How Forensic Science Fights Poaching

An animal species placed on the endangered species list follows one of two paths: a continued downward slide to extinction or recovery of the population so that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) delists it. Delisting is the removal of a species from the endangered species list because its population has been restored to a sustainable level and is no longer endangered or threatened (or because it is known to have gone extinct despite protections). The goal of the Endangered Species Act is to recover an animal or plant population sufficiently to delist it. Downlisting is moving a species from one category to a less threatened category. For example, when an animal moves from endangered status to threatened status, it has been downlisted.

Three things must happen before a species can be considered for delisting. First, FWS officials determine that the species’ populations are no longer declining. Second, the population must stabilize—it can maintain its numbers without human help. Third, the species must increase in number to prove to officials that it can survive on its own in the wild.

After the three steps described here have been taken, the FWS does a five-point evaluation to decide if the species still needs protection, as follows:

1. Is the species’ habitat or range presently destroyed or threatened?
2. Is the species likely to be sought after for commercial, educational, or other purposes?
3. Is the species threatened by disease or predation?
4. Are there inadequate legal protections outside the Endangered Species Act?
5. Are other natural or human factors affecting the species’ existence?

 

Species protection laws and the U.S. ban on DDT have enabled nesting pairs of bald
eagles to increase in the continental United States. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
delisted the bald eagle from the endangered species list on June 28, 2007. Protections
continue under the Eagle Act, which controls killing or injuring of eagles or their nests.
Eagle numbers continue to increase.

If the FWS answers no to all of these questions, it then makes public its intent to delist the species. The public, scientists, and government offices have several weeks to comment on the delisting plan. After all the comments have been collected, the FWS publishes its decision to delist the species, and the agency removes the name from the list. Downlisting
follows the same steps. The FWS monitors all delisted animals for at least five years to assure that no changes in habitat or health have occurred to affect its survival.

 

Almost 50 species of animals and plants have been delisted from the endangered species list since its inception. The following tables show the final outcome of these species.

Animals that have been delisted because their populations recovered are the following (recovery periods in parentheses): Yellowstone grizzly bear, bald eagle (40 years); American alligator (8 years); peregrine falcon (29 years); Aleutian Canada goose (34 years); brown pelican, Atlantic coast (15 years); gray whale, Pacific coast (14 years), and gray wolf (Rocky Mountain, Minnesota, and Great Lakes populations). President George W. Bush removed the gray wolves of the upper Midwest from the endangered species list in early 2008, but the FWS sought