Two of Southern California's rarest butterflies, the tiny Hermes copper and Thorne's hairstreak, could become the first known species in the state to be driven into extinction after the sweeping autumn wildfires.
The butterflies are among two dozen endangered and threatened species that researchers are tracking after the devastating blazes, which scorched more than 740,000 acres and destroyed thousands of homes.
Endangered gnatcatcher birds could have a difficult time finding food this year. Mountain yellow-legged frogs, long a favorite of summer campers in the San Bernardino Mountains, probably lost their largest population when a creek burned twice, then was buried in mudslides.
"When I saw the magnitude of devastation, I realized in my lifetime I might see one, possibly two species ... go extinct," said Michael Klein, a biological consultant who toured known butterfly colonies while the fires still smoldered. "I felt sick to my stomach."
While the wildfires may have provided the final blow, environmentalists and some scientists say the real reason the butterflies are threatened is because their habitat has been devoured by development. Federal wildlife officials also have failed to act despite decades of evidence chronicling the decline, critics say.
"There's been totally ridiculous bureaucratic bumbling on the [U.S.] Fish and Wildlife Service's part ... resulting in a very tragic situation today," said David Hogan of the Center for Biological Diversity in San Diego, who lost a bid to declare both butterfly species endangered in 1992.
However, regulators said that, while they are concerned, reports of the demise of the two rare butterflies are premature.
"Of course we're worried about these species, but until we do some surveys this spring, I'm not going to go into crisis mode," said Alison Anderson, a federal biologist in Carlsbad.
If the butterflies do disappear, they will be part of a surge of extinctions worldwide because of encroaching development, some scientists say.
"The Hermes copper is one of the most unique butterflies in North America ... millions of years old," said Greg Ballmer, a UC Riverside entomologist.
"It's just like the Pleistocene era. The humans came in and all the large mammals disappeared from North America. The woolly mammoths, the saber-toothed cats, the camels, the wild horses.... We wiped out species ... and we're doing it again."
