On the death of species
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This week, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed taking 23 animals and plants off the endangered-species list \\u2014 because none can be found in the wild. What this tells us about climate change, and things to come.
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The ivory-billed woodpecker is officially extinct, along with 22 other species of plants and animals.
\\u201cJust having to write those words was quite difficult,\\u201d Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Amy Trahan told climate reporter Dino Grandoni, choking up. \\u201cIt took me a while.\\u201d
The woodpecker was known as the \\u201cLord God Bird\\u201d because it was supposedly so beautiful that anyone who saw it would blurt out the Lord\\u2019s name.
Grandoni said that some scientists think the Endangered Species Act came too late to save a lot of animals.
But maybe not all hope is lost.
\\u201cMy inbox today, after publishing the story online, is full of photos from amateur photographers in their backyards of woodpeckers, asking me if this is the bird that people are saying has gone extinct,\\u201d Grandoni said. \\u201cThis might spur some interest in people going on and understanding the birds and other animals that are still with us.\\u201d
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