Tear Down This Wall — for Wolves and People Alike

 

 

 

Trump Border Wall Blocks Wandering Wolf

For the first time on record, a Mexican gray wolf — likely roaming in search of a mate — has been blocked at the U.S.-Mexico border by the Trump border wall.
 
The wolf, whose GPS collar beamed his location to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was born in a Kansas zoo and named Mr. Goodbar before his 2020 release into the Arizona wild. He spent Nov. 23 to Nov. 27 pacing along 23 miles of the border in New Mexico, where the new wall prevented him from crossing — like so much other wildlife. The Center for Biological Diversity has worked continuously to recover Mexican wolves in the wild, starting with the 1990 lawsuit that led to their reintroduction. 
 
“Mr. Goodbar’s Thanksgiving was forlorn, since he was thwarted in romancing a female and hunting with her for deer and jackrabbits,” said the Center’s Michael Robinson. “The wall separates wolves in the Southwest from those in Mexico and exacerbates inbreeding in both populations.”

Win: USDA Wolf Trappers Need to Worry About Lynx

Following Center legal action, two federal agencies just agreed to study, and try to reduce, the risk of harm to Canada lynx by U.S. Department of Agriculture wolf-trapping in Minnesota.
 
The USDA’s Wildlife Services is a multimillion-dollar federal program that killed more than 5,000 of Minnesota’s native animals last year, including more than 200 wolves. Their indiscriminate traps can also capture and kill threatened Canada lynx. As few as 50 of the rare cats likely survive in Minnesota.
 
“This is a win for both gray wolves and Canada lynx, which are Minnesota’s rarest carnivores,” said the Center’s Collette Adkins.

 

Please help our fights for lynx and other wildlife with a matched gift to our Saving Life on Earth Fund.

New Study Shows Freshwater Species In Peril

An update from the International Union for Conservation of Nature says more than a quarter of the planet’s plants and animals are threatened with extinction. About 16% of all dragonflies and damselflies are at risk, for instance.
 
In the United States, 85% of wetlands, which such insects depend on, have already been wiped out. But saving small creatures like Hine’s emerald dragonflies can be a lever for saving the ecosystems they live in — and the goods that those ecosystems provide to human communities, like clean water.
 
“Dragonflies are not only gorgeous; they’re also indicator species that tell us a lot about the health of rivers and wetlands,” said Tierra Curry, a senior Center scientist. “The serious threats they face are a huge red flag that we have to do better.” 

Watch This: Florida’s Cutest Critters

Meanwhile in Florida: Panthers and black bears and alligators — oh my! Check out close-up, candid footage of all these animals and more going about their business along a waterway and deep in a Florida forest.

 

Head to Facebook or YouTube to watch the wildlife now.

Author Susan Orlean Remembers OR-93

“Of course, he was looking for love. Aren’t we all?” Susan Orlean, bestselling author of The Orchid Thief, remembers Oregon-born gray wolf OR-93, who made an epic journey through 16 California counties in search of a mate. He was found recently on the side of Interstate 5 in Kern County. Read Orlean’s moving elegy at The New Yorker.

Florida Panther Safeguards on the Chopping Block

The Center is opposing the Fish and Wildlife Service’s harmful plan — buried deep within the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda, released this month — to weaken or end protections for three iconic Florida species: the whooping crane, key deer and Florida panther. 

 

“It’s a gut punch that the Service wants to weaken safeguards for whooping cranes and key deer, when sea-level rise could submerge both species’ homes in decades,” said the Center’s Brett Hartl. “And it’s appalling to even consider moving forward with Trump’s plan to reduce protections for Florida panthers — especially with only about 200 left on Earth.”

Revelator: A Snowless Future for the West?

What will western winters look like as the world warms? A new study hopes to inspire water managers — and the rest of us — to begin planning for how climate change will dramatically reduce snowpack.

 

Read more in The Revelator and subscribe to the free newsletter if you haven’t yet.

That’s Wild: Best Science Images of 2021

Science journal Nature has pulled together a seemingly disparate collection of images — a portrait of a 40-million-year-old gnat, a robot with a camera on Mars, and a 15,000-frame photo of a sunken ship merging with a coral reef, for example — into a scrolling feast that demonstrates the complex ways science is expressed visually. 

Check out the “Best Science Images of 2021” gallery.

