Tag Archives: Arizona

Endangered and Threatened Arizona Species Qualifying for Endangered-Species-Act Protection

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A Small Subset of Arizona’s #EndangeredSpecies

The Arizona Game and Fish Department provided this photo of an endangered ocelot spotted Feb. 8, 2011, in the Huachuca Mountains of southeastern Arizona.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department provided this photo of an endangered ocelot.

Many Arizona species with shrinking populations will never receive protection under the U. S. Endangered Species Act.  Some are doing well outside Arizona, but the principal reason for the absence of protection is that many Arizona species have not been identified. Of those that biologists have identified, most have not been studied in enough detail to know how well they are doing. This tragic lack of data is true of most wild species worldwide.

Click here for lists of some of Arizona’s other endangered species.

According to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the list below, updated 02/13/2015,

  • shows listed species or populations believed to or known to occur in Arizona
  • does not include experimental populations and similarity-of-appearance listings.
  • includes species or populations under the sole jurisdiction of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The list includes 21 plants and 44 animals.  The links for the species scientific names connect to official details for the listing. The linked pages include maps and some photos.  More species photos and other information are found at:  FWS Digital Media Library. However, the best resource for photos is a simple Google Image search.

E = Endangered

T = Threatened

Arizona #Endangered and #Threatened Animals (44)

     ..
E Ambersnail, Kanab Entire (Oxyloma haydeni kanabensis)
E Bat, lesser long-nosed Entire (Leptonycteris curasoae yerbabuenae)
E Bobwhite, masked (quail) Entire (Colinus virginianus ridgwayi)
T Catfish, Yaqui Entire (Ictalurus pricei)
E Chub, bonytail Entire (Gila elegans)
E Chub, Gila Entire (Gila intermedia)
E Chub, humpback Entire (Gila cypha)
T Chub, Sonora Entire (Gila ditaenia)
E Chub, Virgin River Entire (Gila seminuda (=robusta))
E Chub, Yaqui Entire (Gila purpurea)
E Condor, California Entire, except where listed as an experimental population (Gymnogyps californianus)
T Cuckoo, yellow-billed Western U.S. DPS (Coccyzus americanus)
E Ferret, black-footed entire population, except where EXPN (Mustela nigripes)
E Flycatcher, southwestern willow Entire (Empidonax traillii extimus)
T Frog, Chiricahua leopard Entire (Rana chiricahuensis)
T gartersnake, northern Mexican  (Thamnophis eques megalops)
E Jaguar U.S.A(AZ,CA,LA,NM,TX),Mexico,Central and South America (Panthera onca)
E Minnow, loach Entire (Tiaroga cobitis)
E Mouse, New Mexico meadow jumping  (Zapus hudsonius luteus)
E Ocelot U.S.A.(AZ, TX) to Central and South America (Leopardus (=Felis) pardalis)
T Owl, Mexican spotted Entire (Strix occidentalis lucida)
E Pikeminnow (=squawfish), Colorado Entire, except EXPN (Ptychocheilus lucius)
E Pronghorn, Sonoran Entire (Antilocapra americana sonoriensis)
E Pupfish, desert Entire (Cyprinodon macularius)
E Rail, Yuma clapper U.S.A. only (Rallus longirostris yumanensis)
T Rattlesnake, New Mexican ridge-nosed Entire (Crotalus willardi obscurus)
E Salamander, Sonora tiger Entire (Ambystoma tigrinum stebbinsi)
T Shiner, beautiful Entire (Cyprinella formosa)
T Snake, narrow-headed garter  (Thamnophis rufipunctatus)
E Spikedace Entire (Meda fulgida)
T Spinedace, Little Colorado Entire (Lepidomeda vittata)
T springsnail, San Bernardino Entire (Pyrgulopsis bernardina)
E Springsnail, Three Forks Entire (Pyrgulopsis trivialis)
E Squirrel, Mount Graham red Entire (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis)
E Sucker, razorback Entire (Xyrauchen texanus)
E Sucker, Zuni bluehead  (Catostomus discobolus yarrowi)
E Tern, California least  (Sterna antillarum browni)
E Topminnow, Gila (incl. Yaqui) U.S.A. only (Poeciliopsis occidentalis)
T Tortoise, desert U.S.A., except in Sonoran Desert (Gopherus agassizii)
T Trout, Apache Entire (Oncorhynchus apache)
T Trout, Gila Entire (Oncorhynchus gilae)
E Vole, Hualapai Mexican Entire (Microtus mexicanus hualpaiensis)
E Wolf, Mexican gray Entire, except where an experimental population (Canis lupus baileyi)
E Woundfin Entire, except EXPN (Plagopterus argentissimus)

