With just a few dozen left in the
wild, things don’t look good for these critically endangered birds. But a
captive-breeding program could help save them.
Mary Peterson, USFWS
This year the United States could
experience its first bird extinction in more than three decades.
That’s the warning from the
scientists and conservationists working to protect the critically endangered
Florida grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus). Once common in
the grasslands of central Florida, this geographically isolated subspecies has
experienced a catastrophic population decline since the 1970s, mostly due to
habitat loss and degradation. Although the tiny birds have been protected by
the Endangered Species Act since 1986, their numbers have continued to fall —
to the point where recovery now seems next to impossible. A survey last year
found that just 22 females and 53 males remained in the wild —
and that was before 2017’s hurricane season and record-setting winter cold
snaps.
“Extinctions really happen,”
warns Paul
Reillo, zoologist and president of the Rare Species Conservatory
Foundation in Loxahatchee, Fla. “This is going to be North
America’s next extinct bird if we do nothing.”
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