Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Click the screenshot to go straight to the Defenders Facebook Adoption Center

Want to make this holiday season even more meaningful by helping to protect wolves, polar bears, sea turtles and other threatened and endangered wildlife?

Then check out Defenders’ new Facebook application that lets you:

• Send free, wildlife-themed eCards to your friends and family to celebrate special occasions—or just to say you’re thinking of them
• Create a wildlife adoption wish list that your friends can use to buy you a gift that supports a cause with special meaning for you
• Adopt one of our 28 different animals for your own friends and family (or yourself!)
• Invite your friends to fundraise with you to help save our wild animals and special places

… All without ever leaving Facebook!

Get Started!

NOTE: When you first go to the application, you’ll receive a pop-up that asks you to authorize the application to collect information it needs to work properly. (The pop-up may have a different appearance depending on your browser.)

Click to see full-sized version

Send Free, Wildlife-Themed eCards

The Defenders Facebook Adoption Center lets you send eCards with beautiful animal photos to your friends to wish them happy holidays, celebrate their birthday, or just to say “Hey!” It’s a great way to show you care for your friends—and our wildlife treasures.

Got Questions?

Pleaswe email webmaster@defenders.org with any questions you have about the application and someone will respond to you as soon as possible.

Have you heard about what’s happening in Wyoming?

The state is gunning to shoot wolves on sight across nearly 90% of the state — even on national forests and other publicly owned lands. Worse, state officials are now pushing the policy with the blessing of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service!

This is the greatest threat to the recovery of wolves in the Rockies today!

Defenders of Wildlife has set an ambitious goal of sending 100,000 messages to save our wolves. Already, nearly 60,000 people have taken action, but we need your help to meet our goal.

Here are two ways you can help right now:

1. Take action. Tell U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe that you OPPOSE the premature delisting of wolves in Wyoming.
2. Spread the word: Post this action on Facebook and Twitter.

The Obama Administration’s proposal allows indiscriminate wolf killing across the vast majority of Wyoming… even on national forests and other lands owned by the American taxpayer.

Congressional action has already eliminated important federal wolf protections in Idaho and Montana. Now the Obama Administration is walking away from its responsibility to ensure a healthy wolf population in the region by backing Wyoming’s flawed wolf plan.

Under these plans, wolf numbers in Wyoming and throughout the Northern Rockies may be driven below sustainable levels.

Vital dispersal of wolves to other states where wolves have historically made their homes – particularly Colorado and Utah, which have no established wolf packs yet – may also become next to impossible.

And states like Idaho and Montana may even be tempted to follow Wyoming’s lead, ushering in new policies that would allow wolves in those states to be killed on sight as well.

We only have until January 13th to make our voices heard. Please speak out for the future of wolves in the West. Take action now.

The fall colors are brilliant at the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge, Mass. Photo credit: James Weliver/USFWS

The temperature has begun to drop. Apple cider is appearing on grocery store shelves. All around us, trees are exploding into fiery reds, yellows and oranges. It’s officially fall! And what better way to enjoy the sound of leaves crunching underfoot than exploring your favorite national wildlife refuge?

Visit a National Wildlife Refuge Near You

This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is celebrating National Wildlife Refuge Week, an occasion that recognizes the 555 national wildlife refuges dedicated to the protection of wildlife and habitats, and encourages you to get out and enjoy them! Last year, some 45 million Americans visited a national wildlife refuge, which are located in every state and within an hour’s drive of most major cities.

Protect a National Wildlife Refuge Far Away

But a walk in the woods (or prairie, wetland or coastline) isn’t the only way to show your appreciation for these treasured lands. In fact, you have the opportunity right now to celebrate a national wildlife refuge most people may never see with their own eyes: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Arctic refuge is the most important onshore habitat for denning polar bears. Photo credit: Norbert Rosing/National Geographic Stock

The Arctic refuge is one of America’s most important natural treasures, supporting a wide array of wildlife including arctic foxes, grizzly bears, muskoxen, Dall sheep, wolves and wolverines. Its coastal plain is the most important onshore denning habitat for America’s vanishing polar bears, as well as the calving ground of the Porcupine caribou herd. But Big Oil continues to threaten this remarkable area, falsely claiming that the amount of oil that lies beneath the refuge will solve our country’s energy crisis.

You can help prevent industrial-scale oil and gas development that would destroy the pristine nature of the Arctic refuge’s coastal plain forever. By asking the US Fish and Wildlife Service to recommend that Congress designate the refuge’s coastal plain a wilderness area, you can help bring us one step closer to protecting the coastal plain and the wildlife that it protects for good. Don’t let National Wildlife Refuge Week go by without taking action - stand up and be heard!

Beginning in 2013 the possession, sale and trade of shark fins in California will no longer be legal. It came down to the wire but California’s Governor Jerry Brown signed AB376 into law on October 7, 2011. This is a big win for sharks and a great victory for the many organizations who worked tirelessly on this legislation. We here at Defenders want to give a big ‘thank you’ to all the supporters who wrote to their congressional members and the governor lending their voices of support for passage of the bill.