Arizona Endangered and Threatened Plants (21)
E Blue-star, Kearney’s (Amsonia kearneyana)
E Cactus, Acuna (Echinomastus erectocentrus var. acunensis)
E Cactus, Arizona hedgehog (Echinocereus triglochidiatus var. arizonicus)
E Cactus, Brady pincushion (Pediocactus bradyi)
T Cactus, Cochise pincushion (Coryphantha robbinsiorum)
E Cactus, Fickeisen plains (Pediocactus peeblesianus fickeiseniae)
E Cactus, Nichol’s Turk’s head (Echinocactus horizonthalonius var. nicholii)
E Cactus, Peebles Navajo (Pediocactus peeblesianus var. peeblesianus)
E Cactus, Pima pineapple (Coryphantha scheeri var. robustispina)
T Cactus, Siler pincushion (Pediocactus (=Echinocactus,=Utahia) sileri)
E Cliff-rose, Arizona (Purshia (=Cowania) subintegra)
T Cycladenia, Jones (Cycladenia humilis var. jonesii)
T Fleabane, Zuni (Erigeron rhizomatus)
E Ladies’-tresses, Canelo Hills (Spiranthes delitescens)
E mallow, Gierisch (Sphaeralcea gierischii)
E Milk-vetch, Holmgren (Astragalus holmgreniorum)
E Milk-vetch, Sentry (Astragalus cremnophylax var. cremnophylax)
T Milkweed, Welsh’s (Asclepias welshii)
T Ragwort, San Francisco Peaks (Packera franciscana)
T Sedge, Navajo (Carex specuicola)
E Water-umbel, Huachuca (Lilaeopsis schaffneriana var. recurva)

Arizona #Endangered Species: River Otters

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From Smithsonian

Credit: painting by Consie Powell from Kays and Wilson’s Mammals of North America, © Princeton University Press (2002)

The North American River Otter (Lontra Canadensis) is a dark brown, long-bodied, web-footed, big-whiskered mammal weighing between 10 and 30 pounds. Otters live in burrows beside streams, lakes, swamps, and ponds.  They are superb fishermen, but they also hunt frogs, turtles, crayfish, small mammals, and birds.

 Importance

Like other predators, Otters help control the numbers of their prey species. They happily take introduced alien species along with natives. In a few instances, people have complained that River Otters might be eating trout introduced to Arizona waters for sport fishing.

Otter, Northern River

Otters often eat and sleep floating on their backs. In the picture, a mother is holding her big-nosed child on her stomach.

Habitat

tracksRiver Otters live where there is permanent food and water. They prefer riparian communities dominated by willows, cottonwoods, birches, and spruce, cattails, red-osier dogwood, black hawthorn, common snowberry, grasses, horsetails, bulrushes, and sedges (Tesky, 1993).

Conservation

River Otters lived throughout Arizona. Unfortunately, their thick fur made them a favorite of 19th Century fur trappers. It takes 20 to 30 otters to make a fur coat. By 1900, most of the Otters were gone and the fur coats had worn out. During the 20th Century, water pollution and stream diversion for irrigation, flood control, and recreation eliminated most of the best habitat. Today there are few if any Otters left in the State. Ponds and pools along the Agua Fria River near my home in central Arizona might be  suitable for otters, but it is unlikely that any live here.

The State of Arizona Game and Fish Department conservation status ranking for otters and many other wildlife species is included in the species checklists on this website.

Bringing Otters back to Arizona:  Reservoir Dreams

Returning Otters to Arizona would be difficult. Otters are sensitive to water pollution, and could not survive in many of the State’s streams and lakes. Moreover, the banks of irrigation canals and reservoirs aren’t suitable for Otter burrows. We can imagine that we might set aside one of our reservoirs for Otters. Stocked with native fish, protected from pollution and recreation, and planted with preferred vegetation, Otters brought to the reservoir from other locations might set up a colony and the species might once again live in Arizona.

The header image is from Animal Photos.

 Resources

  • Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD).  List of “nongame” species includes bats: http://bit.ly/YOa6og.
  • Arizona Game and Fish Department. 1995 (Second Draft). Animal Abstracts Lontra Canadensis sonora. PDF. Unpublished abstract compiled and edited by the Heritage Data Management System, Arizona Game and Fish Department, Phoenix, AZ. PDF.
  • Hoffmeister, D.F. 1986. Mammals of Arizona. The University of Arizona Press. Tucson. Pp. 515-517.
  • Jones, et al. 1987. North American Mammals North of Mexico. Texas Tech Univ.
  • Kays, R.W., and D.E. Wilson.  2009.  Mammals of North America (second edition).  Princeton Univ Press, Princeton, NJ.  248 p.
  • National Wildlife Federation:  www.nwf.org.
  • NatureServe.  http://www.natureserve.org/explorer.
  • Navajo Nation Fish and Wildlife Department. 2000. Navajo Endangered Species List. Navajo Nation Fish and Wildlife Department. 2005. Navajo Endangered Species List. P. 2.
  • Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History:  http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image_info.cfm?species_id=142.
  • Tesky, J.L. 1993. Lutra canadensis. In U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station Sciences Laboratory (2002, September). Fire Effects Information System, http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/mammal/luca/all.html.
  • Endangered Species Act.  1973. The act and related laws discussed at:    http://www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/ESACT.html.
  • U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service:  http://www.fws.gov.
  • USDA, Forest Service Region 3. 1999. Regional Forester’s Sensitive Species List. The latest update (2007) does not list the River Otter.

