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A new coalition of animal rights, conservation and faith groups is asking for a philosophical change in how the federal government treats the nation’s diminishing wildlife, particularly of top predators, whose presence helps insure healthy wild ecosystems.
The coalition sent a letter signed by 115 of its member groups to Agriculture Secretary nominee Tom Vilsack earlier this month asking him to end the federal government’s systematic killings of wildlife, such as wolves, coyotes, bears, cougars and prairie dogs.
Here are selections from “Irreplaceable: Wildlife in a Warming World,” a 40-piece traveling photo exhibit featuring the works of top nature photographers. Read the story: Irreplaceable Wildlife: Exhibit Pictures Species In A Warming World
Update: The photo exhibit Irreplaceable is on display at the San Francisco Public Library gallery through the holidays. It heads to Los Angeles, to the G2 Gallery in Venice, for the month of January. It will move to Washington D.C. in the spring; the dates will be announced.
Polar bears, penguins and caribou are all facing an uncertain future as global warming melts their arctic climates.
Photo: Wendy Shattil/Bob Rozinski
If only they were the only species at risk. Tragically, these arctic animals have many cousins in similar straits in lower latitudes: From the American Crocodile to the Monarch Butterfly; the Green Sea Turtle to the Mountain Goat; the Grizzly Bear, Lynx, Mountain Yellow-legged Frog, Sugar Maple and Northern Flying Squirrel. An array of amazing mammals and marine life, as well as plants, is imperiled by climate change.
The effects are being observed already, as populations dwindle, critical habitat becomes inhospitable and breeding or wintering grounds warm.
Polar bears, penguins, pandas have become symbols of the fight to save wild places around the world and push back global warming.
According to conservationists meeting in Barcelona this week, they have a host of company. A broad assessment of the world’s mammals reveals an “extinction crisis” with nearly one-quarter of known mammal species at risk of disappearing forever due to habitat loss, pollution, global warming, over-hunting and food chain erosion.
The study, unveiled at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress, shows that 1,141 (and possibly nearly 2,000) of the world’s 5,487 mammals are known to be threatened with extinction.
Gray wolves, all but de-listed from the Endangered Species Act protections through a series of government steps this year, have won a reprieve. According to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official, the government will be withdrawing its declaration that the animals are fully recovered.
The move, reported by the Associated Press and various conservation groups, follows a federal court decision this summer that sided with environmentalists arguing that the wolves need continued protections.
The story of the Rocky Mountain gray wolves is an inspiring fairy tale, in reverse, that showcases nature’s ability to sustain its own given a little time, the right habitat and a helping hand from conservation groups.
The tale begins like this. Once there was a wild and foreboding territory called the American West. The land stretched far and the big bad (some would say awesome and beautiful) wolves were plentiful, numbering in the tens of thousands. But the pioneering spirit was turning the wild landscape into ranches and towns, railroads and highways. The buffalo and the elk were in retreat. And then, it was the wolves’ turn. Deprived of their natural prey, they turned to sheep and cattle and confronted a fierce foe, an enemy with guns.
The coalition sent a letter signed by 115 of its member groups to Agriculture Secretary nominee Tom Vilsack earlier this month asking him to end the federal government’s systematic killings of wildlife, such as wolves, coyotes, bears, cougars and prairie dogs.
The tale begins like this. Once there was a wild and foreboding territory called the American West. The land stretched far and the big bad (some would say awesome and beautiful) wolves were plentiful, numbering in the tens of thousands. But the pioneering spirit was turning the wild landscape into ranches and towns, railroads and highways. The buffalo and the elk were in retreat. And then, it was the wolves’ turn. Deprived of their natural prey, they turned to sheep and cattle and confronted a fierce foe, an enemy with guns. 