Slide Show: Hundreds of Troubled Species Await Official Protection

Making the endangered species list isn't easy when the queue is 280 species long view the slide show

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

View the slide show of threatened species that have yet to make it onto the endangered species list.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and its parent agency, the Department of the Interior, have lately come under fire for their management the Endangered Species Act. Last week a document was leaked that reveals plans to revise the law without prior congressional approval.

While agency officials claim that the proposed changes would improve the act's consistency and clarity, environmental groups contend that they would loosen restrictions on timber and other industries, undermine wildlife protections, and reduce the total number of federally protected species. Within days of the leak, federal investigators sent a report to Congress revealing that a high-ranking Interior Department official has been altering reports written by scientists, effectively weakening safeguards for vulnerable species.

None of it sounds like good news for the plants and animals sheltered by the Endangered Species Act. But what about all the species imperiled but not yet protected? Currently, there are 280 species whose populations appear to be in trouble but remain in limbo, awaiting the government's verdict: to list, or not to list. "It's a huge, long, [bureaucratic] process" that takes years, explains Valerie Fellows, spokesperson for the Fish & Wildlife Service. Currently, two species are proposed for listing, meaning that they are under active consideration; another 278 remain on the candidate list, which is the waiting list for proposal. What are some of these proposed and candidate species?

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American