I am beginning a series of short articles about the state’s endangered species. For  species that the Department considers Critically Imperiled (S1), Imperiled (S2), or Vulnerable to Extinction (S3).  Please send me your comments and suggestions or bring them to a meeting. The inaugural meeting is at 10:00 am, August 15, 2015, at the Dewey-Humboldt Historical Society Museum on Main Street in Humboldt.

Save Wildlife: Apply for a Hunting Permit

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Arizona Wildlife Protection:  Gambling for Big Game

Young Mule Deer

Young Mule Deer

I am not a gambler, but as I watched five Mule Deer browsing in my yard this morning I decided to enter the Arizona Game and Fish Department drawing to win a deer hunting permit.  If I win, I will have blocked a real killer.  (The header image is from the Arizona Game and Fish Department website.)

You can enter drawings for Bighorn Sheep, Buffalo, Deer, Javelina, Pheasant, and Turkey.  Click here to enter.  Fees vary depending on your location and the species you are protecting.  For Arizona residents, the hunting license and the drawing entry fee total $50.  If you win, the toe tag will cost an extra $45.

The drawings for Elk and Pronghorn Antelope took place last month (25,932 killing permits issued).  There are a few Elk tags left.  If this is your special animal, click here to buy a chance to save one.

Arizona Wildlife Management

Some will argue that killing wild animals is necessary to prevent habitat-destroying population explosions.  Others will say that restoring and protecting habitat, removing domestic livestock, and protecting large predators will achieve natural populations and increase overall biodiversity.  Of course, selling licenses is big business; the Arizona Game and Fish Department, like many other governmental wildlife management agencies, depends on license sales for a substantial part of its annual budget.  Search my website for “Hunting,” “Livestock,” and “Predators” to find discussions and reports related to these subjects.

Here’s a tweet suggestion (you should have room to add a photo):

Protect wildlife: Apply for a big-game permit and keep a killer out of the woods.

If you decide to take a chance, you can let us know in a comment.  If you don’t want to publicize your gambling sins, send me a private email.

Go back

Your message has been sent

Protect Native Plants and the Wildlife They Support

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HB2570 municipalities; vegetation requirements; prohibition (Mitchell) prohibits cities from requiring native plant salvage and also from requiring the planting of native vegetation.

There are many reasons this is a bad idea. Encouraging the salvage and planting of native plants can help save water and ensure more resiliency in the vegetation. Some non-native plants contribute to public health problems, such as severe allergies. Limiting these plants is an important goal of local communities. Further, it is critical that non-native invasive plants be limited as these can cause harm to neighbors’ private property and to our parks and wildlands, plus harm agriculture, wildlife, and more by spreading to create unnatural fire conditions and out competing native plants.

Please modify and send the message below and ask your representatives to oppose this ill-conceived bill to limit local communities’ ability to protect native plants. . . . Source: secure.sierraclub.org

GR:  Ignoring the effects of a development would make it cheaper to destroy native habitats. Of course, developers want that.  I doubt the savings would amount to much for individuals that use the developments, but the cost in natural vegetation and wildlife will be a lasting expense that we will all feel.

Game and Fish increases pronghorn population with killings of coyotes

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More than 800 coyotes were killed at the direction of the Arizona Game and Fish Department from 2012 to 2014 for the purpose of protecting pronghorn fawns in five areas around the state, agency officials say.  Source: azdailysun.com

GR:  The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) lets people kill Pronghorn Antelope for the money.  Antelope have declined drastically from their original range.  However, AZGFD continues to sell Antelope hunting licenses for $103 ($565 non-residents).

“Annual harvests since 1990 have varied between 500 and 700 bucks, with archers taking a proportionally larger percent of the harvest in recent years. Plagued by encroaching subdivisions, increasing highway construction, and other land-use changes, maintaining even the present number of antelope is dependent on citizen involvement and an aggressive translocation program. Approximately 10 percent of the antelope harvest is in areas having reintroduced herds.”

