Tag: easy ways to help endangered species

  • Giant Squirrel Back in Business: the Recovery of the Delmarva Fox Squirrel

    Giant Squirrel Back in Business: the Recovery of the Delmarva Fox Squirrel

    Delmarva Fox Squirrel

    The worst thing that will probably happen—in fact is already well underway—is not energy depletion, economic collapse, conventional war, or the expansion of totalitarian governments. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired in a few generations.

    The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats.

    This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.

    — E.O. Wilson

    A local squirrel I’ve never heard of, the Delmarva fox squirrel, is being removed from the Endangered Species list!

    The Delmarva fox squirrel was one of the animals included on the first Endangered Species list of protected animals— it actually came under federal protection six years before the Endangered Species Act became law. That was in 1967, and it’s taken 50 years for the squirrel to make enough of a recovery to be de-listed. In fact, it’s not even included in my Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals; presumably no one expected I would ever see one (granted, my edition was published in 1980).

    In 1967, the Delmarva fox squirrel had lost all but 10% of its range due to overhunting and loss of habitat; that’s been increased to 28%. Today, an estimated 20,000 squirrels can be found ranging over 10 counties.

    It’s worth noting that 80% of that range is on private land, and a good bit of the remainder consists of wildlife refuge areas. It takes a village— or, rather, a bunch of people who are willing to share their own habitat with local wildlife.

    The Delmarva fox squirrel can grow up to 30 inches and are typically silvery-gray but coloring can vary to nearly black. The squirrel we’re used to seeing around here, the gray squirrel, is more chatty and smaller, with a narrower tail and more brownish coloring. Delmarva fox squirrels also spend more time on the ground, not jumping from tree limb to tree limb like the insane attention seeking squirrels in my backyard.

     

    Local folks can go look for a Delmarva fox squirrel at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Sussex County, at Blackwater in Dorchester County, Maryland) and at Chincoteague. Eagle eyes might spot one in wooded areas within that range, but they don’t tend to wander into more populated areas like its gray cousin.

    More than 30 species have been delisted since the Endangered Species Act began, including the bald eagle, American alligator and peregrine falcon. Every animal plays a valuable role in their ecosystem and food chain, and we can’t fully realize the consequences of their removal until it’s too late.

    The best ways we can help:

    • learning about endangered species
    • donating to conservation efforts
    • volunteering at state parks and wildlife refuges
    • cultivating gardens and wild spaces that support local flora and fauna,
    • inspiring our friends and neighbors to do the same.

    Few problems are less recognized, but more important than,
    the accelerating disappearance of the earth’s biological resources.

    In pushing other species to extinction,
    humanity is busy sawing off the limb on which it is perched.

    — Paul R. Ehrlich

     

    Photo credit Depositphotos

     

  • Endangered Species Day: What You Can Do

    Endangered Species Day: What You Can Do

    “[What is the] extinction of a condor
    to a child who has never seen a wren?”

    -Robert Michael Pyle

     

    The Endangered Species Coalition has a Public Service Announcement video embedded on their website that begins by asking,

    “Can you imagine the woods without owls?
    The wetlands without frogs?
    Or the flowers without bees?”

    I think that for most children, the answer is yes.

    They can imagine that pretty easily.

    Because they don’t go into the woods or wetlands.

    And they’ve been taught to stay away from bees. Bees bad.

    green spider on webToday is Endangered Species Day, the day where I remind you that once the intricate ecological web starts losing threads, it’s only a matter of time before an anchoring foundation thread goes and the whole business falls apart. We depend on multitudes of species in ways we don’t even understand fully yet. We have no idea which threads could cause the web to unravel; it’s ultimately in our best interests to protect them all, before humans find themselves on the endangered species list.

    Is that a selfish and self-centered way of approaching the subject? Perhaps. But those are the facts, man. We live in a world of natural checks and balances that have evolved over time, and the more we monkey with pesticides and habitat the more likely it becomes that we will encounter a tipping point to that balance, and cause the infrastructure to collapse like a house of cards.

    The Most Important Thing You Can Do To Protect Endangered Species:

    Take your children outside for broad lengths of unstructured nature time.

    • So they know what they could be missing. Help them to learn the names of the trees, to recognize the calls of the birds, to notice the abundance of life that goes on all around us. Become backyard naturalists.
    • Take them to zoos, unless you can afford to go exploring in the rainforests and the sahara. If the ethics of zoos bother you, then go ahead and talk to your kids about that. But let them look a tiger in the eye.
    • Help them to form a bond and empathy and affinity with nature. I’m going to come right out and say it: teach them to care about something other than themselves and their immediate family.
    • Tell them that the power is in their hands. That their actions, even the little ones, make a difference, for good or for bad.Maybe this will help us all to remember that the same is true for all of us.

    The Second Most Important Thing You Can Do:

    Help preserve animal habitats.

    • Don’t use herbicides or pesticides.
    • Don’t litter.
    • Try to limit chemicals and plastics in your life. As much as you can.
    • Volunteer for cleanups. Or just throw away that random McDonald’s bag at the park. Every little bit helps.
    • Garden for wildlife.

    The Third Most Important Thing You Can Do:

    Advocate.

    The Endangered Species Act does a good job of protecting the plants and wildlife listed as threatened or endangered. But in the U.S. there are 6,500 species that scientists believe are at risk of extinction. Only 1,200 are officially listed.

    Some other good tips from the Endangered Species Coaltion:

    • Slow down when driving
    • Recycle and buy sustainable products
    • Never purchase products made from threatened or endangered species
    • Report any harassment or shooting of threatened and endangered species

     

    One more thing.

    Care.

    endangered animals

    Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
    nothing is going to get better.

    It’s not.
    -Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

    StopExtinction.org