Endangered Species

A coalition of environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit this week alleging that U.S. wildlife agencies violated endangered species protections in their support of the proposed toll road through San Onofre State Beach. The suit, filed Wednesday in San Diego County District Court, calls the conclusions of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service biased, potentially leading to an "ecological disaster."

In the foamy chop of the warm-water discharge flowing into the San Gabriel River from a Long Beach power plant, a green sea turtle, wide as a manhole cover, materialized Friday just a few yards from shore. A few minutes later, an even larger sea turtle surfaced in the murky water near the plant's thicket of steel scaffolding, steam vents and transmission lines.

Biologists are hopeful that 30 pregnant butterflies released into a San Francisco Bay area wildlife preserve will help bring the species back from the brink of extinction. The Lange's metalmark butterflies were set free in the Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Preserve last week after being bred in captivity. The orange, brown and white species lives only in the 55-acre preserve, a rare remnant of sweeping sand dunes once common in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The U.S.

California's red-legged frog may be getting some of its land back. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed on Tuesday to more than triple the habitat set aside for the threatened frog, citing scientific miscalculations and political manipulation by former Interior Department official Julie MacDonald that had greatly reduced the protected acreage.

The tiny Devil's Hole pupfish, found only in a small, deep pool in the desert near Death Valley, has been teetering on the brink of extinction for years. In the spring of 2006 there were only 38 of them, down from roughly 500 in the mid-1990s. The reasons for the decline are unclear. But government scientists trying to reverse the trend appear to be enjoying a bit of success.

EBay Inc. will halt the sale of ivory on its websites, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday, after an investigation by an animal welfare group found the online auction giant was listing thousands of animal products taken from endangered species. The International Fund for Animal Welfare concluded that two-thirds of the questionable items available online globally were being offered on EBay and its affiliates.

These are wonderful times to be an island fox. A decade ago, the house-cat-sized animals were scampering toward extinction, with only a few dozen surviving at spots scattered around Channel Islands National Park. Now they're practically poster mammals for species revival, numerous enough that government scientists no longer have to breed them in the safety of chain-link pens.

The axolotl, also known as the "water monster" and the "Mexican walking fish," was a key part of Aztec legend and diet but is now threatened with extinction. Against all odds, it survived until now amid Mexico City's urban sprawl in the polluted canals of Lake Xochimilco, now a Venice-style destination for revelers poled along by Mexican gondoliers. The International Union for Conservation of Nature includes the axolotl on its annual Red List of threatened species, and researchers say it could disappear in just five years.

Hawaii will switch to digital TV faster than the rest of the country to make way for an endangered, volcano-dwelling bird. Most of the state will switch to digital TV on Jan. 15, more than a month ahead of the Feb. 17 nationwide mandatory conversion deadline. Federal wildlife officials recommended hastening the transition so that the Hawaiian petrel's nesting season on the slopes of Maui's Haleakala volcano wouldn't be disrupted by the destruction of the old analog transmission towers nearby.

More than half of California's native fish could be extinct by the end of the century because of the deteriorating condition of the state's rivers and streams, according to a scientific study released Wednesday. Peter Moyle, a UC Davis fish biology professor, determined after two years of research that 65% of the state's salmon, steelhead and trout are in danger of extinction. The report, commissioned by California Trout, blames in particular a decline of water conditions that Moyle contends is indicative of "a much larger water crisis that, unless addressed, will severely impact every Californian."