoration Project,” the CDFW said.
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Sierra Club
Sierra Club Statement on Confirmation of Brian Nesvik to Lead U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
August 1, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Donald Trump’s controversial nominee to oversee the country’s wildlife agency.
In a 54-43 vote, the Senate signed off on Brian Nesvik to run the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. His nomination had been advanced in a narrow, party-line vote in April, but had languished for months.
Nesvik’s nomination brought attention to a controversial resume regarding protecting imperiled species. During his tenure as head of Wyoming’s Game and Fish Department, the state’s elk herds saw significant rises in disease rates, and he oversaw the implementation of questionable policies that would drive grizzly bear and wolf populations to bare minimum numbers. He has also supported removing Endangered Species Act protections for grizzlies in previous testimony before Congress.
Recent weeks have seen increased attacks on the Endangered Species Act by Congressional Republicans. Multiple bills have sought to undercut the bedrock environmental law, hindering its ability to protect imperiled wildlife, and legislatively delisting certain species, like the grizzly bear. Among its other duties, the USFWS is responsible for enforcing the ESA in the United States.
In response, Bradley Williams, Sierra Club’s Deputy Legislative Director for Wildlife and Lands Protection, released the following statement:
“Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans have put the ESA in their crosshairs, and Brian Nesvik is ready to take the shot. His tenure as head of Wyoming Game and Fish prioritized trophy hunts and weakened protections for imperiled species over scientifically sound wildlife management. One of the USFWS most important roles is upholding the Endangered Species Act, and given his experience, it’s not clear whether Nesvik will be able to fulfill that duty. Unfortunately, it appears that wildlife will pay the price.”
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E&E News by Politico
Appeals court backs reduced protections for American burying beetle
The Fish and Wildlife Service did not violate the Endangered Species Act when it downlisted the carrion beetle to “threatened” instead of “endangered” in 2020, the court found.
By Niina H. Farah, 08/01/2025
A federal appeals court is upholding the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to reduce federal protections for the American burying beetle.
In a ruling Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found the agency had complied with the Endangered Species Act when it shifted the designation of North America’s largest carrion beetle from “endangered” to “threatened” in 2020.
The decision upholds a lower court ruling affirming the downlisting in 2023.
While the beetle does face threats from rising temperatures in parts of its range in the next two decades, the species is not at imminent risk of going extinct, the court said in a partially split decision.
“Given the timeframe of the Service’s decision, the Downlisting Rule does not violate the Endangered Species Act, is supported by the administrative record, and was reasonably explained,” said Judge Patricia Millett, writing the opinion for the court.
Millett, an Obama appointee, noted that the effects of the changed listing were tempered by the fact that the agency had already initiated a new periodic review of the species’ status.
She also found that the Center for Biological Diversity, which had sued to challenge the threatened status of the beetle, did not have standing to also challenge a rule setting specific protections for the beetle in part of its range.
Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, who was also nominated by former President Barack Obama, joined the opinion. Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, wrote a partial dissent.
Pan argued that the decision to list the beetle as threatened was “neither reasonable nor reasonably explained.” She said she would have tossed out the 2020 downlisting.
The beetle was first listed as endangered in 1989 after it lost 90 percent of its historical range spanning 35 states and three Canadian provinces.
Following a request to delist the species in 2015 from the oil and gas industry, the Fish and Wildlife Service found that the beetle had recovered parts of its historical range in eight states.
The agency determined that the beetle was not currently at risk of extinction but that both land use and the effects of climate change would make it “likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future.”
The Center for Biological Diversity had argued the decision went against the “plain language” of the Endangered Species Act, and it noted that the beetle is expected to lose nearly 60 percent of its remaining range in as soon as 15 years.
“Based on the best available science, the Beetle is therefore facing extinction in a significant portion of its range within the foreseeable future,” the environmental group wrote in a brief to the court.
The agency and the Center for Biological Diversity could not be immediately reached for comment.
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Mongabay
More than 10,000 species on brink of extinction need urgent action: Study
Liz Kimbrough, 30 July 2025
Extinction is an overwhelming concept, difficult to grasp in its enormity and finality. Thousands of species are barreling toward that grim fate, unless we help. A comprehensive new study provides the clearest picture yet of Earth’s most imperiled species, and offers evidence that conservation can work.
The study published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity found that 10,443 species are critically endangered, the worst threat category before extinct in the wild and, finally, extinct. Species qualify as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List when they meet strict thresholds such as rapid population declines, extremely restricted ranges, or having fewer than 50 mature individuals remaining.
“It is surprising that more than 1,500 species, so 15% of the critically endangered species, are estimated to have fewer than 50 mature individuals remaining in the wild, a large number of those plants,” Rikki Gumbs, research fellow at the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology and co-author of the study, told Mongabay.
“The good news is that it’s within our power as humans to [save them]. It’s our unsustainable behaviour driving these devastating declines — whether through deforestation or the introduction of invasive species and diseases — so we can turn things around and bring these species back from the brink.”
Most critically endangered species, 77%, earned their status because they have extremely limited habitat remaining. Seven species, including three amphibians, three tortoises and the vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus), face more than a 50% chance of going extinct in the next 10 years.
Geographic concentration
Just 16 countries hold more than half of all critically endangered species, with concentrations across the Caribbean islands, Atlantic coastal regions of South America, the Mediterranean, Cameroon, Lake Victoria, Madagascar and Southeast Asia. Most species, 96.7%, are endemic to a single country, making their conservation dependent on national efforts. Madagascar alone hosts 670 critically endangered species found nowhere else on Earth.
“When you think of it as just being 16 countries that hold such a very large number of critically endangered species for which they are nearly completely responsible, that really kind of drives home the importance of emphasizing conservation efforts needed in those nations,” Thomas E. Lacher Jr., an emeritus professor at Texas A&M University and co-author of the study, told Mongabay.
Islands face particularly high extinction risks, hosting around 40% of critically endangered species despite comprising less than 6% of global land surface.
Hawai‘i exemplifies this crisis, contributing hundreds of the United States’ critically endangered species. On some Hawaiian islands, more than half of the endemic plant species face critical extinction risk.
A mass extinction barrels forward
Making the situation even more urgent, nearly 30% of critically endangered species haven’t been reassessed for the IUCN Red List in more than 10 years, meaning scientists may not have current information about their status.
Dramatic population collapses can occur rapidly. Several Asian vulture species, including the white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) and long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus), lost 90% or more of their populations in short time frames. Since 1980, 345 mammal, bird and amphibian species have seen their status worsen from endangered to critically endangered.
More than half, 56%, of all critically endangered species have declining populations. Only 2.6% have stable populations, and just 0.5% are increasing.
Even more troubling, more than 13% of critically endangered species are tagged as “possibly extinct,” meaning they may have already disappeared but scientists haven’t been able to confirm it.
Over the last century, more than 540 species of vertebrates (animals with backbones) have gone extinct, including the Round Island burrowing boa (Bolyeria multocarinata), the laughing owl (Ninox albifacies), the sea mink (Neovison macrodon) and the golden toad (Incilius periglenes).
And those are just the ones we know of.
“The ongoing sixth mass extinction may be the most serious environmental threat to the persistence of civilization, because it is irreversible,” wrote the authors of a 2020 study on extinction.
Varied threats
More than half of the species listed as critically endangered are plants (60%), followed by vertebrates (25%) and invertebrates (15%). Another recent assessment found that of all known tree species found only in Mesoamerica, nearly half are threatened with extinction.
“Vast areas of forest have been denuded or fragmented. It’s not a pretty picture, ecologically speaking,” William Laurance, a tropical ecologist at James Cook University in Australia, who wasn’t involved in the research, told Mongabay by email. “One might expect some bad news … though the overall picture is even darker than I would have imagined, frankly.”
According to the new study, farming, ranching and logging are the main threats to critically endangered species. For vertebrates (like mammals, birds and reptiles), farming and fish farming cause the most harm. Pollution threatens most freshwater species like the Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis), while fishing impacts nearly three-quarters of marine species.
Invasive species represent the top threat to invertebrates, affecting about a third of critically endangered species in this group. House rats, domestic goats, feral pigs and cats are among the most destructive invasive mammals threatening invertebrate species, particularly on islands where native species evolved without such predators.
Climate change is also driving species toward extinction, with examples including the Pearson’s aloe (Aloe pearsonii) and giant quiver tree (Aloidendron pillansii) experiencing severe population crashes since 2016.
“Scientists have repeatedly warned that if we don’t change our ways we could see a mass extinction event with potentially hundreds of thousands, even millions, of species wiped out by human actions,” longtime Mongabay environmental journalist Jeremy Hance reported in The Guardian. “The impact — and scale — is impossible to imagine. The last time the Earth suffered such a mass extinction event was when an asteroid slammed into it, killing off all the non-avian dinosaurs. We didn’t show up for another 64m years.”
Conservation success stories
Despite the scale of the present crisis, conservation efforts have seen successes. Since 1993, conservation actions have prevented the extinction of at least 15 critically endangered bird species and nine mammal species, with some now recovering. Since 1980, 59 formerly critically endangered species have seen their conservation status improve enough to no longer qualify in this category.
For example, conservation efforts have brought the Burmese roofed turtle (Batagur trivittata) and the golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia) back from the brink of extinction over the past decade.
Some other animals that have seen their populations drastically improve through human intervention include the buffalo (Bison bison), Southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum), giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), gray wolf (Canis lupus), and the northern brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli).
“A large part of the review is to show that conservation works,” Gumbs told Mongabay. “We’ve had groups of very intelligent people working on this all around the world to develop these tools. If we can use these tools and strategies globally, and we have the right support, we can make a really positive difference for these most imperiled species in the world.”
Path forward
But despite success, the study found major gaps in conservation efforts. While thousands of species have conservation programs, thousands more, especially insects and lesser-known plants, receive no assistance.
Most critically endangered species need their remaining habitat protected from further destruction. Many also need active management of their habitats, such as removing invasive species or restoring damaged areas.
About half of the critically endangered species need direct help through specialized programs, including breeding programs in zoos and aquariums, translocation to safer areas, or medical care for wild populations.
Scientists have identified nearly 3,000 Key Biodiversity Areas around the world that are crucial for critically endangered species. These are places that hold the most important populations or the last remaining individuals of these species.
Some of these areas are so important that losing them would mean the complete extinction of certain species. Currently, less than half of these critical areas have adequate protection, meaning urgent action is needed to safeguard these places.
Indigenous and traditional peoples often have the deepest knowledge about local wildlife and have been managing lands sustainably for generations. Indigenous peoples’ lands cover about 28% of the total area in the world’s Key Biodiversity Areas. Including Indigenous knowledge and management practices in conservation efforts has proved essential for understanding and protecting threatened species.
Scientists are increasingly recognizing that conservation works best when it includes traditional knowledge alongside modern scientific methods. This approach helps fill gaps in scientific understanding and creates more effective conservation strategies.
Gumbs emphasizes protecting evolutionarily distinct species, work championed by ZSL’s EDGE program. More than half (60.5%) of critically endangered vertebrates qualify as EDGE species (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered), which have few close relatives and represent irreplaceable branches on the tree of life, such as the bumblebee bat (Craseonycteris thonglongyai), aye-aye lemur (Daubentonia madagascariensis), the Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) and the tapir (genus Tapirus).
“The tapir is actually really good seed dispersers of larger seeds, which are then kind of crucial in forest regeneration across their range. And there’s nothing else like the species of tapir in those regions. [They are] very evolutionarily distinct,” Gumbs told Mongabay. “Once we lose a species, it’s gone for good. Eons lost in the blink of an eye.”
The tools and knowledge needed to save all known critically endangered species already exist, Lacher told Mongabay. However, success requires major changes in how society values nature and funds and prioritizes conservation efforts.
The relatively small cost of comprehensive species conservation is dwarfed by the money currently spent on activities that harm nature. Financial analysis estimates that bringing critically endangered species back from the brink of extinction would cost between $1 billion and $2 billion annually, a small fraction of global economic activity and less than 2% of the net worth of billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg.
“We have at our disposal all of the tools we need, and we very often know the right kinds of responses and actions to put in place for these species,” Lacher told Mongabay. “There is hope, there is potential, and I think that’s something that we’ve tried to really emphasize.”
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Center for Biological Diversity
Endangered Species Protections Sought for Declining Southwestern Desert Thrasher
TUCSON, Ariz.—(July 30, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to protect the LeConte’s thrasher under the Endangered Species Act.
LeConte’s thrashers, native to arid desert habitats of the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico, have lost nearly 70% of their U.S. population over the past 50 years, primarily because of destructive sprawl development and other habitat degradation in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.
“LeConte’s thrashers are secretive, adaptable birds who’ve been able to thrive in dry deserts with sparse vegetation,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center. “They can’t cope with the pervasive sprawl development and rapid climate change that’s destroying their habitat across the southwestern U.S. Without protection LeConte’s thrashers will vanish from the face of the Earth.”
The 2025 U.S. State of the Birds report named LeConte’s thrasher one of the country’s 42 Red Alert Tipping Point Species — defined as bird species who have lost more than half their populations within the past 50 years and that require urgent action to address declines.
Nicknamed the “gray ghost” due to their elusive nature and pale sandy plumage that helps them blend into desert landscapes, LeConte’s thrashers are medium-sized, long-tailed and lanky birds with a strongly curved bill. They prefer sandy desert habitats with saltbush vegetation, where they forage on the ground for insects and rarely fly. Instead, they run on the ground with their tail cocked, scooting into brushy cover when threatened. Male thrashers are most noticeable during breeding season, when they perch on shrubs to sing high pitched, complex, melodious songs.
Unchecked sprawl development is a major threat to the continued existence of LeConte’s thrasher. More than 80% of the global LeConte’s thrasher population lives in southeastern California, which has undergone rapid development of subdivisions, agriculture, energy and industrial facilities, and roads that destroy and fragment desert habitat. Core thrasher populations in western Riverside County, California, and near Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix are threatened by sprawl development.
The proposed construction of Interstate 11, a 280-mile highway between Nogales and Wickenburg, Arizona, would pave over and bisect habitat for a core thrasher population west of Phoenix.
Other significant threats to LeConte’s thrashers are habitat damage from off-road vehicles, mining and livestock grazing. The spread of invasive plants reduces the insect food and nesting shrubs that thrashers need and increases the intensity and frequency of damaging fire. Increasing temperatures are also eliminating the bird’s food and nesting locations. Rapid climate change poses a serious threat to LeConte’s thrashers especially because these birds struggle to adapt to other habitats.
Conservationists raised the alarm about the decline of LeConte’s thrashers and another southwestern thrasher species, Bendire’s thrasher, more than a decade ago, prompting the formation of a working group to inform conservation of these birds. In May the Center petitioned for Endangered Species Act protections for Bendire’s thrashers, who also live in arid desert habitats in the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico.
“Research and monitoring have improved our understanding of where LeConte’s thrashers live, their habitat needs and the many threats to their survival,” said Miller. “Endangered Species Act safeguards and permanent habitat protections are urgently needed to prevent their slide toward extinction.”
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Click On Detroit (Detroit, MI)
Conservation team sees decline in once-endangered Michigan songbird population — Here’s why
Kirtland’s warbler population declining
Samantha Sayles, Digital Content Producer, Published: July 29, 2025
A team of conservation experts is conducting a long-term plan to stabilize the population of Kirtland’s warbler.
According to the 2025 census, there has been a decline in the population of the once-endangered songbird. The survey indicated that there were 1,477 breeding pairs of the Kirtland’s warblers in Michigan, which is home to 98% of the population.
Another 12 pairs were counted in Wisconsin, with Ontario’s numbers yet to be reported.
According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the songbird’s population decline is projected to continue over the next few years before the Kirtland’s Warbler Conservation Team’s efforts can stabilize the population.
The Kirtland’s Warbler Conservation Team consists of partner organizations, including the Michigan DNR, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Wisconsin DNR, American Bird Conservancy, Huron Pines and others.
“This is a situation we’ve been monitoring and addressing for several years now,” said Erin Victory, a wildlife biologist and Kirtland’s warbler management coordinator for the Michigan DNR. “From a habitat management perspective, we anticipated a decline in the population and have been taking action to address it. We are confident we have enough tools and resources available to us, collectively within the conservation team, to reverse the decline and stabilize the population.”
A survey was conducted in Michigan from June 6 to June 26 in the northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula. Here’s what officials found:
*814 pairs of Kirtland’s warblers on DNR-managed land in the northern Lower Peninsula.
*597 pairs on Forest Service land in the northern Lower Peninsula.
*49 pairs on DNR-managed land in the Upper Peninsula.
*17 pairs on Forest Service land in the Upper Peninsula.
The Michigan DNR stated that small numbers of the songbird are also found in Wisconsin and Ontario.
Why Kirtland’s warbler’s population is declining
According to the Michigan DNR, a reduced acreage of suitable breeding habitat is one of the reasons for the population decline.
The ground-nesting Kirtland’s warbler relies only on young jack pine forests to breed, with the majority of the birds living in northern Lower Michigan.
The DNR said there are not enough young jack pine stands available to maintain a stable population of the songbirds.
Brown-headed cowbird nest parasitism is another factor in the population decline. This is when cowbirds lay eggs in Kirtland’s warblers’ nests, as well as those of other bird species. The larger cowbird chicks then out-compete warbler chicks for food, causing the songbirds to die while the warbler parents unknowingly raise the cowbird chicks.
Unforeseen factors affect the Kirtland warbler’s population as well. According to the DNR, a 2023 hailstorm wiped out half of the jack pine seedlings at a DNR-contracted nursery. Hurricanes during migration and dry winters can stress or kill birds, with fewer birds returning to Michigan.
Conservation team’s plan
The conservation team is developing a 10-year Breeding Rand Conservation Plan to manage the habitat, primarily, using novel approaches to cut jack pine stands in the surplus 20 and 30-year age classes, along with 60-year-old stands, to ensure the annual habitat goals are met.
The DNR said previous management practices on handling jack pine stands need to be updated. The stands are not commercials marketable for clearcutting until they are at least 60 years old because they were intentionally planted at higher densities for better habitat. This led to land managers having less opportunity to create young habitat over the last decade.
The DNR said to the extent possible, the younger timber will be sold as mulch or as a renewable energy resource on the biomass market. Land managers are also evaluating the feasibility and safety of increasing prescribed fire use.
“This strategy continues to create habitat and also allows the 40-year age class to continue growing and become merchantable. If we kept trying to harvest from the 40-year age class, we would be perpetuating the problem,” said Jason Hartman, silvicultural specialist for the Michigan DNR. This strategy will benefit local economies, Kirtland’s warblers and other species associated with the jack pine ecosystem.
Other strategies include transitions away from jack pine plantations where possible in favor of lower-cost natural regeneration and partnering with university researchers to evaluate new habitat management techniques.
The team will also monitor brown-headed cowbird nest parasitism.
Once endangered species
The Kirtland’s warbler was federally endangered for nearly 50 years.
According to the DNR, the population dropped to fewer than 200 pairs in the 1970s and again in the 1980s when the population was restricted to only 14 townships in six counties in northern Lower Michigan.
Thanks to a decades-long, collaborative effort to recover the species by federal, state and private partners, the bird was removed from the federal endangered species list in 2019.
However, the songbird remains a state-threatened species in Michigan because it will not persist without intensive management.
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Seafood Source
July 28, 2025
US government confirms 64 whale entanglements in 2023
Nathan Strout, published in Environment & Sustainability
The U.S. government has confirmed 64 large whale entanglements took place in 2023, with at least half of those cases involving commercial or recreational fishing gear.
While NOAA Fisheries could not determine the origin of the lines in the remaining entanglements, the agency said “it is likely some of the cases involving only line that could not be identified to a specific source were related to fishing activities.”
“Entanglements in fishing gear or marine debris represent a continued threat to the welfare and recovery of many whale species,” NOAA Fisheries said in a release. “This includes species that are endangered and approaching extinction (e.g., North Atlantic right whales). Entanglements involving threatened or endangered species can have significant negative impacts on a population as a whole.”
Rescue teams were able to partially or completely disentangle 11 individuals. NOAA Fisheries presumes 27 are still entangled.
“Whales unable to free themselves can carry the entanglement for days, months, or even years. Entanglements often interfere with swimming, feeding, breathing, and other vital functions,” NOAA Fisheries said in a statement. “Severe entanglements can cause injuries that can result in death from infection, starvation, amputation (e.g., flippers or flukes), blood loss, strangulation, or drowning.”
A majority of the whales – 47 – were humpbacks, but 11 gray whales, four North Atlantic right whales, and two minke whales were also entangled.
According to NOAA Fisheries, the 2023 total represents a slight dip in annual whale entanglements. The 16-year average for entanglements is 71.8 incidents.
“We will continue to analyze data from 2023 to understand whether this dip is temporary or part of a longer-term downward trend,” the agency said.
Whale entanglements have put increased pressure on U.S. commercial trap and pot fisheries, where vertical lines can entangle marine mammals. On the West Coast, the state of California was forced to delay its most recent Dungeness crab season for weeks due to the presence of whales and then close early when the whales returned. Many state governments have encouraged trap and pot fisheries to switch to alternative gear that doesn’t rely on vertical lines; the California state government has operated a pilot Dungeness crab fishery with popup gear for the last two seasons.
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Mongabay
2,000 species at high risk of extinction from natural disasters, study finds
Liz Kimbrough, 25 July 2025
In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s assault on the Caribbean island of Dominica in 2017, researchers made a heartbreaking discovery: dead and dying hummingbirds scattered across the forest floor. Among them were purple-throated caribs (Eulampis jugularis), the specialized pollinators of the island’s Heliconia plants. This single storm threatened an evolutionary partnership millions of years in the making, killing three-quarters of the hummingbird population and leaving their flowering partners without their primary pollinators.
The disaster on Dominica exemplifies a threat that scientists are only beginning to understand: how natural disasters can drive vulnerable species toward extinction.
A study identified 2,001 species (834 reptiles, 617 amphibians, 302 birds and 248 mammals) that have at least 25% of their habitat in areas experiencing high impact from hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.
“This is the first attempt to provide a global map of species at risk of extinction due to natural hazards,” lead author Fernando Gonçalves, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich, told Mongabay.
The study analyzed approximately 50 years of historical data on these four kinds of natural hazards. Hurricanes pose the greatest threat, affecting 983 of the high-risk species, followed by earthquakes (868 species), tsunamis (272 species) and volcanic eruptions (171 species).
The highest concentrations of at-risk species were found along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of high seismic activity around the edges of the Pacific Ocean. Hurricane-prone species were mostly concentrated in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
“By overlapping the occurrence of four types of natural hazards with species that have limited distributions or occur in small numbers, we were able to identify which species may be more susceptible to these threats,” said Harith Farooq, a lead author of the study from University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Global distribution of 3,722 species that met the study’s criteria and are considered at risk of extinction due to four natural hazards. The map shows the combined distribution of 1,502 reptiles, 1,183 amphibians, 632 birds, and 405 mammals (Top panel A). Global distribution of 2,001 species that met our criteria and are considered at high risk of extinction due to four natural hazards: volcanoes (red circle), earthquakes (yellow circles), tsunamis (green circle), and hurricanes (purple circle) (Bottom panel B). Figure from Goncalves et al 2024.
Overall, nearly 70% of the high-risk species live exclusively on islands. Although species endemic to islands have mostly evolved to withstand natural hazards, the researchers warn that these adaptations may not be sufficient when natural hazards combine with human-caused threats.
The research team examined 34,035 terrestrial vertebrate species worldwide, focusing on those with small populations (fewer than 1,100 mature individuals) or that live in restricted ranges (less than 2,500 square kilometers, or 965 square miles). Of these, 42% overlap with regions where major natural hazards have occurred in the past five decades.
“Half of these species are what we qualify as in ‘high risk’ of extinction due to natural hazards, and the majority of these are found in the tropics and especially on tropical islands, which have already experienced many extinctions since the colonization by humans,” Jonas Geldmann and Bo Dalsgaard, senior authors of the study from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, said in a statement.
Climate change is expected to increase both the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, potentially overwhelming species’ natural resilience mechanisms, Gonçalves said. “The problem is going to be this combination of natural hazards and anthropogenic hazards such as deforestation.”
For example, Hurricane Maria in 2017 likely killed 239 of the remaining 250 critically endangered imperial amazon parrots (Amazona imperialis) on Dominica. Before the storm, the population was already on the verge of extinction due to habitat loss.
“Catastrophic natural hazards are rare and often unpredictable in their location and severity,” Thomas E. Lacher Jr., an emeritus professor at Texas A&M University who was not involved in the study, told Mongabay by email. “When they are severe, their impact on rare species, particularly on restricted populations, can be extirpation or extinction level events.”
Global distribution mammals considered at risk of extinction due to four natural hazards. (Top panel A). Global distribution at high risk of extinction due to four natural hazards: volcanoes (red circle), earthquakes (yellow circles), tsunamis (green circle), and hurricanes (purple circle) (Bottom panel B). Figure from Goncalves et al 2025
Perhaps most concerning, Gonçalves said, is that only 15% of high-risk species have specific conservation plans in place, while approximately 30% have their entire known range outside protected areas.
The study highlights successful conservation interventions, such as those for the Puerto Rican parrot (Amazona vittata). The charismatic green bird was once nearly extinct due to hurricanes and human activities, but has been recovering through captive-breeding programs and the establishment of multiple wild populations across Puerto Rico.
The study calls for increased investment in habitat protection, restoration, captive-breeding programs and species translocation to help vulnerable species survive in an era of intensifying natural hazards.
“Translocating species to other suitable habitats is a practical conservation strategy, and ithas been successfully implemented in several cases,” Gonçalves said, citing the cases of the golden lion tamarin in Brazil, the kakapo in New Zealand, Mallorcan midwife toad, Aldabra giant tortoise in Seychelles and Fiji’s crested iguana. “However, it’s not an easy task. It involves significant planning, resources, and long-term monitoring.”
However, the work of saving each species is worthwhile, said Mauro Galetti a co-author of the study from São Paulo State University, Brazil, “We’re not just losing one species; we’re losing a multitude of ecosystem functions that these species provide.”
Lacher emphasized that islands should be a high priority for conservation action, noting that many are in hurricane-prone zones or are archipelagos of volcanic origin. “In these cases,” he said, “the maintenance of small captive breeding populations for things like endemic Caribbean parrots or threatened amphibian species is a wise investment.”
Gonçalves said he and his colleagues are now conducting long-term studies across 15 Caribbean islands to better understand how natural hazards affect not just individual species but entire ecosystems, including pollination and seed dispersal networks.
“One of the goals of creating the map and species list in our study was to highlight which species and regions need immediate attention,” Gonçalves said. “We’re already in contact with local authorities and NGOs in the Caribbean to initiate conservation programs aimed at stabilizing and rebuilding some of these populations.”
The researchers assert that understanding which species face the highest risks from natural hazards is crucial for prioritizing conservation efforts and preventing extinctions.
“Our study provides important information regarding the species at risk due to natural hazards and can help guide conservation attention and efforts to safeguard their survival,” the authors concluded.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Endangered Species Protection Sought for North Atlantic’s Elusive Cusk Fish
WASHINGTON—(July 23, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service today to protect the cusk fish under the Endangered Species Act. The cusk is a long-lived bottom-dwelling marine fish that lives in the North Atlantic Ocean and is primarily threatened by habitat loss and by being accidentally caught in fishing nets aimed at other species.
“These poor fish have been overlooked and neglected as their population has taken a nosedive,” said David Derrick, a staff attorney at the Center. “It’ll take the Endangered Species Act’s strong protections to stop the overfishing and habitat degradation putting the cusk’s existence at risk. We owe it to the cusk and the ocean ecosystem to make that effort.”
Cusk live in the North Atlantic, primarily off the coast of Maine and Massachusetts in the United States, and into the waters of eastern Canada and Northern Europe. They rely on seafloor areas at depths of 500 to 1,500 feet with features such as rocks, ledges and coral reefs for shelter and feeding.
Surveys show that the cusk’s population has declined by 75%-95% in several areas over the past few decades. Groundfish fisheries targeting other species can ensnare cusk as bycatch, and fishing gear that touches the ocean floor can damage their habitat.
Climate change is also warming water temperatures in cusk habitat, which scientists believe will shrink their range. The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99% of the world’s oceans.
Cusk live up to 39 years but reach sexual maturity slowly, at around 5 to 10 years for females, making recovery difficult. The fish are also sedentary and solitary, which adds to the challenge of re-populating an area.
“It’s hard to know everything about cusk, since they live in secluded corners of the seafloor,” Derrick said. “But everything we do know says they’re in trouble if we don’t act now.”
