Tell your state leaders about changing American wildlife dynamics!

Across America, animals are expanding their range and thriving in new and unexpected places, forging new ecological relationships in a warming world.

The white ibis (Eudocimus albus) is a tropical species, with Florida long considered the northernmost limit of its range. In the 1970s, they started venturing as far north as Virginia. In the 2020s, white ibises are now breeding in New Jersey, with a growing population of hundreds of ibis nests and young each year at an Ocean City rookery. Researchers find no negative effects on local birds. Adaptive migration at work!

Armadillos are doing amazingly well in Anthropocene America. A new study reports that as temperatures keep rising, the nine-banded armadillo has expanded its range northwards into the United States faster and farther than was previously thought possible for the species.

Armadillos are now well-established in seventeen U.S. states and occasionally seen in four more, with substantial potential for future expansion. Their burrows aerate the soil and provide vital habitat for many native species.

Los Angeles is now home to thriving populations of feral pet-descended parrots from many species. Two of them, the lilac-crowned parrot and red-crowned amazon parrot, are native to different parts of Mexico — but they met in LA, and a novel hybrid population has emerged whose only native habitat is the city itself! There are now likely more than 3,000 endangered red-crowned amazons in Greater Los Angeles, more than survive in their “original” Mexico habitat. Many feral parrot species are also evolving new adaptations to better live in LA; the Nanday parakeet, native to the Pantanal of Brazil and Bolivia, has adapted to feed on local sycamore trees. The city has become a thriving psittacine haven, helping safeguard the future of many species.

Already, U.S, wildlife conservation paradigms are changing to accommodate a more fluid, fast-changing world. The 2023 release of new regulations based on Section 10 (j) of the Endangered Species Act has allowed “experimental populations” of endangered species to be established outside their historic range, essentially legalizing proactive human-aided climate migration for wildlife. It’s already been used to establish a new population of Guam kingfishers on Palmyra Atoll.

A new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service policy, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, has allowed first-ever releases of federally endangered species on private land. There’s already been a test case with salamanders on Florida timberlands.

State leaders should know that a lot of species are moving around in a fast-changing world, and that there are new legal and ecological opportunities available to protect wildlife even outside of their historic range!

Tell your state leaders about changing American wildlife dynamics!