Endangered & Protected Species

 

Rat Poison Found In Over 80% Of Bald Eagles In A US Study. According to CNN, “The majority of American eagles likely have rat poison in their systems, a new study reported Wednesday. Bald eagles once had faced grave threats to their survival in the 1960s due to hunting and DDT poisoning, but are now thriving thanks to past protections afforded by the US Endangered Species Act. The eagle population has quadrupled in size in the last 12 years, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. However, this latest study has demonstrated a present danger to the health of these apex predators. Anticoagulant rodenticide compounds, another name for rat poison, were found in 82% of the 133 eagles tested by researchers, according to a study published in the journal PLOS One. Of the 116 bald eagles tested, 96 were exposed to poison; and of the 17 golden eagles examined, 13 were exposed. Researchers examined the carcasses of eagles in the United States between 2014 and 2018, and they could not establish how the poison got into the birds’ systems. ‘Although the exact pathways of exposure remain unclear, eagles are likely exposed through their predatory and scavenging activities,’ said study author Dr. Mark Ruder, assistant professor at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine’s Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study.” [CNN, 4/8/21 (+)]

 

Rat Poison Found Rampant In Eagles. According to E&E News, “Researchers found rat poison in 82% of studied eagles, sparking concern that another widespread toxin could be killing the iconic raptors. A common rodenticide works its way up the food chain by embedding itself in the tissues of intoxicated animals, putting the raptors who feed on affected animals at risk, according to a study published yesterday in PLOS ONE. Mark Ruder, co-author and wildlife disease researcher at the University of Georgia, said that out of 133 examined eagles, they detected rat poison in 96 bald eagle and 13 golden eagle carcasses. The rat poison works by disrupting normal blood clotting factors in the liver. Some of the eagles had proof of hemorrhaging in the liver — another sign of anticoagulant rat poison. The eagles were also more likely to be found with a second-generation form of the rat poison that more aggressively attacks and sticks to tissues and is persistent up the food chain than the first-generation form. The second-generation anticoagulant is infamous in wildlife conservation for being highly toxic to species it wasn’t intended to target. ‘Since the second generation is more persistent in tissues, it’s typical that a single feeding could be lethal,’ Ruder said. ‘It’s just in what eagles eat — it’s putting them at risk based on compounds being present in their food sources.’” [E&E News, 4/8/21 (=)]

 

After A Century, Gray Wolves Return To California. Local Ranchers Aren’t Thrilled. According to KCRW-Radio, “The last gray wolf in California was killed nearly a century ago, ridding the state of one of its natural predators. But in 2015, a female wolf was spotted in Lassen County near the northeast corner of the state. She likely traveled hundreds of miles to get there. She’s also given birth to a few litters. Now the two animals are revitalizing California’s gray wolf population. At its peak, the pack was composed of 15 wolves, according to Richard Grant, who wrote about this for the Smithsonian Magazine. For environmentalists, the return of the gray wolf is a cause for celebration. ‘Wolves were native to California originally. They were there for about 17,000 years, and then they got wiped out in the 19th century,’ Grant says. ‘This latest wave of wolves … the federal government introduced to Yellowstone and central Idaho in the 1990s.’ But Grant says Lassen County ranchers are not thrilled. That’s due in part to the danger the wolves pose to local livestock. ‘I think that’s what most ranchers would like to do: to be able to, if you see a wolf eating one of your calves, to reach for the rifle. But that’s a criminal act in California,’ he says. Although the gray wolf was removed from the list of federal endangered species in 2020, it is still protected in California under the Endangered Species Act. The maximum penalty for the killing, shooting, injuring, or taking of wolves is one year in jail and a $100,000 fine. ‘Wolves have a way of inflaming people’s emotions. They tend to get either romanticized, often by people in the cities, or they tend to get demonized as these bloodthirsty, slobbering killers that will snatch your baby out of a crib.’” [KCRW-Radio, 4/8/21 (=)]

 