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Mongabay
Study highlights dangers of declaring conservation success too soon
Mongabay.com, 23 July 2025
The IUCN Red List has long been the globally recognized gauge for assessing how close to extinction a given species is. An improvement in the species’ conservation status from a higher to a lower threat category, known as downlisting, can signal conservation success. But a recent study says this must be done cautiously to avoid prematurely cutting off needed conservation efforts and funding.
It cites the case of the woylie (Bettongia penicillata), a small Australian marsupial, which was downlisted from endangered to lower risk in 1996. Soon after, its population fell by 90%, prompting a reclassification to critically endangered in 2008, suggesting conservation efforts had ended too soon. After conservationists intervened again, its status improved in 2024 to near threatened.
The study trawled through the 163,040 assessed species on the IUCN Red List for cases of downlisting. It found that about 1,500 species saw their conservation status change between 2007 and 2024: about 85% had been uplisted (they’d moved closer to the extinction end of the scale), while 222 species (15%) were downlisted.
One positive trend, the researchers observed, is that more critically endangered species were downlisted to endangered, than being uplisted to extinct. This highlights the effectiveness of the red list in helping drive conservation, they write.
To understand the effects that downlisting can have, especially for species that attract public interest and funding, the researchers looked at controversies around four well-known species: saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica), giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis) and black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor).
The red-crowned crane was downlisted from endangered to vulnerable in 2021. This was largely due to the bird’s population decline slowing down globally, driven by growth in Japan. But the authors write that some experts argue the crane’s Chinese population has declined by more than 90% in recent decades and still faces threats, while the Japanese population is heavily reliant on supplemental feeding.
The black-faced spoonbill was downlisted from critically endangered to endangered in 2000, and is proposed for further downlisting to least concern, the authors write. While the bird’s population has increased, some critics argue it’s become increasingly confined to limited habitats. That increases the species’ vulnerability to threats such as climate change, infrastructure development, and diseases like avian influenza.
The authors present several potential risks to downlisting species, including weakening legal protections and lowering conservation priorities; reduced conservation funding efforts and donor priorities; and the possible loss of public and political support critical for ongoing conservation.
The authors note that it’s possible to downlist a species without compromising recovery. They suggest structuring conservation funding for long-term sustainability rather than short-term population gains, by prioritizing “habitat restoration, ecosystem resilience, and self-sustaining populations.” They add the downlisting process also needs early, transparent communication with local experts, so conservationists and policymakers can anticipate changes and allocate resources accordingly.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Lawsuit Challenges Trump’s Failure to Protect Endangered Animals From Gulf Oil Drilling
Oil Spills Put Birds, Nesting Sea Turtles at Risk
WASHINGTON—(July 22, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a new legal claim in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s failure to comply with the Endangered Species Act in assessing harm to endangered and threatened species from offshore oil and gas extraction.
“Federal officials have forgotten the lessons of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, because they’ve missed obvious threats to some of the Gulf’s most vulnerable critters,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This analysis falls far short of what the law and science demand, which is why we’re challenging it in court. Our government is required to protect manatees and sea turtles and other threatened animals Americans adore. Officials need to redo these assessments with a much larger dose of reality and much less deference to oil and gas interests.”
Monday’s lawsuit challenges two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service analyses, issued in 2018 and 2025, because they fail to adequately consider a range of harms from oil extraction to several endangered species living in the Gulf. These include major oil spills, collisions with drilling rigs, light pollution and habitat degradation. The Service is required under the Endangered Species Act to complete a consultation on oil and gas operations that could harm threatened and endangered species.
In April 2024 the Center filed a lawsuit challenging the 2018 consultation, known as a biological opinion. That analysis claims to consider the effects of 50 years of Gulf oil and gas extraction on West Indian manatees, nesting Kemp’s ridley and loggerhead sea turtles, whooping cranes, Mississippi sandhill cranes, several other bird species and beach mice.
Monday’s filing seeks to amend the 2024 lawsuit to also challenge the 2025 consultation the Trump administration prepared. The purpose of the new consultation is to consider whether new information about the harms of Gulf oil drilling invalidates the 2018 biological opinion and to evaluate the potential harm from drilling to the newly listed black-capped petrel.
In the 2018 analysis, the Service ignored the potential harms from a major oil spill. Although the analysis admitted that up to one oil spill greater than 420,000 gallons in size “is likely to occur,” the agency claims no endangered species would be harmed. The 2025 addendum did not correct that claim, or evaluate the effects of a larger spill, despite evidence indicating a larger spill is likely to occur. Instead, the 2025 consultation reaffirms the conclusions in the 2018 analysis, despite a host of new science demonstrating its conclusions are invalid.
The Gulf contains a massive amount of federal oil and gas extraction, including more than 2,070 active oil and gas leases. Those leases enable thousands of platforms and rigs, tens of thousands of miles of pipelines, and tens of thousands of oil and gas wells.
In 2010 the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion killed 11 people and caused more than 200 million gallons of oil to spill into the ocean. Millions of marine mammals, sea turtles, birds, fish and other wildlife were killed, and the damage continues to this day.
The Center is part of a separate May 2025 lawsuit challenging a biological opinion conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service regarding the effects of Gulf oil and gas activities on endangered sperm whales, Rice’s whales, corals and other species.
“History is a valuable guide, and it’s negligent to ignore the possibility of another disastrous Gulf oil spill,” Monsell said. “Sea turtles nesting on the shore and birds relying on Gulf coast marshes are depending on us to keep them safe from oil and gas extraction.”
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Time Out
New study reveals the U.S. states with the most endangered species
In general, wildlife populations are decreasing dramatically
Erika Mailman, San Francisco and USA contributor, July 22, 2025
For many people, a huge part of traveling is seeing creatures they can’t see at home. Think about the thrill of seeing bison in Yellowstone National Park, alligators in Florida and moose in Maine. Getting to see these animals IRL helps us feel closer to nature and that’s good for us and for them.
But unfortunately, in some places, wildlife is in danger and may even face extinction. And a new study from Lake.com has evaluated all 50 states in terms of extinction danger for animals, fish, plants and even insects, places where we most need to pay attention to protecting wildlife.
The study relies on data from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Environmental Conservation Online System and biodiversity data collector NatureServe. And with the World Wildlife Federation recently saying that wildlife populations have decreased a stunning 73-percent since the 1970s, we all need to pay attention.
The state with the most likelihood of wildlife extinction is Hawaii, which is home to 489 endangered species including but certainly not limited to: the Hawaiian monk seal, Hawaiian green sea turtle, Hawaiian hoary bat, Nene (Hawaiian goose) and Oahu tree snail. (The Pono Pledge helps visitors do a better job of protecting wildlife.)
After that, California follows with 293 endangered species, such as the California red-legged frog, the northern spotted owl, and the giant kangaroo rat. And finally, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida each have around 135 endangered species. A few of those include fish like the Pygmy Madtom in Tennessee and the Alabama sturgeon. In Florida, the Florida panther is an endangered puma. On the other side of the situation, Vermont is the safest place for species, with only six endangered species.
Many places are making changes to ensure visitors don’t harm wildlife, such as at Sequoia National Park in California, where visitors to Crystal Cave must step in a footbath to ensure they don’t carry white-nose syndrome to the bats inside. Here’s hoping that more travel destinations will start taking that kind of care and consideration to its animal residents and neighbors.
Here are the U.S. states with the most endangered species:
1. Hawaii
2. California
3. Tennessee
4. Alabama
5. Florida
6. Virginia
7. Texas
8. Georgia
9. Kentucky
10. Arizona
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Center for Biological Diversity
Judge to Hear Arguments on Red Wolf Endangered Species Protections
RALEIGH, N.C.—(July 21, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity will present oral arguments Wednesday in a federal court case that will decide whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service unlawfully refused to increase federal Endangered Species Act protections for critically endangered red wolves. The wolves are currently classified as a “nonessential” population, affording them fewer protections.
“The world’s last wild population of red wolves is essential to the survival and recovery of this species, and that’s what we will prove in court on Wednesday,” said Perrin de Jong, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. “Red wolves don’t have time to wait for the Fish and Wildlife Service to get its act together. They need stronger protections now.”
What: Oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the Service’s decision to continue classifying the world’s last wild population of red wolves as “nonessential.” The case is titled Center for Biological Diversity v. Haaland et al (2:23-cv-00058-BO-BM).
When: Wednesday, July 23, 2 p.m. ET.
Where: The U.S. Courthouse at 310 New Bern Ave, Raleigh, North Carolina 27601. The hearing will be held on the seventh floor in courtroom two.
Who: Center for Biological Diversity attorneys and counsel for the wolf advocates will be outside the courtroom to answer questions after the hearing.
Background
Tens of thousands of red wolves once roamed across most of eastern North America, but by 1960 they were nearly extinct. Red wolves were saved by Endangered Species Act protections, which led to a captive breeding program.
In 1986 the Service established an experimental population of red wolves in North Carolina’s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and designated it as nonessential. While seeing subsequent growth, the red wolf program was halted in 2015 and the population crashed to as few as seven wolves.
In 2016 the Center and allies petitioned the Service to reclassify the population as essential and eliminate allowances for private landowners to kill non-offending wolves. In January 2023 the Service denied the Center’s petition.
Because North Carolina’s red wolf experimental population is the only wild population of the species, its loss would eliminate the species from the wild. The law therefore compels the Service to designate the population as essential and provide greater safeguards to the red wolves, like protection of critical habitat, according to the lawsuit. The suit also aims to compel the agency to remove rules providing that private landowners may needlessly shoot red wolves.
Learn more about the 16 known remaining wild red wolves at SaveRedWolves.org.
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National Parks Traveler
Can Grizzly Bears Survive Without The Endangered Species Act?
A U.S. representative from Wyoming wants to remove Endangered Species Act protections for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone
By Kurt Repanshek, July 20, 2025
Decades of work that has steered grizzly bears away from extinction in the Greater Yellowstone region could be lost if House Republicans succeed in weakening the powerful law that protects them.
Progress by the iconic bruins under the Endangered Species Act is not yet enough to keep them safe, in the eyes of environmental advocates.
But Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., says the grizzlies’ improved population numbers in the sprawling 22-million-acre ecosystem that surrounds Yellowstone National Park prove the species no longer needs help. She is pushing a bill to not only remove their ESA protection but also prevent any courts from considering challenges to that decision.
“The GYE [Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem] grizzly population has exceeded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recovery goals for over two decades,” Hageman told a Natural Resources Committee hearing on her bill. While calling the bear “a success story,” she added that, in failing to be delisted, “The grizzly is, in fact, the poster child for how the ESA has failed in terms of what it was intended to do and how it has actually been implemented.”
Erin Edge, a bear expert with Defenders of Wildlife in Montana, does not disagree that the ESA has been “a success for grizzly bears, bringing them back from the brink of extinction.” Still, she said, “We’re not quite recovered yet. We don’t have populations connected,” meaning completely distinct grizzly habitat sections should be linked for the health of the species.
“That interconnectedness provides us long-term resiliency against changes to the environment or increased development,” Edge told the National Parks Traveler in Sunday’s podcast.
Competing Numbers
It’s been estimated that prior to expansion of the United States there might have been 50,000 or more grizzly bears roaming the continent. Their presence benefited the environment in general, and many species took advantage of meals from the remains of bear kills. Today, it’s been estimated that they occupy less than 2 percent of their historic range.
Large in the argument over the value of the Endangered Species Act are numbers tossed about pertaining to how successful the ESA has been in helping recover species. Hageman and other Republicans maintain that only 3 percent of listed species have been delisted. Meanwhile, ESA advocates — including the Interior Department in the past — emphasize a different success measure. They stress that 99 percent of listed species have been saved from extinction; in essence, that the world would be without those species if not for the protections through the ESA.
Regardless of the political prism used to view the grizzlies’ success, their numbers have climbed significantly since 1975, when they first received ESA protections. Then their population was estimated to range between 130 and 300 in the coterminous states. Hageman puts today’s number at about 1,100, which is close to the 1,000 figure Edge used while discussing grizzly bears and Hageman’s legislation during this week’s recording of the National Parks Traveler’s podcast.
Part of the point Edge was driving at is while there are a number of areas in the country suitable for grizzlies, they are not connected by available habitat, and so could result in creation of genetic “islands” of bears that could eventually suffer from inbreeding.
“This is a positive story,” said Edge, referring to the rebound of the Greater Yellowstone population. “I think what we’re seeing is that bears are slowly getting closer to each other, from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. So moving north and moving south, it’s exciting. It’s not there yet. They haven’t shown that genetic connectivity.”
However, a federal biologist on the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee for the Yellowstone ecosystem said two years ago that grizzly expansion into new habitat had ceased — and that their range has even retreated in places, according to Wyofile, a nonprofit media organization in Wyoming.
“I think it’s suggesting that we are reaching the limits of even marginal habitat,” Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team Leader Frank van Manen told fellow members of the subcommittee. “There’s more human influence [on the ecosystem periphery], and so we have a lot more human-bear conflict and higher [grizzly] mortality.”
Lacking Connectivity
A map of the West illustrates the connectivity problems. Along with the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems that already have grizzlies, so, too, do the Cabinet-Yaak, Selkirk, and Bitterroot ecosystems. The North Cascades Ecosystem does not. All those ecosystems are largely, if not greatly, isolated from each other.
“Montana did move two bears south into the Yellowstone ecosystem to try and improve that connectivity, the genetic piece,” Edge said. “But what we really want to see is connectivity that is natural, that bears are living and breeding with other ecosystems.”
How that might occur is the troubling question. The Yellowstone to Yukon initiative launched in the early 1990s with a vision of establishing a 2,100-mile corridor from Yellowstone to the Yukon to protect wildlife habitat and enhance connectivity has worked with landowners and communities to make the vision a reality. To date, the nonprofit organization claims a “more than 80 percent increase in key protected area growth.”
Joseph Vaile, who tracks grizzly bear issues in the Pacific Northwest for Defenders, said the North Cascades region “is probably a place where we’ve really backtracked on bears since they were listed. You know, we haven’t seen a bear in the North Cascade since 1996; at least any confirmed.”
Whether now is the time to fill that void remains to be seen. The first Trump administration both supported and then opposed a recovery proposal for the Pacific Northwest, and Trump’s bent this time around is not yet clear.
Back in 2017, during Trump’s first term as president, Park Service staff at North Cascades National Park were evaluating public comment previously made on a recovery proposal launched during the Obama administration, but Interior officials told them to stop the work. But in March 2018 then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told the agency to resume the work. Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff continued working on a draft recovery plan until July 2020, when Zinke’s successor, David Bernhardt, told community members in Omak, Washington, that the plan would be shelved.
In April 2024, however, the Biden administration restarted the effort. The recovery plan is set to play out in one of the largest wild areas remaining in the lower 48 states, an area that spans roughly 9,500 square miles in north-central Washington. All told, roughly 85 percent of the recovery area is under federal management. There are mountains that rise above 9,000 feet and, according to scientists, prime grizzly habitat that ranges from “temperate rainforests on the western side of the Cascade Range to dry Ponderosa pine forests and sage-steppe on the east side” that could support approximately 280 grizzly bears.
Much of the area is roadless, “so really high quality habitat,” said Vaile. “There’s some connectivity, too, into Canada, and Canadian folks have been working on grizzly bear issues just across the border as well.”
Federal agencies have yet to fully explain how the recovery plan would be implemented, but it’s expected to involve bears from the Rocky Mountains or interior British Columbia.
Additionally, the bears would be designated a “nonessential experimental” population, the ESA designation used in the 1990s when wolves were returned to Yellowstone National Park. Such a designation gives federal agencies more leeway in managing the species that would not otherwise be available under existing ESA regulations.
The North Cascades plan calls for the Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service to move three to seven grizzly bears per year for a period of five to 10 years to establish an initial population of 25 bears in the area. The long-term goal calls for 200 bears by the end of the century.
Vaile, during the podcast, said by using the “non-essential” designation for a North Cascades recovery operation there “would be quite a bit more management options for dealing with human safety or property or any sort of conflicts that arise with grizzly bears there.”
“So that said,” he continued, “there’s a decision on the books to move forward. We have not seen the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service taking any sort of affirmative action in that regard. We did see in the recent Interior Appropriations Bill that there was amendment to limit any funding going to reintroduce bears into the North Cascades.”
An Icon Of Wild
“Grizzly bears are an icon of what’s wild in our world. If a grizzly bear is thriving on the landscape, that landscape is likely providing habitat for species like elk, deer, wolverine, other species,” said Edge. “It’s actually a sign that our ecosystems are doing well, and we need those. You know, humans rely on the natural world as much as our wildlife does, even though sometimes we forget.”
While no one is talking about pushing for an enormous recovery in the number of grizzly bears, advocates see value in having healthy pockets of bears where they fit. But that also won’t happen quickly, even if political pressures against the bears relented. Getting grizzlies of any great number in the North Cascades Ecosystem, if the recovery effort advances, won’t happen overnight. For one thing, they have a slow reproductive rate, with litters typically one one-to-three cubs, whereas wolves might have a litter of seven.
“Mind you, this would be just a few bears a year for up to 10 years. It would take a long time for this reintroduction to move forward even if we started putting bears there tomorrow,” Vaile said. “It looks like there’s not going to be funding for it this year. You know, I think it would be a dangerous precedent to defund the reintroduction effort, especially since it’s something that is called for in recovery of the species. It’s a recovery zone that is been designated in the recovery plan. So, without moving bears there, they’re probably not going to naturally recover. It’s going to be really unlikely that they’ll move there without any sort of augmentation and movement of bears into the recovery zone.”
Not everyone in the region relishes the prospect of grizzlies back on the landscape. The Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe has opposed the plan, fearing the safety of tribal members as well as impacts to salmon runs that bears might feast upon. But the Skagit and Snoqualmie tribes support the cultural significance of grizzlies to the area.
Adamantly opposed to the recovery plan is Republican Congressman Dan Newhouse, who has been vocal about safety concerns for area residents and visitors to the North Cascades Ecosystem. Others include local county and organizations across the West that represent farmers and cattle ranchers.
Against that backdrop, Vaile said there have been efforts to educate the public about the recovery proposal, and that Washington state officials have been active “doing quite a bit of work on conflict reduction for black bears.”
“There’s a lot of people that support it, as well, and there’s a very robust political public process to get to the point where we have a decision to reintroduce bears in the North Cascades,” he added.
Is The ESA Itself Endangered?
Rep. Hageman is not alone in challenging the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act. House Republicans back in March considered a bill from Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado that would strip ESA protections from gray wolves, and another from Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, who said the ESA “has consistently failed to achieve its intended goals and has been warped by decades of radical environmental litigation into a weapon instead of a tool.”
He is sponsoring legislation to overhaul the ESA, “focusing on species recovery and streamlining the ESA permitting process,” and hindering “frivolous litigation,” among other provisions.
“Grizzly bears are one of the country’s most iconic species, and the Endangered Species Act is critical not just to their recovery, but to their survival as a species,” said Bradley Williams, Sierra Club’s deputy legislative director for wildlife and lands protection. “We should be investing more resources into this critical law so it can achieve its full potential, but Donald Trump and his congressional allies are working to undermine it to benefit their corporate backers. If [Hageman’s] bill becomes law, the effects on grizzlies and other imperiled species could be devastating and irreversible.”
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Los Angeles Times
A plan to shoot 450,000 owls — to save a different owl — could be in jeopardy
Federal wildlife officials approved a plan last year to protect northern spotted owls by shooting other owls, but it has faced pushback from animal rights advocates and lawmakers — including conservatives. Now lawmakers could kill the plan.
By Lila Seidman, Staff Writer, July 19, 2025
An unusual alliance of Republican lawmakers and animal rights advocates, together with others, is creating storm clouds for a plan to protect one threatened owl by killing a more common one.
Last August, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved a plan to shoot roughly 450,000 barred owls in California, Oregon and Washington over three decades. The barred owls have been out-competing imperiled northern spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest, as well as California spotted owls, pushing them out of their territory.
Supporters of the approach — including conservation groups and prominent scientists — believe the cull is necessary to avert disastrous consequences for the spotted owls.
But the coalition argues the effort is too expensive, unworkable and inhumane. They’re urging the Trump administration to cancel it and lawmakers could pursue a reversal through special congressional action.
Last month, The Times has found, federal officials canceled three owl-related grants to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife totaling roughly $1.1 million, including one study that would remove barred owls from over 192,000 acres in Mendocino and Sonoma counties.
Two were nixed before federal funding was allocated and never got off the ground, Peter Tira, a spokesperson for the state wildlife agency, said. Another, a collaboration with University of Maryland biologists to better understand barred owl dispersal patterns in western forests, was nearly complete when terminated.
“Under President Donald J. Trump’s leadership, we are eliminating wasteful programs, cutting unnecessary costs and ensuring every dollar serves a clear purpose,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement when asked whether the grants had been terminated.
Another lever would be for Congress to overturn the owl-kill plan altogether using the Congressional Review Act.
The Government Accountability Office concluded in a late-May decision that the plan is subject to that act, sometimes used by new presidential administrations to reverse rules issued by federal agencies in the final months of prior administrations. Both chambers of Congress would need to pass a joint resolution to undo it.
In the months leading up to the GAO determination, bipartisan groups of U.S. House members wrote two letters to the secretary of the Interior laying out reasons why the owl-cull plan should not move forward. In total, 19 Republicans and 18 Democrats signed the letters, including seven lawmakers from California — David Valadao (R-Hanford), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), Gil Cisneros (D-Covina), Josh Harder (D-Tracy), Linda T. Sánchez (D-Whittier), Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and Adam Gray (D-Merced).
Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-Texas), an ardent Trump supporter, signed the initial letter, and is “currently exploring other options to end this unnecessary plan, which prioritizes one species of owls over another, and wastes Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars,” communications director Emily Matthews said.
Kamlager-Dove said also said earlier this year that she objected to killing one species to preserve another. “And as an animal lover, I cannot support the widespread slaughter of these beautiful creatures,” she said.
If a resolution is introduced, passed and signed by President Trump, the plan will be over. The Fish and Wildlife Service would not be allowed to bring forward a similar rule, unless explicitly authorized by Congress.
Tom Wheeler, executive director of the Environmental Protection Information Center, which supports reducing the barred owl population, called the specter of the Congressional Review Act “very scary.”
It’s “an intrusion by Congress into areas where we’re relying on high agency expertise and scientific understanding,” he said. “It’s vibes versus science.”
Wheeler said he believed it was more likely the program would be deprioritized amid budget cuts than eliminated through the Act.
“If we don’t move forward with barred owl removal, it will mean the extinction of the northern spotted owl, and it will likely mean the extinction of the California spotted owl as well,” he said.
Science is on its side, he said. A long-term field experiment showed that where barred owls were killed, the population of spotted owls stabilized.
For animal welfare activist Wayne Pacelle, who has galvanized opposition to the owl-cull plan, it’s a hopeful turn of events.
“Even if they had full funding for this, we don’t think it could possibly succeed,” said Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy. The land area where the barred owls need to be controlled is just too vast, he said. And barred owls from elsewhere, he said, will simply fly in and replace those that are felled.
As few as 3,000 northern spotted owls are left on federal lands. The brown raptors with white spots are listed as threatened under both the California and federal Endangered Species Act.
California spotted owls are also in decline, and federal wildlife officials have proposed endangered species protections for two populations.
The two sides of the fierce debate agree that barred and spotted owls compete for nesting sites and food — such as woodrats and northern flying squirrels.
Barred owls and spotted owls are similar in appearance and can even interbreed. But barred owls are more aggressive and slightly larger, in addition to being more generalist when it comes to what they’ll eat and where they’ll live, allowing them to muscle out their fellow raptors.
Federal wildlife officials and some conservationists consider barred owls invasive.
As Europeans settled the Great Plains, they suppressed fire and planted trees, allowing barred owls to expand westward from their origin in eastern North America, biologists believe.
“I would call this an invasion, and I would call these non-native species,” Wheeler said.
On the flip side, some see the owl arrival along the West Coast as natural range expansion.
There are also conflicting views of the cost of exterminating so many owls.
Opponents estimate it will cost about $1.35 billion, extrapolated from a $4.5-million contract awarded to a Northern California Native American tribe last year to hunt about 1,500 barred owls over four years.
A 2024 research paper, however, concluded that barred owl removal in the range of the northern spotted owl would cost from $4.5 million to $12 million per year in its initial stages, and would likely decrease over time. At $12 million a year, the 30-year plan would run $360 million.
Pacelle’s Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy have also sued the Fish and Wildlife Service in U.S. District Court in Washington state over the plan. Friends of Animals, another animal welfare group, filed suit in Oregon.
Wheeler’s Environmental Protection Information Center has intervened in the suits in defense of the plan, and those cases continue to advance.
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Montana Free Press (Helena, MT)
Yellowstone delisting proposal backed by Montana reps clears key Congressional hurdle
Reps. Ryan Zinke and Troy Downing are co-sponsoring the Grizzly Bear State Management Act of 2025, which Wyoming’s congresswoman has championed.
by Amanda Eggert, 07.16.2025
A proposal by a Wyoming Republican representative to remove Endangered Species Act protections from Yellowstone grizzly bears narrowly cleared a key congressional vote Tuesday.
The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources voted 20-19 to advance a bill that would reinstate a 2017 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist — or remove federal protections — from grizzly bears. Language in the bill also seeks to make the action immune to a court challenge.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Republican who represents Wyoming’s statewide U.S. House district, is sponsoring the Grizzly Bear State Management Act of 2025. Montana congressmen Troy Downing and Ryan Zinke, both Republicans, are co-sponsors.
During committee debate on the proposal Tuesday, Hageman argued that Yellowstone grizzlies, which have been protected under the ESA for five decades, met the initial recovery target of 500 bears nearly 30 years ago.
“In my state, they are saturated, they far exceed recovery goals and it is time to delist them,” she said.
Rep. Jared Huffman, the ranking Democratic member of the committee, argued that some of the states that would assume management of the bears “have not demonstrated a credible commitment to continuing the conservation of the species.”
“That’s why the former Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent me a letter to Montana legislators warning that state laws and regulations threaten both grizzly bear recovery and public safety,” Huffman said. “With these anti-predator laws in place, the grizzly could once again vanish from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.”
Hageman said there are typically more than 200 conflicts with grizzly bears reported each year in Wyoming, and approximately 200 grizzlies are born in the Greater Yellowstone annually — “so the hyperbolic claims that they’re going to, poof, disappear [are] absolutely inaccurate.”
Committee chair Bruce Westerman, a Republican from Arkansas, called grizzly bear recovery a success for the endangered species program. He argued that Hageman’s proposal “accomplishes something that we should be doing more often — and that is celebrating listed species’ recovery through delisting.”
“Since Congress first enacted the Endangered Species Act in 1973, only 3% of listed species have ever been classified as recovered and delisted. We can clearly see the success of the grizzly in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and now it is time to listen to local communities and delist the species, returning management to the state,” Westerman continued.
Zinke, who represents Montana’s western congressional district, issued the 2017 rule to delist grizzly bears that the bill seeks to revive while he was serving as the Secretary of the Interior.
“Instead of moving the goal line, we should be celebrating the win — the Endangered [Species] Act worked for grizzly bears in the GYE,” Zinke said in a February statement regarding his co-sponsorship of the bill. “As a Congressman, I am demanding the same thing I did as Secretary — If we are managing based on science, there must be an offramp for wildlife on the list once their goal is reached. Montana and Wyoming share more than a border, we share wildlife, ecosystems, and the shared responsibility to manage it properly.”
Ahead of the hearing on the bill, H.R. 281, more than 50 organizations, primarily wildlife groups, urged Congress to kill the bill. The groups argued that the bruins inhabit less than 2% of their historical range and expressed concerns about “the geographic and genetic isolation of [existing] populations, the threat of increased human-induced mortality through hunting or predator control … and the effects of delisting particular populations on grizzly bears in the rest of the Lower 48 states.”
In an emailed statement, Earthjustice attorney Jenny Harbine said policymakers shouldn’t lose sight of the larger history at play.
“It’s easy to forget that grizzly bears were almost entirely eliminated from the American West — it’s only because of concerted conservation efforts under the Endangered Species Act that grizzlies still inhabit the Northern Rockies. We shouldn’t squander that progress by turning grizzlies over to the same types of hostile state policies that were responsible for their near-eradication in the first place.”
Chris Servheen, a biologist who led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s grizzly bear recovery program for nearly 35 years, said in a written statement that President Donald Trump is jeopardizing much of the progress that his former employer made on grizzly recovery. The result, he said, will be “immediate declines in numbers and range.”
“The current administration and Congress are working to defund grizzly bear science and monitoring, dramatically reduce funding for federal land management agencies in grizzly range, increase timber harvest and road building in grizzly habitat, and weaken or eliminate the fundamental laws that grizzly recover depends on like the ESA, the National Environmental Policy Act and the United States Forest Service Roadless Rule,” he said. “At the same time, recreation pressure on public lands and private land development are accelerating rapidly in grizzly habitat putting even more stress on grizzlies.”
