You might be surprised how many threatened and endangered animals there are. In the U.S. alone there are over 1,300. In the world 9,000+ species are endangered, 12,000+ are vulnerable, and another 6,000+ are near threatened. Today, we will focus on one state and look at five beautiful animals we need to save from extinction in North Carolina.
1. Red-Cockaded Woodpecker
The Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (dryobates borealis), like the other animals on this list, is endangered. It is speculated that their population has declined due to the suppression of natural fires. Their habitat is normally mature pine forests with a cleared understory, but with a lack of fire this is harder to come by.
Their family life is pretty unique in the animal kingdom. Ideally, families consist of a mating pair that is assisted by up to 4 “helpers”, often their male offspring. These helpers assist with the incubation of eggs along with other tasks such as the feeding of offspring.
Their diet consists mainly of insects. Males tend to stick to branches and the upper reaches of the trunk, while females search for food on the lower trunk. For nesting sites the woodpeckers look for pine trees infected with red heart fungus because this leaves the tree with a soft inside and hard outer bark. They will find or hollow out a space in the tree, normally around 40 feet above the ground.
2. Carolina Gopher Frog
The Carolina Gopher Frog (lithobates capito) is an endangered frog living in the southeastern United States. Their color can range from grey to almost black, covered in darker spots all over their body.
For most of the year these frogs will reside underground. They are named for using the burrows of gopher tortoises, but in North Carolina they make due with substitutes like root tunnels and crayfish burrows. Their range is located along the coast, extending from North Carolina all the way down to Alabama. Their diet consists mainly of invertebrates (beetles, spiders, etc.), but they are known to also eat small toads and frogs on occasion.
Their breeding grounds are generally ephemeral pools that contain no fish. They attach their eggs to underwater plant stems, and after the tadpoles emerge it takes around 12 weeks to mature. Their mating call is rather strange for a frog, emitting a low growl to attract partners.
3. Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel
The endangered Northern Flying Squirrel (glaucomys sabrinus) of North Carolina. They have brown fur with an underside that shifts from grey at the base to white nearing the head.
The Carolina northern flying squirrel’s habitat is found at higher elevations. They like to reside in mixed red spruce and hardwood forests, or mixed spruce and fir forests. Their range consists of high mountain ranges in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Their diet consists primarily of fungi and lichen, oddly enough. They also supplement their diet with insects, seeds, and fruit.
Northern flying squirrels will create a den in a range of places, from hollowed out cavities in trees to underground rock burrows. They will build a nest out of shredded yellow birch barch, sometimes with an outer shell made from sticks. Adults often have between 3 and 8 den sites that they move between and occasionally share with fellow squirrels.
4. Eastern Corral Snake
The Eastern Coral Snake (micrurus fulvius) is listed as endangered. The eastern coral snake is venomous, reaches approximately 2 feet in length, and is identifiable from its rings of black, yellow and red repeating down its body. It shares colors with the scarlet snake and scarlet kingsnake, but sets itself apart from these non-venomous lookalikes because its red rings touch the yellow ones, which is not true for the other two species.
If you are bitten or suspect you were bitten by an Eastern coral snake or any other species, call the NC Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.
Coral snakes in North Carolina are often found in sandy, brush covered habitats. They spend the majority of their time underground, so the chance of encountering them with such a small population is slim. The snake’s diet consists mainly of other snakes, sometimes other coral snakes. They are also known to hunt lizards, birds, fish, frogs, and insects.
Coral snakes live in burrows underground. They reproduce by laying 6 or 7 eggs in the summer, which hatch into fully venomous offspring in the fall. They are the only venomous snakes in North America to lay eggs, all other species give birth to live young. Check this page out for more details on the Eastern coral snake.
5. Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle
The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle (lepidochelys kempii) is listed on both the federal and state level as endangered. They are not only the smallest marine turtle in the world, but also the most critically endangered.
They are characterized by a grey-green top shell, and an off-white or light yellow bottom shell (although hatchlings are all black). Adults weigh in on average at 100 pounds, with a shell length of around 24 inches. Their front flippers come equipped with a single claw respectively, while the back flippers may have one or two a piece.
Kemp’s ridley sea turtles often reside in estuaries, preferably in areas with seagrass. For nesting, they try to choose beaches by large swamps that have season, narrow connections to the ocean. Hatchlings will spend between 2 and 10 years in the open ocean before they return to shallow waters on the shoreline where they stay until they reach adulthood. Their staple food of choice is crab, but they will also consume jellyfish, mollusks, and fish.
Kemp’s ridley sea turtles will spend most of their lives by themselves, only interacting with other sea turtles for mating and nesting. They reach adulthood at around 15 years of age and can live up to 50 years in the wild.
We, humans, have control over the fate of many of these endangered animals. Extinction can be natural, but the pollution and changes we are bringing to the planet are accelerating this process and causing it to occur in species that would otherwise have healthy populations.
Going forward we need to take steps as a society to protect nature and its inhabitants by reducing and eventually eliminating the damage we are causing to the planet. This is only possible through a combined effort between governments and cooperation across many different fields, and requires not only a willingness but a drive to build a better future.
