8 years of amazing #WildlifeWin stories

The island foxes were first listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2004. The removal of three subspecies of island fox, which are native to California’s Channel Islands, is the fastest successful recovery for a mammal in the history of the Act. Spread out over the Channel Islands, each island has its own unique subspecies, showing the fox’s rich evolutionary history!

In 1902, the Louisiana Black Bear gained national attention as President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear his hunting party had trapped. Despite this fame, only an estimated 150 black bears remained in Louisiana by 1992. Happily though, with protection from the Endangered Species Act, an estimated 500-750 Louisiana black bears now roam across Louisiana and Western Mississippi.

With rapidly decreasing habitat and overhunting, the Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel was listed as threatened in 1967. It took nearly half a century of conservation efforts between federal, state and private partners, but the Delmarva fox squirrel was removed from the list in December 2015. Now safe from the threat of extinction, the largest variety of tree squirrel in North America will be scampering across the peninsula for years to come.

Like the island foxes, the Island night lizard is a species native to California’s Channel Islands. It took 36 years of conservation efforts after the lizard was first listed in 1977, but concerted efforts to protect the lizard’s habitat have revitalized the species. Fun fact, unlike most reptiles that lay eggs, the island night lizard gives birth to live young!

Only found in cedar glades and cedar barrens -- exceptionally rare habitats known for their shallow soils and limestone bedrock -- the Tennessee purple coneflower was removed from the endangered species list in 2011 after more than 30 years of conservation efforts. Since 1979, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has made huge strides in protecting the species by building fences to protect coneflower colonies from damage by outdoor recreational vehicles, removing competing vegetation, and using prescribed burns at many sites to improve habitat conditions.

First declared an endangered species nearly a quarter century ago, the Steller sea lion was taken off the list in 2012 after National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists determined the species was no longer endangered by the threat of extinction in the foreseeable future. Steller sea lions are a vital link in the marine food web, contributing to the long-term health of the marine environment. 

Louisiana, long known as the “pelican state,” risked losing its iconic brown pelican population in 1970 after the species was devastated by the pesticide DDT and from widespread coastal habitat loss. Thanks to a 1972 ban on DDT and collaborative efforts by states, conservation organizations and private citizens, the bird has fully recovered. More than 650,000 pelicans can now be found across Florida and the Gulf and Pacific coasts. 

Lake Erie’s Western Basin was once described by European explorers as Les isles aux serpents, or the Islands of Serpents, because the water snake was so abundant. Found nowhere else in the world, this medium-sized, non-venomous snake was almost pushed to extinction in the late 1990s from extensive habitat destruction and human persecution. Thanks to widespread conservation efforts, the snake’s population has since rebounded -- an incredible feat for a species with one of the smallest home ranges of any animal in the country. 

This large lizard-shaped reptile was designated an endangered species in 1975. Since its status changed from endangered to threatened in 2008, the Morelet's crocodile population in Florida has more than doubled, and its distribution has expanded significantly. 

The Oregon chub’s small size isn’t the only reason it was hard to find in the early 1990s. In 1993, only eight populations of the fish remained because of changes in river flow that resulted from the construction of dams across western Oregon. Happily, the Oregon Chub Working Group organized in 1991 to ensure the species’ longevity. The group’s efforts have been a resounding success, as the number of Oregon chub populations has risen to 75 -- topping more than 140,000 of these minnows.

Unlike most squirrels that eat nuts, the West Virginia northern flying squirrel primarily eats lichen and fungi. These food sources were threatened when the squirrel’s habitat shrank by over 900 million acres in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and led the squirrel becoming endangered. Happily, initiatives like the Central Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative have supported efforts to restore the squirrel’s habitat, which allowed it to be delisted in March 2013.

Magazine Mountain shagreen snail: This slow-moving and tiny dusky brown snail can only be found on the cool slopes of Magazine Mountain in Logan County, Arkansas. First listed as a threatened species in 1989, its population has since stabilized due to the outstanding cooperative recovery efforts of the U.S. Forest Service and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. 

When it was first listed as endangered in 1985, only seven individual Maguire daisy plants were thought to exist in the entire world. This dime-sized daisy’s massive decline in population was blamed on excessive mineral exploration and off-road vehicle recreation. Since then, federal land management agencies have worked intensively to ensure long-term protections for the Maguire daisy and its habitat. The current number of known individuals now nears 163,000 in southeastern Utah. 

Habitat loss in the creeks of northern California and southern Oregon led to listing the Modoc sucker as endangered.  A number of interventions, such as installing livestock-excluding fences along waterways to preserve the creeks, have allowed the fish’s status to be downgraded to “near threatened.” Now found in 42.5 miles of habitat (compared to only 12.9 miles when it was put on the list in 1985), conservation efforts continue swimmingly for the Modoc sucker.

Due to habitat modification and destruction, the Concho water snake was threatened with extinction in 1986. A central Texas native, the snake can only be found in the Colorado and Concho rivers, and on several other artificial shoreline habitats. In cooperation with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Colorado River Municipal Water District, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has worked to stabilize the snake’s population and removed the species from the federal list of threatened species in 2011. 

Known for turning bright red in the fall, Johnston’s Frankenia joined the endangered species list in 1984 when there were only 6 known populations containing less than 1,000 plants, all of which were on private land. Cooperation between the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, The Nature Conservancy and Texas Department of Transportation have allowed the plant to regain its former health. Today, Johnston’s Frankenia is going strong across southwest Texas and northeast Mexico, with at least 68 populations containing over 4 million plants.