According to a press release by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, two beetle species, the Stephan’s riffle beetle of Arizona and the Tatum Cave beetle of Kentucky, have gone extinct. What is so regrettable about this is how close these beetles were to being protected. Because the Tatum Cave beetle had been missing since 1967, this beetle and the Stephan’s riffle beetle had been identified as needing protection status in 1984 by the Fish and Wildlife Service. However, the group failed to complete the necessary paperwork for their protection under the Endangered Species Act and thus declared them officially extinct on October 5th of this year. Environmental damage from construction projects and weather was cited as a reason for their decline.
It is terrible that at least one of these species of beetles came so close to being saved from extinction. However, incidents like this reveal how easy it is to cause a whole species to go extinct especially ones that are confined to certain areas. Organizations like the Fish and Wildlife Service must deal with hundreds of organisms quickly becoming endangered due to humans continuing to move into previously unaltered land and rising temperatures changing the seasonal climates organisms are used to. There needs to be a greater focus on conserving the environment or environmental protection for certain species may not be enough to protect them from extinction.
References
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Two Unique Beetles in Arizona, Kentucky Go Extinct After Lengthy Delays in Protection. The Center for Biological Diversity. The Center for Biological Diversity, 5 Oct. 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.