The committee’s vote comes six months after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, then administered by Democratic President Joe Biden, rejected delisting petitions forwarded by Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.
Hageman’s proposal narrowly passed the committee along party lines. All 19 of the committee’s Democratic members present opposed H.R. 281. For several minutes Tuesday, the Republican tally of no votes held steady at 19, but Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, eventually reported to the committee to register his support for the bill. A vote before the full House hadn’t been scheduled as of July 16.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Lawsuit Seeks Records on Trump Efforts to Weaken Whale Habitat Protections
WASHINGTON— (July 15, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration today to force the release of public records on a proposed rollback of key Endangered Species Act protections for marine wildlife, including the potential political or industry influences behind the change.
“The public has a right to know who’s attacking protections for endangered whales and sea turtles,” said David Derrick, a staff attorney at the Center. “Marine animals already suffer from warming oceans and constant ship traffic in their habitat. If Trump strips away one of the most important safeguards these vulnerable ocean species have, many more of these beautiful animals will die.”
Today’s lawsuit seeks documents from the Department of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency within Commerce responsible for safeguarding endangered whales, sea turtles, corals and other imperiled ocean life.
The proposed Trump rule would rescind the long-standing regulatory definition of “harm,” which includes “significant habitat modification or degradation” that kills or injures protected species. That definition has been a cornerstone of endangered species protection since it was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Babbitt v. Sweet Home in 1995.
The Endangered Species Act requires federal agencies to ensure their actions do not destroy or adversely modify critical habitat. Weakening the definition of “harm” would undermine this obligation, making it harder to protect areas essential to species’ survival and recovery. The Act has a success rate of more than 99% at preventing extinction and is supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, follows a similar Center suit earlier this month seeking records from the Department of the Interior, which oversees the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Today’s action broadens the effort to expose potential drivers behind the rollback of habitat protections for both terrestrial and marine species.
More than 150,000 people have submitted comments opposing the proposed rollback. Scientific organizations and legal scholars have also urged the administration to withdraw the rule, warning it would severely impair conservation efforts amid a global extinction crisis.
“Marine animals obviously can’t survive without healthy oceans and intact habitats,” Derrick said. “It’s nonsensical to think you can destroy a species’ home and expect it to be ok, but that’s what this Orwellian definition change implies. We won’t let Trump’s attempted rollback happen in the dark.”
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reopens public comment period on proposal to list the blue tree monitor as an endangered species
The Service will also host a virtual public hearing on July 31.
July15, 2025
FALLS CHURCH, Va. – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reopening a 30-day public comment period and hosting a public hearing on its proposal to list the blue tree monitor as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. On Dec. 26, 2024, the Service published an emergency rule and accompanying proposed rule for this listing. The temporary emergency rule federally protects the species until Aug. 23.
The blue tree monitor is endemic to the small island of Batanta, within the Raja Ampat Islands of Papua, Indonesia. Overcollection for the pet trade and habitat loss, resulting from deforestation and illegal logging, pose immediate threats to the lizard. In 2023, the United States imported 153 individual blue tree monitors, the largest annual importation to date and more than double the yearly importation average before 2023.
The reopened public comment period and notice of the public hearing will be published in the Federal Register at http://www.federalregister.gov on Wednesday, July 16, initiating a 30-day comment period. The Service will consider comments submitted on or before Friday, Aug. 15. Details about the proposal, information on the public hearing and instructions for submitting comments can be found at www.regulations.gov under docket number FWS–HQ–ES–2023–0033.
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Earthjustice
House Committee Votes on Bill to Sidestep Fish and Wildlife Service and Delist Grizzly Bears
Rep. Hageman’s H.R. 281 requires DOI to reissue 2017 delisting rule and bars judicial review
July 15, 2025
Rep. Hageman’s H.R. 281 requires DOI to reissue 2017 delisting rule and bars judicial review
July 15, 2025
Washington, D.C. — The House Natural Resources Committee will today vote on Rep. Harriet Hageman’s Grizzly Bear State Management Act, which seeks to reissue a 2017 Fish and Wildlife Service rule delisting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) grizzly bear population and takes the extreme step of barring judicial review of the reissued rule. The rule that H.R. 281 would reissue was held unlawful by a federal district court in 2018 — a decision affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2020.
Late last year, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) finalized a species status assessment for grizzly bears finding that decreased conservation measures for grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem would threaten their viability, resiliency, and ultimately recovery. The service thus concluded that the best available science requires the GYE population to remain listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Since the species status assessment was published, the Trump administration has proposed rolling back habitat protections under the Endangered Species Act; fast-tracking mining and logging, including in grizzly bear habitat; and eliminating protections for roadless areas that form the secure core habitat for grizzly bears.
Rep. Hageman’s bill seeks to override both the U.S. Court of Appeals and the Fish and Wildlife Service by turning grizzly management over to Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho — exposing grizzly bears to greater threats.
“Efforts to delist grizzly bears by congressional action are attempts to ignore what is required by the Endangered Species Act to achieve grizzly recovery,” said Christopher Servheen, Ph.D., retired USFWS grizzly bear recovery coordinator. “The current administration and Congress are working to defund grizzly bear science and monitoring, dramatically reduce funding for federal land management agencies in grizzly range, increase timber harvest and road building in grizzly habitat, and weaken or eliminate the fundamental laws that grizzly recovery depends on like the ESA, the National Environmental Policy Act and the United States Forest Service Roadless Rule. At the same time, recreation pressure on public lands and private land development are accelerating rapidly in grizzly habitat putting even more stress on grizzlies. Congressional delisting while the cumulative impacts of these actions are ongoing is irresponsible and will result in immediate declines in grizzly numbers and range.”
“This bill completely disregards both federal courts and a science-based agency decision to forcefully turn over management of Greater Yellowstone grizzly bears to the states,” said Jenny Harbine, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Northern Rockies Office. “Barring judicial review and handing over the management keys to state agencies that ignore science would increase the already-high number of grizzly bear deaths and would be devastating to bears’ long-term recovery. Safeguards must remain in place until science shows grizzly bears are fully recovered, and until states have protections in place to ensure grizzly bears will thrive for future generations.”
Earthjustice and over 50 groups signed onto a letter opposing the bill.
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Common Dreams
House GOP Accused of ‘Waging War on America’s Wildlife’ With Proposed Spending Cuts
By Jessica Corbett, July 14, 2025
As Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives begin work on spending legislation for fiscal year 2026, conservationists and congressional Democrats are blasting a key appropriations bill released Monday.
“House Republicans are once again waging war on America’s wildlife in yet another giveaway to their industry allies,” said Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “Extinction isn’t inevitable, it’s a political choice. The Appropriations Committee has one job to do, which is to fund the government, not decide whether our most vulnerable animals get to survive.”
The bill that the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee is set to consider on Tuesday morning would not only slash funding for the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—by 23%—and the Fish and Wildlife Service, but also strip Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from animals including gray wolves, the center noted.
“This budget proposal shows yet again the extremes to which anti-wildlife members of Congress will go to sacrifice endangered species,” declared Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders of Wildlife. “The bill is loaded with riders that attack the Endangered Species Act and would put some of America’s most iconic species, including the grizzly bear and wolverine, at serious risk of extinction.”
The legislation would block funding for listing the greater sage-grouse as well as money to protect the northern long-eared bat, the lesser prairie-chicken, and captive fish listed under the ESA. It would also block the Biden administration’s rules for the landmark law.
“By blocking protections for public lands while also providing short-sighted lease sales for the benefit of oil and gas corporations, the bill and all who support it are compromising the crucial habitats, outdoor recreation areas, and natural resources that Americans and wildlife rely on,” Dewey said.
Democrats on the committee put out a statement highlighting that, along with attacking wildlife, worsening the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, and jeopardizing public health by favoring polluters, the GOP legislation would hike utility bills, promote environmental discrimination against rural and poor communities, and cut national park funding.
“With the release of the FY26 Interior bill, it’s clear House Republicans are once again pushing an agenda that accelerates the climate crisis, upends our national parks system, and leaves local communities to fend for themselves—all while undermining the power of the Appropriations Committee and of Congress,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), ranking member on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.
“We are still living with the fallout of last year’s failure to negotiate a full-year funding bill. Instead of correcting course, the bill released today delivers more of the same: It cuts water infrastructure funding, slashes EPA programs, and wipes out environmental justice and climate initiatives. It even blocks the EPA from completing its risk assessment on PFAS in sewage sludge,” she continued, referring to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called forever chemicals. “On top of the environmental attacks, Republicans are taking aim at the arts and cultural institutions that enrich communities and drive local economies.”
Pingree asserted that “any arguments that these irresponsible cuts are somehow fiscally responsible ring hollow in the wake of Republicans adding $3.4 trillion to the national deficit thanks to their disastrous so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill.’ I urge my Republican colleagues to come to the table and support the essential work of this subcommittee: Protecting public health, conserving our lands and waters, investing in resilience, and ensuring that every community—from rural Maine to urban centers—has access to a healthy environment and a vibrant cultural life.”
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) pointed out that President Donald Trump “promised to address the cost-of-living crisis, but instead, he and House Republicans are making it worse.”
“House Republicans’ 2026 Interior funding bill raises utility bills and energy prices to benefit billionaires and big corporations,” DeLauro said. “Republicans are threatening the air we breathe and the water we drink and taking steps that damage our public lands, promote dirty energy, and hinder our ability to confront the climate crisis.”
“In addition to these dangerous cuts, Republicans’ proposal would mean fewer trips to national parks and less access to museums and the arts,” she warned. “House Republicans are more focused on lining the pockets of big oil companies than lowering prices for working-class, middle-class, rural, and vulnerable families; protecting our public health; and preserving the planet.”
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SFGATE (San Francisco)
A native California species is rapidly declining, new report shows
By Amanda Bartlett, Assistant Local Editor, July 13, 2025
Wildlife officials say the population of a native California species is continuing to rapidly plummet.
Dinosaur-like in appearance and existing on Earth for the past 200 million years, white sturgeon are the largest freshwater fish in North America. They can be found all the way from Alaska to Mexico, primarily residing in large waterways like the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and the San Francisco Bay estuary. Historically, the ancient fish could grow larger than 20 feet in length — the size of a standard shipping container — and live for more than 100 years.
But recent monitoring surveys of the species conducted by fisheries biologists from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife have revealed there are just 6,500 white sturgeon between 40 and 60 inches long left in the state — “down sharply” from a previous estimate of 30,000 fish in that size range recorded between 2016 and 2021.
A Wednesday news release from the agency cited “mortality from harmful algal blooms,” which killed over 850 of the fish in 2022 alone, and “poaching, past sport fishing harvest and poor river and Delta conditions” as possible reasons for the downward trend. According to a report from the agency, their numbers have been in decline for at least three decades; the state closed fishing for them under emergency regulations and considered listing them as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
“Changes to the Bay-Delta system and changes to our climate are happening too quickly for them,” UC Davis fish biologist Andrea Schreier told Bay Nature last July.
CDFW officials have been monitoring the white sturgeon population since the 1950s and initiated the new survey program last year to better monitor their numbers across different size and age ranges and determine conservation efforts. In the spring, lines with multiple baited hooks are used to capture sturgeon that are subsequently measured, tagged and released. Later in the fall, scientists compare the number of tagged and recaptured fish to the number of untagged fish to estimate population size. The study design, based on surveys conducted in Washington and Oregon, “is the most robust and comprehensive white sturgeon population monitoring survey ever conducted in California,” the agency said.
Catch-and-release fishing of white sturgeon remains banned through Oct. 1 as the California Fish and Game Commission decides whether to continue limited seasonal harvest of the prehistoric species at its next meeting on Aug. 13.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Victory: Court Upholds Endangered Species Protection for Arctic Ringed Seals
SAN FRANCISCO—(July 11, 2025)—The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld a rejection of the state of Alaska’s petition to strip the Arctic ringed seal of protection under the Endangered Species Act.
“I’m so relieved these adorable seals will keep their Endangered Species Act protections,” said Marlee Goska, Alaska staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The science is overwhelmingly clear that climate change is threatening the seals’ existence. The court rightly recognized there’s no scientific or legal reason for Alaska’s cruel attempt to strip away safeguards these seals need to survive our rapidly heating world.”
The Center originally petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to list the seal under the Endangered Species Act in 2008, which the agency then did in 2012. The 9th Circuit upheld the listing in 2018 over objections from the state of Alaska, the oil industry and others. Then the state, the North Slope Borough and several groups petitioned to delist the species.
The Fisheries Service denied that delisting petition under the first Trump administration, concluding that the petition failed to “present substantial scientific or commercial information” that would justify delisting the seal. The petitioners challenged that decision in federal court in Alaska in late 2022, and the Center then intervened in the case to defend the agency’s decision.
Today’s 9th Circuit decision affirms a district court opinion rejecting the state’s arguments that the Fisheries Service’s decision was improper. It also affirms the 9th Circuit’s earlier ruling that the agency “need not wait until” the seal’s sea ice “habitat is destroyed to determine that habitat loss may facilitate extinction.”
“Ringed seals have a shot at survival thanks to the Endangered Species Act, but only if we rapidly reduce the pollution destroying their habitat,” Goska said. “We’ll keep fighting the Trump administration’s reckless attempts to open more of the Arctic to oil and gas drilling.”
Ringed seals give birth in snow caves built on sea ice. Climate change is reducing Arctic snowpack, causing caves to collapse and leaving pups vulnerable to death by freezing or from predators. The Arctic is warming almost four times faster than the rest of the planet.
Endangered Species Act listing offers ringed seals increased protection from oil and gas development, as well as against the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change. Listing of the seals does not affect subsistence harvest of the species by Alaska Natives.
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NSU Florida (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
Satellite Tagging Reveals Birthing Migration of Critically Endangered Scalloped Hammerhead Shark
International research team records the longest track of this species, showing extensive travel through heavily fished regions of the ocean.
July 9, 2025
SANTA CRUZ, GALAPAGOS, Ecuador — Scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation’s shark ecology and conservation program, the Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Research Center and Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University (USA), and the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD), have published what is likely the first-ever scientifically recorded birthing migration for the critically endangered scalloped hammerhead shark (sphyrna lewini). The satellite-tagged shark—an adult female displaying a clearly distended abdomen, strongly suggesting pregnancy—traveled between the Galapagos Islands, the coast of Panama and international waters to the west of the Galapagos. During the nearly seven months the shark was tracked, she traveled almost 6,000 km (3728 miles), the longest distance a scalloped hammerhead has been tracked to date. The study was just published in the special issue “Frontiers in Elasmobranch Biology” of the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes.
Researchers used Closed Circuit Rebreathers (CCR) to closely approach this elusive species when the sharks visited the numerous reef fish cleaning stations around Darwin Island, the northernmost island in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, Ecuador. Scalloped hammerhead sharks are known to be very shy to the bubbles and sounds produced by traditional SCUBA diving gear, and to be extremely sensitive to handling stress produced when captured. Using silent CCR, which produce no bubbles, scientists managed to approach within two meters of the sharks and deploy a minimally invasive, towed satellite transmitter near the base of the dorsal fin with a modified speargun, significantly reducing stress on the animal. Towed satellite transmitters, similar to a GPS device, provide accurate location data in near-real time whenever the shark swims near the ocean’s surface. These tags, designed to resemble a remora fish swimming next to the shark, allowed researchers to follow the movements of the >2.7m (nearly 9 feet), likely pregnant shark for nearly seven months.
The female scalloped hammerhead shark, nicknamed “Alicia,” was tagged on the 11th of February 2023 at Darwin Island and lingered within the vicinity of Darwin for more than two months. In early May, “Alicia” traveled 1,300 km to the Gulf of Chiriqui on the Pacific coast of Panama, a known nursery area for this species. After just six days in Panama’s coastal waters, where researchers believe ‘Alicia’ gave birth to somewhere between 15 to 30 pups, the shark initiated a 3,000 km westerly migration, settling by late July in an area in international waters more than 1,800 km (nearly 1,120 miles) west of the Galapagos Marine Reserve. She remained there until the tag’s battery exhausted and emitted its final location signal on September 3rd.
“It is hard to believe how little we still know about the basic life history of most shark species, including this one critically threatened with extinction. Alicia’s clearly distended abdomen at tagging, combined with her brief visit to known birthing grounds in Panama coastal areas during the peak time of newborn shark occurrence, made us conclude this published satellite track represents the first documented birthing migration recorded for this species. Importantly, it provides critical insights on the complex life cycles and long-range movements scalloped hammerhead sharks undertake to give birth to their young, and underscores the need to further protect endangered sharks beyond already established Marine Protected Areas. Despite their critical conservation status, pregnant hammerheads continue to be fished while migrating, and newborn sharks are fished daily within most coastal nurseries”, said Dr. Pelayo Salinas de León, Senior Marine Scientist at the Charles Darwin Foundation.
The scalloped hammerhead shark was categorized in 2019 as Critically Endangered by the Red List of Threatened Species issued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), based on an estimated global populations decline of >80% over three generation lengths (72.3 years). Despite this critical conservation status, which is at the same threat level as the charismatic Eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei) or the Galapagos’ Mangrove finch (Camarhynchus heliobates), fins from scalloped hammerhead sharks fished across the Eastern Tropical Pacific continue to flood shark fin markets mainly located in Asia. The long period this shark was tracked within international waters to the west of the GMR (~77 days, equivalent to about 40% of total tracked time), also highlights the urgent need for international cooperation to reduce fishing mortality in the high seas to revert ongoing population declines for this iconic species.
“Getting this unprecedented view of the longest distance recorded journey by this scalloped hammerhead shark from the Galapagos Islands to the mainland coast to give birth, followed by her return travel westward going well beyond Galapagos, far into the Pacific Ocean, provides new knowledge not only on the reproductive behavior but also extensive migratory capabilities of this species”, said Professor Mahmood Shivji, Director of the Guy Harvey Research Institute and Save Our Seas Foundation Shark Research Center at NSU Florida. “Such new knowledge should aid the planning of where to focus additional conservation actions in the Eastern Tropical Pacific to preserve this highly endangered shark.”
This research was possible thanks to the generous support of the Rohr Foundation, the Save Our Seas Foundation, the Darwin and Wolf Conservation Fund and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Court Orders Decision on Expanding Endangered Mount Graham Red Squirrel Habitat in Arizona
TUCSON, Ariz.—(July 8, 2025)—A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to make a long-overdue decision on whether to expand critical habitat for Arizona’s highly endangered Mount Graham red squirrels. The squirrels are the most endangered terrestrial animal in the United States.
The ruling, issued late Monday, found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service unreasonably delayed its decision on a December 2017 petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon Society seeking critical habitat expansion for the squirrels, who’ve been pushed out of their original southern Arizona habitat.
“This ruling is a victory for the squirrels and more evidence that the Fish and Wildlife Service has been failing miserably at its job to protect them,” said Robin Silver, a cofounder of the Center. “It’s pathetic that these folks couldn’t be bothered to save a species they’ve known for 30 years has been hanging on by a thread. The squirrels were forced out of their original homes while federal officials have been asleep at the wheel, but hopefully this ruling forces them to get back to work and save these animals before it’s too late.”
U.S. District Court Judge Raner Collins gave the Fish and Wildlife Service until Jan. 30, 2027, to decide whether to update the squirrels’ critical habitat or deny the 2017 petition, nearly a decade after it was submitted. An updated recovery plan for the squirrels is supposed to be completed four months earlier, by Sept. 30.
Mount Graham red squirrels live only in the Pinaleño Mountains, an isolated “sky island” range in southeastern Arizona. Nearly all the squirrels now live outside the currently designated critical habitat areas, which only include spruce-fir forests above 9,200 feet elevation. The squirrels’ original critical habitat was destroyed by construction of mountaintop telescopes, wildfires and fires set unnecessarily to protect the telescopes. A census from the fall of 2024 found just 233 squirrels, after the population fell to only 35 animals in 2017.
“Thirty years ago Fish and Wildlife officials acknowledged that the squirrels were in jeopardy, but now with fewer squirrels and much less surviving habitat these same officials refuse to even recognize that the squirrels are in even more jeopardy,” said Charles Babbitt, Maricopa Bird Alliance conservation chair. “These officials now see their job as protecting the status quo instead of protecting endangered species and their habitat.”
The groups’ petition asked the Service to update critical habitat for the squirrels to include lower-elevation, mixed-conifer forests where the squirrels are now living. Although leading scientists said 35 years ago that these forest areas were essential to the squirrel’s survival and recovery, the Service refused to include them in the original 1990 critical habitat designation.
The groups sued in April 2019 and again in November 2020 to compel the agency to make a decision about their petition to expand the habitat, as required under the Endangered Species Act. After three more years of delay the groups filed a third lawsuit in March 2024 that led to Monday’s ruling to force a final decision.
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Removes Native Carolina Plant from Endangered Species List Due to Recovery
July 8, 2025
Asheville, NC – After decades of partnership-driven recovery efforts in North and South Carolina, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is removing the dwarf-flowered heartleaf from the federal list of endangered and threatened plants.
When the plant was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1989, there were 24 known populations distributed across eight North Carolina counties. Since then, documented populations have increased to 119 across 10 North Carolina and three South Carolina counties. Of those 119 populations, 28 contain more than 1,000 plants.
A key recovery partner is Duke Energy, which conserves tens of thousands of plants along the Broad River. Additional protected populations occur at Cowpens National Battlefield and Broad River Greenway. Land trusts such as Foothills Conservancy, Catawba Lands Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy also play vital roles. The North Carolina Department of Transportation secured land for conservation, including areas now part of the Broad River Greenway.
As its name implies, the plant has heart-shaped leaves that are dark green and grow from a buried stem. It rarely grows more than 6 inches tall. To ensure its continued success, the Service developed a post-delisting monitoring plan to track the plant’s status for at least five years after delisting, helping detect any changes in population size or new threats to its long-term viability.
The proposed and final rules, post-delisting monitoring plan and other documents are available on http://www.regulations.gov by searching docket number FWS–R4–ES–2019–0081 or the Service’s Environmental Conservation Online System.
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FIU News (Miami)
Florida International University
Study tracking large marine animals reveals current conservation strategies are not enough
By JoAnn Adkins, July 7, 2025
A team of international scientists, including FIU marine researchers Yannis Papastamatiou and Mark Bond, is revealing the most critical locations for large marine animal conservation in a study published this month in Science.
The research team tracked more than 100 species of large marine animals and found that current conservation efforts — including a treaty signed by 115 countries but not yet ratified — are insufficient to cover all critical areas for threatened species of sharks, whales, turtles, seals and other large marine animals. They say additional threat mitigation measures are needed. Nearly 400 scientists from more than 50 countries contributed to the research as part of the international MegaMove project.
The comprehensive nature of the study — including the number of species examined and the number of researchers contributing data — should serve as a model for future conservation initiatives, according to Bond, an assistant research professor of Biological Sciences and scientist with the Institute of Environment.
Current marine protection areas only encompass 8% of the world’s total oceans. The U.N. High Seas Treaty, which the United States has signed, seeks to expand protections to 30%. By tracking large animals, the researchers identified areas used for foraging, rest and migratory corridors. They determined, while the 30% expanded protections would be helpful, more is needed to protect the animals and the critical roles they play in maintaining their ecosystems.
“We found that the areas used by these animals overlap significantly with threats like fishing, shipping, warming temperatures, and plastic pollution,” said lead author Ana Sequeira, a marine ecologist from The Australian National University and research director of MegaMove.
“Our research shows that, in addition to protected areas, implementing mitigation strategies like changing fishing gear, using different lights in nets, and traffic schemes for ships will be key to alleviating current human pressure on these species.”
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Cincinnati Enquirer
The Buckeye State sees soaring numbers of bald eagle nests in new census
Hailey Roden, Cincinnati Enquirer, July 5, 2025
Ohioans have a big milestone to celebrate this week besides the Fourth of July.
Over 960 bald eagle nests have appeared across the state, with at least one in 87 of Ohio’s 88 counties, according to the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
This is a 36% increase within the past five years, with 707 nests reported in 2020.
The agency says that more than 1,800 reports from citizen scientists statewide helped complete the 2025 bald eagle nest census. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources followed up and confirmed the existence of each nest.
Counties in northern Ohio that are closest to bodies of water have the most nests, due to the abundance of food available. Ottawa County tops the list at 112 bald eagle nests and Sandusky was second with 61, according to a map released by the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
What was once an endangered species is thriving again in the Midwest with only four nesting pairs in Ohio in 1979.
The bald eagle was removed from the federal list of endangered species in 2007 and from Ohio’s list in 2012, according to a report from The Nature Conservancy.
This expanded growth is largely in part of conservation programs across the nation and in Ohio that focus on breeding and development.
What caused the bald eagle’s resurgence in Ohio?
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources credits the Ohio Division of Wildlife, Ohio zoos, wildlife rehabilitation facilities, concerned landowners and conservationists for repopulating the species.
If you find a bald eagle’s nest, the Ohio Division of Wildlife urges citizens to report any nest sightings through an interactive tracking system on its website.
The agency says tracking allows biologists to further understand eagle population dynamics and monitor trends, ensuring this and other species continue to do well in the Buckeye State for generations to come.
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California Department of Fish & Wildlife
Decade of Wolf Management: CDFW Report Details Wolf Research, Conservation Efforts
July 2, 2025
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) today published a report summarizing its management and conservation activities for gray wolves (Canis lupus) over the past 10 years.
“Ten Years of Gray Wolf Conservation and Management in California: 2015-2024” details CDFW’s wolf conservation and management efforts, including wolf monitoring techniques, wolf-livestock depredation investigations, wolf captures and population data for the state’s wolf packs known through 2024, including the minimum number of individuals, breeding pairs and litters produced.
Wolves were extirpated in California by 1924 and naturally returned to the state in 2011. The first pups born in California were documented in 2015. At the end of 2024, CDFW wildlife biologists documented at least 50 wolves in the state. Wolves are listed as endangered species under the California Endangered Species Act and the federal Endangered Species Act.
“Since the wolves’ return CDFW has been monitoring the growing wolf population, working to mitigate wolf-livestock conflict and conducting significant outreach to livestock producers and the public,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “Through these monitoring efforts, studies and outreach, CDFW and partners are building a toolkit that will offer solutions and resources for livestock producers while also allowing a native species to successfully come home.”
Starting in 2026, CDFW plans to produce an annual report about its wolf management and conservation activities. Wolf management and conservation is guided by CDFW’s 2016 Conservation Plan for Gray Wolves in California.
This first report describes 10 years of work by CDFW, such as community engagement efforts, non-lethal deterrent use and the creation of the Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program.
Maps included in the report show wolf activity in California as well as migration of collared wolves. While the Yowlumni pack has established in Tulare County, all other known packs have home ranges in northeastern California.
The report highlights include a summary of past and ongoing research that will inform CDFW’s future management of wolves.
Months after the first wolf arrived in California, CDFW formed a stakeholder working group that was divided into three subgroups: A wolf-livestock subgroup focused on wolf impacts on livestock and agriculture, a wolf-ungulates subgroup focused on wolf impacts on deer and elk populations, and a wolf conservation subgroup focused on wolf sustainability and health issues. The outcomes of 44 meetings were analyzed.
Most prevalent were topics relating to the importance of and need for data on wolves in California, including their impact on livestock, wild prey and natural ecological communities; identifying wolf population recovery goals and whether a sustainable population can be maintained over time; how the California Endangered Species Act affects wolf management options; and where lethal controls would fit into wolf management.
The report also includes an analysis of the Lassen pack’s diet and notes the work of CDFW’s Wildlife Forensics Lab to create a reference library of wolf genetic samples. The genetic samples are used to determine the origins and relatedness of California’s wolves, differentiate scats and depredations by coyotes and dogs, identify the genetic “fingerprints” of individual wolves and even determine the coat color of wolves detected only by their DNA.
The University of California, Davis, Wildlife Health Center initiated The Wolf Project in 2022, with research funded by the Wildlife Conservation Network. In 2023 CDFW began collaborating with researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, on the California Wolf Project. More information about the The Wolf Project(opens in new tab) and California Wolf Project(opens in new tab) are available online.
For more information about wolf conservation in California, CDFW Wolf Livestock Compensation Grants or to view the CDFW Wolf Tracker wolf location map go to CDFW’s gray wolf web page.(opens in new tab) The Ten Years of Gray Wolf Conservation and Management in California: 2015-2024 report is now available online.
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EcoWatch
EPA Employees Sign ‘Declaration of Dissent’ Over Trump Administration Policies
By: Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, July 1, 2025
A group of more than 170 employees of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday published a Declaration of Dissent from policies under the Trump administration.
The employees said the administration’s policies “undermine the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment.”
