Recovering America’s Wildlife Act Would Protect Species From the Fate of the Little Mariana Fruit Bat

This bat was fuzzy and brown, with its big ears and big eyes giving it a fox-like appearance.

It was the Little Mariana fruit bat and it, along with 20 other species, was just declared extinct and removed from the endangered species list. This is a staggering loss—not just for these creatures, but for our planet, which faces a biodiversity crisis.

Most of the recently delisted species’ populations had already dwindled to worrying lows before they were classified as endangered in the 1970s and ’80s. Some of them, scientists feared, had been lost even before they were acknowledged as endangered. “Federal protection came too late to reverse these species’ decline,” said the head of the Fish and Wildlife Service. The 21 species that were recently removed from the endangered list include 10 types of birds, as well as aquatic and marine creatures, such as fish and mussels.

Worldwide, as many as 1 million species risk extinction. In the United States, wildlife agencies have identified 12,000 species in need of conservation. But, right now, there isn’t enough federal funding to do what needs to be done to save them.

That’s where the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act comes in. If passed, this bipartisan bill would be the biggest investment in wildlife conservation in decades and—most importantly—it would help conserve the creatures we love before they ever become imperiled. The bill focuses funding on proactive, local and science-based conservation efforts to protect the most at-risk species. 

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would:

• Provide more than $1.4 billion in dedicated annual funding for on-the-ground efforts to conserve more than 12,000 at-risk animal and plant species.
• Speed up the recovery of the 1,600 species that are currently listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
• Provide conservation funding to states and tribes, and ensure that states rely on wildlife action plans to strategically direct resources to the species in greatest need of conservation.

If we can pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, we can help make sure the Little Mariana fruit bat’s story isn’t repeated over and over again. Our lawmakers just need to hear from you.