West Wyo A Grouse Stronghold In Grim Report Of Decline. According to WyoFile, “Western Wyoming emerged as a stronghold for greater sage grouse in a grim federal report that estimates an 81% decline in the species over the last 53 years. The 260-page U.S. Geological Survey report published March 30 estimates a 3% annual decline over the half-century period, a pace one sage grouse advocate said would lead to the species’ extinction in about three decades. Conservationists see the report as a dire warning about the species’ fate. Without action, federal wildlife managers could find reason to protect greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act, they warned. Such a development would carry widespread implications for Wyoming, where an estimated 38% of the world’s greater sage grouse live in landscapes eyed for oil and gas development, subdivisions and other disturbance. ESA protection could restrict activities, affect state revenues and have other impacts. While the analysis painted a bleak scenario for grouse across 11 western states, it found a bright spot in western Wyoming. In that area, excluding Jackson Hole, grouse numbers have increased gradually through several population cycles. Numbers rise and fall during these oscillations and the report’s 11 authors found ‘slight growth’ in western Wyoming dating back to 1996. ‘This is the most contiguous habitat available range-wide,’ said Peter Coates PhD, the report’s lead author and a research wildlife biologist at the Western Ecological Research Center in Dixon, California. ‘It’s a lot of uninterrupted habitat.’” [WyoFile, 4/8/21 (=)]

 

Habitat Reserves Set Up To Help Lesser Prairie Chicken. According to Santa Fe New Mexican, “A portly brown grouse with striped feathers and large golden brows might return to protected status in late May, as two companies aim to develop enough habitat to allow the lesser prairie chicken to thrive. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must decide by May 26 whether to relist the bird under the Endangered Species Act to comply with a court order spurred by three conservation groups suing the agency in 2019. ‘The lesser prairie chicken is endangered and should again be listed,’ said Bryan Bird, Southwest program director for Defenders of Wildlife, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit. ‘We have documented continued loss of … habitat, meaning that, if anything, the situation for the chicken is worse than when the Fish and Wildlife Service last attempted to list the bird.’ WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity are the other two plaintiffs in the complaint. Lindsay Larris, WildEarth’s wildlife program director, said although the recent change to the greener Biden administration seems encouraging, Trump-era rules are still in place. Those rules require economic impacts on industries to be considered when listing species for protection, she said. ‘So it’s not quite as rosy as we’d like it to be,’ Larris said. The lesser prairie chicken population has declined by 97 percent since 2 million of the birds roamed rangelands in the 1800s. They have dwindled to about 38,000 across five states because of climate change, industrial development and agriculture.” [Santa Fe New Mexican, 4/7/21 (=)]

 

Old Documents Fuel Latest Bid To Halt Nevada Lithium Mine. According to Associated Press, “Few people had ever heard of Tiehm’s buckwheat when conservationists filed a petition two years ago to list the desert wildflower as an endangered species. But federal documents reviewed by The Associated Press show the rare plant at the center of a fight over a proposed lithium mine in Nevada has been on the government’s radar for more than two decades. Conservationists who discovered the records are urging the Bureau of Land Management to take administrative action to create a mile-buffer around the flower while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers formal protection under the Endangered Species Act. ‘BLM recognized that the habitat of Tiehm’s buckwheat needed to be protected 23 years ago,’ said Naomi Fraga, the California Botanic Garden conservation director who filed the original federal listing petition in 2019. The scientist the plant is named after — Arnold Tiehm, pronounced like a sports ‘team’ — first suggested in 1994 the site be declared a special botanical area and made off-limits to mining. A year later, the supervisory botanist for the Nevada agency now considering state protection for the plant recommended the Bureau of Land Management designate it an Area of Critical Environmental Concern. And in 1998, the bureau listed it among those nominated for such designation.” [Associated Press, 4/8/21 (=)]

 

Wildlife

 

