Today is Endangered Species Day, which recognizes conservation programs nationwide and celebrates their ongoing efforts to protect threatened and endangered species and to bring them back from the brink of extinction. The U.S. Senate created Endangered Species Day by unanimous resolution in 2006 and has reconfirmed it with a new resolution every year since.
For more than 35 years, the federal government and numerous conservation organizations have used the Endangered Species Act (ESA), signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon in December 1973 and co-administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to prevent the extinction of hundreds of species.
"The Endangered Species Act is the nation's premier law protecting biodiversity today," said Rowan Gould, acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The bald eagle, American alligator and gray wolf are all species which once found themselves on the list, facing the brink of extinction, but have successfully rebounded.
"The wood stork, Kirtland's warbler, Louisiana black bear and Kemp's Ridley sea turtle are still listed species that are showing good progress towards achieving recovery -- the ultimate goal of the ESA," Gould said. "These species and many others continue to benefit from the protections afforded by the ESA and the dedicated people who work through the Act to ensure their continued existence."
This year, Endangered Species Day comes at a time when many species are facing new and mounting threats. The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is overwhelming fragile marine and wetland ecosystems and threatening sea turtles, sperm whales and other endangered species. The oil spill is also putting the Louisiana state bird at risk. The brown pelican was declared "recovered" in 2009 and removed from the Endangered Species list last fall, but the oil spill is expected to kill many adult pelicans and to disrupt the birds' nesting season.
At the same time, Shell Oil is pushing hard for permission to drill for oil in Alaska's Chukchi and Beaufort seas, two areas that have been newly designated as critical habitat for polar bears. Polar bears were listed as a "threatened" species in 2008, due in large part to global warming melting sea ice and forcing devastating changes in their habitat. The U.S. Interior Department is currently considering whether to issue offshore drilling permits that would allow Shell Oil to drill for oil in polar bear habitat. Send your comments to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar before the end of May.
Polar bears aren't the only species threatened by global warming. In a study published earlier this month, an international team of biologists predict that by 2080 about 40 percent of local lizard populations worldwide will have died off and 20 percent of lizard species will be extinct. Rising temperatures aren't killing lizards directly. Instead, global warming is forcing lizards to seek shelter for longer periods each day, leaving them fewer hours to feed. During the breeding season, the scientists found that the period when lizards must seek shelter is now so long that the females of many species can't eat enough food to produce eggs.
But it's not all bad news.
Many endangered species--from the California condor to the Wyoming toad--have make remarkable comebacks from the brink of extinction. And while conservationists and federal officials scramble to rescue and restore endangered and threatened species, scientists are discovering new species that were previously unknown.
On a 2008 expedition to the Foja Mountains on the Indonesian island of New Guinea [results announced this month], scientists identified many previously undiscovered species, including a bat that feeds on rainforest nectar, a new tree mouse, a dwarf wallaby, the so-called Pinocchio frog, a new pigeon species, a dozen new insects, and several other new species. Also in May, a new species of bird called Fenwick's Antpitta (Grallaria fenwickorum) was discovered in Colombia.
Those new species are confirmation that life goes on and continues to regenerate. They also serve as a reminder that all life is precious and worth saving--and that preserving life and ensuring widespread biodiversity is a responsibility we all share.
To learn more about Endangered Species Day, which endangered and threatened species live near you, how you can celebrate the day and what you can do at home to help preserve endangered species, check out the Endangered Species Coalition website.
Also Read:
Comments
Im gald that the bald eagle is not on the list anymore, i didnt even knowthere was a endangered species day, but now i know, and i learned something, look at that