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 ensure 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.

The group contends that the killings are excessive and often cruel and that Wildlife Services, a department of the USDA that exterminated 2.4 million animals in 2007 should be reevaluated.

“The agency employs a host of cruel – and expensive and unnecessary – methods to kill coyotes, bears, cougars, wolves, and other wildlife. Animals are shot, poisoned, gassed in their dens, trapped, snared, clubbed, pursued by hounds, targeted from helicopters and planes, or lured to bait stations where they are shot. Other animals, even family dogs and cats, are unintentionally injured or killed by agency actions,” the petition stated.

Many people think of fish and game departments as the primary agents in the field taking action in wildlife incidents. But the USDA’s Wildlife Services is charged with protecting agricultural interests and human safety, and has long exercised wide authority to “control” animal populations around urban areas, businesses, farms and other agriculture operations and airports.

The vast majority of those animals, some 86 percent, that clash with human concerns or present safety issues (such as when birds congregate at airports or eat seeds planted for crops or intended for livestock) are dispersed, not killed, said Carol A. Bannerman, a spokeswoman for the agency.

“There is a heavy emphasis on dispersal, rather than removal,” she said.

The 2.4 million kill tally is accurate, she said, but it includes several scenarios in which lethal actions are justified. The agency, for instance, is killing the invading Gambian rat in Florida, because they are a non-native species that threatens tropical fruit operations. Similarly, millions of non-native European Starlings, which can cause intrusions at airports and also contaminate seeds intended for dairy cows, are killed.

The starlings accounted for the most killings last year, with 1.2 million being exterminated. Predators accounted for 120,000 of the total 2.4 million exterminations.

As for the shootings, poisoning and trapping of coyotes and other native predators, Bannerman says that livestock losses of 500,000 (mostly sheep and cattle) tell the story of why agents sometimes take lethal measures.

Vilsack, a former Iowa governor who is expected to be confirmed with little debate, has not responded to the coalition’s petition.

The coalition laments all intentional animal killings, but it particularly wants a reevaluation of animals like prairie dogs and coyotes, viewed in some corners as pests, and top predators, whose reputations can fuel a knee-jerk human response.

Grizzly bear | Photo by Leo Keeler

By Barbara Kessler

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.

More from GRN

Slideshow: Selections from the exhibit

“A lot of people know about the polar bear…however global warming is affecting species right in your backyard, whether your hometown is Boston or Dallas or San Diego or Seattle,” says Susan Holmes, senior legislative representative for Earthjustice and the coordinator of “Irreplaceable: Wildlife in a Warming World,” an effort to raise awareness about the plight of these species.

The campaign — the creation of Earthjustice, the inter-faith Noah Alliance, the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) and The Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) – is anchored by a website and a unique traveling photo exhibit featuring the works of top nature photographers.

The 40-piece photo exhibit highlights nearly the same number of species. All face immediate challenges from global warming. Some, like the polar bear, are colliding head-on with climate change as it literally melts the ice floes beneath them. Others, like the American Pika, a chipmunk-like creature, are slowly being stranded at higher and higher altitudes as the freeze-line of their mountain-top habitat creeps upward.

James Balog

Still others are suffering an indirect punch from climate change, such as the moose in Northern Minnesota, where warmer temperatures have produced a glut of the white-tailed deer, which carry a parasite that devastates moose neurologically. The resultant illness leaves the moose disoriented and vulnerable to predators.

These animals – and at-risk plants like the Sugar Maple – are not threatened by some vague combination of human neglect and encroachment, but are affected specifically by warmer temperatures, according to the group’s consulting scientists.

And the ramifications for human beings are more profound that the potential loss of our ability to enjoy the beauties of nature.

Take the case of the Pacific salmon. As the rivers that the salmon need for spawning grow warmer, due to less run off from snowy mountains, the salmon’s ability to reproduce is impaired. Already under stress from pollution, fishing and the damming of some rivers, the Pacific salmon population is collapsing.

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.

Natural processes – or natural selection as Darwin termed it – accounts for some loss of species over time, and since the year 1500 at least 76 mammals have known to become extinct.

But the number of threatened species being pushed toward extinction today is skyrocketing due to human pressure on the planet’s resources, according to the IUCN, a network of scientists, conservationists, governments and policy organizations.

“Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live,” says Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN Director General, in a statement.

Recovery efforts and better data collection must begin in earnest to turn the tide, she said.

The report cited examples of several species that have been nurtured back from near extinction, such as the Wild Horse, which was listed as Extinct in the Wild in 1996 but brought back to Critically Endangered status since been reintroduced into the wild in Mongolia.

Overall, the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species identifies 44,838 total species worldwide in danger right now. (See a video of selected threatened species at this link.)

Of those, 16,928 – or about 38 percent are threatened with extinction. Of that number:

• 3,246 are Critically Endangered, the highest category of threat, which includes species that are “in all probability” already extinct but further evidence is needed

• 4,770 are listed as Endangered

• 8,912 are listed as Vulnerable

The IUCN has posted a photo galllery with case studies of affected animals to help people see some of the species being affected, such as the African Elephant, the Iberian Lynx and the Caspian Seal.

