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Genetics
Study for Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Now Available
Public
comments on bird's status sought
SACRAMENTO, Calif.--
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is making available copies
of a recent genetics study it commissioned to help determine
whether the yellow-billed cuckoo in the western United States
should be added to the Federal List of Threatened and Endangered
Species. At the same time, the Service is reopening the comment
period for the 12-month finding on a petition to list this species
as endangered. The cuckoo is a secretive robin-sized bird that
breeds in willow and cottonwood forests along rivers from southern
Canada south to the Greater Antilles and Mexico.
In February 2000
the wildlife agency announced that a petition from the Center
for Biological Diversity seeking Endangered Species Act protection
for the western yellow-billed cuckoo presented sufficient information
to warrant a closer look at the bird's current status. Because
the Act allows a subspecies or a distinct population segment
of a species to be listed, the Service initiated a comprehensive
review to determine whether to list the western yellow-billed
cuckoo as a distinct population segment, one that is separated
from other populations by physical, physiological, ecological
or behavioral factors. The genetics study, "Taxonomic and
Evolutionary Significant Unit (ESU) Status of Western Yellow-billed
Cuckoos (Coccyzus americanus)," was prepared by Robert
Fleischer of the Smithsonian Institute's National Zoological
Park under contract with the Service and the U.S. Geological
Survey.
The yellow-billed
cuckoo breeds from southern Canada south to the Greater Antilles
and Mexico. While the yellow-billed cuckoo is common east of
the Continental Divide, biologists estimate that more than 90
percent of the bird's riparian habitat in the West has been
lost or degraded as a result of conversion to agriculture, dams
and river flow management, bank protection, overgrazing, and
competition from exotic plants such as tamarisk.
Copies of the study
are available from the Service and may be requested by contacting
the Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office, 2800 Cottage Way, Room
W-2605, Sacramento, CA 95825, telephone: (916) 414-6600. Public
comments on the cuckoo's status will be accepted until June
20, 2001.
The Service's decision
on the petition is expected by July 19, 2001.
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FWS --
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