By Bryn Nelson
THE whoosh of a surfacing orca and the glower of a mother grizzly still have the power to raise goose bumps; a soaring California condor can yet astonish. But chances to admire many of our wildlife neighbors are becoming increasingly uncommon. Invasive buffelgrass is crowding out saguaros and other native cactuses throughout the Southwest, while melting sea ice is threatening the Pacific walrus and polar bear in Alaska. Mosquito-borne diseases are threatening Hawaii’s songbirds, and white-nose syndrome is wiping out bats in the East.
Even so, the nation brims with natural wonders and a treasure trove of diverse plants and animals. Conserved parklands, including our national parks and wildlife preserves and their state and local counterparts, provide bulwarks against further habitat loss and offer some of the best viewing opportunities for these rarities.
Some federally protected species, like the northern spotted owl and gray wolf, have become symbols of bitter political divides. Others, like the bald eagle and American bison, have regained their status as emblems of national pride. Nearly all can inspire travelers to go well out of their way to see, to hear or to experience something truly marvelous.
Here is a sampling of the wildlife that can be found. Animals and plants identified in boldface are either among the nearly 1,400 endangered or threatened species or populations, or among the 260 candidates waiting to be listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Northeast
Sandy soils and the coastal influence of the North Atlantic have fashioned a range of unique habitats here, from Maine’s blueberry barrens to New Jersey’s “pygmy forest” of dwarf pitch pine and scrub oak. Some natural wonders have already vanished, like the sea mink hunted to extinction in the 19th century. But visitors may still glimpse the increasingly rare New England cottontail rabbit in tangled thickets or the wetland-dwelling bog turtle and ringed boghaunter, an orange-striped dragonfly among the rarest in North America.
Two destinations better known for their beaches host a particularly impressive roster of coastal-dwelling curiosities. Wildlife is recolonizing Cape Cod National Seashore (nps.gov/caco), meaning increased sightings of weasel-like fishers, American oystercatchers and a booming population of seals. The seals, in turn, have attracted great white sharks to what amounts to a sandbar smorgasbord.
A springtime bonanza of plankton can lure endangered North Atlantic right whales to within spotting distance, while summer rains bring the reclusive eastern spadefoot toads from their burrows for an evening of frenzied mating in the Province Lands’ vernal pools. Protective mesh fences mark the well-camouflaged nesting sites of one of the region’s biggest natural attractions, the threatened piping plover.
Likewise positioned along the Atlantic migratory flyway, Fire Island National Seashore is prime birding territory in the spring and fall along the 32-mile-long barrier island. The piping plover and the endangered roseate tern breed here every year; plovers can sometimes be seen darting along the beach. Visitors to Sailors Haven can stroll the boardwalk through the dune-protected sunken forest, marked by American holly trees up to 300 years old and tangles of wild grape, greenbrier and other vines. The threatened seabeach amaranth, a low-growing, waxy-leaved plant with reddish stems, sprouts intermittently above the high tide line. Edible beach plums blanket the dunes’ backsides, and insectivorous plants like sundews grow farther inland in the low, moist soils.
Southeast
As more temperate climes give way to a tropical Caribbean influence, the seasons here compress into wet and dry; the continent ends in a confluence of wetlands and warm coastal waters. Habitats critical to the survival of many species are becoming worn around the edges, however, from the Mississippi River delta to Florida’s mangroves and the barrier islands of the Carolinas. For some regional icons, like the ivory-billed woodpecker, it may already be too late. But conservation efforts are helping other species hang on, such as the Tennessee purple coneflower, the Mississippi gopher frog and the Louisiana black bear.
One of the nation’s best-known wetlands and a historical trail provide prime access to the region’s untamed southern living.
Everglades National Park (nps.gov/ever), the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in the United States, is actually a patchwork of habitats extending from the outskirts of suburban Miami to Florida’s Gulf Coast. With a half-million acres underwater, the park claims the biggest protected mangrove forest in the Western Hemisphere as well as the continent’s most extensive stand of sawgrass prairie.
Shark River Slough, a “slow-moving river of grass” that ambles southward at 100 feet a day, is a dominant feature. Here, river otters snack on baby alligators while marsh rabbits venture out for a swim. The Cape Sable seaside sparrow — the “Goldilocks bird” — forages in the slough’s just-right marsh prairie, while the equally rare wood stork nests near the Shark Valley Visitor Center off Highway 41. Binocular-equipped hikers sometimes spot greater flamingoes during high tide from the end of Snake Bight Trail, north of the Flamingo Visitor Center, while right outside the center American crocodiles frequent Florida Bay’s brackish waters. The nearby Flamingo Marina is a good place to see the Florida manatee in winter, especially from a canoe or kayak; bottlenose dolphins frolic farther out in the sun-splashed bay. With an estimated population of less than 100 in all of South Florida, the Florida panther is far more elusive; most of the tawny wildcat’s prime habitat lies north of Interstate 75 in Big Cypress National Preserve (nps.gov/bicy).