“Since the Agency’s founding in 1970, EPA has accomplished this mission by leveraging science, funding, and expert staff in service to the American people. Today, we stand together in dissent against the current administration’s focus on harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA actions, and disregard for scientific expertise,” the declaration states.
Jeremy Berg, former editor-in-chief of Science magazine and one of the signatories to the letter, said that, in addition to the 170 named scientists and academics, there were roughly 100 others who signed anonymously for fear of retaliation, including 20 Nobel laureates, reported The Guardian.
The letter is a rare rebuke by EPA employees who could face repercussions for criticizing the weakening of federal support and funding for environmental, climate and health science.
“I’m really sad. This agency, that was a superhero for me in my youth, we’re not living up to our ideals under this administration. And I really want us to,” said Amelia Hertzberg, an EPA environmental protection specialist who was put on administrative leave in February, as The Guardian reported.
The administration is working to shut down Hertzberg’s department at the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. The work Hertzberg did for the department was focused on vulnerable groups impacted by pollution, such as young children, the elderly, people living in communities with higher pollution levels, pregnant and nursing people and those with chronic and pre-existing conditions.
“Americans should be able to drink their water and breathe their air without being poisoned. And if they aren’t, then our government is failing,” Hertzberg said.
The EPA responded to the letter with a statement saying the policy decisions “are a result of a process where Administrator (Lee) Zeldin is briefed on the latest research and science by EPA’s career professionals, and the vast majority who are consummate professionals who take pride in the work this agency does day in and day out,” reported The Associated Press.
The statement from the EPA denounced what it said were the Biden administration’s “attempts to shut down American energy and make our citizens more reliant on foreign fossil fuels.”
Berg, who was director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences from 2003 to 2011, said partisan criticism was not the motivation for the employees’ declaration, The Guardian reported. Rather, they hoped their dissent would support the EPA in getting back to its mission, which, Berg said, “only matters if you breathe air and drink water.”
In the declaration, the EPA employees outlined five major concerns: the disregard of scientific consensus with the purpose of benefiting polluters; dismantling the research and development office; reversing EPA progress in the country’s most vulnerable communities; undermining public trust; and “promoting a culture of fear” that forces staff to make a choice between their well-being and livelihoods.
Zeldin’s push to reorganize the agency’s research and development office was part of a broader effort to gut its environmental justice and climate change wings and slash its budget. He is also attempting to repeal pollution rules that were found in an examination by The Associated Press to save approximately 30,000 lives and $275 billion annually.
“Your decisions and actions will reverberate for generations to come,” the authors of the declaration wrote, addressing Zeldin. “EPA under your leadership will not protect communities from hazardous chemicals and unsafe drinking water but instead will increase risks to public health and safety.”
“Administrator Zeldin, we urge you to honor your oath and serve the American people. Going forward, you have the opportunity to correct course. Should you choose to do so, we stand ready to support your efforts to fulfill EPA’s mission.”
Nobel laureate Carol Greider, one of the letter’s signatories who is a professor of molecular and cellular biology at University of California, Santa Cruz, described the heat wave on the East Coast last week as evidence of climate change.
“And if we don’t have scientists at the EPA to understand how what we do that goes into the air affects our health, more people are going to die,” Greider said, as reported by The Guardian.
When asked about fears of retaliation or repercussions, Greider said she was “living the repercussions of everything.”
As labs lose funding, graduate students who Greider meets with on a regular basis said they’re concerned about pursuing careers in science. It becomes a long-term problem if support is taken away from the next generation of scientists, Greider said.
“That’s decades worth of loss,” Greider said.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Bill Would Remove Federal Protections From Endangered Mexican Gray Wolves
TUCSON, Ariz.—(July 1, 2025)—U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation this week to remove the Mexican gray wolf from the endangered species list, which would effectively end recovery efforts for this unique, highly imperiled subspecies.
Removing Endangered Species Act protections from Mexican wolves would stop releases of wolves from captivity to diversify the gene pool of wild wolves, end federal investigations into possible wolf predation on livestock, reduce federal funding that supports compensation for livestock losses, shut down monitoring of the wolves and remove federal prohibitions on killing them.
“Bypassing the Endangered Species Act to strip all protections from beleaguered Mexican gray wolves and leave them vulnerable to Arizona’s shoot-on-sight laws would cause a massacre,” said Michael Robinson, senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Southwest’s ecology would suffer, and we’d be left with a sadder, drabber landscape if Gosar and the livestock industry’s cruel vision for wolf extermination becomes law.”
Less than two and a half years after passage of the Endangered Species Act, the Mexican gray wolf was federally protected as endangered in April 1976. Seven of the last remaining Mexican wolves were captured and a breeding program kept the species from extinction. Wolves were reintroduced to Arizona and New Mexico in 1998, and in Mexico in 2011. Since then, their U.S. numbers have increased to 286 animals, but they remain imperiled due to dangerously low genetic diversity.
“Representative Gosar is recklessly out of touch with the science that supports carnivore recovery, and is simply pandering to the anti-wolf livestock industry’s desire to dominate public lands and control nature,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. “Decisions under the Endangered Species Act are supposed to be based on science, not the whims of Congress.”
The Endangered Species Act requires animals and plants to be protected if they are in danger of extinction due to habitat destruction, killings, inadequate regulations or other natural or human threats. Gosar’s bill is an attempt to circumvent the legal, science-based management of Mexican wolves. Species can be removed from the list if they are no longer in danger of extinction. Mexican wolves are nowhere close to meeting the delisting threshold.
“The Wolf Conservation Center is one of many partners in the Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) Program for Mexican wolves, a captive breeding and release effort focused on recovering wild, genetically robust populations,” said Regan Downey, director of education and advocacy at the Wolf Conservation Center. “We’ve worked tirelessly for decades to support thriving populations of Mexican wolves and refuse to be undermined by politicians who prioritize private industry over endangered wildlife.”
There would be no legal or regulatory limits on wolf killings in Arizona if the Mexican wolf were to be removed from the federal endangered list. Wolf killing in New Mexico would likely also increase. With a relatively small population size, a constricted range, a limited gene pool and an absence of protective rules in Arizona, any congressional delisting of the Mexican gray wolf would likely result in unrecoverable losses.
“We cannot allow disinformation and myth to guide decision making when it comes to protecting our irreplaceable wildlife and wild places,” said Erin Hunt, managing director of Lobos of the Southwest. “The Endangered Species Act is a proven success. For the past three decades, 84% of people have consistently supported the Act and the protection it provides to species in peril, with no evidence of lower support among people living in rural areas. Mexican wolves would be extinct if it weren’t for Endangered Species Act protection. Despite the false claims of a few, there are many people living in wolf country who want to see lobos restored and thriving on the landscapes where they belong.”
Livestock owners have benefited from Endangered Species Act protection for Mexican wolves, too. They are reimbursed with federal funds when there has been conflict between livestock and wolves.
“Without strong protections from the Endangered Species Act, Mexican gray wolves will once again be at risk from being eliminated from Arizona. That is just not a risk we should be taking with these highly endangered wolves,” said Sandy Bahr, director of Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon chapter. “Rep. Gosar is once again demonstrating both his ignorance and his arrogance, as well as his total lack of concern for the creatures we share this Earth with, by pushing forward with this legislation.”
“Lobos have been an integral and irreplaceable part of the landscapes of the Southwest for millennia. They add a demonstrated ecological benefit, hold important cultural significance, and have captured the hearts and minds of New Mexicans and many others across the nation and the world,” said Leia Barnett, Greater Gila New Mexico advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “We cannot afford to entertain these ill-informed, industry-driven attacks on our bedrock environmental laws that protect these iconic species and their habitat.”
“I have seen that coexistence with wolves is possible when communities have access to practical, nonlethal tools and support. But this bill would strip away the protections that make that kind of progress achievable,” said Claire Musser, executive director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. “It ignores science, disregards the fragile status of Mexican gray wolves, and risks unraveling decades of careful recovery work.”
“The Mexican gray wolf has lived on the landscape of the American Southwest and Mexico for millions of years, long before either nation-state came into existence. Lobos had robust populations and a preeminent role in maintaining ecosystems keeping them safe from disease and unmitigated herbivory,” said Nico Lorenzen of Wild Arizona. “Rep. Gosar paints the current state of wolf conservation in misleading nationalist broad strokes that ignore robust science and how much the majority of Americans value our wild heritage. His unwillingness to understand the complex facts on the ground in favor of particular interest groups is a shortsighted attempt to harm a species that is still very much in need of recovery.”
“This bill is a cynical ploy to appease special interests at the expense of the democratic process, public trust and the survival of one of North America’s most endangered mammals,” said Michelle Lute, Ph.D. in wolf conservation and executive director of Wildlife for All. “Stripping protections from Mexican gray wolves would empower local anti-wolf factions to increase their extermination efforts and make a mockery of the Endangered Species Act. Wildlife belong to all of us — not just the politicians and industries trying to sell our public lands and wildlife to the highest bidder. We need more democracy in wildlife management, not less.”
Since its passage in 1973, the Endangered Species Act has successfully prevented the extinction of more than 99% of the animals and plants placed on the endangered and threatened species lists.
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Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife
WDFW invites public comment on marbled murrelet endangered species listing status review
June 30, 2025
OLYMPIA — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is seeking public input on a draft periodic status review for the marbled murrelet, which includes a recommendation to keep the bird on the state endangered species list. The public comment period is open now through Sept. 28, 2025.
“Despite efforts to conserve nesting habitat and reduce threats at sea, marbled murrelets continue to decline in Washington,” said Jen Mannas, WDFW marine species lead. “With continued low reproductivity among a decreasing population, we recommend maintaining the species’ endangered classification while continuing to pursue conservation actions.”
The draft periodic status review for the marbled murrelet is available on WDFW’s website. The public may submit written comments via email or by mail to Taylor Cotten, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, P.O. Box 43141, Olympia, WA 98504-3200.
Following the public comment period, WDFW staff will brief the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission on the periodic status review and recommendation. The Commission is tentatively scheduled to consider this topic in November 2025.
The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is a small seabird that nests in old-growth forests and forages in nearshore marine waters along the Pacific coast. The species was listed as threatened in Washington in 1993 and reclassified as endangered in 2016 following continued population declines. The 2023 population estimate was approximately 4,400 birds, down from an estimated 7,500 in 2015.
Decades of habitat loss, declining food sources, and human disturbance have prevented marbled murrelet populations from recovering in Washington. While federal and state regulations have helped protect nesting areas, the species still hasn’t met WDFW’s recovery goals.
“Without effective action soon, Washington’s marbled murrelet population may become extinct in Washington in the coming decades,” said Mannas. “Continued protection and expanded conservation efforts are essential to prevent that outcome.”
WDFW regularly analyzes and reviews information to inform status and classification recommendations for species listed as endangered, threatened, or sensitive in Washington. More information is available on WDFW’s at-risk species webpage.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife works to preserve, protect and perpetuate fish, wildlife and ecosystems while providing sustainable fish and wildlife recreational and commercial opportunities.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Tennessee’s Barrens Darter Proposed for Endangered Species Protection
Wrongly Denied Safeguards for Decades, Rare Native Fish Teeters on Brink
NASHVILLE, Tenn.―(June 30, 2025)—In response to decades of advocacy by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed to protect the Barrens darter as an endangered species. Named for its home on the Barrens Plateau of central Tennessee, the darter is one of North America’s most imperiled fish.
“I’m so glad Barrens darters are finally getting the life-saving protection of the Endangered Species Act,” said Meg Townsend, a senior attorney at the Center. “Freshwater species are under incredible threat from reduced safeguards for wetlands. Endangered species protections will give future generations the best chance to see these incredible little fish as they wander Tennessee’s streams.”
The Barrens darter only survives in a few headwater streams that feed the Collins River, a tributary of the Caney Fork of the Cumberland River between Nashville and Chattanooga. Two of the darter’s last seven populations have already been lost, and the five that remain survive in less than roughly 6 miles of streams. Each population is tiny and isolated from the others, making them more vulnerable to being wiped out.
The Barrens darter was identified as a candidate for Endangered Species Act protection in 1994, and the Center petitioned the Service in 2010 to protect the darter. Despite agency scientists predicting that two more of the darter’s remaining populations might soon be lost, in 2019 the agency denied them protections.
Today’s proposal is the result of a successful Center lawsuit challenging that denial. The proposal also indicates the Service will designate critical habitat for the fish at a later time.
Within the Barrens darter’s narrow range, poor grazing practices have stripped streams of plants that help stabilize banks, causing sediment runoff that smothers life on the stream bottom. The proliferation of water-intensive row crops and nurseries in the area has reduced stream flows, which worsens water quality, particularly during increasingly frequent periods of severe drought. Barrens darters are also imminently threatened by hybridization with the introduced fringed darter.
Barrens darters are a unique species in the perch family: They produce sounds and are distinguished by the parental care the male provides, including nest guarding. A male will establish a territory around a cavity under a flat rock and attract a female based on his body size and the quality of his nest cavity. Males produce knocks, drums and purrs to court females and defend the nest cavity from other males. Once a female has chosen to spawn, the pair will invert under the rock, and the female will adhere eggs to the underside of the rock in a single layer. The male will clean the eggs and guard them from predators until they hatch.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service should move swiftly to finalize protections for these gentle little fishes and the places they live,” said Townsend. “Protecting Tennessee’s rich biodiversity will ensure streams are protected so that people, plants and animals can have the fresh water we all need to thrive.”
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Good Things Guy
Scientists Map Bold Plan to Protect Earth’s Rarest Species
by Staff Writer@GoodThingsGuy, June 29, 2025
Global (29 June 2025) – What if we told you that over 10,000 animals and plants are standing on the edge of extinction, and that we now have a real plan to pull them back?
In a groundbreaking global study, scientists have for the first time brought together everything we know about the planet’s most Critically Endangered species, creating a roadmap that could help rewrite the fate of over 10,443 animals, plants and fungi teetering on the brink. It’s bold, urgent, but it is also filled with hope.
From the smallest two-centimetre snails hiding on volcanic islands to mighty gorillas roaming West African rainforests, these species represent life at its most fragile. Each one is listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), meaning they face an extremely high risk of disappearing forever.
The new study, the status, threats and conservation of Critically Endangered species, published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity, outlines where these species live, what’s threatening them most, and, most importantly, what we can do to protect them.
And the clock is ticking. Scientists estimate that 15% of these species have fewer than 50 mature individuals left in the wild.
The Good News? We Can Still Turn Things Around
“We know that conservation works,” says Dr. Rikki Gumbs, one of the study’s authors and a Research Fellow at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). “It’s our unsustainable behaviour—things like deforestation, climate change, and invasive species—that’s causing this crisis. But that also means it’s within our power to fix it.”
The report urges world leaders and communities to act now. This means:
*Protecting key habitats where these species still live.
*Involving Indigenous communities in conservation planning.
*Investing in training and local conservation teams.
*Building national and global networks to support long-term biodiversity goals.
*Conservation with a Purpose, and Proof it Works
South Africa’s own biodiversity heroes are part of this story. Our scientists at SANBI contributed to the global review, and the conservation community here is already demonstrating how strategic action can restore fragile species.
Some successes? Tiger populations in India and Nepal are rebounding. Antelopes, once extinct in the wild, now graze again in Chad. The African forest elephant, itself Critically Endangered, plays a powerful role in carbon storage and forest regeneration; its protection could be worth over $20 billion in environmental value over the next decade.
And the cost to protect all 10,443 species? Around $1–2 billion a year globally, far less than what’s spent on many other international efforts, yet with benefits that could sustain ecosystems and economies for generations.
These species aren’t just names on a list. They’re the heartbeat of the ecosystems we all depend on. They are the pollinators, the carbon-capturers, the river-cleaners and seed-carriers. Lose them, and we risk unravelling the threads of our planet’s natural safety net.
Lead researcher Dr. Thomas Lacher puts it simply: “The loss of these species brings us closer to critical tipping points. We need to use every available tool to ensure their survival.”
A Roadmap for the Future, Rooted in Hope
This isn’t just another report, it’s a call to unite. A rallying cry for governments, communities, researchers, and everyday nature lovers to step up.
Because while the challenges are massive, so too is our ability to meet them.
“From crisis comes clarity,” Rikki says. “We’ve mapped where the help is needed most. Now we need the willpower, funding, and partnerships to follow through. Together, we can write a different story.”
One where 10,000 more species get a second chance.
(The paper was written by researchers from ZSL, Texas A&M University, Birdlife International, University of Cambridge, Re:Wild, Universidad de Antioquia, Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring Directorate of the South African National Biodiversity Institute and IUCN.)
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Center for Biological Diversity
Legal Victory Secures Endangered Species Decisions for Chinook Salmon
PORTLAND, Ore.—(June 27, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity and allies today secured court-ordered deadlines requiring the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine whether spring-run Chinook salmon in Oregon, Washington and Northern California warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.
The Service must decide by Nov. 3, 2025, for Oregon Coast and southern Oregon/Northern California coastal Chinook salmon and by Jan. 2, 2026, for Washington coast spring-run Chinook salmon. Protecting the salmon would also help the imperiled Southern Resident orcas, who feed on the fish.
“This is an important victory for these icons of the Pacific Northwest and brings them one step closer to lifesaving Endangered Species Act protections,” said Jeremiah Scanlan, a legal fellow at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The government has taken far too long deciding whether to protect these imperiled Chinook salmon, but these deadlines will hold officials accountable.”
“This agreement requires a decision that is already overdue,” said Michael Morrison, chair of Pacific Rivers. “Science and law are crystal clear. These unique and endangered salmon urgently need and deserve protection.”
Chinook salmon, also known as “king salmon,” are the largest of all Pacific salmon.
Early returning, or “spring-run” fish, are ecologically essential to the overall health of coastal Chinook populations and the ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. Once abundant, Chinook salmon populations are now threatened by habitat destruction from logging and road construction, water diversions, interbreeding with hatchery-raised fish, overharvest in commercial fisheries and dams obstructing their return migrations.
“King salmon are not just icons, they’re indicators of the health of the Pacific Ocean and Northwest ecosystems,” said Mark Sherwood, Native Fish Society’s executive director. “We’re eager to see NMFS’s overdue decision, so we can take the next step in this determined effort to revive these fish and the habitats that sustain us all to health and natural abundance.”
“Over the past 20 years I’ve personally watched this population decline, and we only had 28 spawners return in 2018,” said Stanley Petrowski from Umpqua Watersheds. “The threats to this magnificent keystone species have lurked in the shadows for decades. This settlement recognizes that these threats have been neglected for far too long.”
The Center and allies sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in February to secure today’s deadlines.
Spring-run Chinook salmon are a preferred and primary food for Southern Resident orcas, which are themselves listed as endangered, having a population of only 73 individuals. Diminishing salmon numbers and smaller body sizes of spring Chinook means that fish-eating orcas must travel farther and work harder to find sufficient food. Pacific Northwest orcas have suffered in recent years from malnourishment and reproductive failures.
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Oceanographic Magazine
Rediscovered coral is a glimmer of resilience for the Galapagos
26/06/2025, Words by Rob Hutchins
A rare and solitary coral species thought to be lost for a generation has been found alive and clinging on to the underwater cliffs of four sites across the Galapagos, offering scientists and environmental conservationists a rare glimmer of resilience within a warming ocean.
Listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ (possibly extinct) after its last official record in 2000, the species – Rhizopsammia weelingtoni – has now been documented across the islands of Isabela and Fernandina.
The discovery was made by a scientific team from the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Californian Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the Galapagos National Park Directorate, during a series of targeted dives back in January 2024.
Researchers encountered more than 100 colonies on a ledge south of Isabela Islands’ Tagus Cove at around 12 metres deep, followed by additional colonies at Punta Vicente Roca, Playa Tortuga Negra, and – most astonishing – Cabo Douglas on Fernandina where the coral had never been reported before.
Altogether, surveys logged over 250 living colonies, revealing two colour morphs – black-purple and red-black corallites – that match museum specimens collected in the 1970s.
Dr Inti Keith, principal investigator for Charles Darwin Foundation’s marine and lead author of the study, said: “Finding R. wellingtoni after 24 years raises important questions about how the coral survived past environmental pressures, such as severe 1982-1983 El Niño, suggesting it might have found refuge in deeper, cooler habitats before re-emerging during recent cooler La Niña conditions.
“It also proves that even the most vulnerable species can persist if we protect the right habitats – yet its tiny, scattered colonies remind us just how close we came to losing it forever and the critical need for proactive management strategies.”
Also known as Wellington’s Solitary Coral after Ferard M. Wellington who first collected specimens, the species is endemic to the Galapagos Islands. It typically inhabits relatively cool waters around Galapagos, with average annual temperatures between 15-26°C, benefitting from cooler upwelling conditions that provide thermal refuges.
Corallites range from approximately 3 to 6mm in diameter, making individual colonies quite small (generally less than 1cm wide) and easily overlooked.
“Finding something that was previously thought to be extinct is one of the most exciting discoveries a biologist can make,” said Terry Gosliner, PhD, Academy Curator of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology and study co-author.
“In just one dive, we found more than 100 colonies of R. wellingtoni on a healthy, biologically diverse coral reef, many of which were dotted with budding polyps, signalling active reproduction.
“This is huge: evidence that the species isn’t merely clinging to survival, but thriving at multiple localities and depths. This discovery is a hopeful example of resilience amid rising ocean temperatures, and a poignant reminder of what can be gained from continued conservation and coral reef monitoring in biodiversity hotspots like the Galapagos.”
CDF’s subtidal ecological monitoring work as part of its Marine Biodiversity programme – which has systematically monitored 64 reef sites since 2004 – provided the framework and expertise needed to recognise and identify this rare coral, despite its small size and cryptic habitat.
The work also demonstrates that cooler La Niña conditions may have offered a short reprieve from thermal stress, allowing the coral to re‑emerge in shallower water.
Dr Maria Jose Barragan Paladines, Science Director of the Charles Darwin Foundation, added: “This discovery validates decades of investment in Galapagos science and is a perfect example of our work to continue to uncover and understand the unique biodiversity of the archipelago and their resilience to external threats.”
Genetic analyses under way at the California Academy of Sciences will provide critical insights for conservation strategies by determining how closely these populations are related and how effectively they might repopulate areas affected by environmental disturbances.
The finding removes R. wellingtoni from the edge of extinction and safeguards a unique evolutionary lineage endemic to the archipelago. As a solitary coral highly sensitive to temperature spikes, its presence (or absence) also offers an early-warning system for future marine heatwaves. Finally, data from the expedition feed directly into Galapagos zoning plans, IUCN Red List reassessments and Ecuador’s national climate-adaptation roadmap.
Jennifer Suarez, Director of Ecosystems at the Galapagos National Park Directorate, said: “This discovery reminds us how important it is to continually monitor our marine ecosystems. Despite the impacts of climate change, nature demonstrates its capacity for resilience.
“From the Galapagos National Park, we will keep intensifying our conservation efforts to safeguard these unique habitats.”
The research was published earlier this week in the journal Marine Biology and funded by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Lindblad, National Geographic Fund for Conservation, and Amy Blackwell.
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EcoWatch
‘The Trump Administration’s Disdain for Nature Knows No Bounds’: USDA Proposes Axing ‘Roadless Rule’ Protections for 58.5 Million Acres of National Forest Lands
By: Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, Published: June 25, 2025
The Trump administration on Monday announced a plan to open 58.5 million acres of undeveloped lands within the National Forest System to road development and construction by repealing the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, known as the “Roadless Rule.”
The rule was established in 2001 to protect roadless areas from road construction and timber harvesting, as well as to safeguard biodiversity, water resources and recreation.
Stripping Roadless Rule protections is especially significant for Alaska’s 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest.
“Eliminating the Roadless Rule from the Tongass would remove protections for about half the forest and add almost 190,000 acres to an inventory of lands ‘suitable’ for timber production,” a press release from Earthjustice said. “Many of these lands are in parts of the forest where previous clear-cut logging decimated vast swaths of older trees, making the remaining intact stands of mature and old-growth trees particularly valuable as fish, bird, and wildlife habitat, and for Indigenous communities and others who rely on the forest for their livelihood, wellbeing, and spiritual and cultural ways of life.”
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins called the decades-old rule “outdated.”
In addition to the Tongass National Forest — the largest temperate rainforest in North America — millions of acres of Idaho’s Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness and Reddish Knob, located in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia, would be open to road building, reported The New York Times.
“The roadless rule has protected 58 million acres of our wildest national forest lands from clear-cutting for more than a generation,” said Drew Caputo, Earthjustice’s vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife and oceans, as The Washington Post reported. “The Trump administration now wants to throw these forest protections overboard so the timber industry can make huge money from unrestrained logging.”
The Roadless Rule dates back to the 1990s, when the United States Forest Service was asked by former President Bill Clinton to come up with methods to protect the increasingly scarce roadless sections of national forests. These lands were considered essential for species who were losing their habitats to large-scale timber harvests and encroaching development.
“Most Americans value these pristine backcountry areas for their sense of wildness, for the clean water they provide, for the fishing and hunting and wildlife habitat,” said Chris Wood, chief executive of conservation organization Trout Unlimited, as reported by The New York Times.
Wood was the Forest Service’s senior policy adviser when the Roadless Rule was developed and recalled its wide public support.
“I don’t think the timber industry wants to get into these areas,” Wood said. “They’re wildly controversial, and they’re too expensive to access. I believe when they take this to rule making, they will realize how wildly unpopular getting rid of that rule is and how little gain there is to be had from it.”
Environmental groups vowed to challenge the plan in court, saying it could destroy some of the country’s untouched landscapes.
Randy Spivak, the Center for Biological Diversity’s public lands policy director, said eliminating the protections would put safe, clean drinking water at risk and invite wildfires.
For decades, Tongass National Forest has been at the center of the battle over the Roadless Rule. In it are 800-year-old hemlock, cedar and Sitka spruce, many over 800 years old. These ancient trees provide essential habitat for 400 wildlife species, including salmon, bald eagles and the largest concentration of black bears on Earth.
The cathedral-like stands also store over 10 percent of the carbon dioxide accumulated by all the country’s national forests, the government said, as The New York Times reported.
“The Trump administration’s disdain for nature knows no bounds,” Spivak said. “The roadless rule is one of our country’s most important conservation achievements, and we’ll fight like hell to keep these protections in place.”
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Animal Welfare Institute
Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act Reintroduced to Protect Wildlife and Pets on Public Lands
June 24, 2025
Washington, DC—The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) endorses the Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act, reintroduced today in the US House of Representatives by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). This bill would prohibit the use of archaic body-gripping traps within the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS), with limited exceptions. Body-gripping traps include steel-jaw leghold traps, Conibear traps, and snares.
“Why should anyone—people, companion animals, or wildlife—have to fear stepping into a bone-crushing trap while enjoying our nation’s beautiful wildlife refuge system?” said Susan Millward, AWI’s executive director and CEO. “Public lands belong to all of us—not just the select few who wish to set traps that smash limbs or agonizingly strangle airways. Thank you to Representative Nadler for your commitment to ending the use of cruel traps in our country’s refuges.”
“When Americans visit their local National Wildlife Refuges, most expect to enjoy nature without worrying that they—or their pets—will fall victim to a dangerous trap,” Nadler said. “However, trapping is still allowed in many of the more than 570 refuges across the country, putting people, pets, and endangered species in danger of serious injury. These cruel devices have no place on protected public lands, and my bill will make sure our refuges are safe from this inhumane practice.”
The purpose of these protected lands is clear: to be a refuge where native wildlife can thrive and all Americans can enjoy our great outdoors. The NWRS contains one of the most diverse collections of fish and wildlife habitats in the world and provides a home for more than 380 endangered species. Yet nearly half of these refuges allow trapping. Body-gripping traps are inhumane and inherently nonselective, meaning they indiscriminately injure and kill nontarget animals.
These brutal traps endanger not only wild animals but also the pets of millions of visitors who spend time in the nation’s refuges each year. There have been a number of incidents in which pets have been killed. In December 2022, for example, a three-year-old Shetland sheepdog died after her neck was caught in a Conibear trap near a wooded trail in Vermont—the state’s 13th incident of a pet being caught in a trap that year.
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University of Reading (UK)
500 bird species face extinction within the next century
24 June 2025
Climate change and habitat loss could cause more than 500 bird species to go extinct in the next 100 years, researchers from the University of Reading have found.
Their study, published today (Tuesday, 24 June) in Nature Ecology & Evolution, reveals this number is three times higher than all bird extinctions recorded since 1500 CE. The extinction of vulnerable birds such as the bare-necked umbrellabird, the helmeted hornbill, and the yellow-bellied sunbird-asity would greatly reduce the variety of bird shapes and sizes worldwide, harming ecosystems that depend on unique birds like these for vital functions.
