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Kid's Corner

To describe the status of species, conservation biologists use two terms: ENDANGERED and THREATENED

THREATENED
A species that is likely to become endangered if it is not protected.

ENDANGERED
A species that is in immediate danger of becoming extinct and needs protection to survive.

EXTINCT
A species of plant or animals that is no longer living anywhere on earth.

COPPERBELLY WATER SNAKE

The copperbelly water snake was listed as a threatened species in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan in 1997 due to loss of habitat and pollution from mining. It lives in a wetland ecosystem and is an important predator as well as prey for many types of wildlife.

HOUSTON TOAD

The Houston toad was listed as endangered in 1970 due to habitat loss. It relies on wetland ecosystems in Texas. The toad is important because it is food for many other animals and helps keep insect populations under control.

LOSS OF HABITAT

Habitat loss is the most common reason species are endangered and threatened. When people remove or alter forests, rivers, wetlands, prairies, beaches, and other ecosystems, there is no place left for plants, fish, and wildlife.

For example, at one time there were 250,000 family groups of red-cockaded woodpeckers living on over 90 million acres of longleaf pine forests in the southern United States.

Today, there are just 4,700 family groups of these endangered birds living on under 1 million acres of their original habitat.

NON-NATIVE SPECIES

The introduction of non-native species is now the second greatest threat to native species. These "alien" species do not have diseases and predators to keep their populations under control in the United States so they spread out of control. They crowd out our native species for food and space.

ILLEGAL KILLING AND OVERCOLLECTION

The bog turtle is a threatened species in the eastern United States. Not only is it threatened by loss of its wetland habitat but also by illegal collection for the pet trade.

For example, the non-native Asian long-horned beetle bores into healthy hardwood trees, like maples, causing heavy sap flow that eventually kills the tree. This devastates our forest ecosystem and affects all the species that live in the forest.

OTHER CAUSES

The decline of bird species such as the brown pelican alerted us to the harmful effects of pesticides. Scientists discovered that DDT used to control insects on crops was washing into waterways. Birds were poisoned by DDT when they ate fish from poisoned waterways. This caused pelicans to lay thin shelled eggs that often broke before the chick hatched.

In 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency banned the use of DDT. In 1999, 27 years later, the peregrine falcon has recovered so that it is no longer considered endangered. However, DDT is still legal in other countries, and many migratory bird are still exposed to the harmful effects of DDT and other pesticides when outside the U.S.

Beyond destruction of habitat, we often don’t do a good job of sharing our environment with other species. For example, the endangered manatee, or sea cow, is a plant-eating “gentle giant” that lives in Florida waterways, where people often use boats for recreation.

Sometimes speedboats run over the manatees, killing them or slicing into their backs with the boats’ propellers. By enforcing laws and decisions to protect species, such as slow speed zones in coastal waters, we can help rare species survive.

NATIVE SPECIES AND DISEASES

Native freshwater mussel populations that are rare and isolated can be destroyed by dining muskrats. In the past, there were millions of mussels throughout the rivers, and predation was not a problem. Today mussel populations are very limited in numbers and range, so predation by muskrats could limit recovery and speed up extinction.