Endangered Wildlife Species

Fungus Quickly Decimates Endangered Frogs

The well-documented demise of an endangered frog reveals how swiftly the deadly chytrid fungus can decimate amphibians.

North America's Losing Its Bumblebees

One bumblebee species that was once common throughout its range from Georgia State to Ontario, Canada has all but disappeared.

Amphibians at Greatest Risk Have Common Traits

The largest analysis ever undertaken of what makes the existence of amphibians most precarious finds a single characteristic predominates.

Economics Override Protecting Endangered Species

Whether the Canadian government follows scientists' advice to legally protect an endangered animal depends upon whether the species has any commercial value.

Accelerating Towards Extinction

Once an animal species drops below 50 individuals, there is little likelihood the species will survive in the wild without help from humans.

Animals at Risk Concentrated in Southern BC

Research into the distribution of land animals in British Columbia, Canada finds that most species whose numbers are declining reside in the southern part of the province.

Lost Ladybug Rediscovered

The puzzling demise of nine-spotted lady beetles took a new twist in 2006 when one of the insects was collected in an Arlington, Virginia home.

Endangered Mammals

Searching for Wood Bison Habitat

Much of the habitat in northern Alberta that once supported wood bison is gone.

Diseases From Pets Endanger Threatened Wildlife

Infectious diseases have contributed to at least 31 extinctions worldwide and currently jeopardize 43 threatened mammal species.

North American Porpoise on Brink of Extinction

Scientists have raised the alarm that less than two years remain before it's too late for saving a rare North American porpoise from going extinct.

Wolverine Declines Continue

Wolverines have disappeared from many parts of North America over the last century, and recent research shows that some of the remaining populations continue to plummet.

Predators Decimate Vancouver Island Marmot Colonies

From field observations it appeared that Vancouver Island marmots frequently were not surviving hibernation, causing their drastic drop in numbers.

Cougar Population Plummets

Hunting took a huge toll recently on the cougar population straddling the international border between BC’s Kootenay region and northern portions of Idaho and Washington states.

Seals Less Successful in Equatorial Oceans

An assessment of 34 species of seals, sea lions and walrus finds that certain natural environmental factors link with a species' vulnerability to extinction.

Mountain Caribou

Snowmobilers Keep Caribou Out of Prime Habitat

Field research now confirms what anecdotal evidence previously suggested: snowmobiling causes mountain caribou to abandon high-quality winter habitat.

Mountain Caribou Herds Heading for Extinction

Several subpopulations of mountain caribou in British Columbia, including three with fewer than seven individuals in 2002, face imminent extinction.

Natural and Human Barriers Constrict Mountain Caribou Range

Mapping the landscape features preferred or avoided by mountain caribou reveals almost no high quality terrain remains for these endangered ungulates south of the Trans-Canada Highway in British Columbia.

Forestry Opens Caribou Habitat to Wolves

Researchers plugging expert consensus about caribou ecology into a Bayesian network model have come up with a transparent decision-making tool to help maintain woodland caribou habitat.

Rarest Small Mammals in North America

These ten rabbits and rodents have been documented as some of the rarest and most critically endangered in Canada and United States.

Mammals No Longer in Canada

Five mammals have gone extinct in Canada and another fourteen are extirpated from individual provinces.

Killer Whales

Critical Killer Whale Habitat Identified

Researchers propose that two marine areas of British Columbia be legally designated as critical habitat for resident killer whales under Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA).

Whales Threatened by Toxic Chemicals

Fire retardant chemicals are accumulating in British Columbia’s killer whales at concentrations high enough to likely harm their health.

Killer Whales Disturbed by Boats

When boats appear in the vicinity, northern resident killer whales spend 18% less time feeding on salmon.

Endangered Birds

Ivory Gulls Mysteriously Disappear

Colonies of ivory gulls nesting on gravel plateaus of northwestern Baffin Island used to be so thick that local Inuit mistook the birds from a distance for patches of snow.

Marbled Murrelets Forced to Change Their Diet

Marbled murrelets may be having difficulty finding enough food for producing eggs because commercial fisheries have depleted the birds’ critical food supplies.

What Marbled Murrelets Need to Avoid Extinction

Scientists conclude that maintaining between 0.6 to 1.2 million ha of coastal old-growth forest could ensure that marbled murrelets survive in British Columbia.

Vehicles Hit Hundreds of Owls

Cars and trucks hit 950 owls that were later found lying along highways in the lower Fraser Valley of British Columbia, killing all but ten.

Endangered American White Pelican Colony Rebounds

British Columbia's only breeding colony of the endangered American white pelican has doubled in size since 1988.

Future Looks Bleak for Spotted Owls

Protecting more old-growth forest habitat will do little to increase British Columbia’s spotted owl population within the next decade.

Screech Owls Disappear From Vancouver Region

Western screech owls, once commonly observed in forests throughout British Columbia's lower mainland, had disappeared from 22 sites by 2002.

Rarest North American Birds

Several species and subspecies of birds have plummeted in recent history from great abundance to the edge of extinction.

Endangered Fish

Hundreds of Pacific Salmon Populations Now Extinct

Scientists conservatively estimate that well over one-quarter of native Pacific salmon populations spawning in rivers and lakes from California to southern British Columbia have gone extinct.

Extinct Pacific Salmon Populations in the US

Lists of regional losses and population extinctions of native salmon in the western United States.

Exotic Species Endanger Native Fish

Non-native fish are already implicated in the extinctions of five fish species in Canada and they threaten the continued existence of many others.

Bull Trout Form Two Discrete Lineages

Analysis of bull trout from British Columbia’s coastal rivers finds that this species of special conservation concern comprises two genetically distinct groups.

Logging Predicted to Extirpate Bull Trout

Forecasts indicate that bull trout will become extirpated from many portions of Alberta’s Kakwa watershed within the next 20 years.