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
Slide Show: Hundreds of Troubled Species Await Official Protection
- Coho Salmon - proposed for listing Oncorhynchus kisutch, the coho or "silver" salmon, is one of seven subspecies of wild salmon. With a North American habitat stretching from northern California to Alaska, the fish spends its youth in freshwater and adult years in the ocean, but eventually returns to its freshwater birthplace to spawn and die... © iStockphoto/Allan Robichaux
- Miami Blue Butterfly - candidate species The Miami blue butterfly is one of many south Florida butterflies in danger of extinction. The Miami blue once proliferated in the Keys, the Everglades and Biscayne National Park, but just a few years ago researchers estimated that fewer than 500 individuals remained on the planet... © Paula Cannon
- Nanu Gardenia - candidate species Hawaii's Nanu Gardenia was once used to make traditional leis that were worn around the neck, but it is now one of Hawaii's endangered endemic plants. In the dry, high-altitude forests where the wild Nanu tree grows, it can measure up to 15 feet tall... Forest & Kim Starr
- New England Cottontail Rabbit - candidate species The New England cottontail lives in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. The current population may be as low as 5,000—a paltry population for an animal whose average life span is six months, says Michael Amaral, spokesperson for the Fish & Wildlife Service... John A. Litvaitis