Center for Biological Diversity | Saving Life on Earth

            Photo credits: Mexican gray wolf by Robin Silver/Center for Biological Diversity; Canada lynx by Nicolas Grevet/Flickr; Hine's emerald dragonfly by Paul Burton; screenshot of Florida wildlife video courtesy USFWS; wolf pair by klengel/Flickr; Florida panther by The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel/Flickr; Sierra Nevada snow survey by Florence Low/California Department of Water Resources; coral reef by Marek Okon/Unsplash.

Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: New Hope for California Spotted Owls

 

 

 

Feds to Give California Spotted Owls a Second Chance 

Thanks to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just agreed to reconsider its denial of protection to California spotted owls. In a Trump era decision, the agency refused to protect the owls despite their dramatic population declines and increasing threats to their survival. 

 

“The agency’s own assessments show that California spotted owls should have been protected years ago,” said Center lawyer Justin Augustine.

 

Help us save these brown-eyed owls, and many other species, with a gift to our Saving Life on Earth Fund. Your donation today will be doubled.

Famed Wolf OR-93 Killed by a Car

Another wild death to grieve: The famous Oregon-born gray wolf called OR-93 — who made an epic journey through 16 California counties in search of a mate — was found this month on the side of Interstate 5 in Kern County. He was the first reported wolf on California's Central Coast in 200 or 300 years.

 

“OR-93’s relentless wandering gave us hope, inspiration and a brief glimpse at what it would be like to see wolves running free across California again,” said the Center’s Amaroq Weiss, in mourning for the wolf she was tracking herself just the week before his death. “I only wish we could have offered him a safer world.”

Lawsuit Filed Over Hunting in Wildlife Refuges

In the wake of a Trump decision to expand hunting and fishing on 2.3 million acres of national wildlife refuges, the Center sued the Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

Back in 2016 the Service promised to phase out toxic lead ammunition and tackle on all wildlife refuges by 2023, but that decision was reversed under Trump. Rare animals — including grizzly bears, jaguars, ocelots and whooping cranes — are hurt or killed by that lead; more hunting and more fishing bring traffic and noise; and black bear hunters may shoot grizzlies by mistake.

 

“We’re going to court to ensure that our nation’s wildlife refuges actually provide refuge to endangered wildlife,” said Camila Cossío, a Center attorney.

A Banner Day for Ending Harmful Seafood Imports

Tuesday marked a key deadline for all seafood-exporting nations to curb fishing-gear entanglements of whales, dolphins and seals. Now the United States will ban seafood from foreign fisheries that don’t meet the tough standards of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. That should greatly reduce the number of marine mammals mistakenly caught and killed in commercial fishing gear every year — currently more than 650,000.

 

“The United States is wisely wielding its tremendous market power to ensure that all seafood eaten here is dolphin-safe,” said Sarah Uhlemann, the Center’s international program director. 

Biden Breaks Vow to Keep It in the Ground

President Biden said it clearly on the campaign trail: It’s time to stop drilling for oil and gas on public lands.

 

But now he’s forging ahead — just making it a bit more expensive for industry to suck climate-killing oil and gas from public lands and waters. On Friday his Interior Department released a report recommending slightly steeper fees for fossil giants — a measure that’s nearly meaningless in the climate emergency.

 

As the Center’s Randi Spivak told CNN, “Greenlighting more fossil fuel extraction, then pretending it’s OK by nudging up royalty rates, is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Revelator: Saving the Narrow Sawfish

The world’s largest rays, narrow sawfish are among the most endangered marine fish in the world. But they’re also among the most elusive — so in order to save them, first we need to find them.

 

Read more in The Revelator and, if you haven’t yet, sign up for the free e-newsletter.

Get Tips on How to Simplify the Holidays

Want to make your holidays better for the planet…and also more fun? Check out the Center's website to help you simplify the holidays by building traditions with more meaning and less stuff.

 

You'll find tons of ideas to get you thinking outside the (big) box with wildlife-friendly gifts and traditions that encourage creativity, increase connection, ease stress, save money, reduce waste and help the environment.

That’s Wild: Watch Butterfly Scales Forming

If you’ve ever picked up a dead butterfly, you may have noticed your fingers sprinkled with a fine dust. This lepidopteran glitter is made up of microscopic scales that give the wings their shimmer and protect them from the elements. A single pair may have hundreds of thousands of scales.

 

Now, for the first time, a team of researchers has continuously observed and captured imagery of wing scales forming their dazzling, intricate architecture — inside a chrysalis.

 

Read (and see) more at Popular Science.

Center for Biological Diversity | Saving Life on Earth

Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States