The scientists found that even with complete protection from human-caused threats like habitat loss, hunting and climate change, about 250 bird species could still die out.
Kerry Stewart, lead author of the research from the University of Reading, said: “Many birds are already so threatened that reducing human impacts alone won’t save them. These species need special recovery programmes, like breeding projects and habitat restoration, to survive.
“We face a bird extinction crisis unprecedented in modern times. We need immediate action to reduce human threats across habitats and targeted rescue programmes for the most unique and endangered species.”
Bigger threats for bigger birds
The researchers examined nearly 10,000 bird species using data from the IUCN Red List. They predicted extinction risk based on the threats each species faces. The study found that large-bodied birds are more vulnerable to hunting and climate change, while birds with broad wings suffer more from habitat loss.
This research also identified which conservation actions will best preserve both the number of bird species and their ecological functions.
Professor Manuela Gonzalez-Suarez, senior author of the study at the University of Reading, said: “Stopping threats is not enough, as many as 250-350 species will require complementary conservation measures, such as breeding programmes and habitat restoration, if they are to survive the next century. Prioritising conservation programmes for just 100 of the most unusual threatened birds could save 68% of the variety in bird shapes and sizes. This approach could help to keep ecosystems healthy.”
Stopping the destruction of habitats would save the most birds overall. However, reducing hunting and preventing accidental deaths would save birds with more unusual features, which are especially important for ecosystem health.
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YaleEnvironment 360
Published at the Yale School of the Environment
E360 Digest, June 23, 2025
Endangered Eels a Top Target for Traffickers in Europe
Endangered eels, a top target for wildlife traffickers in Europe, are generating billions in profits for smugglers globally, according to two new reports.
European eels are prized as a delicacy, from London to Tokyo, but no one has yet learned how to breed them. So smugglers are ferrying young eels from the continent to fish farms in China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, where they are raised to maturity and sold to high-end restaurants. These tiny, translucent juveniles, known as glass eels, are generating around $3 billion in profits for smugglers in peak years, according to a new report from Europol, the law enforcement arm of the E.U.
In 2023, E.U. authorities intercepted more than 1 million live eels, according to a separate report from the watchdog group TRAFFIC. Seized specimens of critically endangered European eels outnumbered specimens of any other plant or animal.
Since the 1970s, the number of European eels has fallen by more than 90 percent. “Persistent demand and significant profits make it attractive to organized criminal groups,” Mònica Pons-Hernández, a criminologist at the University of Bergen in Norway, told Mongabay. “They’re highly motivated to adapt — finding new routes and ways to smuggle eels out of the E.U. despite increased enforcement.”
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The Sacramento Bee
Does tropical milkweed harm monarchs? Not so much, UC Davis study finds
By Calista Oetama, June 21, 2025
Sacramento is a crucial pit stop in the migration of monarch butterflies across Northern California. Recently, local monarch enthusiasts have introduced tropical milkweed — a source of food for the butterflies — into their gardens to support the beloved insect’s journey. Despite strong messaging against tropical milkweed by some butterfly conservationists, UC Davis researchers show that the plant neither helps nor harms monarchs in California.
Monarchs have historically migrated from west of the Rocky Mountains to coastal California during the fall, but an increasing number of butterflies have stayed year-round in the Bay Area since the 2010s. Part of this is due to the growing presence of tropical milkweed, which attracts monarchs, in urban gardens.
Some conservationists view this species of milkweed as a trap responsible for a decline in California’s migratory monarch populations. But in a recent Ecosphere study, the Davis researchers demonstrate that this decline is not significantly driven by urban gardens containing tropical milkweed.
“We don’t know if taking it away will do as much harm as it does good,” said Elizabeth Crone, an ecology professor at UC Davis and senior author of the study.
In the weeds
A monarch-infecting parasite builds up in milkweed. Species of the plant native to California, typically bearing frosty pink flowers tipped with white, die in late fall and take the parasite with it.
But brightly colored tropical milkweed — native to Central and South America, more commercially available than its native counterparts — is evergreen. In places where monarchs reside year-round, high levels of the parasite gather in these plants.
Monarch enthusiasts fear what the Davis researchers call “the sledgehammer effect”: urban gardens teeming with tropical milkweed suck monarchs out of their usual migratory patterns, which may lead to a decline in population due to exposure to parasites.
This hypothesis has led vocal conservationist groups to lobby against the propagation of tropical milkweed. In 2022, the California Department of Food and Agriculture declared tropical milkweed a noxious weed. Though the plant is still allowed in Sacramento, counties such as Marin, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Ventura have banned nursery sales of tropical milkweed.
“This tends to be a hot topic in the butterfly world,” said Emily Erickson, a former postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis and first author of the study.
Every month for two years, Erickson walked through 15 three-mile routes to count milkweed, caterpillars, and monarch butterflies in urban gardens on the East Bay. If the sledgehammer effect were true, the population of butterflies would spike in the fall — when migratory monarchs travel to the coast — and decline in the summer, suggesting that urban gardens actually trapped the migratory monarchs.
In reality, the researchers observed the opposite: population levels were lowest during winter to spring, before growing in the summer. Monarchs in urban gardens seemed to be able to grow independently of migratory butterflies.
“It means there’s not a wave of (migratory butterflies) coming in, leaving the migration and supporting the urban population,” Crone said. “The big implication is that we should stop worrying about tropical milkweed in California.”
Reorienting conservation messaging
Tropical milkweed makes a convenient target for some conservationists. It’s easy to cast it as invasive, a health hazard, a foreign plant that persists year-round at the apparent expense of native species. The solution: Get rid of it.
But Crone’s and Erickson’s study advises monarch enthusiasts to stay calm. Tropical milkweed is not necessarily detrimental to monarch populations, and further research needs to be conducted to understand the finer effects of tropical milkweed on migratory monarchs, the researchers said. In the meantime, they recommend focusing on “positive messaging” instead, encouraging monarch enthusiasts to continue doing what’s proven to aid butterfly populations.
Having a variety of flowering plants that produce nectar at different times of the year supports monarchs throughout the seasons. Though gardeners should not necessarily avoid tropical milkweed, planting more native milkweeds — which are adapted to the soil and climate of the Bay Area — offers the monarchs the best source of nectar. And avoiding the use of pesticides prevents the decimation of the butterflies’ food source.
This issue is complicated, but one fact remains clear: Monarch butterflies inspire a passion few other animals invoke. A donation from Google, which has worked to conserve monarchs in California since 2021, supported the study. Erickson also recalls a common occurrence during her monthly treks through East Bay neighborhoods — the locals spotting her butterfly net and stopping her for a chat.
“I would talk to so many people who were just so excited to go out and plant milkweeds so that they would get their monarchs,” Erickson said. “That excitement is a really powerful force in urban ecology.”
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KXAN News (Austin, TX)
Texas General Land Office calls for delisting golden-cheeked warbler from Endangered Species Act
by: Brynne Herzfeld, June 21, 2025
AUSTIN (KXAN)—The legal battle over the conservation status of the golden-cheeked warbler marches on, with the Texas General Land Office and the Texas Public Policy Foundation urging the U.S. Department of the Interior to remove the songbird from the Endangered Species Act. It’s a debate that started ten years ago, when the TPPF first lobbied for the bird’s delisting.
The warbler is a native Texan songbird, making its home in the Ashe juniper trees that grow mainly in Central Texas. In January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a report recommending that the U.S. Secretary of the Interior downgrade its status from endangered to threatened.
Currently, the golden-cheeked warbler is considered endangered by both the federal government and the Texas government. As a threatened species, the bird would still have protections against being killed, harmed or captured. But the TXGLO and TPPF say this still leaves costly compliance measures in place.
A letter from the TPPF claims the warbler’s status has stymied land use throughout the state for over thirty years. Under federal law, land developers must apply for a permit through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop in an endangered species’ habitat, and developing in a confirmed warbler habitat carries a fee of $5,500 per acre.
“For too long, Texas property owners’ hands have been tied regarding making decisions on their own land because of an unsupported ESA listing of the Golden-Cheeked Warbler,” said Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham in a release from TPPF. “Based on the scientific evidence presented, I urge the U.S. Department of the Interior to completely delist the Warbler and allow Texans to reclaim their voices when it comes to decisions about their land.”
Buckingham also alleged that the golden-cheeked warbler does not meet ESA requirements. The TPPF’s release claims the warbler population is 19 times larger than it was in 1990, when Texas labeled the bird as endangered.
The push has prompted backlash from environmental groups. An attorney for the nonprofit Earthjustice sent a statement to KXAN that said, “New science shows that the warbler lost over 40% of its habitat in the last 40 years, and warming temperatures pose a growing and existential threat to this species. The warbler needs the protections of the Endangered Species Act now more than ever.”
Save Our Springs Alliance, a local nonprofit dedicated to protecting the Edwards Aquifer, also objected to the recommendation. In their statement to KXAN, they called efforts to delist the bird “politically motivated attacks.”
Regardless of the golden-cheeked warbler’s status, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says conservation efforts will continue.
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NOAA Fisheries
Eastern North Pacific Gray Whales Continue Decline After Downturn During Unusual Mortality Event
Continued low calf count indicates that reproduction remains depressed.
June 18, 2025
The eastern North Pacific population of gray whales that migrates along the West Coast of the United States has continued to decline, with reproduction remaining very low. Two new Technical Memorandums from NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center report the estimated population size and calf productivity in 2025.
The initial population estimate of gray whales, following an Unusual Mortality Event that ended in late 2023, suggested that their numbers may have begun to rebound last year. However, the most recent count from winter 2025 instead reveals a continuing decline. The new count estimates an abundance of about 13,000 gray whales, the lowest since the 1970s.
Only about 85 gray whale calves migrated past Central California on their way to feeding grounds in the Arctic earlier this year. That’s the lowest number since records began in 1994. Low calf numbers since 2019 indicate that reproduction has remained too low for the population to rebound.
The estimates are based on models that combine visual sightings from NOAA Fisheries research posts in Central California with assumptions about how the whales migrate. The assumptions create some margin for error, but the models indicate that in 2025 the population is most likely between 11,700 and 14,500. They indicate the number of calves produced was between 56 and 294.
The annual estimates are most valuable in revealing population trends over time rather than pinpointing the number of whales or calves in a given year, scientists said.
Past Resilience Wanes
Scientists attributed the Unusual Mortality Event from 2019 to 2023 to localized ecosystem changes that affected the Subarctic and Arctic feeding grounds. Most gray whales rely on prey in this region for energy to complete their 10,000-mile round-trip migration each year. The changes contributed to malnutrition, reduced birth rates, and increased mortality. Related research has linked fluctuations in the gray whale population to the availability of prey in its summer feeding grounds in the Arctic.
The gray whale population has proved resilient in the past, often rebounding quickly from downturns such as an earlier UME from 1999 to 2000. That makes the ongoing decline in abundance and reproduction following the more recent UME stand out, said Dr. David Weller, director of the Marine Mammal and Turtle Division at the Science Center and an authority on gray whales.
“These whales depend, over the course of their lives, on a complex marine environment that is highly dynamic, and we expect the population to be resilient to that over time,” he said. “The most recent Unusual Mortality Event was much longer than the previous one from 1999 to 2000. The environment may now be changing at a pace or in ways that is testing the time-honored ability of the population to rapidly rebound while it adjusts to a new ecological regime.”
Researchers in Mexico reported numerous dead gray whales early this year in and around coastal lagoons. Females nurse their calves in these lagoons in winter before beginning their migration north to the Arctic each spring. They also reported few gray whale calves, suggesting that many female whales may not be finding enough food in the Arctic to reproduce.
So far this year, 47 gray whales have stranded dead on the U.S. West Coast, up from 31 last year and 44 in 2023, the last year of the UME. While some of the stranded whales appeared skinny or emaciated, others did not.
Tracking Reveals Change
The reduced abundance and calf count underscore the value of long-term monitoring in detecting trends, said Dr. Aimée Lang, a research scientist who helps lead the gray whale counts. A decade ago the eastern North Pacific gray whale population was a conservation success story, having recovered from commercial whaling and nearing all-time highs of 27,000 whales. NOAA Fisheries determined in 1994 that the species had fully recovered and no longer needed protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Today, however, the ongoing decline has scientists both puzzled and concerned. Ecosystem changes in the Arctic feeding areas the whales depend on to put on weight and maintain fitness are likely the root cause, Weller said.
The gray whale migration between Mexico and the Arctic crosses the California Current ecosystem and Arctic ecosystem. These areas have both experienced unpredictable changes in recent decades. “Certainly the whales are feeling that too, but may not be able to respond in ways that resemble those of the past,” Weller said.
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes Endangered Species Act protections for pangolins
Pangolins are the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal.
June 16, 2025
WASHINGTON – In response to declining pangolin populations caused by illegal wildlife tracking, habitat loss and poor genetic health, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing federal protections for several pangolin species in Asia and Africa. After reviewing the best available scientific and commercial information, the Service is proposing to list seven species of pangolin as endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The four Asian species proposed for listing are Chinese, Indian, Sunda and Philippine. The three African species are white-bellied, black-bellied and giant.
Pangolins are small, nocturnal mammals that are known for their unique appearance. They are covered in tough, protective keratin scales and use their long, sticky tongues to eat ants, termites and other insects. Pangolins have a single pup annually and live in a variety of habitats, including savannas, woodlands and forests.
One of the main threats to pangolins is wildlife trafficking, a crisis that includes the poaching, smuggling and illegal trade of endangered species. It is a critical conservation concern with significant impacts on the interests of the United States and its partners. Pangolins are particularly vulnerable to wildlife trafficking due to their slow and peaceful demeanor. With limited defenses beyond their scaly exteriors, they often roll into a ball when threatened.
Pangolins are heavily targeted by poachers and criminal organizations. The proceeds from the illicit sale of pangolins and other imperiled species often fund serious crimes, including drug and arms trafficking. This proposed listing reaffirms the Service’s commitment to protecting these magnificent species and ensures the United States does not contribute to their continued decline.
Pangolins are currently protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. International trade of this species is permitted only under exceptional circumstances, and international trade for commercial purposes is prohibited.
The proposed rule will publish in the Federal Register June 17, 2025, opening a 60-day public comment period. The Service will review and consider all comments received by Aug. 18, 2025, before publishing a final rule. Please go to http://www.regulations.gov, docket number FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0028.
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WildEarth Guardians
Endangered Species Act protections for Western wolves to be considered in federal court
Lawsuit to relist wolves aims to defend species from state policies of slaughter and extermination
June 12, 2025
MISSOULA, Mont. — On Wednesday, June 18 at 9 a.m., a federal district court in Missoula will hear arguments in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s 2024 finding that wolves in the Western U.S. do not warrant listing as an endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
The case could result in a ruling that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act when determining in February 2024 that Western wolves do not need federal protections, and the judge could remand the decision back to the agency to re-analyze threats to gray wolf populations in accordance with the requirements of the Endangered Species Act.
Because of alarming pressures on wolves from population reduction efforts by Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, over 70 conservation and animal welfare groups petitioned the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in July 2021 to list a Western U.S. Distinct Population Segment (DPS) of gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act, or alternatively, to relist the Northern Rocky Mountain DPS, which Congress “delisted” in 2011. In February 2024, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service determined that the petitioned protections were not warranted, despite also concluding that laws and regulations in Montana and Idaho “designed to substantially reduce” wolf populations are “at odds with modern professional wildlife management.”
In April 2024, 10 conservation organizations sued the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, challenging the not warranted finding. The groups argued that the agency failed to adequately consider the threat to gray wolves from human-caused mortality, particularly as a result of management activities (e.g., hunting, trapping, baiting, running over with vehicles) in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. The groups also argued that the agency failed to use the best available science regarding population size and population estimate methodologies (including iPOM), which have come under considerable scrutiny.
The conservation organizations that filed the case are Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, International Wildlife Coexistence Network, Predator Defense, Protect the Wolves, Trap Free Montana, Wilderness Watch, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Clearwater, and Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment. They are represented by the Western Environmental Law Center.
Two other groups of conservation organizations also sued the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for its decision to deny the petitions to protect wolves across the West. All three cases have been consolidated and will be heard together on June 18.
Members of the media are invited to attend this hearing to gain insights into the legal proceedings and to report on the potential consequences of the case’s outcome. Key stakeholders, legal experts, and environmental advocates will be present to provide comments and answer questions.
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The Wildlife Society
USFWS seeks comment on endangered species regulations
The Service is asking for public input on how to improve conservation agreements and incidental take permitting
June 12, 2025 by Kaylyn Zipp
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is soliciting public input on ways to modify the rules involving the accidental killing or injuring of endangered and threatened species as well as regulations involving measures private landowners take to conserve these imperiled creatures.
Section 10(a) of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) deals with what happens to federally listed and at-risk species management on private and nonfederal lands. Subsections authorize the Service (USFWS) to issue permits that allow for “take”— the killing, injuring or removal—of listed species under specific circumstances. These include the take of organisms for scientific purposes or to enhance the propagation or survival of an affected species.
Section 10(a) tools play an important role in engaging private landowners in species recovery and proactive conservation. For example, Safe Harbor Agreements—a tool designed to help private landowners work with the USFWS for conservation—have helped landowners plant longleaf pine, conduct prescribed burns to maintain open forest structure in the U.S. Southeast; and install artificial nesting cavities that boost habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers (Leuconotopicus borealis). These agreements ensure that landowners do not face additional restrictions on management activities if their conservation efforts boost woodpecker populations on their land.
The Service has specifically requested information on barriers preventing applicants from pursuing these methods, aiming to streamline permit implementation processes and the funding and resources to enhance voluntary conservation incentives. They are also interested in Service-user relations and have requested input on ways to enhance communications on 10(a) programs, specifically how to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the Service and applicants during conservation planning and permit issuance.
Interested parties, including wildlife professionals and private land conservation partners, have until July 9 to provide feedback to the USFWS.
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Traffic
Nations come on board to Halt Shark and Ray Extinction
June 11, 2025
As the biodiversity crisis in our oceans continues to raise alarm, major progress to protect pivotal ocean species was achieved today at the UN Ocean Conference.
French Minister of Ecological Transition, Ms. Agnès Pannier-Runacher, launched the Global Coalition to Halt the Extinction of Threatened Sharks and Rays, calling on countries around the world to step up and support the initiative.
Sharks and rays (which are closely related) are among the most severely impacted species within the ocean’s accelerating ecological crisis. More than 35% are now threatened with extinction, largely due to overfishing.
Populations of deepwater sharks and rays, as well as shallow water species, have dramatically declined; these losses damage ocean health, threaten food security and impact livelihoods of millions who live in coastal communities who also need to be included in decision making, paying due attention to any unintended consequences for just and equitable solutions.
High-level actions are needed now: to protect critical habitats and species, regulate fisheries and trade, and ensure regional and international cooperation (for information on three specific actions to secure the long-term survival of sharks and rays, see here).
During the launch event, which took place on 11 June 2025 at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, nine countries and many partner organisations signed the Declaration to join the Coalition. More are expected to join in the coming weeks.
Along with lead government France, other signatories included Australia, Ecuador, Maldives, Malta, Panama, Republic of Congo, Spain and UK. The launch event was organised by the IUCN Species Survival Commission, WWF and TRAFFIC, with support from more than 50 partners listed on the dedicated webpage https://www.haltsharkrayextinction.org/supporters.
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Recovery Plan Finalized for Seven Listed Species of the Edwards Aquifer in Central and South Texas
June 11, 2025
AUSTIN, Texas – After reviewing the best commercial and scientific data, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is publishing the final recovery plan for seven federally protected species of the Edwards Aquifer in Central and South Texas. These species are listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act and are found in the state’s two largest spring systems, Comal and San Marcos springs in Comal and Hays counties, respectively. These spring systems are fed by groundwater from the southern Edwards Aquifer. The recovery plan provides guidance on how to achieve recovery of the species so that they no longer need protections under the ESA.
This recovery plan applies only to federally protected species and includes one plant, two beetles, one fish, one crustacean, and two salamanders. They are the endangered Texas wild-rice, Comal Springs dryopid beetle, Comal Springs riffle beetle, fountain darter, Peck’s cave amphipod, Texas blind salamander, and the threatened San Marcos salamander.
The southern Edwards Aquifer is known for its high diversity of organisms and hosts the only known locations of these species. All seven species are aquatic, and their primary threat is the loss of groundwater and/or spring flows, as well as decreases in suitable habitat due to drawdown of the Edwards Aquifer. This area is experiencing rapid development, which is expected to increase the extent of threats to water quality and quantity. Safeguarding the Edwards Aquifer is crucial not only for the survival of these species but also for the human communities that depend on the groundwater.
The overall recovery strategy involves preserving, restoring, and managing species’ aquatic habitats, along with the water resources necessary to support healthy populations and the ecosystems on which they depend. The recovery strategy also includes using stock populations, or captive refugia, to protect against catastrophic events. Successful recovery efforts will continue to involve cooperation and collaboration among federal, state, and local agencies, private entities and other stakeholders.
Recovery plans are not regulatory documents, and implementation of actions is not required by the ESA. Instead, recovery plans serve as road maps with specific management actions to foster cooperation in conservation for listed species and their ecosystems. The recovery plan describes actions that are considered necessary for the recovery of the seven species, establishes delisting criteria, and estimates the time and cost to implement these recovery actions.
An electronic copy of the final recovery plan is available at ecos.fws.gov/ecp/report/species-with-recovery-plans. To obtain a copy by mail, send a request to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Austin Ecological Services Field Office, 1505 Ferguson Lane, Austin, TX 78754 or by phone 512-937-7371.
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Texas Parks and Wildlife
More Than 150 Species of Greatest Conservation Need Documented in Texas During the 10th Annual City Nature Challenge
June 10, 2025
AUSTIN — For the fourth year in a row, several Texas cities ranked in the top ten globally during the City Nature Challenge (CNC), one of the world’s largest community science events.
This year, fourteen Texas metropolitan areas participated in the challenge and logged a whopping 342,913 observations. Participants recorded more than 9,800 different species with more than 150 of those being species of greatest conservation need, including the Texas horned lizard, Cascade Caverns salamander, cave myotis and Texas tortoise.
Globally, the 102,945 participants of the 2025 CNC recorded more than 3,310,131 observations with 73,765 species documented, including 3,338 rare, endangered or threatened species. The CNC had participants from 669 cities in 62 countries and six continents.
Four Texas urban areas ranked in the top 15 globally for number of observations, and Texas as a whole accounted for 10 percent of global observations.
The San Antonio Metro Area ranked second in both the number of observations and species observed and the Dallas/Fort Worth Area ranked fourth in number of observations and sixth in number of species observed.
CNC is a global community-based scientific effort, co-organized by San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. It invites current and aspiring citizen scientists of all ages and backgrounds to observe and submit pictures of wild plants, animals and fungi using the free iNaturalist mobile app.
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KSDK/5 (St. Louis, MO)
They’re only 10 days old, but these Missouri wolf pups’ ‘life-changing’ journey will help save their species
The six pups’ early journey is vital for their survival and the survival of their species.
Author: Hunter Bassler, June 9, 2025
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The eyes of six newly born Mexican wolf pups hadn’t even opened when they started a life-changing journey across the U.S.
The six 10-day-old tiny pups recently embarked on a flight from Missouri to New Mexico in hopes of helping save their species from extinction, according to St. Louis County’s Endangered Wolf Center.
Their species once roamed throughout the Southwest before farmers eliminated them from the wild in the 1970s, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Today, there are fewer than 300 Mexican wolves left in the wild, but the population has seen nearly a decade of consecutive growth, in part thanks to the nationwide pup fostering system that EWC is a part of.
The center, outside Eureka, Missouri, has championed wolf conservation for decades and said pup fostering introduces new bloodlines and genetic diversity, boosting the species’ resilience in the wild. The pups’ early journey is vital for their survival and the survival of their species.
“Litters in the wild and in managed care must be born within just a few days of each other, and as a rule of thumb, pups are transferred before they reach 14 days old—when their eyes and ears are still not even open yet,” the center said in a news release. “Add in navigating remote, mountainous terrain, and it becomes clear: successful pup fostering is nothing short of a logistical and biological feat. This year, the weather presented additional challenges, including hail, rain, and snow in the mountains while pups were placed into their new wild dens.”
Mexican wolves have been labeled a “keystone species,” meaning numerous plants and animals within ecosystems depend on the species to survive. A major role the carnivores play in the Southwest is controlling herbivore populations and preventing overgrazing, which promotes healthy plant growth and reduces disease spread.
More than 140 Mexican wolf pups have been born in managed care and fostered into the wild over the past decade, 52 of which came from the EWC.
“This year was a special pup foster to help facilitate, because the pack is very genetically valuable,” EWC Director of Animal Care and Conservation Sarah Holaday said in the release. “The father of these pups was actually born from artificial insemination back in 2017, so getting his genetics back into the landscape is a huge conservation win.”
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Yahoo! News/The Cool Down
Scientists issue dire warning after dramatic behavioral shift in northern owls — here’s why this change is so troubling
Salette Cambra, June 8, 2025
A recent discovery has experts sounding the alarm: Northern saw-whet owls are turning up far from their usual homes.
These changes could have lasting effects on communities that rely on healthy environments for farming, recreation, and everyday well-being.
What’s happening?
The northern saw-whet owl, one of North America’s smallest birds of prey, is migrating much farther than experts once believed. A report from Coastal Review shared insights from field biologist Noah Price, whose work confirms that these palm-sized owls are traveling hundreds of miles across the continent, often at night.
Thanks to decades of bird banding and tools like isotope analysis, researchers with Project Owlnet have discovered that these owls are navigating far-flung forests and mountain corridors.
This shift in migration patterns suggests not only that they rely on a wider range of habitats than once believed but also that they face more risks along the way.
Why is this behavior concerning?
When wildlife starts turning up in unfamiliar places, it usually means their usual homes are no longer meeting their needs. For northern saw-whets, that might mean trouble finding food, staying cool, or nesting safely in forests increasingly altered by development and rising temperatures.
As Coastal Review noted, more dominant species like the barred owl have already displaced native birds like the northern spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest.
If saw-whets move into new areas, they could unintentionally put pressure on other vulnerable species.
Owls help control rodent populations, making life easier for farmers, gardeners, and homeowners. When owl numbers dip or move away, communities may see more pests and less balance in local ecosystems. For rural families and agricultural workers, those shifts can hit close to home.
Changes in animal behavior also impact food security, economic stability, and public health.
What’s being done about owl displacement?
Fortunately, researchers are working hard to understand and respond to these changes. Conservation groups involved in Project Owlnet are tracking owl movements through banding, recorded calls, and biological sampling to gather essential data.
You don’t have to be a scientist to pitch in. Letting native plants grow, reducing chemical use, and leaving older trees standing can make your yard a more welcoming place for birds.
Communities are already seeing results. In Los Angeles, residents replaced thirsty lawns with native flowers to support birds and pollinators.
In Texas, people have rewilded their front yards, giving native species a place to rest and thrive.
Across the country, bee-friendly gardens are also helping pollinators bounce back, restoring balance in backyards and public parks alike.
These small actions can make a big difference. Creating bird-friendly habitats helps keep our ecosystems and communities healthier, more resilient, and better prepared for the changes ahead.
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Seeks Public Input to Strengthen Conservation Programs Under the Endangered Species Act
June 6, 2025
FALLS CHURCH. Va. – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service invites public comments and information on its Endangered Species Act section 10(a) program. The program includes the development of conservation benefit agreements, habitat conservation plans and the issuance of enhancement of survival and incidental take permits.
The Service is dedicated to strengthening the section 10(a) program to more effectively support conservation efforts while addressing the needs of landowners, industry and local communities — ultimately improving the program’s overall efficiency and impact.
Section 10(a)(1)(A) encourages voluntary conservation of listed and at-risk species on non-federal lands. Enhancement of survival permits associated with conservation benefit agreements are intended to incentivize voluntary conservation by authorizing the take of covered species that may result from implementing the approved conservation benefit agreement. This approach empowers landowners and stakeholders to protect vulnerable species proactively.
Section 10(a)(1)(B), meanwhile, provides a path for compliance with the ESA through incidental take permits and associated habitat conservation plans. This permit provides take coverage for otherwise lawful activities that may unintentionally impact listed species or those that may be listed in the future.
The public can submit comments and information at http://www.regulations.gov by searching for docket number FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0049. All submissions must be received by July 9, 2025.
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Science Alert
Dehorning Rhinos Cuts Poaching by 78% – Saving Thousands of Animals’ Lives
Nature, 06 June 2025, By Michelle Starr
Taking the relatively simple step of trimming the horns of wild rhinoceroses is enough to dramatically reduce the rate at which the animals are killed by poachers.
Across 11 nature reserves in South Africa, scientists found that dehorning black (Diceros bicornis) and white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) populations saw a sudden, sharp reduction in poaching by an average of 78 percent. It was, by far, the most effective method of curtailing the illegal slaughter of these endangered animals, researchers found.