Combining history with wildlife, the Natchez Trace National Parkway (nps.gov/natr) wends its way across 444 miles and three state lines: an 800-foot-wide ribbon of green with a roadway running through it from the foothills of the Appalachians in Tennessee to the bluffs of Natchez, Miss. Duck River, which flows along the parkway near milepost 404, supports a rich diversity of fish and mussels. Ruby-throated hummingbirds feast on orange jewelweed nectar near Rock Spring.
In 2003, biologists cheered the first confirmed sighting of small brown Mitchell’s satyr butterflies in the park, in wetlands dominated by sedges between mileposts 290 and 302. Black Belt prairie near Tupelo, with its loamy soil and chalky substrate, nourishes more than 400 plant species and abundant birds. Along the Pearl River watershed near milepost 125, patient observers may spot a petite ringed map turtle basking on fallen trees in the river, identifiable by the yellow rings decorating its bony carapace. And between mileposts 85 and 87, cautious drivers can catch sight of rare Webster’s salamanders crossing the road en masse after winter rains as they head from foraging grounds on limestone outcroppings to ephemeral breeding pools.
Midwest
Great Lakes, big rivers and meandering streams cover the nation’s midsection, including nearly 12,000 lakes in Minnesota alone. Together, these bodies of water harbor the highest diversity of freshwater mollusks in the world, an impressive collection imperiled by habitat degradation and the invasive zebra mussel. Dozens of species, including the acorn ramshorn, are presumed extinct. Others have made a comeback, with thousands of bald eagles spending their winters on the Mississippi. But survival is tenuous for natives like the Indiana bat, Kirtland’s warbler and nearly two-foot-long Ozark hellbender salamander.
Two parks hugging the Lake Michigan shoreline provide a rich sampling of the Midwest’s other varied inhabitants.
Near the tip of the “little finger” on the Michigan mitt, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (nps.gov/slbe) offers sweeping views of Lake Michigan, the famous Dune Climb and nesting sites for the endangered Great Lakes population of piping plovers. Spiky-leafed Pitcher’s thistle occupies the open dunes, and the delicate yellow-bloomed Michigan monkey-flower rises up from flowing springs of inland lakes. Elusive bobcats, snowshoe hares and northern flying squirrels populate the night. South Manitou Island reveals one of the region’s best natural bouquets of springtime wildflowers, an old-growth grove of giant northern white cedars and a dozen species of orchid.
At the southern tip of Lake Michigan, prickly pear cactuses grow beside Arctic bearberry along the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (nps.gov/indu). In midsummer, visitors hiking along the Inland Marsh Trail might glimpse the inch-long Karner blue butterfly feeding on nectar in an exceedingly rare black oak savanna, the largest such ecosystem in the nation. A true sphagnum moss bog adds unexpected diversity to a park featuring more than 1,100 plant species. Pitcher’s thistle grows here too, and piping plovers ply the sandy beaches. Migratory birds, including merlins and short-eared owls, use the shoreline of Lake Michigan as a navigational aid to reach their winter roosts.
Great Plains
The prairie has lent its name to a long list of flora and fauna: the western prairie fringed orchid and the prairie mole cricket make their homes here, as do both the greater and lesser prairie-chicken. Wild grasslands, though, are far from monolithic, with wet and dry, hill and savanna, tall and short varieties, each sheltering its own assemblage of life. Natural wildfires have been a part of the prairie’s lifecycle for millenniums, but the landscape is now one of North America’s most human-altered, challenging the resilience of species like the statuesque whooping crane and little Topeka shiner.
Some bastions of grasslands remain, including one set atop a remarkable labyrinth of limestone.
Below Wind Cave National Park (nps.gov/wica) in South Dakota, the world’s fourth-longest cave system extends in a maze of passageways filled with boxwork, frostwork and popcorn formations that occupy more than 135 miles. Above ground, a sea of grass gives way to vanilla-scented ponderosa pines. The resident bison herd, repopulated from 14 animals housed at the Bronx Zoo in 1913, numbers about 400 now and shares the grasslands with reintroduced elk and pronghorn antelope.
Black-tailed prairie dog towns, including one at Bison Flats, less than a half-mile from the visitors’ center, are magnets for the black-footed ferret, a major predator. Observant tourists on evening walks may spot one of the roughly four dozen ferrets reintroduced to the park in 2007 and 2010 peering back at them from a conquered prairie dog den. The prairie dog towns also attract thirteen-lined ground squirrels, prairie rattlesnakes and prairie falcons. The star lily’s snow-white petals and the jewel-toned American rubyspot damselfly appear like fragile grace notes, while hikers may see spirited dance competitions among groups of male sharp-tailed grouse in April or May as they vie to impress a mate.
