The southeastern United States is a place of unparalleled aquatic biodiversity, harboring a majority of the country’s fish, mussel, crayfish, and dragonfly and damselfly species.
This habitat supports a remarkable breadth of wildlife, from the majestic Florida sandhill crane:
…to the somewhat less impressive fuzzy pigtoe mussel.
All told, thousands of unique species call the American southeast home.
Unfortunately, the region has become increasingly inhospitable for these species over the past few decades. More than 70 percent of the southeast’s mussels are at risk of extinction. The same goes for 48 percent of its crayfishes and 28 percent of its fish species.
The reason? People.
Without significant work to cut pollution, development and other manmade threats, we stand to lose some of the most fascinating species on the continent.
All of these threats are particularly hard for the southeast’s vulnerable species because many are limited to small sections of rivers or a single cave. This leads to isolated populations that are, or can become, cut off from the world at large.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the rest of the world often doesn’t seem to give these species the respect they deserve. For instance, many of the region’s snails are not only endangered, they also have to suffer the additional indignity of being called names for being chubby.
Scientists have never documented what snails could have done to earn the names corpulent hornsnail, ample elimia, or ponderous siltsnail.