Vanishing:Ten American Species

Our Children May Never See

Photo Credit: GrabillCreative

Ninety-five percent of the Sierra Nevada and Southern California mountain yellow-legged frog populations have gone extinct due to human degradation of their habitats. Lakes we’ve stocked with trout are devoid of tadpoles, and pesticide contamination causes mutations, sterility, and death. More than 1,800 species of frogs currently face extinction.

Photo Credit: Adam Backlin

Mountain Yellow-legged Frog

Monarch Butterfly

Photo Credit: Derek Goldman

Monarch butterflies are totally dependent on milkweed for survival, but the wide-spread use of pesticides such as RoundupTM is killing off milkweed across hundreds of acres of the monarch’s core summer habitat. Illegal logging in their Mexican winter refuge further imperils the monarch’s survival.

North Pacific Right Whale

Photo Credit: Jim Scarff

The North Pacific right whale is the most endangered whale on Earth; there may be only thirty left in U.S. waters. Lack of genetic diversity and diminishing food sources due to climate change are major threats, but human activities—oil spills, ship strikes, and the Navy’s live sonar testing—may be sounding the death knell for this marine mammal.

Great White Shark

Photo Credit: Solarseven

Only about 350 adult great white sharks remain off the coasts of California and Mexico. Hunting these sharks is illegal, but hundreds of young sharks are inadvertently caught in fishing nets and die each year. Great white sharks are the largest predatory fish and are important to maintaining balance in their ocean ecosystem.

Little Brown Bat

Photo Credit: Ivan Kuzmin

Little brown bats are in peril due to white-nose syndrome, an illness caused by a deadly fungus from Europe. These bats are virtually extinct in their core Northeast range, and to 99 percent have died in affected areas. Weakened immune systems due to pesticide exposure and human disturbance in their caves are also factors in their demise.

Whitebark Pine

Photo Credit: Christine Wilcox

Whitebark pine forests used to be plentiful high in the Rockies, but climate change has allowed beetle infestations and fungal disease to destroy these trees. More than 100 species depended on this pine for shelter and food, and the pine’s shading limbs regulated snow melt well into summer.

Rusty Patched Bumblebee

Photo Credit: Sarina Jepsen

The rusty patched bumblebee is a critical pollinator. Its “buzz pollination” produces tomatoes that are consistently larger and sweeter than those produced by other pollination techniques. The rusty patched bumblebee is threatened by diseases from commercial bumble bees. All bumblebees face threats from the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on plants that can even make their nectar and pollen toxic.

Greater Sage-grouse

Photo Credit: Steve Fairbairn/USFWS

The greater sage-grouse’s habitat once encompassed nearly 300 million acres, but their range has declined dramatically as humans have moved in to drill and graze livestock. Hundreds of miles of roads have fragmented sage-grouse populations, which are in peril due to our aggressive degradation of their habitat.

Polar Bear

Photo Credit: ekvals

Polar bears are entirely dependent on ice for fishing, and a large adult requires an average of 4 to 5 pounds of seal blubber every day just to maintain its weight. But as climate change alters their habitat, they are being forced inland for denning, breeding, and feeding.

Snake River Sockeye Salmon

Photo Credit: Fish Eye Guy Photography

Federal dams block the lower Snake River, making it almost impossible for these salmon to migrate to their spawning grounds high in the Rocky Mountains. These are the most endangered salmon in the world, but scientists agree that they can make a comeback if the river is unblocked so they can complete their life cycle by migrating to and from Redfish Lake .

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