“Dehorning rhinos to reduce incentives for poaching – with 2,284 rhinos dehorned across eight reserves – was found to achieve a 78 percent reduction in poaching, using just 1.2 percent of the overall rhino protection budget,” says conservation biologist Tim Kuiper of Nelson Mandela University in South Africa.
The rhino horn trade represents one of the most poignant examples of the destructive influence of human activity.
The horns of these animals are made from keratin, like our own fingernails and hair; yet the perception persists among many cultures that they have medicinal value in spite of a complete lack of scientific evidence. Demand is so high that most rhino species on Earth are now at the brink of extinction due to poaching.
Many different strategies for reducing poaching have been proposed, from 3D printing rhino horns to the death penalty for offenders.
Kuiper and his colleagues conducted their study to determine the efficacy of the measures in place across 11 nature reserves in the Greater Kruger area – a landscape of about 2.4 million hectares wherein roughly 25 percent of all Africa’s rhinos currently reside.
The researchers documented the poaching deaths of 1,985 rhinos between 2017 and 2023. That’s roughly 6.5 percent of the rhino population of the area.
Most of the investment into anti-poaching measures focuses on reactive strategies – increased ranger presence, cameras, and tracking dogs. In the timeframe the researchers studied, these measures resulted in the arrests of around 700 poachers – but they did not significantly reduce the rate at which rhinos were killed, at least in part because of law enforcement corruption, the researchers say.
However, when dehorning measures were enacted, poaching rates plummeted.
Dehorning does not harm the rhino; it’s a bit like having your nails trimmed or your hair cut. The horn’s growth plates are left intact, so the keratin gradually regrows over time. Removing the horn removes the incentive to kill the rhino, since the horn is what the poachers want.
When the rhinos were dehorned, not only did the rate of poaching decrease; so too did the rate at which poachers entered the area.
However, dehorning was not a straight prevention measure. Because the horn grows back, 111 rhinos with horn stumps were still killed by poachers. Although the poaching rate of dehorned rhinos was lower, even a horn stump was sufficient incentive at least some of the time for the poaching syndicates.
And while poaching rates were down in the regions where dehorning was active, poachers often moved onto other regions to try their luck elsewhere, evidence suggests.
“It may be best,” Kuiper wrote on The Conversation, “to think of dehorning as a very effective but short-term solution that buys us time to address the more ultimate drivers of poaching: horn demand, socio-economic inequality, corruption, and organised criminal networks.”
Rhino poaching is such a complex issue that no one solution is likely to fix it. Removing the incentive as a first step, however, seems like it may be an important piece of the broader solution.
“It’s important to check that our conservation interventions work as intended, and keep working that way,” says ecologist Res Altwegg of the University of Cape Town.
“For me, this project has again highlighted the value of collecting detailed data, both on the interventions that were applied and the outcome. It’s such data that makes robust quantitative analyses possible.”
The researchers dedicate their work to the late Sharon Haussmann of the Greater Kruger Environmental Protection Foundation, who was instrumental to this collaborative research effort.
The findings have been published in Science Advances.
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Pennsylvania Capital-Star
Animal rights group reveals illicit market for ivory and endangered animals in Pennsylvania
State lawmakers are proposing legislation to target animal trafficking beyond the reach of federal authorities
By: Vincent DiFonzo, PLCA intern, June 4, 2025
A taxidermied giraffe head, cut from its body at the shoulders, was found on sale for $6,000 in a Luzerne County store. It is just one of hundreds of endangered animal parts being sold across the state uncovered through an investigation by a global nonprofit animal rights organization.
State Rep. Leanne Krueger (D-Delaware) says Pennsylvania has a responsibility to fight illicit sales that fuel poaching of at-risk animals abroad. Her legislation, House Bill 994, would ban the sale of covered endangered animal parts within the state.
“Iconic species of animals continue to face the threat of extinction due to the demand for their parts,” Krueger wrote in a memo seeking support for the bill. “While many of these species reside in countries or oceans thousands of miles away, we have a duty to ensure that the residents of our great Commonwealth are not supporting the poaching and trafficking that threaten these at-risk species of animals.”
Lawmakers gathered with Humane World for Animals representatives Wednesday to rally support for the legislation.
Gabe Witgil, wildlife trafficking program director at Humane World for Animals, said states must close legal loopholes that allow illicit animal parts markets to thrive.
“Iconic species across the planet continue to face the threat of extinction due to demand for their body parts,” he said. “Each year, 10,000 to 15,000 elephants are killed in Africa to supply the global demand for their ivory.”
The group’s investigation team visited 31 Pennsylvania antique and vintage stores over a three week period in March and searched 31 online auctions between January and April, uncovering 383 pieces of ivory with a total retail value of $38,000. Bracelets, necklaces, figurines and even silverware were among the found ivory products taken from elephants, hippos, warthogs, walruses, mammoths and whales.
“What we found was a gruesome amount of evidence that accelerates the call to action,” said Whitney Teamus, the organization’s senior director of investigations. “The number of ivory items identified exceeds what we’ve seen in our previous investigations over the last several years, including in Connecticut and Florida.”
Of the stores and auctions investigated, 59% had endangered wildlife products for sale.
A key problem, the investigators said, was a lack of documentation for many ivory products being sold, which makes it difficult to determine if the parts were illegally imported. Many ivory items were found to be mislabeled as bone or mammoth ivory, which is currently legal to sell.
“The labeling of ivory was also disturbingly unreliable, with some vendors uncertain of the material they were selling, while others appeared to be intentionally mislabeling items,” Teamus said. “This is a misleading sales tactic we and others have witnessed in other investigations to obscure the trade of these items.”
Teamus told the Capital-Star that the number of endangered animal parts they found is likely miniscule compared to the total amount being sold in the state.
“There’s tons more out there. Ivory is in your backyard, for sure,” she said. “You think elephants are thousands of miles away. You don’t think of them as being in your backyard.”
What would H.B. 994 do if passed?
The legislation would make the sale of ivory and other endangered animal parts illegal while expanding the list of protected animals that aren’t covered under the federal Endangered Species Act, such as giraffes.
While federal law prohibits the importation of endangered species parts and the sale of these parts between states, it does not ban the sale within states. Pennsylvania law currently allows endangered animal parts to be sold only with a permit.
Animals covered by the the bill are the baleen whale, bonobo, cheetah, chimpanzee, dolphin, elephant, giraffe, gorilla, hippopotamus, jaguar, leopard, lion, mammoth, mastodon, orangutan, panda, pangolin, polar bear, ray, rhinoceros, sea turtle, shark, tiger and walrus.
If passed, civil penalties would be imposed upon violators based on the value of the illegal animal product. Thirteen states and Washington D.C. have passed similar legislation.
The bill passed the House Judiciary Committee by a 25-1 vote on Monday and now awaits consideration on the House floor.
“We expect the bill to be on the floor soon, and we’ll work hard to maintain the bipartisan vote that we earned in committee this week,” Krueger said. “I’m hopeful that we’re going to be able to send this bill to the Senate very soon, and am hopeful that our colleagues there will see the value of ending the demand for trafficked animal parts in Pennsylvania.”
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Mongabay
A new report lists the world’s 25 most endangered primates. Most people have never heard of them.
Rhett Ayers Butler, 4 Jun 2025
A new report, “Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates,” catalogs the species closest to the brink. Compiled by more than 100 scientists and conservationists, it’s a stark warning: without urgent action, some of our closest relatives may soon be gone.
The list spans four continents, taking in the Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) in West Africa — fewer than 250 individuals remain — to the elusive Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) in Sumatra, first described in 2017 and already reduced to just 800 individuals.
In Madagascar, home to some of the planet’s rarest biodiversity, the red ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra) and Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur (Microcebus berthae), the smallest primate in the world, are confined to shrinking scraps of forest.
In Asia, the primates of the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia, are vanishing under the twin pressures of logging and hunting.
In South America, urban expansion and agriculture are pushing the pied tamarin (Saguinus bicolor) and Peruvian yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Lagothrix flavicauda) toward extinction.
This is not a new story. Since 2000, the IUCN’s Primate Specialist Group has tracked the most threatened primates. Of the 721 recognized species and subspecies, nearly two-thirds are now endangered. Entire genera are in jeopardy: every species of gibbon, all 17 red colobus monkeys, and 95% of Madagascar’s lemurs.
Behind the names and statistics lie familiar culprits: deforestation, illegal trade, climate change. Conservationists have developed detailed action plans, grounded in science and fieldwork. But plans alone do not preserve species.
“There is no mystery here,” said Russell Mittermeier, chief conservation officer at Re:wild who also heads the Primate Specialist Group. “We know what to do. What we lack is political will, funding, and time.”
The loss of these primates would not only mean fewer species in the forest — it would mean emptier forests. These animals are seed dispersers, cultural icons, and evolutionary kin. Their disappearance would haunt the landscapes they once shaped.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Ghost Orchid Proposed for Endangered Species Act Protections
Flower Threatened by Poaching, Habitat Destruction, Climate Change
HOLLYWOOD, Fla.—(June 4, 2025)—Following a petition and agreement with The Institute for Regional Conservation, Center for Biological Diversity and the National Parks Conservation Association the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed to protect the ghost orchid as an endangered species.
The Service declined to protect critical habitat for the orchid, finding that poaching threats made it not prudent to do so.
“This is great news in troubled times and demonstrates that some environmental safeguards are still operating in the United States,” said George Gann, executive director at The Institute for Regional Conservation. “However, the decision not to protect critical habitat for the ghost orchid, while complicated by concerns of increasing poaching pressure, may reduce protections in areas under threat from oil drilling, off-road vehicles and other pressures.”
“This is welcome news for Florida’s famously cryptic ghost orchids,” said Elise Bennett, Florida and Caribbean director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “But with the Trump administration’s incessant attacks on landmark environmental laws meant to stop species from going extinct we know our job here isn’t done. We’ll continue to do what’s necessary to ensure the ghost orchid and every other iconic Florida species has a fighting chance to thrive in our beautiful state.”
“The ghost orchid is Florida’s most famous flower, and it deserves a chance to live. Thanks to today’s decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it will get that chance,” said Melissa Abdo, Ph.D., Sun Coast regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. “This rare and uniquely beautiful species has captivated outdoor explorers and botanists for countless generations. Even as the administration works to expel hard-working, dedicated environmental professionals from the government, those same professionals are fighting to protect endangered species like the ghost orchid for future generations. That kind of courage and dedication is what we need to slow the extinction crisis and save species from being lost forever.”
The decision follows a slew of actions by the Trump administration intended to weaken species protections including mass firings of Service employees, policies to weaken species impact reviews and a recent proposal intended to gut habitat protections for endangered wildlife.
Ghost orchids are some of the most famous flowers in Florida, but their population has declined by more than 90% globally and by up to 50% in Florida. Only an estimated 1,500 ghost orchid plants remain in Florida, and less than half are known to be mature enough to reproduce.
The orchids are at risk of extinction from multiple threats including poaching, habitat loss and degradation and the climate crisis. With major hurricanes Irma, Ian, Idalia, Helene and Milton slamming southwest Florida over the last decade, the orchids continue to face above-normal Atlantic hurricane activity. Experts predict an above-average Atlantic hurricane season in 2025.
In late 2022 two people were caught stealing a ghost orchid and other rare plants from Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park. In Big Cypress National Preserve proposals to drill for oil and to expand off-road vehicle access threaten the ghost orchid’s sensitive habitat.
The ghost orchid’s current limited range includes the Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and additional conservation and tribal areas in Collier, Hendry and possibly Lee counties. The orchids are found in Cuba as well where they’re also critically threatened.
Following a petition filed by The Institute for Regional Conservation, Center for Biological Diversity and the National Parks Conservation Association, the Service determined that the rare native orchid may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. The agency initiated a status review to inform a final decision which the agency was legally required to make in January 2023 but failed to complete.
The conservation groups are represented by the Jacobs Law Clinic for Democracy and the Environment at Stetson University College of Law.
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Animal Welfare Institute
Colorado Now Leads Country in Comprehensive Approach to Fighting Wildlife Trafficking
June 2, 2025
Denver, CO—Today, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed S.B. 25-168 into law to combat wildlife trafficking. The bipartisan legislation, which is unique among states for the number of species covered, establishes criminal penalties for selling, possessing, transporting, importing, or exporting threatened and endangered species found in Colorado, the United States, and globally. It also empowers Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to investigate the impacts of wildlife trafficking.
“The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) has supported this legislation from the beginning, and we are thrilled that it is now law in Colorado,” said Lauren McCain, Ph.D., senior policy advisor for AWI’s Terrestrial Wildlife Program and a Colorado resident. “Wildlife trafficking is devastating to imperiled species in Colorado and around the world. It also poses a growing danger to people due to disease transmission and organized crime networks that are killing an unprecedented number of African park rangers. This law will deter poaching and the trade of live and dead animals and their parts into and out of our state. It will help prevent the trafficking of protected species, such as Canada lynx and other wild cats, pronghorn, tortoises, tropical birds, and monkeys, among others.”
Colorado is now a leader among states in the fight to reduce wildlife trafficking. At least 13 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws to restrict or ban the trafficking of certain wildlife products within their borders. Most of these laws, however, only cover select, commonly trafficked, foreign species and their parts, such as elephant ivory, rhino horn, and the skin, bones, and fangs of big cats.
S.B. 25-168 is unique among state laws for covering all species listed under the US Endangered Species Act, state-listed threatened and endangered species, and species that appear in Appendix I to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES is a global convention that regulates international wildlife trade.
The trafficking of live and dead wildlife and animal parts is a global criminal enterprise that endangers animals around the world. It generates approximately $20 billion a year and is the fourth most lucrative illegal international trade operation, trailing only the trafficking of drugs, humans, and counterfeit goods. Poaching for the illegal wildlife trade is a brutal, bloody practice. Animals are often shot with military-grade weapons, and tusks, horns, and other parts are harvested by mutilating the animals, who are sometimes still alive.
In addition to the devastating welfare and conservation impacts, illegally bringing exotic animals into Colorado risks introducing diseases and invasive species, with potentially catastrophic impacts to the state’s native wildlife. CPW has seen a rise in poaching across Colorado in recent years. Denver International Airport (DIA), for instance, is a hub for wildlife trafficking. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) reported seizing 1,150 parts or products of illegally trafficked wildlife at the airport last year. From October 2023 to March 2025, the parts or products of more than 56 species were seized at DIA, according to USFWS data.
Polis highlighted the need for tougher penalties to crack down on wildlife trafficking during his State of the State speech in January. AWI commends the governor, CPW, and the bill’s co-sponsors—Sens. Scott Bright and Dylan Roberts, and Reps. Ryan Armagost and Cecelia Espenoza—for supporting a legislative solution to protect and preserve wildlife in Colorado and beyond.
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Phys.org
Amphibians face mounting threats as heat waves and droughts intensify worldwide
by Phyllis Mania, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, June 2, 2025
Amphibians—the most threatened vertebrate class on Earth—are under enormous pressure, with 41% of all species already threatened with extinction. A new study from the Faculty of Biological Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt shows that increasing extreme weather events such as heat waves and droughts are further exacerbating the crisis and are directly linked to declining amphibian populations.
Particularly affected regions include Europe, Amazonia, and Madagascar. The results highlight the urgency of targeted conservation measures to preserve endangered species and their habitats.
Habitat loss, diseases, pollution, and climate change are already massively affecting amphibians—frogs, salamanders, and the caecilians native to tropical regions. The new study from the Institute for Ecology, Evolution and Diversity published in Conservation Biology shows that extreme weather events serve as an additional stress factor, further intensifying this crisis.
For this purpose, the scientists analyzed global weather data from the past 40 years. They compared regions with significantly increased heat waves, droughts, and cold spells with the geographical distribution of more than 7,000 amphibian species and their threat status on the “Red List.”
The Red Lists have been published since 1964 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and are considered an important tool for assessing the threat status of animal, plant, and fungal species worldwide.
Critical interaction of various factors
The results are clear: Where heat waves and droughts have increased, the threat status of amphibians on the Red List has also significantly deteriorated since 2004. “Amphibians’ dependence on temporary wetlands for breeding makes them particularly vulnerable to droughts and temperature shifts that cause their breeding grounds to dry prematurely,” explains Dr. Evan Twomey, lead author of the study.
“Our analyses show the direct connection between the increase in extreme weather events and the decline of amphibian populations.”
Regional focus areas
Three regions are particularly affected: Europe, the Amazon region, and Madagascar. While in South America the majority of amphibians found there—mostly frogs—are exposed to increasing heat waves, in Europe it is primarily droughts that are causing problems for the animals. Here, it is mainly salamanders that suffer under the changed conditions.
The situation in Central Europe gives cause for concern. Future climate projections show that drought periods in Central Europe will likely increase in both duration and intensity. Prof. Lisa Schulte, head of the Department of Wildlife/Zoo-Animal-Biology and Systematics warns, “Already half of the true salamanders native to Central Europe are exposed to increasing droughts today—and this will likely get worse in the future.”
Urgent need for action
The study results highlight the urgency of targeted conservation measures. Various approaches from amphibian research could help threatened species. These include, for example, the creation of small protected areas where amphibians can find refuge, as well as the improvement of wetlands to ensure optimal living conditions. Creating moist retreat sites, such as using pipes or boards, also provides these animals with opportunities to withdraw during dry periods.
The study provides important foundations for adapted conservation strategies in the particularly affected regions. Amphibians are considered indicators of ecosystem health—their protection is therefore of paramount importance for preserving biodiversity.
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EurekAlert!
New study finds recovery is still possible for critically endangered Hawaiian honeycreeper with urgent intervention
Latest Genomic Research offers a unique lens for understanding the extinction crisis in Hawai’i
Peer-Reviewed Publication/San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
SAN DIEGO (May 29, 2025) – A new scientific study, led by San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, and additional researchers, offers a unique lens for understanding the unprecedented extinction crisis of native Hawaiian forest birds. Just 17 out of approximately 60 species of the iconic honeycreeper remain, most of which are facing rapid decline due to avian malaria. The findings, published today in Current Biology, include new evidence that there is still time to save the critically endangered honeycreeper ‘akeke‘e—but the window is rapidly closing.
“In a race against time to save the remaining honeycreepers, necessary insights about their survival are found in their genetic makeup,” said Christopher Kyriazis, Ph.D., lead author and postdoctoral researcher from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “Our findings provide a new understanding of the last remaining individuals as recovery efforts forge on in their native forests and in human care.”
Warming temperatures have enabled non-native mosquitos, the vectors of avian malaria, to spread further up the mountains. This leaves little to no refuge for Hawaiian honeycreepers, which lack immunity to malaria. The effects of avian malaria have been especially devastating on Kaua‘i island, which lacks high elevation habitats. Two critically endangered honeycreeper species endemic to Kaua‘i, the ‘akikiki and ‘akeke‘e, have faced population declines of more than 99% in the past two decades. Efforts to control mosquito populations by releasing reproductively incompatible male mosquitos are currently ongoing.
There are estimated to be less than 100 individual ‘akeke‘e remaining. Meanwhile, ‘akikiki are extinct in the wild, and the only remaining hope for the species is through a conservation breeding program of approximately 40 individuals at the Maui and Keauhou Bird Conservation Centers, operated by San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. Through genomic analysis of three honeycreeper species, the ‘akikiki and ‘akeke‘e, and the extinct po‘ouli, researchers provide a detailed examination of genomic diversity, inbreeding depression and extinction risk.
Key findings:
*There is still time to save the ‘akeke‘e from extinction: Under current conditions, ‘akeke‘e are likely to go extinct in the near future. However, if ongoing mosquito control efforts are successful, recovery is still possible.
*Avian malaria is driving population collapse: Recent steep declines in ‘akikiki and ‘akeke‘e coincide with the spread of avian malaria in the late 20th century, consistent with malaria being the primary driver of population collapse.
*Hawaiian honeycreepers maintain high genetic diversity: Hawaiian honeycreepers, even the last known po‘ouli individual, maintain high genetic diversity despite being critically endangered. While high genetic diversity may increase their potential to adapt to threats, it could also increase their vulnerability to inbreeding depression as population sizes decline at a rapid rate.
*Inbreeding depression is already happening in ‘akikiki: Findings suggest that many of the founders of the conservation breeding program—‘akikiki brought into human care in a last-ditch effort to prevent extinction—are the offspring of related parents. Inbred birds produced fewer offspring and had lower survival. This information can be used to improve mate selection and further inform breeding decisions.
The research offers a unique window into the genomic consequences of massive species decline and provides critical insight into how the damaging genetic factors, such as inbreeding depression, further exacerbate extinction risk. Findings will inform ongoing recovery efforts with the aim of averting extinction in the remaining honeycreeper species.
Insights from the genome of the extinct po‘ouli underscore the importance of biobanking. In 2004, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance established a cell line from the last living po‘ouli. Those cells were the first viable material from an extinct species to be cryopreserved, and they remained dormant in the Frozen Zoo® until recently, when researchers thawed one precious vial. Sequencing the po‘ouli genome, as seen in this study, provides evolutionary and genetic information that can benefit the conservation of other critically endangered Hawaiian forest birds.
“We will never hear the po‘ouli honeycreeper’s song again, but we can learn from its genetic code,” said Oliver Ryder, Ph.D., director of conservation genetics at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
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EcoWatch
Oceans Are Getting Darker, Shrinking the Livable Space for Marine Life, Study Finds
By: Paige Bennett, May 29, 2025
According to a new study, about one-fifth of the world’s oceans, spanning around 75 million square kilometers, has been getting darker over the past 20 years.
The study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, explored changes to the oceans’ photic zones. As the authors explained, these photic zones are where ecological interactions depend upon sunlight and moonlight.
However, with the depth of photic zones decreasing in recent decades, these areas no longer receive enough light to support the ecological interactions, a phenomenon known as ocean darkening.
According to the study, 21% of the world’s oceans have become darker since 2003, with more than 9% of the oceans experiencing a photic zone depth reduction of more than 50 meters and 2.6% of oceans experiencing a reduction of more than 100 meters.
“If the photic zone is reducing by around 50 m in large swathes of the ocean, animals that need light will be forced closer to the surface where they will have to compete for food and the other resources they need. That could bring about fundamental changes in the entire marine ecosystem,” explained Tim Smyth, co-author of the study and Head of Science for Marine Biogeochemistry and Observations at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory.
These changes could be caused by a number of different factors, including nutrient, organic material and sediment loading from agricultural runoff, increased rainfall, algal blooms and increasing sea surface temperatures. The study also determined that some of the regions most impacted by ocean darkening include areas that are highly affected by climate change, including the Arctic, Antarctic and the top of the Gulf Stream.
Overall, the global trend is toward darkening oceans, although around 10% of oceans have become lighter, the researchers found.
Smyth and fellow author Thomas Davies, associate professor of marine conservation at the University of Plymouth, used data from the Ocean Color Web by NASA to track ocean darkening as well as solar and lunar irradiance models to investigate how the changes in light availability in the photic zones could potentially impact marine life.
The scientists wrote that the impacts of ocean darkening on marine ecology are still largely unknown, but with 90% of all marine life dependent on these photic zones, the study authors warned that disruptions via ocean darkening were “likely to be severe” and far-reaching.
“Our results provide evidence that such changes cause widespread darkening that reduces the amount of ocean available for animals that rely on the sun and the moon for their survival and reproduction,” Davies said. “We also rely on the ocean and its photic zones for the air we breathe, the fish we eat, our ability to fight climate change, and for the general health and wellbeing of the planet. Taking all of that into account, our findings represent genuine cause for concern.”
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CNN
Gorillas once caught by wildlife traffickers are set free in historic reintroduction
By Nell Lewis, CNN, Published Thu May 29, 2025
CNN—Last October, four female eastern lowland gorillas were airlifted from their home in Kasuhgo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and released 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast in Virunga National Park.
Less than a year later, they have all successfully integrated into a group of wild gorillas, in what is being hailed as the largest translocation of the subspecies ever. Conservationists hope that its success will not only prevent the local extinction of an isolated population, but provide essential knowledge needed to protect the critically endangered apes in the future.
The females – named Isangi, Lulingu, Mapendo and Ndjingala, and aged between 10 and 21 years old – were rescued from the illegal wildlife trade as babies and taken to the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE) where they were rehabilitated over a long period of time, learning to forage and socialize as they would in the wild. Deemed ready for release, last fall they were flown to Mount Tshiaberimu – or “Mountain of the Spirits” – a 1,700-meter (5,577-foot) peak in the northern region of the national park, where they were kept in a fenced enclosure before being released into the wild.
The gorilla monitoring team, who expected the transition to take anywhere between several months to several years, were astounded when, in less than two months, they appeared ready to leave the enclosure.
“It happened much quicker than we all anticipated,” says Katie Fawcett, executive and science director for GRACE Gorillas, the NGO leading the rewilding process alongside Virunga National Park and local communities.
This was partly down to the allure of a handsome wild silverback called Mwasa, who approached the fence of the enclosure day after day, beating his arms on the ground and grunting to catch the females’ attention. It worked: they responded to his calls and even chose to abandon their indoor dens to sleep closer to him along the fence line.
Watching on carefully, the monitoring team decided that it was the natural time to let the females join him. “We really pride ourselves on every decision being gorilla led,” Fawcett tells CNN. “After three days of attention directed at the magnificent Mwasa … the decision was made: ‘let’s go for it.’ The fence was cut so they could come out.”
Since then, to the team’s surprise and delight, the four females have quickly settled into life in the wild, adjusting to the colder climate on the mountain’s steep hills and a new diet of bamboo shoots and other native plants.
While rangers continue to monitor the gorillas’ health, collecting non-invasive biological samples and conducting visual assessments, so far the gorillas have shown no clinical signs of stress – in fact, they are looking “amazing,” says Fawcett, with thick, shiny coats and full bellies.
The biggest excitement came in the new year, when Mwasa was spotted mating with Ndjingala, a 16-year-old female, for the first time. Since then, the other three have also been seen mating with him, according to Fawcett. As gorillas have a similar gestation period to humans, the team are eagerly counting down the days to September, but she says they are cautiously optimistic: “It’s probably going to take some time as the female gorillas were on contraception while they were in the sanctuary at GRACE.”
Averting extinction
A birth would be a huge ray of hope for the whole species. The eastern lowland gorilla, or Grauer’s gorilla, is found in the lowland tropical rainforest of eastern DRC and is the largest of the four gorilla subspecies – all of which are endangered.
While there have been successful translocations of western lowland gorillas in the past, eastern gorilla releases have had a very poor survival rate, with individuals dying or disappearing within weeks of release, or being so young that they have been unable to survive without a lactating mother.
“What’s different about this reintroduction project is not only that it is the largest and we’re putting in four females into this group, but also that the decision was made early on not to just throw a baby back into the group, but to rehabilitate it over a long period of time and make sure the gorilla has the social skills and critical survival skills,” says Fawcett. “(We were) trying to mimic that natural behavior of having adult females join a wild group.”
The project was also intended to provide a critical genetic boost to the small and isolated population of eight gorillas living on Mount Tshiaberimu. Previous scientific modelling found this population to be non-viable, with some estimating that it would go extinct between 20 and 50 years, unless new females were introduced.
“The tiny gorilla population was doomed but could now be saved by this intervention,” Liz Williamson, a professor at the University of Stirling in the UK specializing in the conservation, ecology and behavior of gorillas, who was not part of the project, said in an email. She added that the situation facing Grauer’s gorillas across eastern DRC is “dire,” but the translocation could bring multiple conservation benefits.
Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park and a Belgian prince, commended the initiative in a press release: “This is a huge milestone in efforts to bolster the eastern lowland gorilla population and we are delighted that the gorillas are successfully adapting to the wild.”
Troubled times
However, there are huge challenges working within Virunga National Park, which has been the center of armed conflict for decades. Over 200 rangers have been killed in the park since it was created in 1925, and the recent resurgence of the M23 rebel group has escalated matters, with attacks on rangers becoming increasingly common. Mount Tshiaberimu is located within the troubled region.
“Working in this area is not easy,” says Jackson Kabuyaya Mbeke, DRC director for GRACE Gorillas. “The main thing strategically is to put the community in the middle of everything we do: we recruit caregivers, we recruit educators who are trained at GRACE … and they feel that responsibility of taking care of wildlife.”
Brought up in the area himself, he recalls when gorillas were widespread and as a child, he would listen to them calling or beating their chests. “We grew up in the same habitat, sharing the same resource,” he says. “Gorillas are our identity, our totem, they are an important source of pride in this area.”
Yet, as human populations grow, pressures on gorilla habitat are inevitable, with forest being cleared for agriculture and firewood. During times of conflict, with communities in extreme need, these threats are heightened as some resort to hunting gorillas for their meat.
