Wildlife
Endangered species, habitat loss, and what preservation actually involves
The authoritative global record of extinction risk is the IUCN Red List, which has assessed well over 150,000 species and classifies more than 40,000 of them as threatened with extinction. Species are placed in categories — Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild, Extinct — against published criteria covering population size, rate of decline and range, so an assessment can be checked rather than merely asserted.
Habitat loss and fragmentation is consistently the single largest driver of that risk, ahead of direct exploitation, invasive species, pollution and climate change. Fragmentation matters as much as outright loss: a population cut into isolated pockets by roads and development loses genetic exchange and becomes vulnerable to local extinction even where the total acreage looks adequate. This is why wildlife corridors, conservation easements and river-crossing structures appear so often in serious conservation plans.
In the United States the legal backbone is the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which prohibits the taking of listed species and requires designation of critical habitat and the preparation of recovery plans. It is the mechanism behind the recovery of the bald eagle, the American alligator and the peregrine falcon — species whose decline was driven substantially by pesticides, and which recovered once the pesticide was banned and the habitat protected.
Species that do unpaid work for us
- Bats. Insectivorous bats consume very large numbers of night-flying insects, including agricultural pests; North American populations have been devastated by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease first identified in 2006.
- Pollinators. Around three-quarters of the world's leading food crops benefit to some degree from animal pollination, most of it by bees, butterflies, moths and beetles.
- Predators. Removing top predators reliably destabilises the systems below them — the classic case being wolves, elk browsing pressure and streamside vegetation.
- Butterflies and moths. Short-lived and habitat-specific, they are among the earliest and most sensitive indicators that a landscape is changing.
Useful and Interesting Links
Each of the links below opens in a new browser window, so The-Environment.net stays open behind it.
Site dedicated to saving butterflies, moths and their habitats.
Site intended to provide information on carnivore ecology and conservation.
Consists of advocates for wild, healthy, protected, and pollution free oceans with flourishing ecosystems and abundant marine wildlife.
Official site of the Predator Conservation Alliance, 'Saving a place for America's predators.'
Site dedicated to teaching the world about the benefits of bats.
Based at the Bronx Zoo in New York and providing information about saving wildlife and wild lands.
Forges partnerships to preserve our nation's outdoor heritage — America's legacy of wildlife habitat, working landscapes, and community open-space. Pioneering a unique brand of conservation driven by Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Environmental and Economic Balance, the Fund produces unsurpassed results.