Listing of Endangered Species

A declining species has to be added to the official list of endangered and threatened species before it receives any federal protection. But just getting on the list can be the hardest part. The Fish and Wildlife Service maintains a current list of endangered and threatened species online.

How Does A Species Get "Listed?"

Any person may petition the government to list a species as either endangered or threatened. An endangered species is any species "in danger of extinction through all or a significant portion of its range." A threatened species is any species "which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future." The decision to list a species is supposed to be based solely on science, not politics. The listing process is designed to take no more than 27 months. (In some limited circumstances an expedited or emergency listing may be given temporarily.)

What Is A Candidate Species?

Unfortunately, many species sit on the "candidate" list for years and years owing to adverse political pressure or funding constraints. If there is enough evidence that the species needs to be listed, but there is inadequate funding to finish the process, the Service usually declares the species' listing "warranted but precluded." For example, the Florida Black Bear has waited on the candidate list since 1992.

What Is A Candidate Conservation Agreement?

A candidate conservation plan is supposed to

help implement needed conservation measures for declining wildlife before they need federal protection. Unfortunately, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service sometimes use candidate conservation agreements to avoid needed listings when a species is politically controversial. There's an obvious problem with relying on future, unenforceable promises when a species needs to be listed immediately. The Atlantic Salmon, for example, is in dire need of federal protect

ion, but a voluntary conservation plan by Maine has given the agency an excuse not to list it.

Picture of Florida Black Bear

Legal Status: Threatened - Approximately 1,00 to 1,500 remaining.
(In Dec. l998 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied the black bear endangered status. The Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife are challenging this decision in Court because of the many threats and loss of habitat.)
Distribution - Most live in our four largest national parks in North and Central Florida and Big Cypress.
Habitat - Prefer forested areas with dense understory vegetation and swamps.
Threats - Fragmentation of habitats by roads and development and road kills. (75 bears were killed in 1997).
Family - Black bears are the smallest of North American bears. They are black with a brown muzzle and are very shy, nocturnal, animals. Some people are afraid of black bears because they have heard stories of some of their more aggressive cousins like the polar and grizzly bears. Unlike those bears, however, black bears will not attack humans..They are the only bears in North America that are able to climb trees as adults. Other bears get too heavy.
Food - Bears eat virtually anything that is edible. They are omnivorous. 80% of their diet is vegetable matter. They like tubers, bulbs, berries, nuts, young shoots, fruits, insects. acorns, eggs. small animals, flowers, grasses, carrion, .and honey. It is the liking of honey and berries that gets the black bears in trouble with Florida farmers.Black bears like to feed early in the morning or evening while it is cool. During the day they rest in large circular beds of palmetto leaves and other vegetation which they use as resting sites. They leave scratch marks on trees to signal their presence to other bears and to keep them away.
Winter Activity - Florida's black bears do not hibernate as bears do in the winter months up north. Instead they go through a period called "winter denning" between the months of late December and early May. Baby bears are born at this time.
Babies - Baby bears are called cubs and they are blind, hairless and very tiny at birth. They are born to the mother while she is in a dormant period. Usually only two cubs are born in a premature state weighing between 6 to 10 ounces each. The mother cares for them alone.Their home is a cavity in a tree, log or cave.

Do Not Feed the Bears :Never feed bears or leave your food out for bears to get because if a bear starts to get tasty food from humans he will go after humans looking for food and either the bear or the people might get hurt.