Critter Science
The Science of Animals
They’re slow-moving, gentle grazers of sea grasses that mean no harm to anyone. The manatee, aka sea cow, is found in only a few locales in the world and there are only 3 known species of these docile creatures in the world today: the West Indian manatee, the Amazonian manatee, and the West African
Out of the world’s known 15 crane species, the endangered whooping crane is among the rarest. As of this year (2020), there are an estimated 25 new breeding pairs from 125 birds. The whooping crane is North America’s tallest bird, standing at over 5 feet tall! Even though they are
The red wolf is the world’s most endangered canid, having lost approximately 99.7% of its original territory. Sadly, due to poor management, there are only about 14 known pure red wolves left in the wild. Currently, there are lawsuits to force FWS (Fish & Wildlife Service) and NCWRC
Once found throughout the Great Plains in North America, the black-footed ferret is one of the most endangered animals in the U.S. They depend upon prairie dogs for food, almost exclusively, and use their burrows for homes and raising young. Consequently, their fate is coupled to that of prairie
The Mexican grey wolf is considered critically endangered by the IUCN. Only 115 Mexican gray wolves live in the wild and about 300 exist in captivity. Campaigns of poisoning and trapping in the early to mid 1900s nearly caused them to go extinct. Even though their
Found in silt heavy streams, the Gila trout calls Arizona and New Mexico home. These troubled trout have faced adversity for ages. More recently at the hands of agriculture and rerouting rivers and streams. Gilas are among the rarest trout species in the
Once upon a time the Chiricahua leopard frog was found in over 400 water locations in the Southwestern U.S. Now the frog can be seen, if you’re lucky, at less than 80! In Arizona, the Chiricahua’s populations have dwindled more than any other leopard frog species. These frogs need
The Galápagos tortoise is the largest tortoise on Earth. Sadly, out of the 15 known subspecies of these tortoises, only 11 remain in the wild. They live in dry lowlands to more humid highlands. Galápagos tortoises were hunted during the 17th, 18th, and 19th century to near extinction
The kakapo, aka the owl parrot or night parrot, is a parrot that can only be found in New Zealand. This bird is critically endangered, and is the primary focus of a large conservation effort by the Kakapo Recovery program of the New Zealand Department of Conservation
Potoroo is a common name for a species of Potorous, a genus of smaller Australian marsupials. There are 3 known species of potoroo in Australia. All three are threatened by ecological changes since the English came to Australia. Two primary issues are predation by