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Wildlife Group Files Petition for Endangered Status of 32 Species

Posted on: Sunday, 15 June 2008, 15:00 CDT

An emergency petition seeking endangered designation for 32 species--some of which have not been seen in the country for years--has been filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

WildEarth Guardians, a Santa Fe-based conservation group, filed the petition last week, seeking emergency protection. In some of the cases it may be too late, acknowledged Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program director for the organization.

"Part of this is about scientific honesty," Rosmarino said. "And in some cases, listing under the Endangered Species Act could generate research funds that could be used to search for these species."

The 32 species listed in the petition were among a group of 674 species that were included in petitions the organization filed in 2007. Nearly a year has passed, and none of those species has been listed as endangered or threatened.

The petition seeks protection under the federal Endangered Species Act and contends that the 32 species are "all at the knife's edge of extinction. Given the locations of these species on either no or only one known site on earth, a single event -- whether from drought, flood, habitat destruction, pollution, exotic species, or other factors--could literally erase them from the world."

The 32 are "the absolute rarest" of the 674, Rosmarino said.

While some of these species have a narrow range, the "canary-in-the-coal-mine argument applies to most species," she said. "We must protect all native species because we don't yet know the consequences of any one of these species going extinct."

Source: Chicago Tribune

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