11/4/2023 0 Comments Forager puzzles not workingPrehistoric range sometimes matters too,” he said in an interview. “It would seem in a recovery context, historical range should be considered. become drier and warmer.Ībsent a willingness by wildlife managers to think more broadly, he said, species like the Bolson tortoise could have a bleak future. He pointed to the case of the tortoise, noting that suitable habitat is moving north again as conditions in the Southwestern U.S. While it's been eons since the tortoises roamed wild in what is now New Mexico, Mike Phillips, director of the Turner Endangered Species Fund, said it's time for biologists to reconsider what ecological reference points should matter most when talking about the recovery of an imperiled species.Ĭlimate change is reshuffling the ecological deck and changing the importance of historical conditions in the recovery equation, Phillips said. Their habitat also is shrinking as more desert grasslands are converted to farmland. The wild population in Mexico is thought to consist of fewer than 2,500 tortoises, and experts say threats to the animals are mounting as they are hunted for food and collected as pets. Fossil records also show it was once present it the southern Great Plains, including parts of Texas and Oklahoma. Now found only in the grasslands of north-central Mexico, the tortoise once had a much larger range that included the southwestern United States. The tortoise is just the latest example of a growing effort to find new homes for endangered species as climate change and other threats push them from their historic habitats. It's a step toward one day releasing the tortoise more broadly in the Southwest as conservationists push the federal government to consider crafting a recovery plan for the species. “What we’re doing here is establishing a population here that can be handed off to the next generation,” Sartorius said. Shawn Sartorius, a field supervisor with the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the results of the breeding and restoration efforts for the slow-reproducing and long-lived animals will not be known in his lifetime. The tortoises usually spend about 85% of the time in their earthen burrows, which in some cases can be about 21 yards (20 meters) long.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |