The interior variant of the least tern has soared off the endangered species list. The coastal variant of the least tern is also not on any federal endangered lists. Photo Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Animals USAThis Bird Flies Away from Endangered Species List
After 35 years of concerted efforts to protect and restore its habitat, the interior least tern, a bird from the Midwestern part of the United States, is now off the endangered species list.
“Dozens of states, federal agencies, tribes, businesses and conservation groups have worked tirelessly over the course of three decades to successfully recover these birds,” says Aurelia Skipwith from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
According to Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity, the efforts to bring back the interior least tern from the brink of extinction is “considered an Endangered Species Act success story for sure.” When the species was listed as endangered in 1985, there were less than 2,000 interior least terns remaining, as well as a few dozen nesting sites along the shores of rivers in the Great Plains and the Lower Mississippi Valley. Through the Endangered Species Act, measures were put in place to change river management strategies and to place dredged material to encourage the creation of new nesting and dwelling sites. Today, there are more than 18,000 terns and some 480 nesting sites in 18 states.
