The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has completed initial reviews of 29 petitions to list, delist or reclassify species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Thirteen of these petitions to list species and two to delist species do not present substantial information indicating that the petitioned actions may be warranted. The Service will take no further actions on these petitions. The 16 substantial findings in this batch represent only the first step in a rigorous process by which we will ultimately determine whether the species warrants listing, delisting or reclassification under the ESA.
The not substantial petition findings are for the Acuna cactus, Arizona night lizard, Arizona wetsalts tiger beetle, Bezy's night lizard, Cheoah bald salamander, Cow Knob salamander, MacDougal's yellowtops, Monito skink, Navasota ladies-tresses (delist petition), Patagonia eyed silkmoth, reticulate collared lizard, South Mountain gray-cheeked salamander and southern dusky salamander.
Of the 16 petitions with substantial information that the petitioned action may be warranted, 12 are petitions to list species, three are petitions to delist species and one petition is to uplist a species from Threatened to Endangered. Eight of these species occur within the United States: American burying beetle (delist), Deseret milkvetch (delist), Leoncita false-foxglove, Rio Grande chub, Rio Grande sucker, Southwestern willow flycatcher (delist), western bumble bee and yellow-banded bumble bee. The remaining eight findings are for foreign species: African elephant (uplist), Chinese pangolin, giant ground pangolin, Indian pangolin, long-tailed pangolin, Philippine pangolin, Sunda pangolin and tree pangolin. The Service will initiate status reviews for these species.
To ensure that our status reviews are comprehensive, the Service is requesting scientific and commercial data and other information regarding these 16 species. Based on the status reviews, we will issue findings on the petitions that address whether the petitioned action is warranted.
A summary of all findings is included below, along with separate docket numbers and links (all species represent petitions for listing unless otherwise noted):
Not-substantial petition findings – no further status review
Substantial petition findings – status review initiated
Species | Range | Docket number | Docket link |
African elephant – uplist petition | Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe | FWS–HQ–ES–2016–0010 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-HQ-ES-2016-0010 |
American burying beetle – delist petition | AR, KS, OK, MA, NE, OH, RI, SD TX | FWS–R2–ES–2016–0011 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-R2-ES-2016-0011 |
Deseret milkvetch – delist petition | UT | FWS–R6–ES–2016–0013 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-R6-ES-2016-0013 |
Leoncita false-foxglove | NM, TX, Mexico | FWS–R2–ES–2016–0016 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-R2-ES-2016-0016 |
Pangolin, Chinese | India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Lao PDR, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong SAR, Viet Nam, Thailand, Myanmar | FWS–HQ–ES–2016–0012 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-HQ-ES-2016-0012 |
Pangolin, giant | Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda | FWS–HQ–ES–2016–0014 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-HQ-ES-2016-0014 |
Pangolin, Indian | Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka | FWS–HQ–ES–2016–0015 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-HQ-ES-2016-0015 |
Pangolin, long-tailed | Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone | FWS–HQ–ES–2016–0017 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-HQ-ES-2016-0017 |
Pangolin, Philippine | Philippines | FWS–HQ–ES–2016–0018 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-HQ-ES-2016-0018 |
Pangolin, Sunda | Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam | FWS–HQ–ES–2016–0021 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-HQ-ES-2016-0021 |
Pangolin, tree | Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia | FWS–HQ–ES–2016–0022 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-HQ-ES-2016-0022 |
Rio Grande chub | NM, TX | FWS–R2–ES–2016–0019 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-R2-ES-2016-0019 |
Rio Grande sucker | CO, NM, Mexico | FWS–R2–ES–2016–0020 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-R2-ES-2016-0020 |
Southwestern willow flycatcher –delist petition | AZ | ||
Western bumble bee | AZ, AK, CA, CO, ID, MT, NE, NM, ND, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY, and western Canada. | FWS–R6–ES–2016–0023 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-R6-ES-2016-0023 |
Yellow-banded bumble bee | CT, IL, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MT, NC, ND, NH, NY, OH, PA, RI, SD, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV, Canada (Nova Scotia, New Foundland, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia) | FWS–R5–ES–2016–0024 | http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FWS-R5-ES-2016-0024 |
The notice for all 29 findings will be available in the Federal Register Reading Room on March 15, 2016, and is available at https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection by clicking on the 2016 Notices link under Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants. With this announcement, the Service is opening a 60-day comment period for the substantial findings. Complete instructions for submitting comments are provided in the Federal Register notice. Information can be submitted via www.regulations.gov from the date of publication in the Federal Register until May 16, 2016; after that time, information must be submitted to the address given in the Federal Register notice.
For more information on the ESA listing process, including 90-day findings and status reviews, go to www.fws.gov/endangered/esa-library/pdf/listing.pdf. To learn more about the ESA and foreign species, visit our Branch of Foreign Species webpage at: www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/international-activities.html.
The ESA provides a critical safety net for fish, wildlife and plants and has prevented the extinction of hundreds of imperiled species, as well as promoting the recovery of many others. The Service is actively engaged with conservation partners and the public in the search for improved and innovative ways to conserve and recover imperiled species.