California, Almond Growers Join Forces To Protect Bees, But Some Are Skeptical. According to Palm Springs Desert Sun, “A coalition of agribusiness trade groups, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and others launched the California Pollinator Coalition on Wednesday with the stated goal of protecting bees, butterflies and other species that pollinate crops but whose populations are declining. ‘There’s no better way for us to come together than with this remarkable coalition,’ Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said during a press conference announcing the group. She added that pollinators must be protected ‘to ensure our food security.’ The Golden State is home to an estimated 1,600 native bee species, but research shows wild pollinators are disappearing at alarming rates in many jurisdictions, with likely causes ranging from loss of habitat to the overuse of the pesticides upon which modern farming relies. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, pollinators support more than 1,200 varieties of crops around the globe. That includes crops worth an estimated $11.7 billion in California alone. But some in the environmental community are wary of the industry-led effort. They question whether the new coalition will focus more on advocating for pollinators or shielding the agriculture industry from taking responsibility for the impacts that its pesticides and land-use have on native pollinator species.” [Palm Springs Desert Sun, 4/8/21 (=)]

 

BP Spill Rescue Pelican Returns From Georgia To Louisiana. According to Associated Press, “A pelican rescued from the 2010 oil spill, cleaned of oil and released in Georgia has returned 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) to an island restored last year for pelicans and other seabirds. It was among 5,000 oil-covered birds collected in and off Louisiana during the spill, and among 582 pelicans that were rehabilitated, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said in a news release Thursday. Biologists don’t know just when it returned to Queen Bess Island. But a photo taken in March by a department biologist clearly shows the red band marked ‘33Z’ that was put around the bird’s leg after its rescue on June 14, 2010, at the Empire jetties in Barataria Bay. ‘It’s truly impressive that it made its way back from Georgia,’ said Casey Wright, who spotted and photographed the pelican on a rock jetty on Queen Bess Island, which held 15% to 20% of Louisiana’s pelican nests even when only about 5 acres (2 hectares) were high enough for the big birds to nest. About 36 acres (14.6 hectares) are now available to birds, the department said. After time with a bird rehabilitator, the pelican was taken by plane to a U.S. Coast Guard station in Brunswick, Georgia, because the spill was still going on — the well wasn’t capped until Sept. 19, 2010. The bird was released on July 1, 2010. Other birds released in Georgia, Texas and Florida have been spotted back in Louisiana, the department said. Zoos hold 11 that could not be released.” [Associated Press, 4/8/21 (=)]

 

Wildlife Corridors

 

Proposed Logging Road Through Raush Watershed Sparks Push For Land Use Review. According to The Rocky Mountain Goat, “A proposed logging road through a pristine Robson Valley watershed that hosts endangered chinook salmon, acts as a wildlife corridor, and feeds the Fraser River headwaters, has reignited a longstanding campaign by local residents to get the entire Raush River area protected from development. The Raush is a wildlife corridor between Wells Gray Park and the upper Fraser River, an intact valley, and the biggest, intact tributary to the Fraser that’s not protected, said Roy Howard of Fraser Headwaters Alliance, a volunteer-run conservation group based in Dunster that has advocated for decades that the Raush watershed be fully-protected. Currently, two isolated patches of the Raush are Protected Areas, totaling 6,667 hectares of the 101,000-hectare watershed. ‘There’s never been logging,’ Howard said. ‘It’s definitely old growth in the valley bottoms. It’s still intact, that’s the main thing.’ But that may soon change. Maps distributed to Raush stakeholders and shared with the Goat, show a proposal by Prince George-based Carrier Lumber to build roads through one of the protected areas to access unprotected forests further into the watershed. Current land use terms restrict the protected areas from resource development, but allow road-building. The potential development has triggered push back from some local residents. ‘What are they protected from if they can still log them? Or go through them to log?’ said Devanee Cardinal, whose family runs Cardinal Ranch in Dunster, and owns half of the private land in the Raush watershed.” [The Rocky Mountain Goat, 4/8/21 (=)]

 

 

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