Creature Feature:
Spotlight on Five Animals At Risk
Grizzly Bear | Salmon | Peninsular Bighorn Sheep | Polar Bear | Manatee
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear once roamed from the Arctic Slope to Central Mexico and from the Pacific Coast to Minnesota. When Lewis and Clark explored the American West, approximately 50,000-100,000 grizzly bears lived on America's plains, mountains and forests. As the human population spread through the West and bison were killed off, the great bear's numbers also began to dwindle. By 1975, the Yellowstone grizzly was on the brink of extinction and was listed as endangered. Thanks to protections put in place by the Endangered Species Act, Yellowstone's bears have made a slow but steady recovery over the last 30 years.
 The Yellowstone grizzly now faces its biggest challenge ever. One of the bear's primary food sources, the seed of whitebark pine trees, is declining due to global warming. Scientists report that warmer temperatures are causing an explosion in the Yellowstone pine beetle population, leading to decimation of whitebark pine. Without dramatic steps to curb global warming, the future of the majestic grizzly bear remains uncertain.
>> Watch this video of a grizzly bear and her two cubs.
Salmon
The wild salmon of the Pacific Northwest are one of the most tenacious and amazing creatures on earth. Born in freshwater rivers and streams, salmon swim thousands of miles out to sea, where they spend the bulk of their existence before returning to their birthplaces to give life to a new generation. In one of the greatest spectacles in the natural world, the rivers and streams of the Columbia River Watershed once saw 16 million wild salmon returning each year.
 Today, salmon face a near-impossible gauntlet of dams, logging, and irrigation
in their attempts to return home to spawn. For instance, over the past 200
years, the unfettered river waters that impressed and frightened Lewis and
Clark have become polluted and divided by dams. The Columbia system once saw
16 million salmon returning each year. Now, only 1 percent of the wild salmon
that existed at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition come back to these
once-mighty waters. Four salmon species that spawn in the Pacific Northwest
-- chum, Chinook, sockeye, and Coho -- now face extinction and are protected
under the Endangered Species Act.
As global warming nudges river temperatures higher and higher, the salmon will find it increasingly uncomfortable to live in the waters of rivers that once ran clear and cold. Scientists predict that a projected 1-degree increase in water temperature over the next 25 years will make some rivers uninhabitable for the wild fish that are still a symbol of the beauty and vitality of the Pacific Northwest.
Peninsular Bighorn Sheep
The Peninsular bighorn sheep is a master of survival. In California's arid canyons and low-elevation mountains, this highly social sheep seeks out scarce grasses, shrubs and cactus, and must constantly avoid predators like mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats, and eagles.
But the peninsular bighorn is no match for human development. Roads, sprawl, and competition with domestic sheep have placed these hardy creatures in danger of extinction. Between 1971 and 1997 their numbers plummeted, from 1,200 pairs to just 280. The peninsular bighorn sheep was finally protected by the Endangered Species Act in 1998--a long six years after it was first proposed for listing. Today, sheep habitat continues to dwindle.
Dozens of golf courses and residential developments are currently proposed or approved for construction within Peninsular bighorn habitat. And as global warming threatens to create longer and more frequent droughts, the sheep will have to work even harder to find scarce food sources.
Polar Bear
The great, nomadic polar bear has ruled the Arctic region for between 20,000 and 100,000 years. Polar bears travel great distances, using their highly insulated and webbed feet to walk on sea ice and swim in freezing cold water.
Fifty years ago it was estimated that as few as 5,000 polar bears roamed the Arctic. Today, as many as 25,000 polar bears range in the same territory -- testimony to the dedicated efforts of conservationists to secure a future for the polar bear and other Arctic wildlife. Sadly, that future is now threatened by an unprecedented conservation challenge: Global warming.
Earlier this year, the Department of Interior proposed protecting polar bears as an endangered species--acknowledging for the first time the impacts of climate change on wildlife. Like the canaries miners carried with them into the coal shafts, the predicament of polar bears should serve as an early warning to us. If we don't heed that warning, we may not only fail to save them, we may also share their fate.
Manatee
The shy, gentle, slow-lumbering sea cow has lived in Florida for roughly one million years. Manatees spend most of their time resting or using their flippers to move across the sea floor and river bottoms in search of plants. The manatee has no natural enemies, but its population has dwindled in recent years due to pollution, collisions with boats, and entanglement in fishing equipment, canal locks, and floodgates. Legal protections for manatees date back to well before the Endangered Species Act. Since 1893, Florida law has prohibited harming these gentle creatures.
Now, global warming threatens to make life even more difficult for manatees as they face more frequent and intense hurricanes and tropical storms. Scientists have found that manatee numbers decline in years of intense storms, such as Hurricane Katrina.
 Take Our Endangered Species Quiz!
Tell Congress to stop attacks on the Endangered Species Act
Up to Top
HOME |
Email Signup |
About Us |
Contact Us |
Terms of Use |
© 2008 Sierra Club
|
