U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

U.S. officials decided to extend protections to monarch butterflies after warnings from environmentalists that populations are shrinking and the beloved pollinator may not survive climate change.

Boyd Hill Nature Preserve is an important habitat for gopher tortoises in southern Pinellas County. Recent deaths and a lack of protections for the species raise concern with the Center for Biological Diversity.

His ruling that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violated the Endangered Species Act shifts power away from the state.

The rare ghost orchid found mainly in Florida and Cuba should be immediately protected by the U.S. as an endangered species, three environmental groups claimed in a lawsuit arguing that federal officials are unduly delaying a decision.

Wildlife officials are using a new method to help control the explosive population growth of the invasive snake by tracking down their prey.

The ungainly yet graceful wood stork, which was on the brink of extinction in 1984, has rebounded dramatically in Florida and other Southern states, officials say.

“Florida bonneted bats desperately need critical habitat protection, and the Fish and Wildlife Service has excluded crucial areas threatened by development right now,” said attorney Ragan Whitlock with the Center for Biological Diversity.

While an original plan was presented in 2020, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now wants to designate approximately 1.2 million acres as critical habitat across 13 counties - this marks a 21% reduction from the previous proposal.

"There's an implication that the Fish Wildlife Service removed protections for gopher tortoises. They did not. If we wanted to think of the immediate protection level changes for the species, this finding document found no change," said Jeffrey Goessling of Eckerd College.

Rampant poaching of the ghost orchid has it in serious peril, and estimates of their numbers in the wild range from 750 to 1,500.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says increased protections are not warranted for gopher tortoises in Florida and other states, despite issues such as development moving into the animals’ habitats.

They are suing the federal Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to designate a 10.5-million-acre safe haven to protect the bats from sea-level rise.