Tag Archives: Conservation

Why Saving All Endangered Species Matters

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This is a some-what of a follow up to the previous blog post about politician Joe Baca introducing a bill that would certainly bring the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly to extinction. I wanted to stress how important it is to save not only species that we can easily fall in love with like the endangered Sea Otter, or Giant Panda but also species that we might not even recognize what it exactly is.

The reason for this is quite simple, all species are connected ecologically, removing one species from the system will have some kind of impact on the rest of it. This can lead to devastating effects, even for us humans. A prime example of this (and I am very much simplifying it here) is the connection between the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, Black-legged Ticks (Ixodes scapularis), Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis), and us humans. Black-legged Ticks can carry the above mention bacteria which is the agent of Lyme disease. If a tick buries itself into a human it has the potential of passing on the bacteria and disease leading to potentially debilitating effects for the person later in life. Enter the all important Western Fence Lizard, it has been shown that when nymphal Black-legged Ticks feed on Western Fence Lizards the disease carrying bacteria is destroyed by a protein in the lizard’s blood — aka the tick no longer has the potential of spreading the disease to us humans. The fact that the lizard is only found on the west coast might be the exact reason that only 2-4 percent of adult Black-legged Ticks carry the disease here compared to up to 50% in the north east of the US. Here is a map for a quick view.

Western Fence Lizard and California Poppies

Western Fence Lizard and California Poppies

Now we are lucky that the Western Fence Lizard is not endangered, but what if it was, we would start caring a lot more about it. My guess is there are a lot of these kinds of examples out there in the natural world, many of which we don’t even know about yet, many of which involve endangered species. So yes, let’s save the Blue Whale and Polar Bear but let’s give equal attention to less charismatic endangered wildlife.

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*

Politics and Politicians getting in the way of Conservation

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This is not a new event, throughout historical times, politicians have reduced or eliminated the chances for scientists and NGOs to increase their conservation efforts. The latest bill and possibly the one with the most impact comes out of southern California where democrat Joe Baca introduced a bill that would de-list all endangered species (aka eliminate all the protection and funding going towards saving the species) that have been listed on the Endangered Species Act for 15 years.

He declares a species should be listed as extinct if it meats one of a few different options. The first is the previously mentioned criteria of a species being listed as endangered for fifteen years.  Another option is if the species has not been found to have a substantial increase in population size since its initial listing. The third option is that the species is declared as a limited listed species, which basically is defined as a species that may or may not be  present in its range because not all individuals were accounted for at the time of its original listing.

What drives me crazy here is that this bill takes no ecological science into consideration. What about slow reproducing species like California Condors where chicks spend two years with their parents and adults don’t reach sexual maturity until the age of six. This species will continue to be listed as a critically endangered species, let alone as an endangered species for a much longer period of time than 15 years. Should we just stop our conservation efforts now? Based on Joe Bacca’s reasoning we should indeed.

Soaring Adult California Condor in Big Sur

Soaring Adult California Condor in Big Sur

This bill stems from conflicts that have been going on for years between developers and conservationists that want to protect the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly and therefor also its habitat which is considered prime real-estate by developers. The sad part is that this tiny bit of land is only 2-3% of the flies historical habitat. Yet even this sliver of land needs to be developed? To me this is pure ridiculousness.

The bigger problem, besides the certain extinction of the fly, would be the extinction of many other species. Species more charismatic than the fly, and species with larger ecological impacts. With their destruction, much of the habitats we know today would forever be altered.

If you have a problem with this as well, please write to your local house representative.

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*