The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced yesterday that the believe two species in Florida have vanished into the long dark night: the South Florida rainbow snake (Farancia erytrogramma seminola) and the Florida fairy shrimp (Dexteria floridana). The species were under review for possibly being added to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), but it’s likely the review came decades too late.
“We don’t have anything in our files that indicates that they’ve been seen in 50 years or more,” said Chuck Underwood, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service. “We don’t think they’re out there anymore.”
A subspecies of the rainbow snake, the South Florida rainbow snake was known from Fisheating Creek, near Lake Okeechobee. Whereas, the Florida fairy shrimp was known from pools south of Gainesville. The pools, and subsequently, the species were likely destroyed by development.
The review of the species came from a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to the government to look at over 400 aquatic species in the US. In addition, the organization recently reached a legal decision with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to speed up decisions on 757 species that may warrant protection under the ESA. Many species linger for decades before being granted a scientific hearing on their eligibility for protection under the ESA.
“It’s heart-wrenching to learn that these two unique Florida species have been lost forever,” said Tierra Curry, a conservation biologist with CB, adding that “like most species that go extinct, these two were not protected under the Endangered Species Act, which is the most powerful tool we have for saving our nation’s plants and animals from disappearing.”
Scientists warn that the Earth is entering a mass extinction period with extinction levels jumping to 100 to 1,000 times the average rate over the past 500 million years. Unlike other mass extinction events, however, this one is due largely to the actions of one species: humans. Species are imperiled by habitat loss, deforestation, climate change, pollution, overexploitation, invasive species, among other impacts.
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