Over 73 million sharks are killed each year by finning, a process that involves cutting off the shark’s fins, often while it is still alive, and throwing the shark back overboard where it can sink to the ocean floor and eventually die. Many shark populations have collapsed worldwide due to overfishing, with some populations declining as much as 90-99%. California now joins a growing worldwide movement to protect this rapidly dwindling species.

After signing the bill Governor Brown had the following to say: “The practice of cutting the fins off of living sharks and dumping them back in the ocean is not only cruel, but it harms the health of our oceans.  Researchers estimate that some shark populations have declined by more than 90 percent, portending grave threats to our environment and commercial fishing. In the interest of future generations, I have signed this bill.”

If you’d like to send a letter to California lawmakers and let them know you appreciate them protecting wildlife please head to Defenders’ Wildlife Action Center and send them your thanks!  

Black-footed ferrets search prairie dog tunnels for food.

A weekly homage to endangered species, large and small

The world wouldn’t be the same without BFFs. But we’re not talking about “best friends forever”. We’re talking about black-footed ferrets—a key indicator species in prairie ecosystems across the United States and one of the most endangered mammals in the world.

This year marks the 30^th anniversary of the ferret’s rediscovery. The celebration is a chance to reflect on their amazing success story and the importance of the Endangered Species Act (ESA)—our nation’s landmark wildlife conservation law. Without the ESA, we might not have any BFFs at all, not to mention bald eagles, gray wolves, or many of the treasured species that have been preserved and restored under its protection.

Check out all of the events celebrating 30 years of rediscovery and reintroduction for the black-footed ferret.

• September 24-25: Celebration at Phoenix Zoo (Phoenix, AZ) includes live black-footed ferret display and children’s programs.
• September 24-26: “Badlands 30th Anniversary Ferret Festival.” Hosted by Badlands National Park at Park Headquarters, Interior, SD. Park admission. Children’s programs, live ferret, public spotlighting by reservation, education programs and more.
• September 26: Celebrate at National Zoological Park, Washington DC. Seminars and other black-footed ferret programs.
• Many more.

 For A full list of scheduled programs, visit Black-footedferret.org

Don’t Call It a Comeback

Like many endangered species, ferrets have lost significant territory to agricultural development. Black-footed ferrets are one of three remaining ferret species in the world and the only wild ferret species that lives in North America. They can grow up to 2-feet long and weigh more than 2.5 pounds. Although they appear similar, domestic ferrets (found in pet stores) are members of a separate species from Europe.

Black-footed ferret

As settlers moved west in North America, they began to reshape the lands inhabited by black-footed ferrets. With the invention of the plow, native prairieland was converted into farmland. Prairie dogs (which make up about 90 percent of black-footed ferrets’ diets) were reduced to about two percent of their historic population due to poisoning by farmers who considered them a nuisance. With their major food source becoming scarce, the future for the black-footed ferret seemed increasingly hopeless. In 1967 they were listed as an endangered species. Still, faced with persistent habitat loss and new diseases including sylvatic plague, black-footed ferret populations continued to dwindle. In 1979 when the last remaining captive ferret died at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, MD, the black-footed ferret was declared extinct.

However, in 1981 a small population of the black-footed ferret was discovered in Meeteetse, Wyoming. Dedicated conservationists jumped on the opportunity to help the species survive and recover. Seven of the captured ferrets successfully reared young, and, through captive breeding and reintroduction, 19 populations have been reestablished in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, Chihuahua and Saskatchewan.

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that about 750 ferrets now live in the wild (half of the population goal outlined in the 1988 Black-footed Ferret Recovery Plan).

WHAT GOOD ARE THEY?

The success of the ferret is good news for the prairie. The Great Plains are home to more than 20,000 animal species including more than 100 that are found nowhere else in the world like the black-footed ferret. The ferrets are key indicators of healthy ecosystems as they help manage prairie dog populations. The ferrets themselves are a food source for larger predators like owls, coyote and badgers. They are important members of the ecosystem both as predators and prey on the prairie.

Today, black-footed ferrets continue on the road to recovery, but the journey is far from over. These animals once numbered in the tens of thousands and now number only a few hundred. Even the laws that helped save the ferrets face challenges.

Government agencies and conservation groups, in cooperation with private landowners and communities helped restore the small predators to their rightful habitat under the protection and guidance of the ESA. Unfortunately, there are new legislative proposals to undercut current endangered species protections and prevent protection of imperiled species in the future.

It will take continuous efforts to help the black-footed ferret achieve long term sustainability and even more resolve to help other species reach similar success through an Endangered Species Act that has itself been threatened.

Learn more about black-footed ferrets:

• Black-Footed Ferret Fact Sheet
• Check out Defenders Work to save ferret habitat
• Download this sweet ferret poster and share it with your friends to show your support for endangered wildlife. Help us celebrate the big 3-0!