The reintroduction is a huge breakthrough, but it is only the start. “The real key for gorilla conservation success in this region is forest protection,” says Fawcett. “We’re super excited by this result and how it can help to inform these critically endangered populations, but we need to stop populations reaching that point.”
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Fish and Wildlife Service removes Colorado hookless cactus from the endangered species list
May 28, 2025
DENVER — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is removing the Colorado hookless cactus from the federal List of Endangered and Threatened Plants due to recovery. This decision is based on the best available scientific and commercial information and reflects ongoing conservation efforts and improved scientific data on the species.
The Service recognizes the collaborative efforts of its recovery partners, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, and the Denver Botanic Gardens. Their ongoing efforts to monitor and conserve the cactus have played a key role in the species’ recovery. The Service will continue collaborating with partners to monitor the species to ensure long-term stability.
The Colorado hookless cactus, federally listed as a threatened species in 1979, is endemic to the Colorado and Gunnison River basins and their tributary canyons in western Colorado. The species thrives in semi-arid, high-elevation desert environments and can be identified by its distinctive pink flowers, which bloom in late April and early May. The Service determines that threats to the species have been eliminated or sufficiently reduced to the point that the species no longer meets the definition of a threatened or endangered species under the Act. Additionally, recent scientific data indicate the species is more abundant than previously known at the time of listing.
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ABC News
US peregrine falcons adapt well to city living as their coastal cousins struggle with bird flu
High above the bustle of cities across the country, the fastest birds on the planet are making nests, hatching young and snagging birds from the sky for meals
By MIKE CATALINI Associated Press, May 27, 2025
ELIZABETH, N.J. — After rebounding in recent decades due to conservation efforts, the number of once-imperiled peregrine falcons in the U.S. has been dropping again in some places due to the bird flu that has decimated other avian populations in recent years.
Although falcons in coastal parts of the country have been hit hard, researchers say others that set up camp in some of the country’s biggest cities appear to be thriving, showing the world’s fastest bird has acclimated to living among people. They’re also amassing fans, as legions of devotees follow along on webcams each spring as the falcons progress from hatching to leaving the nest.
“Wildlife can really adapt to these harsh urban environments,” said Christopher Nadareski, research scientist with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection “That’s the key here, is that despite these harsh living conditions for them, they still find ways to survive.”
Peregrines are expert hunters who feast on other birds. With large eyes and bright yellow feet armed with needle-sharp talons, they fly to great heights before diving on unsuspecting prey, sometimes reaching speeds greater than 200 mph (322 kph).
Their populations declined with the use of the pesticide DDT, which infiltrated the food chain and made their shells too weak to hatch. By the 1960s, peregrines disappeared from the eastern half of the country.
But in 1972, DDT was banned, and conservationists began bringing the birds back from the brink. They came off the federal endangered species list in 1999. Nesting pairs in New Jersey, for example, went from fewer than five in 1980 to nearly 45 by 2021.
Their numbers began dropping again, though, with the bird flu outbreak.
The drop has been particularly severe among coastal peregrines, which feast on ducks, geese and other waterfowl that tend to congregate in great numbers and, thus, allow disease to spread more easily, said Kathy Clark, head of New Jersey’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program. Although bird flu is suspected as the cause of many coastal New Jersey nests emptying out, researchers have only been able to recover some of the dead falcons’ carcasses, she said, noting that many of those tested positive for the disease.
Coastal peregrines in other states, including California and Virginia, have also seen declines, with bird flu suspected. It’s not all doom and gloom, though, as New York Department of Conservation wildlife biologist Angelena Ross said enough juveniles are moving into coastal areas to begin replenishing the numbers.
Peregrines that made nests among the glass and steel of big cities seem to have avoided the worst of the bird flu outbreak decimating their country cousins.
City falcons, which eat songbirds and pigeons among other birds, haven’t seen the same declines, Clark said. And they’ve successfully added buildings and bridges to the their natural habitats, which include places like the Delaware Water Gap and the Palisades overlooking New York from the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.
Some even made a home on the busy George Washington Bridge, where scientists recently fitted chicks with anklets for tracking. New York state conservation officials estimate that the Big Apple has the largest urban population of peregrines around.
“We’re starting to see increases in success so that in New York City, we are at the point where we’re probably the most concentrated, populated peregrine falcon nesting in the whole world at this point. We have about 30 nesting pairs,” Nadareski said.
The bird’s popularity, tethered in large part to its status as the world’s fastest, has soared recently, with thousands following live cams of peregrines around the country.
With plenty of downtime between moments of drama — a mauled woodpecker here, a blue jay head there — the chicks start mimicking their parents, flapping their wings and grabbing nest detritus with their talons around May.
May is also when East Coast biologists band the birds so they can be tracked.
In New Jersey, Clark and Ben Wurst, a biologist with Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, were among the crew that recently ventured high up onto the roof of the Union County Courthouse in Elizabeth to retrieve and four young chicks for banding as their parents swooped at them, using feather dusters to ward off the angry birds.
“Some individuals are more aggressive than others,” Wurst said at a recent chick banding in Elizabeth. “Normally they just kind of bonk you.”
They put the young birds in canvas totes to carry off the roof for a checkup and to attach their bracelets, which have an individual number so they can be tracked. Three females and one male chick made up the clutch, Clark said.
“These birds are going to be the ones to repopulate — hopefully,” Clark said. “It’s a great symbol of hope.”
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Pensacola News Journal (Pensacola, FL)
Environmental groups sue Trump Administration to protect endangered Gulf species
Tom McLaughlin, May 25, 2025
Earthjustice has filed suit on behalf of four environmental groups against the National Marine Fisheries Service, alleging that the organization has failed in its duty to provide proper protections from offshore drilling activities to endangered species residing in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Gulf has been renamed by the U.S. government as Gulf of America.
The lawsuit, filed May 21, claims that a newly released biological opinion the agency was required to file under the Endangered Species Act fails to properly assess how threatened and endangered species, such as the Rice’s whale, are likely to be harmed by drilling activity.
The Fisheries Service is bound by the Endangered Species Act to require mitigation to avoid or minimize harm to protected marine species. It had been ordered to refile what is known as a biological opinion after a judge ruled the last one it had done was illegal.
“The Fisheries Service continues to turn a blind eye to the risks that offshore oil and gas pose to the Gulf’s environment and imperiled species,” Earthjustice Senior Attorney Chris Eaton said in a news release. “The law requires that marine species get protection, and this biological opinion doesn’t provide it.”
Why is Earthjustice suing the National Marine Fisheries Service?
The lawsuit claims that more than two dozen species listed as either threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act call the Gulf home, including the critically imperiled Rice’s whale, of which only about 50 remain, and the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, the most endangered sea turtle in the world.
It also states the Gulf is “the epicenter of the nation’s offshore oil and gas industry,” with tens of thousands of active wells, production platforms, miles of underwater pipelines and hundreds of thousands of vessel trips taking place annually.
It alleges that oil and gas operations harm threatened and endangered species.
Earthjustice has sued before and won
The Endangered Species Act requires that each federal agency ensures, in consultation with federal wildlife agencies, that its actions are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any threatened or endangered species or destroy or adversely modify the critical habitat of any such species, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that in implementing its oil and gas leasing program in federal waters of the Gulf, the Department of the Interior on occasion in recent decades has engaged the National Marine Fisheries Service to provide biological opinions.
The last biological opinion the NMFS turned in, in 2020, led Earthjustice and its clients to sue based on alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act. A judge ruled in favor of the environmental groups and NMFS was ordered to produce a new biological opinion.
Earthjustice claims the latest opinion, released May 21, contains “many of the same legal errors as the 2020 Biop.”
Group says Trump administration ignores plight of Rice’s whale
“The biological opinion released today allows a stunning amount of harm to Gulf species,” Earthjustice said in a May 20 news release, adding, “The Fisheries Service admits that vessel strikes alone will kill nine Rice’s whales and seriously injure three more over the next 45 years. But rather than require concrete measures to protect the whales, the biological opinion relies on vague future promises to protect the whales.
“It also puts the Gulf’s sea turtles at risk,” the news release said. “The Fisheries Service estimates the activities will kill or seriously harm several hundred sea turtles every year through ship strikes, explosives, air gun blasting, marine debris, and oil spills.’
Even these numbers underestimate the harm that oil and gas activities pose to these species and the broader Gulf ecosystem, the release said. The biological opinion dismisses the possibility of another catastrophic oil spill like the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed or seriously harmed more than 100,000 animals protected under the Endangered Species Act.
“The Trump administration is working overtime to give corporate polluters free rein over our lands and waters, and imperiled wildlife and Gulf ecosystems are paying the price,” said Sierra Club Senior Attorney Devorah Ancel. “If the administration gets its way, it could be disastrous for the last remaining Rice’s whales on the planet. Times like this remind us why the Endangered Species Act has been so critical for the last five decades, and we will see the Trump administration in court to defend it.”
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Telluride Daily Planet (Telluride, CO)
County ‘strongly opposes’ Trump admin proposal to roll back habitat protections
Commissioners speak out against a measure to redefine ‘harm’ under the Endangered Species Act
By Sophie Stuber, Assistant Editor, May 24, 2025
The San Miguel Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) voted to ratify a letter during their regular meeting on Wednesday, May 21, opposing a proposal to redefine “harm” under the Endangered Species Act.
The Trump administration introduced the proposed rule in April, which would roll back habitat protections by only maintaining a ban on directly killing or collecting species.
This rule change could ultimately authorize logging, mining, oil and gas drilling, and further development on critical habitat for multiple species. Many of the species protected under the Endangered Species Act are vulnerable because of habitat destruction, rather than direct killing. Under the act, it is currently illegal to “take” an endangered species — with “take” being legally defined as actions that harass, harm or kill species.
But with this rule change, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service declared that “harm” under the Endangered Species Act only encompasses the direct killing or collecting of a protected animal, fish or plant. This is a clear challenge to a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that authorized federal and state agencies to stop indirect harms — including preventing cattle grazing in essential Gunnison sage-grouse habitat, for example.
“This is a really big one, I think. It’s a big concern,” commissioner Anne Brown said during the meeting.
Previously, federal agencies have considered “harm” to encompass anything that damages habitats so that endangered species struggle to eat, breed or find shelter.
“It’s not possible to recover imperiled species — halting and reversing their trends towards extinction — without protecting their habitat. And the biggest cause of extinction is habitat destruction,” Allison Henderson, senior attorney and southern Rockies director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told the Daily Planet in April.
In their letter, the BOCC highlighted the importance of maintaining habitats to protect species and their ecosystem.
“The ecosystems approach recognizes the interconnectedness of living things and their environment, aiming to conserve and manage entire ecosystems with the understanding that species survival is linked to the health and integrity of their habitat,” the letter reads. “We can’t protect animals and plants from extinction without protecting the places they live. Without a prohibition on habitat destruction, imperiled species won’t survive.”
Locally, the Gunnison sage-grouse’s habitat may be at risk, especially if grazing is allowed on key lands for the small remaining bird populations, who need protection from anthropogenic disturbances. San Miguel County has spent millions of dollars to help protect the Gunnison sage-grouse, including efforts to save 11,379 acres of their habitat. The county is also part of the San Miguel Basin Gunnison sage-grouse Working Group — a local team dedicated to improving hundreds of acres of sage-grouse habitat.
There are only eight populations of Gunnison sage-grouse remaining, and seven of these are small and isolated and undergoing downward trends. The eighth population, the Gunnison population, is relatively stable, but still in long-term population decline.
Maintaining and restoring population connectivity is also essential. Locally, the Gunnison sage-grouse could see “significant negative ramifications” if this proposal goes through, Henderson added.
Dry Creek Basin, on the western end of San Miguel County, is a key habitat for the Gunnison sage-grouse, as identified by FWS. The zone has contiguous sagebrush land cover, is ecologically intact and offers critical connectivity.
The Bureau of Land Management recently passed a Resource Management Resource Management Plan (RMPA) to protect 10,920 acres as an area of critical environmental concern (ACEC) in order to protect the Gunnison sage-grouse habitat and to reduce anthropogenic disturbances.
“This designation was put in place due to the loss and fragmentation of habitat stemming from the long-term impacts of climate change and drought, combined with the more immediate impacts of oil and gas drilling, mining, grazing, and associated infrastructure such as roads and power lines, as well as motorized recreation,” the BOCC letter reads.
But the ACEC is also under threat from a proposal by Congressman Jeff Hurd to rescind the protections under the Productive Public Lands Act. The BOCC sent a previous letter opposing the bill earlier in May.
“[Hurd’s] bill would override the public process, diminish our role as a cooperating agency and mandate an outcome that was not supported by the agency and the public process,” Starr Jamison, San Miguel County director of natural resources and climate, said previously.
Since the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, it has protected more than 1,700 species. Along with the Gunnison sage-grouse, spotted owls and Preble’s meadow jumping mouse are at risk of habitat loss in Colorado.
The Trump administration said that the proposal is a reinterpretation of rule language and is intended to reduce the scope of the Endangered Species Act to more narrowly define “harm.”
“Regulations previously promulgated by FWS expanded the ESA’s reach in ways that do not reflect the best reading of the statute, to prohibit actions that impair the habitat of protected species” the new rule reads.
Over 15,000 public comments have been submitted since the proposed rule was announced.
“We’ll make it 15,001,” said commissioner Lance Waring, right before the BOCC voted unanimously to ratify the comment letter to the FWS.
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CBC/Montreal
Snowy owl labelled threatened by expert group — and humans are primarily to blame
Population of species has declined by over 40% in around 24 years, group says
Hénia Ould-Hammou, CBC News, Posted: May 24, 2025
The snowy owl, Quebec’s majestic avian emblem and Harry Potter’s iconic companion, is at risk of becoming endangered if action isn’t taken to reverse the threats to its survival, an independent advisory panel has concluded.
This week, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) classified the species as threatened in the country.
While the expert group has made this designation, the governments of Canada and Quebec have yet to officially recognize this status.
The Ecomuseum Zoo in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Que., sounded the alarm this week, calling on the provincial government to act swiftly.
“Alarm bells should be ringing in Quebec,” wrote the zoo in a statement sent to CBC.
David Rodrigue, the zoo’s executive director, pointed to a range of factors behind the snowy owl’s decline — many of them human-caused.
“We should all take it as a wake-up call and really start looking at what it really means to try and change the current trends in global warming,” he said.
Snowy owls rely heavily on lemmings as a food source — a small rodent species also in decline, said Rodrigue.
Lemmings survive the winter by digging tunnels through the snow to feed on grasses and mosses. But with more rain events in the winter, the snow cover in the Arctic becomes more icy and solid, making it difficult for lemmings to dig.
This leads to malnourishment, population crashes and ultimately, impacts on snowy owl populations, whose numbers aren’t recovering naturally due to the persistence of these environmental pressures, added Rodrigue.
And the owl doesn’t just face problems up north.
Rodrigue noted that many of them migrate south in winter — reaching areas like Montreal and the South Shore — where they often die after eating rodents that have been poisoned by rodenticides used in agriculture.
“What’s happening now is we’re pulling out, so to speak, species one by one. And there is a point where ecosystems don’t function anymore without a certain number of species in there,” said Rodrigue, comparing the ecosystem to a game of Jenga.
“You can pull [pieces] out for a long time and [the tower] stands. But at one point, you pull one out, everything collapses. That’s how we’re linked.”
Over 40% decline in population
COSEWIC is an independent advisory body to Canada’s Environment and Climate Change Ministry (ECCC). It includes wildlife biology experts from government organizations, non-governmental groups, academia and the private sector.
Louise Blight, co-chair of COSEWIC’s bird specialist sub-committee, said the designation was based on a population decline over three generations — which corresponds to around 24 years.
“Over that period of time, the snowy owl has been seen to decline by over 40 per cent. That means it meets the criteria for threatened,” she said.
“Canadians and non-Canadians should be concerned about the status of snowy owls.”
The committee has recommended that the federal government add the bird to Canada’s list of threatened species. Blight identified several other threats contributing to the decline, including sea ice loss, electrocution and avian influenza.
To address the crisis, Blight suggests more responsible approaches to rodent control, environmentally friendly agricultural practices, avian flu mitigation efforts and action on climate change.
In a statement, the ECCC stated that the committee is expected to submit its assessment in the fall of 2025.
“Following this step, the minister must post a response statement to the Species at Risk Public Registry within 90 days. This initiates a consultation process,” read the statement.
Hit by cars, caught in power lines
Guy Fitzgerald, a clinician at the Université de Montréal’s birds of prey clinic who participated in the committee’s discussions, said snowy owls are not used to human threats.
“We see lots of snowy owls hit by cars, they can hit power lines,” he said, adding they hunt near roads and airports because small rodents are easier to catch where there’s no vegetation.
One snowy owl was brought to his clinic after being rescued by a bird watcher. It had been tangled in a barbed wire fence, and one of its wings was severely injured.
“Its whole wing was amputated. It’s a bird that will end its days in a refuge or a zoological institution,” Fitzgerald said.
He noted that the clinic’s goal is to release birds of prey back into the wild. In this case, it wasn’t possible.
He explained that snowy owls often don’t see fences when flying low to hunt and that they’re among the species that have been hit by gunshots over the past three decades, emphasizing the need for greater public education.
“We have to take care of them, but we have to consider them as an ecological service,” he said, highlighting that snowy owls can help regulate other animal populations.
“More and more, we understand that the fragile equilibrium is dependent on the biodiversity.”
Not enough data collected in Quebec
According to Rodrigue, there isn’t enough data being collected on the snowy owl in Quebec and the national decline in the species likely reflects a similar trend within the province.
“It’s fairly obvious, scientifically speaking, that it’s already happening here,” he said. Still, he noted that the snowy owl isn’t even labelled as a species that is susceptible of being threatened or endangered in the province.
Following the committee’s classification, Quebec’s Environment Ministry told CBC it will evaluate the status of the species based on available data.
Rodrigue sees this designation as a perfect opportunity for the provincial government to move forward, and faster.
“That big rock that we live on … we’re basically borrowing it from our children and we’re going to have to give it back at some point,” he said.
“We might as well make sure that we give it back in working condition.”
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reopens public comment period on proposed critical habitat for foothill yellow-legged frog
May 23, 2025
SACRAMENTO, Calif., – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reopening a 60-day public comment period on its proposal to designate critical habitat for the four listed distinct population segments of the foothill yellow-legged frog in California.
The proposal designates 760,071 essential acres of critical habitat and includes land along streams and other waterbodies inhabited by the foothill yellow-legged frog, as well as nearby upland areas that are used by the amphibian for dispersal and shelter. Approximately half of the proposed critical habitat falls on federal lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The Service proposes designating critical habitat for the following:
*192,275 acres for the threatened North Feather distinct population segment
*307,772 acres for the endangered South Sierra distinct population segment
*249,942 acres for the threatened Central Coast distinct population segment
*10,077 acres for the endangered South Coast distinct population segment
Critical habitat designation requires federal agencies to ensure that actions they plan to undertake, fund or authorize do not destroy or adversely modify that habitat. Establishing critical habitat for the frog will not interfere with the operations of California’s extensive water infrastructure, impact essential activities that reduce the risk of large-scale high-severity wildfire or reduce access to recreation or rangeland for grazing.
The designation of critical habitat does not affect land ownership or establish a wildlife refuge, wilderness reserve, preserve or other conservation area . Private landowners only need to consider critical habitat if their activities involve federal funding or permitting.
The Service is committed to using the public comment process to solicit sound science, new data and general perspectives on proposed species listings. The public can submit comments on the proposed critical habitat and read supporting information at www.regulations.gov by searching the docket number FWS-R8-ES-2023-0157. Comments should be submitted by July 28, 2025.
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EcoWatch
Experts Identify Emerging Threats to Bees, From Wars to Microplastics and Light Pollution
By: Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, May 20, 2025
United Nations World Bee Day is May 20, and a new report from Bee:wild — a science-led campaign to save bees and other pollinators worldwide — outlines the 12 biggest emerging threats to bees over the next five to 15 years.
Among the emerging threats to pollinators identified by 10 leading experts in the report — Emerging Threats and Opportunities for Conservation of Global Pollinators — are war zones, street lights and microplastics.
“Identifying new threats and finding ways to protect pollinators early is key to preventing further major declines,” said lead author of the report Simon Potts, a University of Reading professor of biodiversity and ecosystem services who is chair of the Bee:wild Scientific Advisory Board, in a press release from University of Reading. “By acting early, we can reduce harm and help pollinators continue their important work in nature and food production. Various conservation opportunities already exist and more are emerging. This is not just a conservation issue. Pollinators are central to our food systems, climate resilience, and economic security. Protecting pollinators means protecting ourselves.”
Pollinators like bees, bats, butterflies and some birds are essential to nature and the world’s food supply, with nearly 90 percent of all flowering plants and more than three-quarters of the planet’s major crops dependent on them. Pesticides, habitat loss, invasive species and climate change have led to their severe decline, causing some bee species to go extinct.
A dozen emerging threats to pollinators, ranked by novelty, then impact, from highest to lowest, include:
*Wars and conflicts, which force nations to grow fewer crop varieties, leaving pollinators without diverse food sources.
*Microplastic pollution, which can reduce the health and lifespan of pollinators.
*Poorly planned tree planting to meet net zero goals; planting trees can help or harm nature, depending on which types are planted and where.
*Antibiotic pollution that can contaminate beehives and honey, affecting pollinator behavior such as reducing foraging and flower visits.
*Air pollution like ozone and nitrogen that can make pollinator survival, growth and reproduction more difficult.
*Increased indoor farming that can reduce wild pollinators’ natural habitat and spread disease by introducing managed pollinators to wild populations.
*A higher demand for mining materials such as cobalt and lithium used in batteries, which damages water and land, presenting another threat to pollinators.
*Pesticide cocktails, which weaken pollinators who are increasingly threatened by dangerous mixes of different pesticides, especially in developing countries.
*Artificial light at night, which confuses pollinators and reduces flower visits by moths and other nocturnal insects by 62 percent.
*Pollution from toxic heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium that can harm the health, behavior and survival of pollinators.
*Larger and more frequent wildfires, in combination with other threats, which destroy pollinator habitats and make recovery more difficult.
*Regional loss of pesticide tracking, which can lead to overuse of these toxic chemicals that kill pollinators, remove floral resources, lead to resistance in pests and damage the environment.
“We were already sounding the alarm on the decline of our pollinators, but this new report underlines that the range of threats are expanding. Rather than being filled with hopelessness, the purpose of the Bee:wild campaign is to fuel awareness, urgency and give everyone agency. There’s a lot we can all do to help save our pollinators, in our homes and everyday lives. Planting flowering plants to feed them, providing outdoor shelter and considering healthier diets like plant-based as well as pesticide-free, all matter a lot,” said Eva Kruse, executive director of Bee:wild. “It’s getting harder for our pollinators but we can all play a part in protecting them and building a sustainable future for all living things.”
The report also highlights measures we can take to safeguard pollinators and reverse their decline.
Some of these include stronger antibiotic use laws that could limit antibiotic pollution, particularly in areas with no restrictions; building more solar farms that double as well-designed, pollinator-friendly habitats; agricultural and trade policies that promote low-pesticide products and encourage farmers to use fewer pesticides; efforts focused on protecting native stingless bees, which are key pollinators in the tropics; more effective global policies and international regulations and laws, such as the European Union’s Nature Restoration Regulation, to support the protection of pollinators and reduce carbon emissions; and solutions that benefit multiple ecosystem services — pollinator protections can simultaneously improve water storage, soil health and carbon capture.
“The choices we make today will shape the future – not only for pollinators, but for all life on Earth. Together, we can ensure that these remarkable species continue their vital work, sustaining the natural world that sustains us all,” said Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, board member of Re:wild — the nature conservation organization behind the Bee:wild campaign — and president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, who wrote the foreword to the report.
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Turtle Island Restoration Network
Groups Sue to Protect Critically Endangered Gulf Rice’s Whale from Oil and Gas Impacts
New federal biological opinion fails to address harm from Gulf fossil fuel drilling
May 20, 2025
(Greenbelt, MD) Four conservation groups filed suit today in U.S. District Court to challenge a government plan that fails to properly protect rare species, including Rice’s whales and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, from being harmed or killed by fossil fuel drilling and exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.
Earthjustice filed suit on behalf of the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and the Turtle Island Restoration Network.
Today’s lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service says that a newly released biological opinion that’s required under the Endangered Species Act is inadequate. The Fisheries Service was required to complete this new biological opinion after a federal court found the previous biological opinion unlawful.
Under the law, before the Department of the Interior can lease areas of the Gulf to oil and gas drillers or authorize drilling activities, the Fisheries Service must first assess how threatened and endangered species, such as the Rice’s whale, are likely to be harmed. The Fisheries Service also must require mitigation to avoid or minimize harm to protected marine species.
“Despite the previous court decision, the Fisheries Service continues to turn a blind eye to the risks that offshore oil and gas pose to the Gulf’s environment and imperiled species,” said Earthjustice Senior Attorney Chris Eaton. “The law requires that marine species get protection, and this biological opinion doesn’t provide it.”
The biological opinion released today allows a stunning amount of harm to Gulf species. The Gulf is the year-round home to the critically endangered Rice’s whale, a species with fewer than 100 individuals remaining on Earth. It is a global sea turtle hot spot, home to five of the world’s seven sea turtle species — loggerheads, leatherbacks, hawksbills, Kemp’s ridleys, and green sea turtles.
In the new biological opinion, the Fisheries Service admits that vessel strikes alone will kill nine Rice’s whales and seriously injure three more over the next 45 years. But rather than require concrete measures to protect the whales, the biological opinion relies on vague future promisesto protect the whales.
It also puts the Gulf’s sea turtles at risk. The Fisheries Service estimates the activities will kill or seriously harm several hundred sea turtles every yearthrough ship strikes, explosives, air gun blasting, marine debris, and oil spills.
Even these numbers underestimate the harm that oil and gas activities pose to these species and the broader Gulf ecosystem. The biological opinion dismisses the possibility of another catastrophic oil spill like the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed or seriously harmed more than 100,000 animals protected under the Endangered Species Act.
In 2023, the Fisheries Service added the Gulf Rice’s whale to an extinction watchlist, called “Species in the Spotlight,” identifying 10 species that government scientists say need “immediate, targeted actions” to “stabilize the population and prevent extinction.” The Fisheries Service has also concluded (in the previous biological opinion and elsewhere) that losing even a single breeding female could collapse the population, and more than100 scientists warned that unless the U.S. does more to protect the whales, we could witness the first human-caused extinction of a great whale species
“The Trump administration is working overtime to give corporate polluters free rein over our lands and waters, and imperiled wildlife and Gulf ecosystems are paying the price,” said Sierra Club Senior Attorney Devorah Ancel. “If the administration gets its way, it could be disastrous for the last remaining Rice’s whales on the planet. Times like this remind us why the Endangered Species Act has been so critical for the last five decades, and we will see the Trump administration in court to defend it.”
“It couldn’t be any clearer that Rice’s whales and these struggling sea turtles need protection from the oil and gas industry to survive. This latest attempt still fails miserably to provide a realistic picture of what will keep these Gulf animals from going extinct,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Fisheries Service has ignored science, history and common sense in determining how much these poor species can handle. Fossil fuel extraction isn’t worth wiping out treasured wildlife who are critical to the marine ecosystem.”
“The Trump administration’s latest biological opinion is yet another handout allowing Big Oil to destroy the Gulf of Mexico and eradicate the critically endangered Rice’s whale from existence,” said Hallie Templeton, Legal Director at Friends of the Earth. “The federal court’s 2024 order reaffirmed why the Endangered Species Act has been paramount for decades, acting as the last line of defense standing between vulnerable species and irreversible harm from industrial activities like oil and gas drilling. Today’s lawsuit makes it crystal clear: we are not backing down and will keep doing all we can to defend the ESA and hold the federal government accountable.”
“The Gulf’s endangered whales and sea turtles will not survive the Trump administration’s assault on our environmental laws if we don’t stop him,” said Joanie Steinhaus, Turtle Island Restoration Network Director of Oceans. “It’s not just turtles and whales— our own survival is intricately entwined with stopping the climate catastrophe caused by fossil fuels and ensuring healthy ocean ecosystems for future generations.”
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Center for Biological Diversity
Rare Nevada Fish Advances Toward Endangered Species Protections
RENO, Nev.—(May 20, 2025)—In response to a petition and litigation from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed protecting the Fish Lake Valley tui chub under the Endangered Species Act.
The rare fish is threatened with extinction because of rapid groundwater drawdown from pumping for agriculture, particularly alfalfa for feeding livestock. Other threats include proposed lithium mining and geothermal energy projects, and invasive species.
