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A million species are under the threat of extinction, scientists say.
Since the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, 11 species on that list have been declared extinct in the United States.
One tool being used to combat the extinction crisis is species reintroduction — the process of re-establishing a species population in an area they’ve been driven out of.
Reintroduction has been successful in the U.S. before, with a variety of species. Black-footed ferrets were once among the rarest mammals in the world, with only 18 in existence in 1987. Decades of reintroduction later, about a thousand black-footed ferrets are in the wild today.
But how are decisions around reintroduction made? We’ll check in on the battle over a gray wolf release program in Colorado, and answer your reintroduction questions as part of our weeklong biodiversity series — SOS: Save Our Species.
Since the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, 11 species on that list have been declared extinct in the United States.
One tool being used to combat the extinction crisis is species reintroduction — the process of re-establishing a species population in an area they’ve been driven out of.
Reintroduction has been successful in the U.S. before, with a variety of species. Black-footed ferrets were once among the rarest mammals in the world, with only 18 in existence in 1987. Decades of reintroduction later, about a thousand black-footed ferrets are in the wild today.
But how are decisions around reintroduction made? We’ll check in on the battle over a gray wolf release program in Colorado, and answer your reintroduction questions as part of our weeklong biodiversity series — SOS: Save Our Species.
SOS: Reintroducing endangered species
Posted from the1a.orgPosted in these groups: 
WildlifeState of Colorado
WildlifeState of Colorado
Posted 5 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
"With the seemingly endless stream of bad news relating to the environment we’re often faced with these days, hearing ecosystem restoration or conservation success stories are always a welcome relief. With the number of species that have been displaced from their native habitats, the news of an endangered species being successfully introduced to a new area should be shouted out. So you cannot blame a conservation geneticist like me for jumping happily when I heard news of the release of the European bison and Tasmanian devil back to their native habitat.
The word that the media has been using is “release”, which is one of the most important steps in “species reintroduction”. Species reintroduction is the process whereby a species re-establishes a population where they have previously been driven out of. It starts with choosing the individual, making sure it is healthy, and then choosing where to release it.
Maintaining an insurance population is not an easy task. I was watching the plenary talk of Carolyn Hogg at the Biodiversity Genomics 2020 Conference when she explained how she has been assisting captive breeding effort of Tasmanian devils using genetics and genomics approaches. She even co-edited a book titled “Saving the Tasmanian Devil: Recovery through Science-Based Management” to document the whole journey.
After hearing her talk, I felt how amazing it would have been to be able to reintroduce a previously endangered species back to where they belong. While enviously hearing about how the Australian government seem to highly appreciate evidence-based policy *cough*, I noted her step-by-step journey in using genetic data to save the devils."...
"With the seemingly endless stream of bad news relating to the environment we’re often faced with these days, hearing ecosystem restoration or conservation success stories are always a welcome relief. With the number of species that have been displaced from their native habitats, the news of an endangered species being successfully introduced to a new area should be shouted out. So you cannot blame a conservation geneticist like me for jumping happily when I heard news of the release of the European bison and Tasmanian devil back to their native habitat.
The word that the media has been using is “release”, which is one of the most important steps in “species reintroduction”. Species reintroduction is the process whereby a species re-establishes a population where they have previously been driven out of. It starts with choosing the individual, making sure it is healthy, and then choosing where to release it.
Maintaining an insurance population is not an easy task. I was watching the plenary talk of Carolyn Hogg at the Biodiversity Genomics 2020 Conference when she explained how she has been assisting captive breeding effort of Tasmanian devils using genetics and genomics approaches. She even co-edited a book titled “Saving the Tasmanian Devil: Recovery through Science-Based Management” to document the whole journey.
After hearing her talk, I felt how amazing it would have been to be able to reintroduce a previously endangered species back to where they belong. While enviously hearing about how the Australian government seem to highly appreciate evidence-based policy *cough*, I noted her step-by-step journey in using genetic data to save the devils."...
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