Science Friday - (Part 2) Endangered Species Act At 50: Orchids And Red Wolves

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

Continuing our exploration of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) at its 50th anniversary, we'll look at how it has helped protect a group of at-risk plants: orchids. Eight species of orchid are recognized as endangered under the ESA—and all of the world’s approximately 30,000 species are considered threatened, and entitled to trade restrictions. Ira speaks with Dr. Matthew Pace, orchid scientist and assistant curator of the Steere Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden, about threats to orchid conservation.And finally, Ira speaks with Dr. Ron Sutherland, chief scientist at the Wildlands Network in Durham, North Carolina. Sutherland has an extensive background in red wolf conservation in the southeastern United States.Red wolves are one of the most endangered mammals in the world, with only an estimated 20 living in the wild and 267 in captivity. They discuss the dramatic swings in federal conservation efforts for red wolves, and why Sutherland isn’t ready to give up on this endangered species.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.  Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Red wolves are one of the most endangered mammals on the planet. There was a sudden increase in gunshot mortality, and then also at the same time, the federal government suddenly lost interest. But scientists aren't ready to give up on them. It's Tuesday, January 9th, but just like every day, today is Science Friday. I'm Cy Frye producer Kathleen Davis. The Red Wolf used to be found all over the eastern U.S., but these days, there are almost about 20 living in the wild. Bringing this endangered carnivore back from the brink has been a massive effort, and we'll talk about the details. But first, we'll talk about another group of

endangered species that may not be top of mind for you. Orchids, here's Iroflato. Most of the time, when you say the words endangered species, I think people envision some iconic animal like a rhino, right? But plants can be endangered. also, and one of the poster organisms for endangered plants around the world are the orchids. And I have a special fondness for orchids as I raise them right there on my window sill. And yes, they will grow there. Joining me now to talk about how orchids fit into the Endangered Species Act conversation is Dr. Matthew Pace. He's an orchid researcher and assistant curator of the steer herbarium at the famous New York Botanical Garden.

Welcome to Science Friday. Thank you so much, Ira. It's a real pleasure to speak with you today. People usually think of orchids as tropical species, but there are orchids in many places in the U.S. and other non-tropical climes. Isn't that correct? Yes, absolutely. Orcids can be found from Arctic Circle all the way down to the very tip of Chile. Basically, any environment you can imagine, except for the most extreme parts of the Sahara Desert have orchids. And actually, some of the orchids that I studied, the genus Sparanthes are found high in the Arctic Circle and into Siberia. They're a really, really amazingly diverse group of organisms. Yeah, and I know there are, what, almost 30,000 species of orchids around the world. How endangered are these species if there are so many of them?

Yeah, that's an excellent question. And one of the things I love about science is that there are always new questions to ask. And sometimes we just don't know the answers yet. So of those about 30,000 species of orchids, only about 7% have been assessed in terms of their conservation risk. So that's a really small number. Really? Yeah. And one of the major issues about threats for orchid conservation is actually just a lack of information.

And that's why institutions like the New York Botanical Garden are so important because we provide the raw data that actually help make these conservation. observation assessments. Well, let's talk about the main threats to them. Why are orchids threatened? Yeah, absolutely. So there's three main threats, as I see it. Particularly here in North America, deer herbivory is a major issue, particularly in the northeast. You know, historically, wolves, bears, cougars would prey on deer. Most of those predators have been eliminated from the landscape. And so deer just basically eat everything. Another major, conservation issue is habitat destruction and land use. Many orchids in the eastern U.S. and the southeastern U.S. actually require fire to maintain their landscapes. They occur in these fire

dominated grasslands where when you eliminate fire from the habitat, woody shrubs and other plants quickly encroach and basically shade the orchids out. And so when you get housing developments in otherwise wild areas, we stop allowing fires that allows landscape change to occur, and then the orchids just sort of drop out. Wow. Who knew? You knew. I'm certain that most of our audience didn't know that. Tell me about your research into orchids and how it connects to conservation. Absolutely. So I primarily study terrestrial, north temperate species of orchids. And I actually led a major NSF-funded digitization program, we were the lead institution amongst 15 other herbaria and colleges where we actually digitized our preserved urbarium collections. So these are dried, pressed

plants in our collection and made all this data freely available for anyone. And again, this is providing the raw data for over 2 million specimen records to help make conservation assessments. And then a lot of my own personal research is based on taxonomy and systematic. So actually figuring out what species do we have in front of us. And that's really important because you can't conserve something unless you have a name for it. And if you're actually confusing two different species, that could have major consequences if you're trying to develop an XC2 conservation program where you might accidentally be interbreeding two different species We've been talking about 50 years of the Endangered Species Act.

