For Endangered SpeciesFor Endangered Species
by Joan McKee
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Insect-phoria
For Linden Trial, clean water is a key to protecting tiny aquatic insects, like this rare caddis fly larvae.
When Linden Trial was a little girl, she didn't particularly like insects, especially grasshoppers. But as an adult, she studies aquatic insects-ones that live at least part of their lives in the water. One of these insects is the Missouri glyphopsyche caddis fly, found only in Maramec Spring.
"Adult caddis flies usually live only a few days and don't even have a mouth," Linden says. If bats or birds don't eat them first, they mate and lay eggs in the water. The eggs hatch into larvae which live underwater for nearly a year. To keep from being eaten by fish, the larvae build cases about 1 inch long from rocks and plants. They spin silk to line the case and to hold it together. "Sometimes snails get spun into the case if they don't move fast enough," Linden says.
There are 134 species of caddis flies in the Ozarks. The Maramec Spring caddis fly is different because the adult has short wings, and the larvae has red and black bands on its legs. The larvae are important to the environment because they feed on algae and leaves and help break them down into smaller parts that tinier aquatic insects can eat.
Caddis flies need clean, unpolluted water. In 1981 many aquatic creatures were killed when a pipeline broke and seeped fertilizer into the spring's water source. Right now, however, caddis flies are abundant in Maramec Spring, Linden says. Since they only live in one body of water, the species is considered rare and is listed as endangered in the state.
Cause for Crayfish
"Each of Missouri's 32 species of crayfish fills a slightly different role in a stream," explains Bob DiStefano, a crayfish researcher. Some of the rare and endangered ones live in only a few streams. For example, Mammoth Spring crayfish are found only in the Spring River and a few places in Arkansas.
The exact role of many crayfish, like the Mammoth Spring species, is not known because they have not been studied very much. That's why Bob spends a lot of time standing in streams and turning over rocks. What Bob does know is that crayfish are important to the health of a stream.
"Crayfish feed at different levels on the food chain," Bob says. "They eat living plants, dead plants, insects, and may even filter out minute plankton and bacteria from the water. They can always find food and are real survivors." In turn, they are the main source of food for many fish, such as smallmouth bass and goggle eye, in Ozark streams. Many mammals, birds and reptiles depend on them for food, too.
Munching on crayfish is not always easy because they are protected by a hard shell, or exoskeleton, on the outside of their body. In the first year, crayfish grow rapidly and may lose their shell-or molt-10 to 12 times. As adults, they molt about twice a year. After molting, the new shell is soft for about 10 days. During that time, they hide under a rock or log to protect themselves.
Bob continues to get his feet wet and look under rocks so he can learn more about the medium-sized, reddish-brown burrowing Mammoth Spring crayfish and the other crayfish in Missouri. Seven species are found only in Missouri, and 12 others live in both Missouri and Arkansas. You might enjoy turning over a few rocks yourself, just don't give any crayfish a free ride to another stream. When new species of crayfish are put in a stream-by kids or adults-they may compete with the ones that already live there. Over time, the new species may take over the original crayfish's habitat and cause them to die out.
Skunk Funk
At first glance, a spotted skunk may not seem to make a good neighbor. After all, when it feels threatened, it stands up on its front legs, lifts its tail and sprays an unpleasant scent on its enemy. The odor is much stronger than the larger striped skunk's. But early Missouri settlers usually didn't mind having them around. Spotted skunks are great mousers, and they kept rodents out of the farmers' corn cribs. They also ate insects that damaged crops.
The skunks didn't seem to mind that the farmers were plowing the prairies where they lived. They moved into the farmers' outbuildings, hay lofts and fence rows. There they were protected from predators, such as great-horned owls, coyotes, foxes and bobcats.
For a while spotted skunks were numerous, but in the 1950s their numbers started going down rapidly, says Dave Hamilton. He studies furbearers-animals that have furry coats, such as bears, otters, coyotes and skunks. Dave became interested in wild animals growing up in New Mexico. His favorite was black bears, which would occasionally kill his father's pigs. By the time he was 9 years old, he knew he wanted a job working with wildlife when he grew up.
Researchers like Dave aren't sure why spotted skunks started to disappear, but they suspect pesticides may be one reason. Farmers began spraying pesticides on their crops about the time the spotted skunk's population started to decline. Another reason may be loss of habitat. Few prairies remain, and crop fields are larger with fewer outbuildings and fence rows for protection.
Today spotted skunks are endangered in Missouri. The largest populations are found in the Ozarks, but some live in other parts of the state. In north Missouri they sometimes live in junk yards. Here they can find mice to eat and shelter from predators.
Boundless Birds
While growing up in St. Louis, Jane Fitzgerald saw lots of cardinals and blue jays, but birds didn't spark her interest until she studied them in college. "Watching a purple finch and an eastern towhee got me hooked," Jane explains.
Now she is the Midwest Regional Coordinator of Partners in Flight. This organization is dedicated to the conservation of birds, including those that migrate between North and South America. Jane lives in Missouri, but she does a lot of traveling, too. About once a month, she meets with people from Canada to Mexico to help protect the habitat of rare birds, such as the cerulean warbler.
A large population of these bright blue birds live in thick Ozark forests. They carry pieces of bark, lichen, moss and weeds to the tops of the tallest trees to build their nests. During the day, they hunt for insects to feed their young.
