Endangered Species

The federal Court of Appeals this week reinstated Endangered Species Act protection for the gray wolf populations in the Great Lakes region, vacating a previous decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The court ruling says the previous decision did not take into account the potential impact on other wolf populations, a decision which could have implications for other species sub-populations or “distinct population segments” which have similarly lost protections. 

Trying to save this species from extinction also means being witness to their destruction.

Calls to “modernize” the Endangered Species Act really just want to weaken it.

Saving freshwater mussels requires scrappy scientists and unlikely allies.

Extinction starts to have an effect on ecosystems long before a species fully disappears. A new paper calls this “biological annihilation” — the effect that localized extinction has on a region when certain species, such as lions, become extirpated from their former habitats. The paper argues we should pay more attention to species even if they are considered “of low concern,” because many of them are actually in decline. Although these species are not currently considered threatened with extinction, their “population decay” causes cascading effects on the abundance of other local species — which, the paper warns, will eventually result in yet more extinctions. 

Fewer than 30 of these rare porpoises remain. Can their extinction be prevented?

Criminal syndicates from a small town in southern China are responsible for trafficking as much as 80 percent of all illegal ivory into the country, according to a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency. Undercover operatives tracked a two-ton shipment of tusks from Mozambique to the town of Shuidong, thereby revealing trade routes, rampant bribery, and the ability to smuggle other wildlife products, including pangolin scales and rhino horns. China has announced the closure of its legal ivory market, but EIA found the syndicates remained active as late as last month. 

Has Mexico finally taken the step that will save the vaquita from extinction? Or will it not be enough?

Mosquitoes and climate change carry disease to endangered island birds. Can the threat be reversed?

Today marks World Giraffe Day, an occasion to recognize Africa’s rapidly disappearing giants.