Center for Biological Diversity

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Endangered Earth

No. 1,243, May 2, 2024


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Legal Victory Benefits 15 Species
After years of filing petitions and lawsuits, the Center for Biological Diversity just won court-ordered deadlines that will help 15 of the most imperiled species in the United States. Thanks to our work, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must make final Endangered Species Act decisions on protecting 10 species, designate critical habitat for three, and decide whether protection is warranted for two.
Washington’s Mount Rainier white-tailed ptarmigans, alligator snapping turtles in the Southeast, Suwanee snapping turtles in Georgia and Florida, New Mexico’s least chipmunks, and six species of Texas mussels will get protection by the end of the year.
Humboldt martens in California and Oregon, a Tennessee fish called the Barrens topminnow, and Pearl River map turtles in Mississippi and Louisiana will get protected habitat. The Northwest’s tall western penstemon flower and Nevada’s Fish Lake Valley tui chub fish will get protection decisions.
“These are some of my favorite species, and it would just be so tragically sad if we lost them,” said the Center’s Endangered Species Director Noah Greenwald.
Help us win for hundreds of other animals and plants who didn’t see victory in the past week. If you donate to the Center’s Saving Life on Earth Fund now, your gift will be doubled.


Another Red Wolf Death Leaves 20 in the Wild
On April 15 a car struck and killed a beloved young wolf named Muppet — the fourth roadkill death of a red wolf in less than a year. Muppet didn’t live to see his second birthday. Six months earlier his father, Airplane Ears, had been hit and killed along the same stretch of highway.
North Carolina’s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is the only wild home these wolves have. Now fewer than 20 remain, making them the planet’s most endangered wolves — and vehicle strikes are their second-leading cause of death. These animals will never recover if they can’t cross the roads cutting through their last habitat.
Check out this new website by the Center and allies — and help us get red wolves the wildlife crossings they need to survive.


Bee-Killing Pesticide Gets Sneaky Approval (Again)
For the 10th year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the emergency use of clothianidin, a bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticide, on 75,000 acres of Florida citrus crops. The poison is meant for Asian pests that spread citrus greening disease but will probably also hurt imperiled pollinators like American bumblebees, southern plains bumblebees and leafcutter bees.
“When the EPA grants so-called emergency approval year after year to a pesticide that’s never undergone a full safety review, there’s something fundamentally wrong,” said Center biologist Nate Donley.
We’re working to protect American bumblebees under the Endangered Species Act. Take action to help.


Endangered Ink
Some Center staff wear their hearts on their sleeve — or rather, their skin.
Take a look at tattoos of endangered species on staffers from across our organization — lawyers, mapmakers, communications specialists, and more — and find out why they chose these cool critters as their longtime (graphic) companions.


Fierce California Grizzlies as a Frontier Legend
The mythic story of grizzly bears in California — where the last one was sighted 100 years ago — may have had more to do with storytellers’ colonialist mindset than with the real bears, a new study suggests.
Were California grizzlies actually bigger and meaner than grizzlies elsewhere, as stories claimed? No, it turns out: same height, same weight. Were they vicious killers? Only if you were a berry or a fish: Before European colonization, other land animals made up just 10% of the bears’ mostly plant-based diet.
In fact the extermination of grizzlies went hand in hand with the genocide of Native people in the state, from hundreds of thousands before whites arrived to a mere 16,000 by 1900.
“The annihilation of the California grizzly bear was part of a much larger campaign,” Peter Alagona, an ecologist and historian who coauthored the study, told T he Washington Post . “These were not just attempts to eliminate groups of people. These were attempts to destroy an entire world.”


The Revelator: Rock ‘n’ Roll Botany
Could a tiny, endangered flower named after Jimi Hendrix fade into the purple haze of memory? Not if the researchers who discovered it have anything to say about it.
Read more in The Revelator and subscribe to the free weekly e-newsletter for more wildlife and conservation news.


That’s Wild: Meet the Kowari
Kowaris are small marsupials who eat meat, eking out a living in the remote, stony deserts of northeast Australia.
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, the palm-sized predators are related to Tasmanian devils and quolls and are being driven ever-faster toward extinction by land degradation for cattle grazing, feral cats, and other forces.
Learn more and behold kowaris’ cuteness in this video on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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