Endangered Species DayEndangered Species Day reminds the public that there are more than 1,300 speci

Endangered Species DayEndangered Species Day reminds the public that there are more than 1,300 species of plants and animals are currently listed as either threatened or endangered in the United States. Animals and plants become endangered for a variety of reasons including destruction or degradation of habitat; overconsumption; disease; predation; inadequate regulation; and other manmade conditions.According to The Red List, which tracks threatened species around the world, there are more than 474 species native to the United States that currently are classified as critically endangered (meaning they are in imminent danger of becoming extinct in the wild) and nine that now exist only in human-curated conditions.The Endangered Species Act, enacted by Congress in 1973, is co-administered by the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service. It seeks, at the federal level, to prevent the endangerment of species and, where possible, to aid in the recovery of species already in danger.The Endangered Species Act is a remarkably successful federal law, boasting a success rate greater than 90 percent. Among its successes are whooping cranes, seen above, which, in 1967, had a population of 48 birds in the wild and six in captivity; today they number nearly 600. The American crocodile is another success story. When it was listed in 1975, scientists could find fewer than 20 breeding females in the wild. Thanks to federal protections, the American crocodile population rebounded quickly and today exceeds 2,000.Learn more.Image Credit: Sea otter by “Mike” Michael L. Baird [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons -- source link

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