"Even though many still breed in the Ozarks, the cerulean warbler is in danger," Jane says. "The warblers used to spend the summer in forests across the United States. As large forests were destroyed, the number of warblers shrank."
In fall, the warblers fly more than 4,500 miles to the slopes of the Andes Mountains in South America. There, coffee farmers are cutting down many tall trees where the birds spend the winter. This may be one reason the number of warblers in Missouri has declined by 15 percent each year for the past 30 years.
"Cerulean warblers are good indicators of the health of the environment," Jane says. "Our responsibility is to keep large acres of forests for cerulean warblers and other forest species."
Phat Phish
What has razor-sharp spikes, an armor-plated body and lives at the bottom of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers? Pallid sturgeon, that's what-one of Missouri's endangered species of fish.
Bob Hrabik is a researcher trying to help these prehistoric-looking fish survive in their native waters. He and his staff drop nets deep into the Mississippi River year-round to see where sturgeon live and what habitat they prefer.
In winter, he usually finds them in deep pools and around wing dams-piles of rocks that affect the current and keep the river deep and straight for barges.
Pallid sturgeon are more abundant in Montana and North Dakota where people haven't made the rivers deeper. Because of these human changes to the river, sturgeon in Missouri probably have lost their spawning areas and shallow spots where young fish hang out, Bob says.
Netting and studying fish is not new for Bob. In Nebraska, he and his father seined fish for bait when he was a kid. "We looked at books to identify the fish we caught," Bob says. "I thought that was cool, so I started studying fish on my own. That's when I began looking for rare and endangered fish."
All fish are important to Bob, especially endangered ones like the pallid sturgeon. "All species interact with one another," Bob says, "and we don't know how many we can lose before the environment and balance of nature is ruined."
Plant Power
When plans were made to widen Highway 13 in St. Clair County, a tiny endangered plant was going to lose some of its habitat. Geocarpon grows only in shallow pockets of sandy soil on sandstone glades-and only on 23 sites in seven counties in Missouri and in a few places in Louisiana and Arkansas.
But geocarpon has a friend-Conservation Department botanist Tim Smith. He spends a lot of time on his hands and knees studying this 1 1/2-inch tall plant. "We don't know much about geocarpon," Tim admits, but he learned enough to know how to move the plants that were being displaced by the wider highway. Tim found a rock glade on the other side of the road and transplanted the geocarpon there.
Tim has learned that geocarpon plants like wet soil, so they do most of their growing in the spring. Tiny green flowers that resemble leaves bloom in April and May. From May to early June, the flowers turn into fruit filled with small seeds. By June, the plant has finished growing and dies. If the seeds end up in another pocket of sandy soil, they sprout and grow a few leaves in the fall. In winter, they stop growing. In spring, the cycle begins again.
What Tim doesn't know is how the seeds move around. He suspects they are carried to new locations by rain. There are many mysteries to this tiny plant, and Tim carefully monitors them on several locations. "I would be interested in any Missouri plant that only grows on a few sites worldwide, whether it was a tiny geocarpon or a tall tree," Tim says. "It's our responsibility to maintain these plants. We want to keep Missouri rich in species."
Extirpated or Extinct?
(or "Gone from Missouri" or "Gone from the Earth?")
Conservationists use different terms to talk about plants and animals and how well they are doing. These terms help them organize the many thousands of species said to be "of conservation concern." This means biologists have studied how and where the species live, noticed there are fewer of them, and they are worried about their survival.
Extirpated plants and animals are gone from Missouri but are surviving in other places in the U.S.
Examples: red cockaded woodpecker, Ozark big-eared bat, American burying beetle, Bachman's warbler, red wolf, gray wolf, small whorled pogonia, smooth green snake. Number of extirpated animal and plant species in Missouri: 87
Otters, turkey, geese and deer once were almost extirpated in Missouri. Biologists trapped some of them in other states, brought them to Missouri and released them in good habitat. These animals now are flourishing, and Missourians can once again hunt them without fear of harming the whole population.
Roughly 925 of our 5900 plants and animals living in Missouri are on Missouri's rare and endangered species list. For example,
These figures do not take into account all the insects and complete number of plants in Missouri. Many species are still unknown.
Extinct plants and animals are gone not just from Missouri, but from the entire Earth. Three extinct species once lived in Missouri.They are the passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet and ivory-billed woodpecker.
When we lose a species, we lose in several ways:
Extinction is forever. Endangered means there is still time.
In Trouble Throughout the U.S.
In 1973 Congress passed the Endangered Species Act to
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service keeps a list of animals and plants that are protected by the Endangered Species Act. There are over 940 animals and plants from the U.S. on the list. In the 300 years before the Act became law, biologists estimate that more than 500 species became extinct. Since the Act was passed, only 7 of the listed species have become extinct.
Missouri is home to many of these plants and animals on the federal list of endangered and threatened species.
Mammals:
Birds:
Fish:
Mussels:
Plants:
E = endangered. An endangered species is in danger of extinction throughout the area in which it is found. Often just a few of the species are left.
T = threatened. A threatened species is one that could become endangered in the near future.
Living With Missouri's Endangered Species
Missouri is home to 14 animals and seven plants that are in danger of becoming extinct and many more that are in trouble. Some are found only in isolated, remote places, while others live right near cities and towns. Some may even live near your home. If they are going to survive, they need us to
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