Rocky Mountains
A rugged spine running up the continent from northern New Mexico through northern Montana into Canada, the Rocky Mountains form a natural dividing line for wildlife: white-tailed deer predominate to the east, while mule deer rule the west. Deer and other game have supported stealthy predators like the North American wolverine and Canada lynx, though the mountains have drawn their share of more destructive predation as well. Blister rust, an introduced fungal disease, is laying waste to increasingly rare whitebark pines; the invasive banded elm bark beetle is felling elms already weakened by drought or Dutch elm disease.
For a bit of comic relief, it’s hard to beat the elaborate courtship strut of the greater sage-grouse, while breathtaking beauty lies in one destination that still survives virtually intact.
With its million-plus acres of nearly pristine wilderness, Glacier National Park (nps.gov/glac) is a haven for grazing ungulates: moose and elk, bighorn sheep and mountain goats. Rarely seen gray wolves furtively hunt their prey. Tourists have a better chance of spotting one of the park’s roughly 300 grizzly bears from the Many Glacier Valley or Logan Pass trails (group outings are highly recommended, as is bear spray).
In this hiker’s paradise, tall white tufts of lilylike beargrass bloom unpredictably every three to seven years. The more bear-favored yellow glacier lilies cover hillsides high above turquoise glacial lakes like Grinnell and Cracker. Floating trumpet-shaped water howellia flowers grace the margins of wetlands linked to ephemeral kettle ponds. Bald eagles soar amid the peaks, American pikas scurry in the high country, and bull trout spawn in streams below. The park’s 25 glaciers are themselves endangered, expected to vanish well before 2030 if warming trends continue.
Southwest
The sun-baked Southwest might seem an inhospitable environment, but its astonishingly varied habitats host an array of plants and animals adapted to steep mountains and canyons, sere deserts and vast flatlands. The iconic great roadrunner still races throughout the region. Other indigenous species, like the desert tortoise and the enormous Colorado pikeminnow, have seen their home ranges shrink precipitously, and natives like the Mexican gray wolf and the California condor, both reintroduced in the 1990s, face uncertainty.
Big Bend National Park (nps.gov/bibe) encapsulates the seeming contradiction of a harsh desert teeming with life. The largest protected swath of Chihuahuan Desert in the United States, the 800,000-acre Big Bend borders the Rio Grande in southwestern Texas and rises in elevation from less than 2,000 feet to nearly 8,000 feet. The park’s aerial menagerie is unsurpassed in the nation, with confirmed sightings of more than 450 bird species, 180 butterfly species and 20 species of bat.
Birders can spy on a pair of nesting common black-hawks by Rio Grande Village, glimpse the only Colima warblers north of Mexico and even spot a black-capped vireo in the transition zone between mountain woodlands and desert. On the ground, visitors logged 175 sightings of mountain lions last year. More than 50 cactus species dot the desert with vivid blooms every spring, including the diminutive pink-fringed Chisos Mountain hedgehog cactus in the low open desert. In the summer, Mexican long-nosed bats stir at twilight to feed on the nectar of blooming century plants; in the fall, male tarantulas in search of mates cross the roads, their eyes shining diamond blue in the night.
Northwest
Vast evergreen forests end abruptly at the rugged Northwest coastline and the bracing waters of the North Pacific. In Alaska, the cold is not nearly enough to halt the melting of sea ice critical for polar bear survival, and humans are increasingly disturbing the arctic tundra habitat of the yellow-billed loon. Elimination of the northern spotted owl’s old-growth forest habitat through logging has spawned bitter political battles; meanwhile, the last known Tacoma pocket gophers were killed by domestic cats. Some endemic species remain in scattered pockets, like the giant Palouse earthworm, which can grow to more than three feet in length; the coastal meadow-dwelling Oregon silverspot butterfly; and the reddish-gray northern Idaho ground squirrel.
In Washington, the largest unmanaged herd of Roosevelt elk in the nation roams the impossibly green Hoh and Quinault rain forests of Olympic National Park (nps.gov/olym), where annual precipitation can be 12 to 14 feet. Record-setting Sitka spruce and western red cedar (their circumferences can reach 60 feet) are standouts in a forest of giants; when toppled, they can be swept out to sea along the peninsula’s 10 major rivers and then washed ashore as gargantuan pieces of driftwood.
From the viewing platform at Salmon Cascades on the Sol Duc River, visitors can see coho salmon jumping in October, while chinook salmon reaching up to 70 pounds will soon spawn freely up the Elwha River upon completion of an extensive dam removal project. Migrating gray whales can be spotted in March and April along Rialto or Kalaloch Beaches, though you will have to go a bit farther north to Lime Kiln Point State Park to see killer whales, or orcas. Native animals like the Olympic chipmunk frequent the edges of the national park’s subalpine forests; the increasingly rare Olympic marmot inhabits the backcountry. Hikers willing to become intimately familiar with tide charts may even spy sea otters lolling in secluded coves along the coastline and Steller sea-lions hauled out on the offshore rocks.
West
Within the seismically active Ring of Fire, the West has been shaken by volcanoes and earthquakes but tempered by the Pacific. The lovely western lily clings to the northern coast, while the fork-tailed California least tern visits the southern beaches during the summer breeding season. Inland, the Great Basin bristlecone pines of Inyo National Forest are among the most ancient living things in the world, with many dated to more than 4,000 years old.
Thousands of miles across the Pacific, Hawaii’s volcanic soils have nourished an exotic profusion of endemic plants and animals. Dozens of species have already succumbed to threats from the mainland, but hothouse wonders remain, including more than 30 types of the protected haha plants and the blind Kauai cave wolf spider.
Golden Gate National Recreation Area (nps.gov/goga), the nation’s largest urban park, also has among the highest number of endangered plant and animal species. Teeming tidal pools and more than 100 sea caves stud the rocky California coast, where brown pelicans dive for dinner. Harbor seals and California sea lions haul out at Point Bonita Cove as well as at Sea Lion Cove at Point Reyes National Seashore (nps.gov/pore), about 55 miles to the north. The San Francisco garter snake and its favorite meal, the California red-legged frog, haunt the wetlands at Mori Point in Pacifica. Colossal redwoods dominate Muir Woods National Monument, while fog-shrouded grassland, maritime chaparral and coastal scrubland adapted to the distinctive Mediterranean climate accommodate a remarkable assortment of endangered plants. Presidio clarkia, a delicate lavender-pink evening primrose relative, has taken to the harsh mineral soil above the parking lot at Inspiration Point in the Presidio in San Francisco. Stonecrop plants sustain the San Bruno elfin butterfly, whose larvae are tended by ant au pairs, and silver lupines nourish the iridescent mission blue butterfly.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (nps.gov/havo) boasts living marvels found nowhere else on earth. Visitors can spot a showy Kamehameha butterfly by mamaki trees, and admire one of Hawaii Island’s rarest plants, the hibiscuslike hau kuahiwi; it was rescued from the brink of extinction by decades of painstaking propagation, and now greets visitors by trail sign 11 in Kipuka Puaulu (Bird Park). In all, the park hosts 26 endangered or threatened endemic plant species, including the Mauna Loa silversword.
Five rare or critically endangered types of honeycreeper songbird persist at higher altitudes, where they can evade mosquito-borne diseases. Hawaiian petrels nest in lava tubes high on the slopes of Mauna Loa, while flocks of nene (Hawaiian geese) honk as they pass overhead in the early morning and early evening. Solitary Hawaiian monk seals rest on remote beaches, and backcountry hikers may spot a hawksbill sea turtle nesting at Keauhou, Halape or Apua Point from July through September.
10 Species Near Extinction
ALABAMA CAVEFISH (Speoplatyrhinus poulsoni)
Confined to underground pools in Key Cave National Wildlife Refuge, this rare species is dependent on aquatic animals that feed on bat guano.
ALALA OR HAWAIIAN CROW (Corvus hawaiiensis)
The entire population survives in captive breeding programs at Keauhou Bird Conservation Center and the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Hawaii.
BIG BEND GAMBUSIA (Gambusia gaigei)
A small fish reintroduced to three ponds in Big Bend National Park in Texas, its main threats are habitat loss and predation by introduced sunfish and other species.
COLUMBIA BASIN PYGMY RABBIT (Brachylagus idahoensis)
Conservationists are crossbreeding a small captive group with their close Idaho relatives and gradually reintroducing the progeny to central Washington.
FLORIDA BONNETED BAT (Eumops floridanus)
It persists in scattered roosts in South Florida, threatened by habitat loss and pesticides.
FRANCISCAN MANZANITA (Arctostaphylos hookeri ssp. franciscana)
A lone plant was spotted near the Golden Gate Bridge in 2009 and was relocated to a more secure site.
MIAMI BLUE BUTTERFLY (Hemiargus thomasi ssp. bethunebakeri)
Scattered individuals are found within Key West National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. Loss of coastal habitat, insecticides and poaching are threats.
OHA WAI (Clermontia peleana)
Presumed extinct for 90 years, this flowering plant was rediscovered in the Kohola Mountains of Hawaii. Seeds are being collected for propagation.
RED WOLF (Canis rufus)
Driven to the brink by overhunting and habitat fragmentation, this wolf has a wild population of about 100 in northeastern North Carolina.
WYOMING TOAD (Anaxyrus baxteri)
A fungal disease and predation have nearly wiped out the toad’s tiny population in two counties. Captive breeding programs are trying to save it.
(Source: www.nytimes.com )