No longer endangered, this squirrel is ‘back to the brink of extinction’ in Louisiana

Neil Lalonde found himself 40 feet above the ground one spring morning, reached the nest of a loblolly pine tree, and pulled out a 5-day-old bird. small ones on the ankles, which would help his team identify it later, and he gently returned it to its nest.

Lalonde, project manager for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said: “People think that being a timber biologist is a job for wimps. Physical climbing. We use ladders that are 10 feet long and they are curved, so every 10 feet you’re stacking another ladder.”

Lalonde and his team go through all this trouble to keep track of the number of cockaded woodpeckers at the Great Lacombe Wildlife Refuge, and their work is paying off.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Oct. 24 that this bird’s numbers have recovered enough to reclassify it as threatened rather than endangered. In fact, the population of this bird in the southeast has greatly improved since people like Lalond have invested time and energy in conserving it.

“Through decades of collaborative efforts from many different partner organizations, we have brought this species back from the brink of extinction, ensuring that future generations can will continue to see these amazing birds thrive in their natural habitats,” said the US Department of Defense Secretary. of Interior Deb Haaland in a statement last week.

Some environmental groups, however, think the move is premature, meaning increased risks to the bird’s habitat.

Raising their children in family groups

These birds are slightly longer than the No. 1 pencil. 2 and most of them are black and white. The red “cock” from which they are named refers to the red vein that is not visible on the back of the male’s head. They captivate scientists because they do something that other birds do not: They raise their young together, in family groups.

Jeffery Walters, a biology professor at Virginia Tech who has spent more than 30 years studying red-cockaded woodpeckers, says: “Some people, instead of leaving home, stay with their parents and raise their younger brothers.

Sticking to their families, which scientists say is a “group,” helps these birds to eventually find a good place to build their nests.

When their population was at its lowest in the 1970s, the Department of Fish and Wildlife estimated that there were only 1,470 groups of redwoods across the US. higher than 7,800, according to the agency.

Walters can boast about that. He and his team created an artificial nest that conservationists have been installing in living pine trees. They are used at the Main Branch in Lacombe, as well as in other locations across the country.

That helps them because the woodpecker is the only bird that digs holes in living pine trees to build their nests, which can take years to complete. Artificial nests speed up the process, and can open up more habitat for birds. Conservationists can also quickly drill them out of trees after wildfires, hurricanes or tornadoes topple trees with active nests in them.

Success in the Great Sector

Once they’ve built a hole, they pierce the bark around the tree to release sap, which flows down the pine tree trunk and helps protect the nest from predators, said Barret Fortier, a US Fish biologist. and Wildlife Service.

John Doresky, Fish and Wildlife coordinator for the redwoods campaign said: “It’s like a ditch can be a fortress.

The success of the red woodpecker in Louisiana is largely due to the work that Fortier, Lalond and their teams have done to maintain the bird’s population. Woodpeckers are what scientists call “conservation dependent.” People have to do certain things – like the burning of pine forests – to keep them alive.

Forter has counted 60 birds this year in the Big Branch, spread across 24 family groups, 20 of which are believed to be breeding. “They’re always hanging around,” he said.

Soon?

Although the number of this bird has increased significantly, some environmental groups have said that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s move to list this bird from endangered to threatened is premature. They cited increasing threats to the bird’s habitat from climate change, especially strong hurricanes that could wipe out the mature pine forests that the trees need to survive.

“There’s been a lot of progress made to conserve redwoods,” said Ben Prater, Southeast Program Director for Defenders of Wildlife, a national conservation group in Washington. , DC However, he called the decision to drop the list now “premature.”

But for Fortier and Lalond, the work continues. They said they will continue with the work that allows the population of these birds to return, regardless of whether this species is listed as endangered or threatened.