Poor water quality and habitat loss are driving Ireland's terrestrial and freshwater snails, along with related species into extinction, according to new research by the National Biodiversity Data Center (NBDC), a three-year-old organization established to study that country's biodiversity.

The study (pdf) of nonmarine Irish mollusks found that of 150 species, one third are threatened with extinction. Two are now regionally extinct, five critically endangered, 14 endangered, 26 vulnerable and six near threatened. (These classifications are those of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, to which this report's data has been contributed.)

Of the 150 species in Ireland, 15 are invasive, including the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha), which is outcompeting native swan mussels and duck mussels (Anodonta cygnea and A. anatina).

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Few things in my life have brought me as much joy as watching sea otters play in the waters near Monterey, Calif. So when I heard this week that the frisky yet endangered critters may be slightly expanding their habitat, I figured everyone would think that was good news.

Silly me.

Once hunted into near-extinction for their fur, the southern, or California, sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) now numbers around 2,600 to 2,700 animals, all of which live in a fairly small habitat range off the central California coast. The problem is that their extant habitat is the only place the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) grants them protected status. (Although they are also protected under California state law and the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, those laws do not govern habitat.) Everything south of their current habitat is designated a "no-otter zone".

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Now that you know we're getting six more weeks of winter, why not snuggle up in front of the computer to ponder the fates of the groundhog's less fortunate cousins.

The prairie dog—the "groundhog of the West" as it is sometimes known—needs all the attention it can get. All five species of prairie dogs are on the decline, and their habitat has practically disappeared, now standing at less than 10 percent of their historic ranges. And yet only one prairie dog species, the Mexican prairie dog (Cynomys mexicanus), is currently protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Several U.S. zoos are using Groundhog Day to call attention to prairie dogs, dubbing today Prairie Dog Day. The Denver Zoo had a big celebration on Sunday, and the Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden in Evansville, Ind., had its big to-do this morning.

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Can't the blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) get some love? This ugly, gelatinous, inedible fish now risks extinction thanks to humans trawling marine murky depths for lobsters and crabs.

Blobfish live at depths of 800 meters off the southeastern coast of Australia. The species has a very limited habitat, and can't survive elsewhere.

"The Australian and New Zealand deep-trawling fishing fleets are some of the most active in the world, so if you are a blobfish then it is not a good place to be," Callum Roberts of the University of York in England told the Daily Telegraph. "We've been overfishing areas up to about 200 m[eters] deep, and now we have moved off those continental shelves and into the deep sea in areas a couple of thousand meters deep."

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DNA testing could be used as a tool to help fight smuggling of endangered chimpanzees, according to a study published this week in the journal BMC Ecology.

Although they are still the most common apes in Africa, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes and their related subspecies) have experienced population drops of around 75 percent in the past 30 years, and are listed as "endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Much of this decline is because of poachers and smuggling. A live chimpanzee can fetch $20,000 on the international black market. The animals are also often victims of the bushmeat trade.

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There's been a lot of whinnying lately over the fate of wild horses in the U.S.: How many there should be? What happens to the ones that get culled? Should they remain wild at all? The fates of these iconic animals has people on each side of the debate, including celebrities like Sheryl Crow, up in arms, and the clutter of opinions makes it hard to cut through to the facts. For example, is it true that the government sells wild horses for slaughter? (We'll get to the answer later.)

Horses, of course, are not native to modern North America. There were horses in North and South America millennia ago, but they died out around 13,000 B.C. The Spanish conquistadors reintroduced horses to these shores in the 16th century, and equine have played a major role in the history of North America ever since.

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would not help stop the spread of invasive Asian carp by ordering the closure of locks between Chicago-area waterways and Lake Michigan. A suit from Michigan and four other states, plus Ontario, had requested closing the locks to block Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan and damaging its ecosystem, as they have done elsewhere in the country.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Asian bighead (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) and silver (H. molitrix) carp were imported into the U.S. in the 1970s as a method to remove algae from catfish farms. But flooding in the 1990s overflowed farming ponds and sent the large, voracious fish into the Mississippi River, where they have managed to outcompete, outbreed and out-eat local species.

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Which is more important, an endangered bird or sustainable energy? That has become the question in Wyoming, where a recent ruling by the state's governor has blocked future wind-turbine development in about 20 percent of the state in a move to protect the greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus).

The controversial move came after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) instructed Wyoming to consider the impact to sage grouse habitat before approving any new oil or gas development, wind turbines or other development in areas where the bird lives.

According to Reuters, Gov. Dave Freudenthal actually made the decision to protect the sage grouse to try to avoid more restrictive rules that would come under an Endangered Species Act listing. "The guidelines laid out by the BLM will definitely be considered (in a listing decision)," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) biologist Pat Deibert told Reuters.

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Two of the world's biggest freshwater fish are in big trouble, come reports from scientists in North and South America.

First up, the genetically distinct Kootenai River population of white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), North America's largest freshwater fish. This massive monster has been known to reach almost six meters in length and weigh half a metric ton, but its size hasn't offered it any protection. In fact, it has made it more attractive, and the species has historically been heavily overfished.

The problem in the Kootenai River isn't overfishing, although it is man-made: Montana's Libby Dam, built in 1974. The dam prevents the river from the very flooding that used to tell the sturgeon it was time to spawn. Before the dam was built, an estimated 10,000 white sturgeon lived in the river. Now, just 500 remain, and they have not spawned in the wild in 35 years. Oops.

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If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can win $1,000 or more by locating and helping to conserve endangered species.

It's all part of the Golden Gate National Parks Endangered Species Big Year, a yearlong contest where participants can seek out 36 endangered species, including mammals, fish, plants and insects within the confines of the 88,000-square-acre park system.

But you need to do more than just find the species; you also need to take an action to help protect them. And those actions aren't easy. For example, to get credit for seeing the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii), you also need to volunteer and help restore the frog habitat at Mori Point. For the marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus), a bird threatened by oil spills, you need to give up your car and walk, ride a bike, or take public transportation to work for a week.

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