No. 1,319, October 16, 2025

In California, a Pocket Mouse Could Get State Help

After a Center for Biological Diversity petition, California’s Fish and Game Commission has voted unanimously to make Pacific pocket mice candidates for protection under the state’s Endangered Species Act. That gives them protection for the next year as they’re studied.

“The commission took an important step to protect one of California’s smallest native mammals,” said the Center’s Elizabeth Reid-Wainscoat. “With their habitat constantly under threat, I hope officials will agree that permanent protections are necessary.”

Pacific pocket mice live only in three places, amounting to about 740 acres total, on the coasts of Orange and San Diego counties. We’ve been defending these tiny mammals for decades.

Trump Agency Declares Dangerous Atrazine A-OK

The Trump administration’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week that, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, the widely used and infamous pesticide atrazine doesn’t pose an extinction risk to a single protected animal or plant. The chemical is a widespread contaminant of U.S. rivers, lakes, and streams.

In 2020, following a Center lawsuit, the Environmental Protection Agency released an initial assessment of atrazine finding that it was likely to harm more than 1,000 imperiled species, including whooping cranes, California red-legged frogs, and San Joaquin kit foxes.

“This announcement is an absolute joke,” said Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center. “You’d have an easier time convincing me that the government isn’t really shut down than persuading me that atrazine isn’t putting a single endangered species at risk of extinction.”

Help us fight with a gift to the Center’s Future for the Wild Fund.

Speak Up to Stop This Attack on National Forests

National forests are on the chopping block. The Senate could take the first steps toward a massive giveaway to the timber industry next week. That’s when a committee will vote on legislation to boost logging in national forests while slashing safeguards for more than 100 imperiled forest-dependent species, from Canada lynx to spotted owls.

The so-called Fix Our Forests Act is touted as a wildfire-management measure, but it would do nothing to protect peoples’ homes from wildfires. Instead it would increase calamitous clearcuts and roads, worsen water quality, weaken environmental laws, silence affected communities, and hinder courts’ ability to block harmful logging across millions of acres.

Urge your senators to protect U.S. forests and reject this reckless bill.

New Podcast Episode: The Fate of Red Wolves

Red wolves are the rarest canines on the planet — and at one point it looked like they might disappear forever. But their story is still unfolding, and they’re now clawing their way back from the brink thanks to renewed efforts from conservationists, local Tribes, and government officials.

In the newest episode of the Center’s Sounds Wild podcast, host Mike Stark talks with Will Harlan, our Southeast director, about the magic of red wolves, their future in North Carolina, and the legacy of individual wolves like Airplane Ears and Blaze.

Listen to the latest episode on our website (or find it on Apple or Spotify).

And head to Facebook to watch footage of one of the last wild radio-collared red wolves.

Don’t Forget: The No Kings Rally Is This Saturday

This Saturday, Oct. 18, people will once again march peacefully against authoritarianism and the billionaire takeover. Together we can reject President Donald Trump’s gutting of critical government agencies and laws responsible for protecting endangered species, other wildlife, and wild places across the country.

This mobilization is inspired by the success of the last No Kings rallies.

Find an event near you and learn your rights and how to stay safe at the rallies.

Buy Books by Center Authors

Did you know that many Center staff members are also published authors? When they’re not defending the wild, they’re putting their vast knowledge of the natural world down on paper.

Now we’re proudly stocking many of their books in our online store — and that knowledge can be yours.

We've got a National Book Award–nominated climate crisis novel, an irreverent field guide on Bay Area wildlife, a curious history of starlings, a graphic novel starring a young mountain lion, a kids’ series about saving life on Earth, and more. There’s something for every reader who shares our passion for wildlife and wild places.

Check them out for a unique way to support the Center.

Revelator: Lion Farming Harms

Some people argue that raising lions in captivity eases pressure on their wild counterparts, but new research reveals that’s not true. In fact, it says, “lion farming” hurts wild populations — and the captive cats fare terribly too.

Head to The Revelator to learn more.

And if you haven’t yet, subscribe to The Revelator’s free weekly e-newsletter for more wildlife and conservation news.

That’s Wild: Geckos Bark Out Their Uniqueness

Some glorious geckos in southern Africa might never have been discovered if not for their loud, quacklike barking one starry night.

That barking — the mating call of the males — attracted a researcher who wondered why one gecko sounded so different from other geckos believed to be of the same species. Turns out there were actually nine distinct species living in an area previously believed to hold three.

Watch a video and delight in this singular bark — which sounds a bit like “a cartoon villain’s evil laugh.”

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Photo credits: Pacific pocket mouse by Joanna Gilkeson/USFWS; San Joaquin kit foxes courtesy of USWFS; Canada lynx by Tim Boucher/Wikimedia; red wolf screenshot from USFWS video; Carrizo Plain National Monument courtesy of BLM California; book covers used with permission; captive lions © Blood Lions; barking gecko by Dr. Francois S. Becker.

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