This, in turn, results in lower conservation funding and prioritization, especially in comparison to other charismatic megafauna species. A recent paper calls this a “ charisma failure” and finds that it results in less public awareness of Asian elephants’ endangered status. These pachyderms make our list this year because, well, no one else around here seems to be talking about them.Īsian elephants don’t get nearly the same scientific or media attention as their larger African cousins, but they face the same - if not worse - pressures from habitat loss, conflict with humans, population fragmentation, disease, poaching, and other exploitations. Photo credit: Mike Prince / Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) We expect more of all of that - on all these fronts - in 2023.Īsian elephants in Bandipur National Park, India. Meanwhile wolves - who have enormous value for numerous human cultures - display a resilience that allows them to continue to spread and regain territory in places where they were once exterminated. They’ve gained and lost protection more times than we can count, and the constant push between conservation, hunting, and other interests remains potent.
On top of that, few species represent the breadth of conservation issues that we see in wolves. Red wolves got a new draft plan, too, and the first red wolf cubs since 2018 were born in the wild. Mexican gray wolves got a revised, if imperfect, restoration plan. Scientists outlined a plan to restore more wolves to more parts of the American West. Conservationists sued to restore national protections to wolves under the Endangered Species Act, after a judge reinstated protection for some populations outside the Rockies. Idaho and Montana moved forward on more plans to legally hunt more wolves. Poachers killed animals in Oregon and other states. Wolf populations increased in California and Oregon. Colorado moved forward on plans to reintroduce wolves to the state (and perhaps kill too many of them in the process). To understand why we included wolves on this year’s list, just look back to 2022. Photo credit: John & Karen Hollingsworth / USFWS – Pacific Region Wolves (Canis lupus) We’ll be watching to see if the numbers of Great Lakes piping plovers continue to climb and if their recipe for success can be applied to more at-risk birds. Shorebirds have suffered major declines as well - 10 species had population declines above 70 percent since 1980.
The biggest losses have been felt among grassland birds, where agriculture has destroyed native grasslands and introduced toxic pesticides. The one habitat exception was wetlands, where conservation dollars have poured in to help ducks and geese, who are popular with hunters. A 2022 State of the Birds report found bird populations declining in virtually every type of habitat, and 70 species have lost two-thirds of their populations in the past 50 years. It’s a bright spot in a dim overall outlook for birds across the United States. These efforts included “nest protection via enclosures and fencing, site monitoring, education and outreach, captive rearing, and annual banding,” reported Audubon. Habitat destruction from shoreline development and recreation likely played a big role in the decline.īut years of dedicated recovery efforts helped make 2022 a banner year for these plovers, with 150 chicks fledgling in the wild - the most since they were protected as endangered. The Great Lakes population of these shorebirds was listed as endangered in 1985 after it was lost from all of its range except Michigan, with just 19 pairs remaining. Photo credit: Bri Benvenuti / USFWS Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus)Ī rebounding population of Great Lakes piping plovers provides a glimpse at the success of dedicated conservation efforts and endangered species protections.
They don’t represent everything - there’s no way one list could encapsulate every threat facing endangered species, or every species deserving attention - but this should give you an idea of some of the reasons wildlife on this planet are suffering and the things we can do to help them. They represent species on the brink, those awaiting protection, those recovering, and those whose habitat could be disrupted in the coming year.
At the same time, we spend our days talking to and writing about people working to save these species from extinction - and that helps us sleep better at night.Īs we move into 2023, here are more than a dozen species we’ll be watching in the year ahead. Here at The Revelator, we spend our days reading and writing about endangered species and our nights worrying about them. Platt and Tara Lohan was originally published by The Revelator and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.