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The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the 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

When I was a kid, there was a riddle that went along these lines:

A hunter is approached by a cougar, a mountain lion, and a puma. He has only one bullet left. What should he shoot first to ensure his safety?

The answer then was that it didn’t matter; a cougar, mountain lion and puma are all the same animal (technically the puma is a subspecies of the cougar/mountain lion), so he was only being approached by one beast.

The answer now is that it doesn’t really matter, because the US Fish and Wildlife service has called for removing federal protection for the Eastern cougar. It will no longer be on the endangered list.

It’s extinct.

There used to be tons, but overzealous hunters and habitat loss— which in turn affected numbers of white tailed deer, cougar prey— whittled away at cougar populations. The bulk of this happened in the 1800s when settlers were, well, settling in across the country and looking to protect their livestock. But since we haven’t done a whole lot to reinstate that habitat the cougar never really had a chance.

We are already feeling the effects of the loss of the cougar. Where I live the white tailed deer population has exploded due to having no natural predators around. I narrowly avoid hitting a deer with my car on a weekly basis. Hunting season keeps their numbers from being catastrophic, but it doesn’t work the same way natural selection does. Hunters want the strong, older, trophy deer; not the old, the sick, the genetically inferior. I don’t know if that’s somehow connected to the uptick in Lyme disease through deer ticks in this region, but it seems like a logical train of thought.

How will losing more animals listed as endangered or vulnerable— the loggerhead turtle, the blue whale, sea lions, the monarch butterfly, the jaguar, the great white shark— affect the ecosystems around them? We’re not just losing that magnificent animal, we’re taking a link out of the food chain. There is no real way for us to clearly see just how severe the ramifications may be.

The only way to truly protect these animals is to protect their habitats, which means a reversal of what was set in motion by the settlers in the 1800s. It seems like an impossible task; all we can do is try. (Here’s what you can do to help endangered species.)

Mother Nature is highly adaptable, but the pace we’ve asked of her is too fast. We need to actively support other species of big cats, in the hopes that they will fill the gap in the food chain left by the eastern cougar.

But mostly we need to recognize that we’re not the only ones on this earth, and it’s our responsibility to stop acting like we are.

Photo: DepositPhotos

“[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.

Today 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.

Petition for the preservation of wilderness and parks. And donate what money you can to support those efforts.
Take part in citizen scientist projects to help researchers track population numbers.
Talk to other people. Give them the opportunity to make a difference, too.

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.

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

It’s not.
-Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

StopExtinction.org

Eastern Cougar: No Longer Endangered. That’s Not a Good Thing.

Endangered Species Day: What You Can Do