Farewell, Fellow Travellers
(Page 2 of 4)
In addition, it's often impossible to determine precisely
when a listed species finally does vanish: One cannot prove
a negative. A species is removed from the endangered list
only when there is scientific consensus that the species is
gone.
RELATED CONTENT
On rare occasions, there is good news, as when on May 5,
1986, ornithologists announced that they had positively
identified two ivory-billed woodpeckers in Cuba—birds
that had been feared extinct for two decades.
Official Body Count
Only five species have been declared officially extinct and
removed from the endangered species list since it was begun
in 1973: the Tecopa pupfish (1982), the longjaw cisco (a
Great Lakes fish, 1983), the blue pike (1983), the Santa
Barbara song sparrow (1983) and the dusky seaside sparrow.
During the same period, three were taken off the list for
the better reason: They had pulled back from the brink of
extinction. These were all birds that live on Belau
(formerly spelled Palau) in the western Pacific.
The Fish and Wildlife Service's international list of
endangered and threatened animals, fish, amphibians, birds
and insects now numbers around a thousand. (There are at
least 200 endangered plants in the United States alone;
data aren't good for the rest of the world.) Many of them
are teetering on the brink of extinction, and a variety of
government agencies and citizen groups are working to
rescue them before it's too late.
What Now?
The extinction of species, as those who help the process
along like to remind us, is a natural phenomenon: "The
dinosaurs passed from the earth without meddling by humans,
didn't they?" Yes, but the point is irrelevant. Extinction
is now happening at an unprecedented rate, and it's
accelerating. There are economic and medical reasons to
stem the tide—as well as the ecological and moral
ones. We can do it, but not unless we increase our efforts
enormously—and do so quickly.
Tom Turner is staff writer for the Sierra Club Legal
Defense Fund in San Francisco.
California condor Gymnogyps californianus The last
wild California condor was taken into captivity on Easter
Sunday 1987, officials having determined that the
wilderness was a threat to the species' survival. As is the
case with many species that have already disappeared,
thecondor was once common, ranging from Canada to Mexico
and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. It has been
poisoned, shot, and had its lands systematically
appropriated by hu mans for their purposes. Faced with a
population of condors that has plummeted from thousands a
century ago to around 30 a decade ago, the FWS and the
National Audubon Society embarked on a "condor recovery
program" that aimed to restore the species by taking eggs,
young birds and adults from the wild and rearing them in
captivity. After 20 years, perhaps, the birds will be
returned to the wild. Estimated population: 0 wild, 28
in two zoos.
