SAVE THEM ALL, especially the rodents: Today’s Endangered All-Star is the Texas Kangaroo Rat, once an essential part of the grasslands, working in conjunction with bison and prairie dogs to maintain the health of the prairie ecosystem. Over the past century, however, the rat has fallen victim to the use and abuse of much of its habitat as cattle-ranching has turned grassland into grazing land. Once common, the species has disappeared from Oklahoma and is now reduced to pockets in only a few Texas counties. WildEarth Guardians has petitioned to list the rat as endangered, along with a suite of other prairie creatures: spot-tailed earless lizard, the prairie chub, Platte River caddisfly and the Scott’s Riffle beetle. For more on these species, visit the Guardians’ Western Ark page.
Loading…}