“The Fish Lake Valley tui chub is barely clinging to existence. I’m thrilled these fish are poised to get the life-saving protections they urgently need,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Nevada has already lost so many native fish species. We can’t afford any more extinction.”
The Fish Lake Valley tui chub is a subspecies of the wider distributed Lahontan tui chub. The fish live in a single spring within their native range and in a pond outside the native range where they were introduced.
Pumping for agriculture in Fish Lake Valley vastly exceeds the natural recharge to the aquifer, resulting in plummeting groundwater levels across the valley. Tui chubs used to live in a half dozen springs, all but one of which dried up due to the aquifer collapse. Flow at the one remaining spring has been documented to have declined by more than 50%.
Looming mining and energy projects threaten to worsen the problems in the aquifer. The Fish and Wildlife Service specifically cited threats from the proposed Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine as a reason for protecting the tui chub. The Center has sued to stop the mine from moving forward because it poses severe threats to biodiversity and cultural resources.
“The Rhyolite Ridge Mine could be called the Extinction Mine because it’s sending one species after another onto the Endangered Species list,” said Donnelly. “The Fish Lake Valley tui chub is staring down the barrel of extinction, and only the Endangered Species Act can save it now. We’re going to keep fighting to save it and the remarkable biodiversity of Fish Lake Valley.”
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Oceanographic Magazine
Half a million blue sharks killed in Pacific Ocean in 2023
Greenpeace Australia Pacific estimates that around 438,500 near-threatened blue sharks, almost 50 million kilogrammes – were caught as bycatch in the region in 2023 from Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission data.
By Rob Hutchins, May 20, 2025
A new analysis of fisheries data by Greenpeace Australia has revealed that almost half a million blue sharks were caught by industrial longliners as bycatch in the Pacific Ocean in 2023, marking the highest recorded number in history since 1991.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific estimates that around 438,500 near-threatened blue sharks, almost 50 million kilogrammes – were caught as bycatch in the region in 2023 from Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission data. This figure is double the numbers recorded in 2015.
Georgia Whitaker, senior campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “The data is deeply disturbing – it’s a devastating record and a testament to the destructive nature of the industrial fishing industry. Sharks and other animals dying by the hundreds of thousands a year in this one patch of ocean, brutally killed by a legal and indiscriminate fishing practice like longlining.”
The blue shark is the most common bycatch in the region and the world, making up 80 to 90% of all shark catches across the WCPFC in the last nine years. Between Australia and New Zealand in the Tasman Sea region, blue sharks made up more than 90% of the shark bycatch from longline fishers.
“This is an appalling legacy our global leaders are leaving while the blue lungs of our planet are already facing chronic decline. Industrial fishing is sucking our ocean dry, fuelling the biodiversity crisis, and pushing prehistoric animals like sharks to the brink of extinction,” said Whitaker. “Healthy shark populations are central to a healthy ocean – this is a loss we can’t afford.”
Ahead of the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France next month, Greenpeace Australia Pacific is calling on the Albanese government to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty in the first 100 days in government and protect the region. Australia signed the treaty in 2023 but is yet to bring it into force.
“There is no better time for Australia to be leaders in ocean protection on the world stage. Every day that passes without the treaty in force, animals are being pushed closer to the brink of extinction from industrial fisheries in the high seas,” Whitaker continued.
“The Global Ocean Treaty was a historic win, but we can’t rest now – we need Australia to ratify the treaty and propose ocean sanctuaries in the high seas between Australia and New Zealand to give our oceans and marine life a chance to rest, recover, and thrive.”
A recent report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) revealed one-third of sharks worldwide are endangered, and two-thirds of those endangered are at risk of extinction from overfishing. Blue Sharks are listed as Near Threatened and Largely Depleted by the IUCN.
The analysis also revealed the biologically significant area of the Lord Howe Rise and South Tasman Sea areas, between Australia and New Zealand, had some of the highest rates of birds as bycatch, with 13% of bycatch from longliners being seabirds like albatross.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Endangered Species Protections Sought for Imperiled Desert Songbird
TUCSON, Ariz.—(May 20, 2025)—The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to protect Bendire’s thrasher under the Endangered Species Act.
The imperiled songbirds, native to the arid lands of the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico, have lost nearly 90% of their U.S. population over the past 50 years, primarily because of destructive sprawl and other forms of land degradation.
“Bendire’s thrashers are wonderful, secretive birds who depend on flat, sparsely vegetated areas in the desert Southwest,” said Krista Kemppinen, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Center. “Unfortunately, rampant sprawl and climate change are destroying the birds’ habitat. Further population declines could push Bendire’s thrashers over the cliff of extinction.”
The 2025 U.S. State of the Birds report named Bendire’s thrasher one of the country’s 42 Red Alert Tipping Point Species — defined as bird species who have lost more than half their populations within the past 50 years and that require immediate and urgent action to address declines.
Bendire’s thrasher is a medium-sized songbird that spends much of its time foraging on the ground and often runs with its long tail cocked over its back. They are most noticeable during the breeding season, when males sing a rich, variable warble.
Unchecked sprawl is one of the major threats to the bird’s existence. Arizona, which contains about half the global thrasher population, has some of the nation’s fastest growing cities that have historically grown outward rather than up, encroaching on pristine desert habitat. The population of Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties, which include core thrasher habitat and the cities of Phoenix and Tucson, is expected to more than double its 2005 population by 2050.
The proposed Interstate 11, a 280-mile highway between Nogales and Wickenburg, Arizona, would pave over areas where large thrasher populations live.
Another serious threat to Bendire’s thrashers is climate change. Native arid land vegetation is expected to shift northward, and the birds will go with it. However, it’s not known if this shift can keep up with the pace of climate change. Already living at the edge of its heat tolerance, Bendire’s thrashers will likely suffer from dehydration and hyperthermia and experience reduced fertility due to a hotter and drier climate.
Compounding these threats, industrial activity in the form of data centers, warehouses and large-scale solar facilities is expected to increase substantially within the thrasher’s habitat. Other significant threats include wildfires fueled by invasive species, off-road vehicles and mining, among others.
Conservationists raised the alarm about Bendire’s thrashers more than a decade ago, prompting the formation of a working group seeking to inform conservation of these birds.
“Thanks to collaborative research and monitoring efforts we’ve improved our understanding of where Bendire’s thrashers live, their habitat needs and the many enormous threats to the birds’ survival,” said Kemppinen. “Unfortunately, these efforts and conservation recommendations aren’t enough to restore populations or prevent the birds’ slide to extinction. Protection under the Endangered Species Act is urgently needed.”
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EcoWatch
Trump’s New Section of Border Wall Will Threaten Rare Wildlife in Arizona’s San Rafael Valley
By: Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, May 19, 2025
President Donald Trump is building a new section of the border wall between the United States and Mexico that will present a threat to the movement of wildlife living in a remote part of Arizona’s San Rafael Valley.
The area is one of the country’s most biodiverse regions, with many rare animals but few people, reported The Guardian.
“This is a crucial wildlife corridor,” said Eamon Harrity, wildlife program manager with conservation nonprofit Sky Island Alliance. “Large predators and other animals move freely through this landscape. That [movement] won’t happen once the wall is complete.”
Harrity helps monitor over 110 trail cameras for a study that started in 2020 and records how Trump’s barrier affects cross-border movements of local wildlife.
Private companies have been invited by Customs and Border Protection to bid on contracts to build a 24.7-mile section of the border wall in the valley south of Sonoita, BEX reported.
The area is flanked on both sides by mountains, known as “sky islands,” that rise steeply over grasslands and high desert.
One of the 65 wildlife cameras operated by the Sky Island Alliance in this portion of the wall — where there is a long gap — has captured thousands of images of bears, mountain lions, bobcats, pronghorns and other wildlife.
Construction of the 30-foot fence through San Rafael Valley will make the area impassable for animals bigger than a jackrabbit, interfering with a critical migration route between Arizona and Mexico.
Studies conducted on the impacts of the border wall on ecosystems and wildlife suggest that it has changed behavior, fragmented populations and cut some animals off from essential food and water sources, reported Sierra.
A study by Harrity and a team of researchers last year found that less than 10 percent of observed wildlife were able to pass through one stretch of fencing in Arizona.
“I have seen deer and wild turkey moving along the wall and unable to cross,” Harrity said, as Sierra reported. “When you see it in person and you see the panting and the running back and forth, looking for a way to cross and ultimately failing, you recognize that wow, this animal is trying to survive, and there’s this giant thing in its way that’s causing a lot of grief and stress.”
Erick Meza, Sierra Club’s borderlands coordinator, said bisecting the valley with the wall would be “catastrophic for the environment and wildlife,” reported The Guardian.
More than 60 percent of Arizona’s border has already been completed. The sections that remain open are crucial for wildlife, as the San Rafael Valley is one of the only remaining intact stretches of Sonoran desert grasslands in Arizona.
The Patagonia and Huachuca mountains — part of the Sky Island range — offer a variety of habitats, water and food sources for wildlife amidst the extreme desert climate.
In addition to mountain lions, bears and wolves, subtropical species like the javelina and endangered large cats like jaguars and ocelots make their homes in this unique landscape. Their natural ranges cover hundreds of miles, as they crisscross the international border in search of water, sustenance and mates.
“The biodiversity here is incredible,” Meza said. “This is at the heart of all these different ecosystems coming together.”
Harrity emphasized that, as the climate crisis worsens drought conditions in the Southwest, the border region’s wildlife will be forced to travel farther to find what they need to survive.
“The last thing we should be doing right now is walling off corridors and severing connectivity,” Harrity added.
Another feature of the borderlands is the Santa Cruz River, which serves as a vital wildlife migration corridor, winding back and forth across the border of Arizona and Mexico.
“The river will now be walled on both legs of its journey,” Harrity said.
A study last year by Sky Islands Alliance and the Wildlands Network using cameras along a 100-mile stretch of the wall found it reduced wildlife crossings by 86 percent, with a 100 percent decrease for larger animals like bears, jaguars, pronghorns and wolves.
While the San Rafael Valley is full of wildlife, it is nearly devoid of humans. A camera that has been in operation by the river for five years has yet to capture a single image of a migrant crossing the border into the U.S.
“The Trump administration would rather score cheap political points and a favorable Fox News headline than solve a problem,” said Democratic Senator from New Mexico Martin Heinrich, as The Guardian reported. “New Mexicans who live on the border want actual solutions, like creating new legal pathways for immigration, investing in effective border security for law enforcement, and addressing the root causes of mass migration.”
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Defenders of Wildlife
Over 150,000 Americans Oppose Trump Administration’s Unprecedented Effort to Eliminate Habitat Protections for Vulnerable Wildlife
Washington, D.C. May 19, 2025
Over 150,000 Americans have opposed a proposed rulemaking by the Trump administration to eliminate major habitat protections for endangered species in the U.S. after it was unveiled in April — and as the period for public input concludes today.
The proposed rule would rescind the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s and National Marine Fisheries Service’s definitions of what counts as illegal “harm” to threatened and endangered wildlife under the Endangered Species Act. “Harm” is currently defined to include significant habitat modification that kills or injures species by removing necessities such as food and shelter.
“The Trump administration is attempting to dismantle and discredit one of America’s most popular and successful laws,” said Sierra Weaver, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. “The current definition of ‘harm’ is a large part of what has made the ESA so effective at conserving imperiled species. This isn’t just redefining one word — it is gutting the heart of the Act. It will have cataclysmic consequences to the habitats, lands, and waters that America’s wildlife relies upon, and goes against Congress’ intent for the law.”
The current definition of “harm” is an important tool for habitat conservation that has been in place for over 40 years and was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995. It has been integral to the ESA’s role in saving more than 99% of species under its protection including the bald eagle, Florida manatee, gray wolf, and many other iconic American wildlife.
Even with the incredible success of the ESA, over 90% of listed species remain threatened by human-caused habitat destruction. If anything, the case for habitat protection under the ESA has grown even stronger over the years, with mountains of scientific evidence linking habitat and species’ survival.
The ESA was passed by Congress in 1973 with virtually unanimous bipartisan support. The lawmakers behind the ESA knew that scientists — not politicians — should decide whether vulnerable animal and plant species should be protected. In their spirit, three U.S. senators have officially demanded that the Trump administration explain how it came to its determination to eliminate habitat protections for U.S. wildlife and to answer whether industry influence was involved. Additionally, a group of the nation’s leading scientists and experts on wildlife sent a letter to the Trump administration urging it to abandon the proposed rule, which the scientists state “lacks any scientific basis and misinterprets the Endangered Species Act.” And 25 legal scholars expressed “vehement opposition” to the proposed rule in a letter to the administration.
The outpouring of public opposition to the proposed rule change is no surprise. 95% of Americans support the ESA. Most Americans know how important conserving habitats, lands, and waters are to our everyday lives and that protecting them should be a national priority. The stakes aren’t limited to wildlife — when ecosystems degrade, people suffer from threats to clean water, food security, and public health.
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Center for Biological Diversity
Scientists, Legal Experts Urge Halt to Trump Assault on Imperiled Wildlife Habitat
WASHINGTON—(May 19, 2025)—Three hundred and fifty scientists, 25 law professors and 131 conservation and community organizations spoke out today against a Trump administration proposal intended to weaken habitat protections that could make it much harder to protect threatened and endangered species across the United States.
In April the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed to rescind the definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act regulations, attempting to eliminate habitat protections for species protected under the law.
Today’s letters note that this could open the door for nearly unchecked destruction of the wild places where imperiled animals live.
“Trump’s smash-and-grab habitat plan could welcome bulldozers and drilling rigs into the beautiful wild places that America’s most imperiled animals call home,” said Tara Zuardo, a senior campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The administration’s proposal seeks to rip a bloody hole in the Endangered Species Act, prioritizing industry profits over protecting habitat that’s crucial to preventing extinction. This is an illegal attempt to nullify a landmark wildlife law that’s supported by nearly every American who isn’t an oil executive, a timber baron or a Trump appointee.”
In passing the Endangered Species Act, Congress recognized habitat destruction as the primary cause of species decline. For more than 40 years — and in keeping with the plain language and conservation purpose of the Endangered Species Act — the existing definition of “harm” has included habitat modification. The current harm definition was also upheld as in keeping with the plain language and intent of the law by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995.
The definition makes it abundantly clear that acts resulting in significant habitat modification or degradation that result in death or injury to a protected species are prohibited. This is critical because the largest cause of extinction continues to be human-caused habitat destruction and degradation.
Rescinding the definition could upend and undermine existing protections that have prevented the extinction of more than 99% of species protected by the Endangered Species Act and open the floodgates to developers, loggers, miners and oil and gas drillers to destroy endangered species habitats. This could be the nail in the coffin for imperiled species across the United States and beyond, like Florida manatees, green sea turtles and spotted owls.
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The Cool Down
Scientists celebrate remarkable trend observed in sea turtle populations: ‘One of the real … success stories’
The study examined 48 sea turtle populations located in different parts of the world.
by Juliana Marino, May 17, 2025
A new survey reveals a promising trend for sea turtle populations across the globe. According to reports relayed by Phys.org, in more than half the world, endangered sea turtles “show signs of recovery.”
Published in the journal Endangered Species Research, the study examined 48 sea turtle populations located in different parts of the world and analyzed the effect of factors identified as threats to the species’ survival. These threats included coastal development, pollution, hunting, and rising global temperatures.
The overall trend of the survey indicated hopeful results, with threats declining in more than half the areas reviewed.
“Many of the turtle populations have come back, though some haven’t,” Duke ecologist Stuart Pimm said, according to Phys.org. “Overall, the sea turtle story is one of the real conservation success stories.”
Like any conservation initiative, the protection of sea turtles began years ago, and now, after decades, those efforts are coming to fruition. Under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, sea turtles were listed as a protected species. Nearly two decades later, Mexico prohibited sea turtle captures, another step in the right direction that influenced population recovery years later.
In coastal areas near Mexico and the U.S., sea turtle populations “are now doing really well,” according to study co-author and Stanford University researcher Michelle María Early Capistrán.
Despite the overall recovery trend, some sea turtle populations are still struggling. Leatherback turtles, for example, are “vulnerable to extinction” and “face high environmental risks,” according to the survey.
Other species, such as the green turtle, are still listed as endangered across the globe but have shown signs of recovery in different areas.
The survey underscores the positive impact conservation efforts have had on various sea turtle populations. Moving forward, as conservationists continue to protect sea turtles, they help preserve biodiversity across the globe.
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Sierra Magazine
Endangered Species Day Comes as Wildlife Face a New Crisis
Newly proposed laws and administrative rollbacks threaten endangered species like never before
By Kristen Weiss, May 16, 2025
May 16 is Endangered Species Day, founded to honor the incredible biodiversity that the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has helped conserve for more than half a century. Thanks to the ESA, sea otters still splash along the Pacific coastline, grizzly bears roam the Northern Rockies, and California condors once again soar over the Southwest. Since its establishment by President Richard Nixon in 1973, the ESA has been a critical environmental safeguard that now protects over 1,600 species. It has brought the bald eagle, American alligator, whooping crane, and other iconic species back from the brink.
But this year, Endangered Species Day isn’t about celebration—it’s about defending thousands of endangered species from the Trump administration’s all-out assault on the ESA. In the last four months, leaders and lawmakers have unleashed a wave of legislative, administrative, and executive rollbacks that would weaken environmental protections, put wildlife at risk, and harm the ecosystems that sustain us.
With one proposed ESA rule change, the Trump administration seeks to strip habitat destruction from the definition of “harm,” making it easier to log, mine, and develop lands that endangered species rely on. This change would mean the ESA would be powerless to stop bulldozing in a meadow where protected species live, for example, even if those animals died as a result of losing their home. It’s a chilling shift that would legalize the destruction of critical habitat for over 900 species currently under review, all without scientific justification or public consent.
At the same time, lawmakers have introduced sweeping bills with misleading names, like the “Pet and Livestock Protection Act” and the “ESA Amendments Act of 2025,” designed to fast-track delistings, block court challenges, and hand species management to states with poor track records.
The Pet and Livestock Protection Act (H.R. 845), introduced by Representative Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Representative Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), would strip gray wolves of federal protections, leaving it up to the states to determine whether wolves can be hunted. The bill would also block judicial review, preventing any legal challenges to the legislation, no matter how detrimental its effects on wolves.
Similarly, the ESA Amendments Act of 2025 (H.R. 1897), proposed by Representative Bruce Westerman (R-Ariz.), would make it harder to list species, weaken protections for listed species, and fast-track the delisting of species without relying on best available science. According to Defenders of Wildlife, the bill “would gut the most important provisions of the ESA, resulting in catastrophic damage to American wildlife and inviting the extinction of imperiled species.”
Other actions that undermine species protections include Trump’s executive order opening the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to commercial fishing; legislation to sell off thousands of acres of public lands; an executive order to expand drilling, mining, and logging in Alaska; and an administrative rule that weakens migratory bird protections. Meanwhile, the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services Program (often called the “killing arm” of the USDA) used taxpayer dollars to kill over 1.9 million wild animals nationwide to make way for ranching, farming, and development.
Equally troubling, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has proposed major changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The law, authorized in 1970 with bipartisan support, ensures that federal agencies consider the environmental impacts of proposed actions. Like the ESA, NEPA has been a powerful tool for protecting wildlife and ecosystems threatened by development and pollution. CEQ intends to weaken NEPA regulations by removing oversight, reducing community input, and removing the requirement for a cumulative impacts analysis.
The Trump administration is purposefully decimating species protections in order to serve the interests of fossil fuel, logging, agriculture, and other big industries. In the eyes of Trump and his allies, protected land is a business obstacle; endangered species are a nuisance.
Yet the American public has never been more supportive of protecting wildlife. A 2023 poll of US registered voters found that 80 percent of Americans support fully funding the Endangered Species Act, and 70 percent believe that listing decisions should be made by scientists, not politicians. Similarly, a national public survey published by the Animal-Human Policy Center at Colorado State University, in collaboration with Project Coyote, showed broad public support among US citizens for policy solutions aimed at protecting wildlife. More than 75 percent of participants would support state or federal laws banning wildlife killing contests, unregulated hunting seasons, and animal cruelty.
Despite the Trump administration’s claims to the contrary, federal environmental legislation, including the ESA, has been incredibly effective at protecting threatened species. The Department of the Interior’s own website hosts a blog (written during the Biden-Harris administration; now archived) celebrating the ESA’s 50 years of success in preventing extinction for 99 percent of listed species.
“ESA success stories demonstrate the effectiveness of the ESA in conserving and recovering imperiled species and highlight the importance of continued efforts to protect and conserve species threatened with extinction,” reads the post. “Animals, plants, insects, and all living things are part of the balance of nature that our world relies on, but today there are still species at risk of being lost forever.… We have an obligation to protect our planet’s biodiversity now and for future generations.”
The ESA has worked for 50 years because it’s based on science, not politics. It has historically received significant bipartisan support. But the act only works if we defend it. Call your representatives—they need to hear from us now more than ever. Demand that they oppose bills that weaken species protections. Write letters to the editor and spread awareness about the current threats to environmental legislation.
Extinction isn’t something we can reverse with a headline or a lab experiment, as suggested by Representative Boebert when one Texas-based company incorrectly announced that it had resurrected a dire wolf. Many scientists called the news a deceptive publicity stunt. Once these species are gone, they’re gone for good, and only science-based, ethical, enforceable protections will ensure they—and we—survive.
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Public News Service
On Endangered Species Day, expert warns of ‘destructive’ federal policies
Suzanne Potter, Producer, May 16, 2025
Today, on the 20th anniversary of Endangered Species Day, conservation advocates warn polices of President Donald Trump’s administration are undermining efforts to save animals and plants important to California ecosystems.
Trump’s Department of the Interior wants to redefine the word “harm” to remove protection from habitat destruction in deciding which species are at risk.
Susan Holmes, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition, noted the public comment period for the proposed change ends Monday.
“The number one reason that endangered species become endangered is the destruction of habitat,” Holmes pointed out. “The proposals coming from the Trump administration would make it impossible to protect the habitat that wildlife and endangered species depend on.”
Trump appointees have also proposed huge budget cuts to agencies overseeing wildlife protection and to environmental research, saying they no longer align with administration priorities.
In California, 178 animals and 290 plants are listed as either endangered or threatened, or are candidates for listing.
Many local events are planned for Endangered Species Day, including programs at Dos Rios State Park and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.
Holmes emphasized it is a good time to celebrate the incredible progress the country has made to reestablish species like the gray wolf.
“In California, we’ve seen species that were on the brink of extinction coming back, including the California condor and the California sea otter,” Holmes outlined. “It is really exciting to see people working in communities to recover some of these species.”
Also on Monday, the public comment period ends for a proposal to list the monarch butterfly as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.
(Disclosure: The Endangered Species Coalition contributes to our fund for reporting on Endangered Species and Wildlife. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.)
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EcoWatch
Global Warming Has Already Made Natural Habitats Unsurvivable for 2% of Amphibians: Study
By: Paige Bennett, May 13, 2025
In a new study, researchers determined that 2%, or 104 amphibian species out of 5,203 species studied, are already experiencing overheating events in their natural habitats.
The researchers considered different microhabitats of amphibians, including terrestrial, arboreal and aquatic and compared heat tolerance limits of the animals to the actual daily temperature patterns from the past decade. From there, the researchers considered temperatures under the current global warming conditions along with a 2-degree Celsius warming scenario and a 4-degree Celsius warming scenario.
According to the study, which was published in the journal Nature, 2% of amphibians are already being pushed past their physiological limits. In the 4-degree Celsius scenario, 7.5% of amphibians would no longer be able to survive the overheating events in their natural habitats.
As New Scientist reported, global warming is currently expected to reach between 1.9 to 3.7 degrees Celsius by 2100, with a slight chance of up to 4.4 degrees Celsius warming.
“Impacts escalate under different climate warming scenarios. There is an increase in impact between the current climate and +2C of warming; but impacts increase disproportionally under +4C of warming,” Patrice Pottier, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at University of New South Wales, said in a statement. “This step-change impact severity shows that going above +2C of global warming can be a tipping point where we may see a lot of local extinctions.”
Terrestrial amphibians faced the greatest threats, while those living in aquatic areas or higher up in trees were able to remain cooler. While amphibians in the Southern Hemisphere had increasing vulnerability to heat stress the closer their habitats were to the equator, the researchers found that amphibians living farther from the equator in the Northern Hemisphere faced more threats of overheating.
With loss of amphibians, entire ecosystems will be disrupted, as many other animals feed on these species and amphibians also help control disease-transmitting organisms, such as mosquitos, Mongabay News reported.
Currently, around 41% of all amphibians, totaling over 8,000 species, are listed as threatened with extinction, according to a report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Habitat loss and disease are the biggest threats, but climate change is also becoming increasingly worse for these animals. Even small changes in temperature can greatly affect amphibian survival.
In response, some scientists are working toward ways of better protecting amphibians, such as through miniature “med spas” to help frogs ward off diseases.
In the latest study on amphibians threatened by global warming, the authors explained that additional efforts are necessary for shielding amphibians from rising temperatures.
“Our analyses made it clear that vegetation and water bodies are critical in buffering amphibians during heat waves,” Pottier explained. “We found that if you provide amphibians with enough water and enough shade, a lot of them can survive extreme heat events. We must protect and restore the environments that allow them to regulate their body temperature.”
But even more important is to emphasize actions to curb global warming, especially if global warming exceeds the projections used in the study.
“We used very conservative estimates in this study assuming access to cool shaded environments. Therefore, the impacts of global warming will likely exceed our projections,” Pottier said. “So all efforts to limit global warming are needed to protect the world’s amphibians.”
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ABC News
Federal court rules against attempt to withhold Endangered Species Act protections from Joshua tree
Climate change is severely threatening Joshua trees, studies show.
By Julia Jacobo, May 14, 2025
A federal court in California sided with environmentalists, striking down a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) attempt to withhold protections for the Joshua tree under the Endangered Species Act.
The Central District of California ruled on Monday that the FWS decision to not provide ESA protections for the Joshua tree is unlawful and sidesteps climate science.
Known for its twisted stalks and unusual outline, the Joshua tree is native to the arid southwestern U.S. and thrives in harsh desert environments.
In 2015, WildEarth Guardians, an environmental nonprofit group, petitioned the FWS to list Joshua trees as a threatened species, but a second 2023 species status assessment by the FWS found that neither Joshua tree species — Yucca brevifolia and Yucca jaegeriana — requires protections.
The FWS said it looked at threats from wildfire, invasive grasses, climate change and habitat loss and fragmentation. It found that none of the threats rose to the level to meet the definition of a threatened or endangered species throughout all or a significant portion of their ranges, according to the assessment.
“Through our scientific assessment, the Service determined that Joshua trees will remain an iconic presence on the landscape into the future. Although the two species do not need the protections of the Endangered Species Act, the Service cares deeply about Joshua trees and their roles in the desert environment,” said Service Pacific Southwest Regional Director Paul Souza in a statement in 2023.
“We are coordinating closely with partners to ensure the long-term conservation of these species, including the National Park Service and other Federal agencies, and the State of California, which is also considering measures for the protection of Joshua trees.”
However, multiple studies have shown that shifts in climate in the Mojave Desert is a major contributor to weather events that threaten Joshua trees, including wildfires.
“The agency’s decision, for a second time, reflected a massive disconnect from what the best available science shows — that climate change and wildfire will prevent Joshua trees from successfully recruiting new generations over the coming years,” Jennifer Schwartz, managing attorney for WildEarth Guardians, said in a statement sent to ABC News.
After the FWS analysis was released, WildEarth Guardians sued the FWS “for its failure to follow federal law” in denying protections for the Joshua tree.
The Central District of California ruled in favor of the environmental nonprofit’s claims, writing in the decision “that the Service has not provided a rational explanation as to why climate change alone does not threaten the species to become threatened or endangered.”
“The Service provides no explanation as to why it did not use current trends and standards regarding greenhouse gas emissions as a basis for its decision, when this data currently is available,” the decision states.
The court also noted that when assessing the “foreseeable future” of the Joshua tree, the FWS only looked to the middle of the 21st century, while the end of the 21st century is the commonly used timeline for most scientific assessments.
“It is essential that the Service considers climate change’s effect on habitat suitability in relation to young Joshua trees, and not just the persistence of stronger, adult Joshua trees,” the order states.
The federal court has instructed the FWS to reconsider whether the Joshua tree should receive ESA protections with more scientific analysis.
The ruling “serves as yet another reminder that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must completely grapple with the ongoing and incoming threats from human-created climate change,” Casey Bage, legal fellow for WildEarth Guardians, said in a statement sent to ABC News.
Bage noted that the science “is clear” in this case.
“We must face these facts head-on in order to protect Joshua trees — and other species — to give them the fighting chance that they deserve,” Bage said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
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The Endangered Species Conservation Site 