The AZGFD can’t do much about construction and land-use, but they could stop selling hunting licenses.  They might have to cut salaries and layoff a few of their wildlife-control staff.  But then they wouldn’t have to kill the coyotes.

Even more appropriate in these times of rapidly disappearing wildlife, would be to stop all hunting and call on the people of Arizona to fund the 25% of the AZGFD budget that comes from hunting licenses.

 

 

Arizona projects picked for major conservation effort

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AgriPulse:  “WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2015 – More than 100 conservation projects for protecting water quality, restoring critical wildlife habitat, and addressing other environmental challenges will get federal matching funds under a groundbreaking program authorized by the new farm bill.

“The 115 projects, which include one aimed at preventing another of the Lake Erie toxic algae blooms that plagued Toledo, Ohio, last summer, will share $370 million in federal money, to be matched with $400 million worth of contributions from outside groups, universities and state and local governments.

Verde River“Projects in three sites in Arizona will aim to save water, repair habitat, and increase the ailing flow of the Verde and Colorado Rivers as part of a federal program sparked by the 2014 Farm Bill.  (Arizona projects picked for major conservation effort.)

“We’re giving private companies, local communities, and other non-government partners a way to invest in a new era in conservation that ultimately benefits us all,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. Vilsack announced the project awards near Phoenix, where one of the projects is designed to help restore habitat for fish and wildlife along the Verde River, a tributary of the Colorado” (Agri-Pulse).

“This is an entirely new approach to conservation efforts,” said Vilsack. “These partnerships empower communities to set priorities and lead the way on conservation efforts important for their region. They also encourage private sector investment so we can make an impact that’s well beyond what the Federal government could accomplish on its own. We’re giving private companies, local communities, and other non-government partners a way to invest in a new era in conservation that ultimately benefits us all. These efforts keep our land resilient and water clean, and promote economic growth in agriculture, construction, tourism, outdoor recreation, and other industries” (USDA).

Groups want public lands bills pulled from defense act

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A coalition of 47 environmental organizations called on U.S. senators Monday to remove public lands riders from the Defense Authorization Act

Source: www.greatfallstribune.com

GR:  In a typical anti-nature move, the House is trying to benefit corporate sponsors with this bill.  Deforestation, mining, and weakened public lands protection–everything a greedy politician could hope for.

US Wet Areas to Get Wetter And Dry Areas To Get Drier

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Click to view larger image.

GR:  These results confirm earlier predictions. The projected changes are milder if we cut greenhouse gas emissions now, but they still occur.  Interesting that while drought continues in the Southwest, the Arizona monsoon will intensify.

The following is from NOAA.

“The twenty-first century may bring the United States more of the weather it’s already got, whether wet or dry. The U.S. National Climate Assessment, issued in May 2014, examined multiple model projections of seasonal precipitation over the rest of this century. In general, precipitation is projected to increase in the northernmost parts of the country, and decrease in the southwestern United States.

“These maps show projected seasonal precipitation changes for the final decades of this century (2071-2099) compared to the end of the last century (1970-1999) depending on two possible scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions. One scenario assumes that greenhouse gas emissions peak sometime between 2010 and 2020 and rapidly decline afterwards. The other scenario assumes that greenhouse gas emissions continue increasing throughout the 21st century.”

Click for the rest of this article.

Source: http://www.reportingclimatescience.com

Deer at Coldwater Farm

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Deer Birth Announcement

We have two new fawns! They were probably born Sunday night, July 27, 2014. Both appear normal and healthy.

Last year we regularly saw a doe in our fallowed cow pasture, and in July, she bore a fawn. Last winter several deer began visiting. The group included two yearlings, a pair of two-year olds, and several doe. One of the does looked pregnant. I didn’t see her on Monday, she came alone on Tuesday, and this morning she brought two tiny fawns.

1-IMG_1955The fawns are tiny dynamos. The one on the left didn’t have time for milk, only time for running, jumping, and running some more. Awkward, but quite fast. The other fawn made a few short sprints and jumps, but was too hungry to do more just now.

Mule Deer are showing up in yards and gardens across the western U. S. Our continuing drought is limiting forage production, and combined with our incessant pumping, the drought is drying up some springs. We are happy to have deer visit. They are eating our weeds, pruning all of our shrubs and trees, and eating unfenced garden vegetables. They love to help the birds and squirrels clean up the sunflower and millet seeds I scatter each morning.

Western U. S. deer populations are shrinking. Well-known causes include livestock grazing, farming, construction, and hunting.  We know that the causes of deer decline including hunting will not stop.  These two small creatures could be shot and killed within the next two or three years.  Nevertheless, we will continue to provide our bit of support to the deer and we are encouraging our neighbors to do so as well.