SOS: Reintroducing Endangered Species
1A
NPR
4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 6 December 2023
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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, including black-footed ferrets, which were once among the rarest mammals in the world.
We discuss how decisions over reintroductions are made and check in on the battle over a gray wolf release program in Colorado.
This episode is part of our series, "SOS: Save Our Species," which takes a closer look at the Endangered Species Act and its impact 50 years later.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | According to the Center for Biological Diversity, about a million species are under the threat of extinction. |
| 0:14.0 | But some of those species that were once on the brink of death have been brought back. |
| 0:18.0 | That includes the black-footed ferret. |
| 0:20.0 | Once among the rarest mammals in the world, their numbers dwindled to only 18 in existence in 1987. |
| 0:27.0 | Decades of reintroduction efforts later, about a thousand black-footed ferrets are in the wild today. |
| 0:33.6 | Reintroduction can be a successful way to re-establish a wild population, but how are decisions |
| 0:38.7 | around reintroduction made and who makes them? |
| 0:41.8 | To help answer those questions, we visit Colorado where the most |
| 0:44.5 | recent fight over reintroduction is taking place. In 2020, Colorado voters passed a |
| 0:49.6 | ballot measure demanding officials reintroduced gray wolves into Western parts of the state by 2024. |
| 0:56.3 | As that deadline approaches, questions remained around how the wolves will affect the region. |
| 1:01.1 | Perry Will is a Republican state senator from Colorado's Western |
| 1:04.2 | Slope and a retired state game morden. Here he is speaking to NPR's Kurt Seagler |
| 1:09.3 | about the Wolf release program. I wish there was room for wolves in this state. I truly do. But my |
| 1:15.8 | professional opinion and my opinion as a wildlife biologist is that ship sailed a long time ago. |
| 1:24.0 | We're discussing the Endangered Species Act and its impact 50 years later. |
| 1:28.0 | For this episode of our series, SOS Save Our Species, |
| 1:32.0 | we're taking a closer look at reintroduction efforts, what works, what doesn't, |
| 1:36.2 | and who decides. We'll get to those questions and more after the break. |
| 1:40.3 | I'm Jen White, you're listening to the 1A podcast where we get to the heart of the story. |
| 1:44.8 | Stay with us. We've got a lot to get into. This message comes from NPR sponsor Indochino. |
| 1:54.0 | It feels great to give the perfect gift, |
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