WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Texas Kangaroo Rat Could Gain Endangered Status

Government Issues Positive Finding on Guardians' Petition
Contact: Nicole Rosmarino (505) 699-7404

Washington, DC-March 8.  U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar published a decision in today’s Federal Register that the Texas kangaroo rat warrants further review for protection (listing) under the Endangered Species Act.  The decision comes in response to a January 2010 petition filed by WildEarth Guardians.  The Texas kangaroo rat was first made a candidate for Endangered Species Act protection in 1982, but lost that status in 1996. 

“The Texas kangaroo rat has waited nearly thirty years for legal safeguards under the Endangered Species Act,” stated Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians.  “Facing an onslaught of threats, including destruction of its habitat from crops, this animal is vanishing quickly.  The next step is the most important: that the federal government decide promptly on whether to grant this species endangered status.”

In his decision today, Secretary Salazar recognized threats to the kangaroo rat from destruction of habitat due primarily to agricultural crops; and a a lack of legal protections.

In its petition, Guardians demonstrated that human activity has pushed Texas kangaroo rat populations into tiny pockets of the animals’ former range.  Farming, cattle grazing, and land development over the past 150 years have completely destroyed or altered nearly all Texas kangaroo rat natural habitat.  Humans have killed off the bison and prairie dogs and have long extinguished the natural fires that created and maintained the open grasslands and shrublands Texas kangaroo rats need to survive.

These kangaroo rats once inhabited at least 15 counties in Texas and Oklahoma along the Red River.  The species now appears to be completely extinct in Oklahoma.  They can now only be found in 5-6 Texas counties; only three of which have significant populations.  Scientists predict that Texas kangaroo rats will lose 48-80 percent of their already shrunken habitat in less than 40 years due to climate change.  Federal protection for Texas kangaroo rats could bring the diminished and degraded prairie back to life as well giving this species a fighting chance at survival. 

Guardians petitioned the Texas kangaroo rat (Dipodomys elator) as part of “Prairie Week” during its BioBlitzes in 2010.  Other species for which Guardians took action (either petitions or lawsuits) during Prairie Week were: the Platte River caddisfly, prairie chub, spot-tailed earless lizard, and the Scott’s riffle beetle.  Altogether, the group filed petitions for 60 species in 2010, which was the International Year of Biodiversity.

For background information, including the 2010 kangaroo rat petition and today’s finding, contact Nicole Rosmarino at nrosmarino@wildearthguardians.org or 505-699-7404.