The project to assess the world’s mammals was conducted with help from 1,800 scientists from more than 130 countries. Collaborating institutions included Conservation International in Washington D.C., and unversities such as Sapienza Università di Roma, Arizona State University, Texas A&M University, University of Virginia, and the Zoological Society of London.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature brings together governments, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and companies to develop policies and best practices in the arena of conservation. The global network, based in Switzerland, includes more than 11,000 volunteer scientists and experts in more than 150 countries.

Some 7,000 experts work on the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Gray wolves, all but de-listed from the Endangered Species Act protections through a series of government steps this year, may 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, follows a federal court decision this summer that sided with environmentalists arguing that the wolves need continued protections.

The wolves rebounded from near extinction in their traditional U.S. habitat, encompassing the Yellowstone National Park area and parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, after being reintroduced into Yellowstone in the mid 1990s. A decade later, the wolves’ growth prompted local wildlife officials, ranchers and others to call for their removal from the Endangered Species list.

The delisting was approved by the Bush Administration this spring and the states were preparing hunting guidelines for this fall when environmentalists sued to stop the delisting. A consortium of wildlife and environmental groups, led by Earthjustice and including the Natural Resources Defense Council and Defenders of Wildlife, argued that the hunting would overly thin the population of about 1,500 wolves in the three-state region and separate the wolf packs. The separated packs would be unable to intermingle, which keeps them healthy and genetically viable.

While recovered from very low population numbers in the 1990s, the wolves were simply not bountiful enough to sustain themselves against the planned bounty hunting that de-listing would have allowed, the groups argued.

The withdrawal of the de-listing rule still requires final approval from the U.S. Justice Department.

“This is likely a temporary victory,” said Andrew Wetzler, Director of NRDC’s Endangered Species Project. “The states will learn their lessons from this experience and mount another delisting effort down the line. But the continued recovery and federal protection for the wolf is still a big win for the Endangered Species Act. It shows that the Endangered Species Act works.”

NRDC senior wildlife advocate Louisa Willcox lamented that the process had already led to many wolf deaths.

“More than 100 wolves were needlessly killed as a result of the government’s ill-fated delisting effort—and hundreds more would have been shot this fall if federal protections had not been restored,” she said. “One of the Endangered Species Act’s greatest success stories would quickly be undone if the killing had continued.”

For more information, see the NRDC blog on wolves.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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. Caught in the crosshairs by ranchers, bounty hunters and trappers, the wolves were driven to the brink of extinction in the U.S. Rockies, though thousands of their cousins thrived in Canada.

And that would have been the end of the story, with nary a U.S. gray wolf surviving the mid-20th Century. But some people considered their loss a tragedy. And today, thanks to a $25-plus million recovery effort begun in the early 1990s by conservationists and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, some 1,500 gray wolves roam a region that covers much of Idaho and sections of Wyoming and Montana.

The rebound of the wolves has been nothing less than stunning – a testament to the resilience of this top predator. But the reaction to it has been fractured and disparate, making for an epic Western battle over the Rocky Mountain gray wolves’ place in the United States, and more specifically, whether they should continue to be listed as an endangered species or “delisted” from federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. The debate raises many questions — about who should control our remaining wilderness and how hard should we humans should try to save habitat and species in decline – echoing similar dilemmas around the world, affecting the Pandas, the African Elephants, the Polar Bear, all similarly encroached upon by human activities.

The debate over the wolves, about how many constitute a “sustainable” number and how long they should enjoy federal protection has been underway for several years. As the wolf packs grew, they produced an impressive upward bar graph, giving hope for their continued survival to the government and non-government groups watching. The Bush Administration saw a victory and took the final step toward de-listing the wolves in February. But a coalition of 11 environmental groups called a time out. They filed a notice to try to stop the de-listing, arguing that the wolves’ are not sufficiently recovered to ensure their survival and that history could repeat itself.

“Wolves in the northern Rockies are simply not ready to lose federal protection,’’ said Suzanne Stone, a Boise-based wolf expert with Defenders of Wildlife in a joint statement issued by the groups. “America has come too far, and worked too hard, to throw away the successes of the past decade and see wolves in the Yellowstone region end up back where they started.”

“Gray wolves in the northern Rockies are near biological recovery, but they aren’t there yet,’’ explained Jenny Harbine of Earthjustice in the statement. “Now, wolves are staring down the barrel at hostile state management schemes that would ensure the wolf population never achieves sustainable numbers and genetic connectivity.”

But while the environmentalists view the wolves’ recovery as a work-in-progress and predict a potentially devastating 60 percent loss in the wolves’ population, many on the opposing side of the discussion consider the recovery of the gray wolves to be an over-achievement with serious consequences for human inhabitants, particularly local ranchers.

They see a restive predator whose population has reached a tipping point and rather than needing to grow, could stand some culling.