Have there been any successes related to orchid conservation? Yes. With the Endangered Species Act, eight species of orchids are currently listed on the endangered species list. Three of them are in the genus Sparanthes, and five of them are Plotanthra. Probably the biggest success story is Plotanthra Integralabra, the fringeless bog orchid. It's primarily restricted to just a few sites in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama area. And by listing that species, it's really drawn attention to its conservation needs. And there's been an XC2 Conservation Program established for that species, and a lot of monitoring has gone into that species.

That's been probably the biggest success story, actually finding new populations that we didn't know existed in helping to conserve them. You said a phrase like XC2 a couple of times. Yes. Explain that, please, what that is. Sure. So XC2 conservation means conservation in cultivation. So at an institution like the New York Botanical Garden,

these are plants that we've taken from the wild with, of course, proper permitting, to establish basically a reservoir of diversity in our botanical garden with the ultimate goal of then increasing the stock. of that species and then returning it to the wild. This is done with tigers, basically any sort of endangered animal, as well as endangered plants. Are there really orchid hunters like we read about? Yes, unfortunately, there are. And that's one of the challenges sometimes of working in this group. You know, orchids are amazing. They're beautiful. They're a really great group to talk to the general public, but sometimes you do have to honestly be a little bit, you know, strategic in who you talk to, particularly when you're sharing locations of species.

You know, we think of zoological places where animals are taken that might be endangered. Do the botanical gardens around the country also serve as reservoirs or places of refuge? Yes, absolutely. In fact, here at the New York Botanical Garden, we serve as the ultimate. depository for illegally harvested plants that come through JFK airport. So, you know, if someone is illegally smuggling orchids, trying to put them in their suitcase, the customs inspectors will hopefully find those orchids. And if they are alive, they'll send them here to our living collections to hopefully resuscitate them and ensure they don't die.

Are you hopeful about the endangered status of the orchids? in general? I am. A lot of the stories that you hear can be very disheartening, but at the end of the day, a listing on the Endangered Species Act means that species is getting attention. It means resources can be directed towards it. It means habitat can be preserved. It means that researchers like myself can start to ask questions about how we might actually save those species. So I am. There's a lot of work to do, but I am hopeful. And I think as a researcher, I have to be hopeful in order to continue doing my job. And thank you for the job that you do. And thank everybody at the New York Botanical Garden, a place I frequently go to and enjoy and have a happy New Year. Thank you very much. Happy

New Year to you as well. Dr. Matthew Pace is an orchid researcher and assistant curator of the steer herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York. And now, Now to wrap up our conversation about the Endangered Species Act, we're going to turn to one of the most endangered mammals in the world, the red wolf. Red wolves are native to the eastern U.S., but decades of human encroachment has led to these carnivores falling to critical population levels. It's estimated that only 20, only 20 are living in the wild. And against all odds, there's been some success in conservation efforts for red wolves. Joining me to talk about. about that is Dr. Ron Sutherland, Chief Scientist for the Wildlands Network, based in Durham, North Carolina. Welcome to Science Friday. Thanks, Iris. It's great to be here. Who knew? I mean, I guess you did. Only 20 red wolves are thought to be living in the wild. Wow. How did they get so low that population? It's really tragic, because actually the population grew really well. the wolves were reintroduced to North Carolina in 1987.

And then the population grew from about eight initial animals up to 120 animals by 2012. And then right in 2012, they got hit by this devastating one-two punch where there was a sudden increase in gunshot mortality that was tied to people spreading misinformation about the wolves and the idea that the wolves were causing the greatest wildlife disaster in the history of North Carolina by eating all the other wildlife like the deer. And then also at the same time, the federal government suddenly lost interest in promulgating their Red Wolf program. And so they stopped releasing wolves from captivity right at the hour of the greatest need of the Red Wolf. And so the population plummeted. In 2014 to 2020, it really dropped down. And in fact, in 2020, there were only eight confirmed animals with working radio collars on the ground. Ron, tell me how the population of Red Wolves affects other animals.

Sure. So we suspect that they can help control deer populations and that can prevent overbrowsing on a lot of native wildflowers that are being hammered across the entire East Coast, as a lot of gardeners could tell you. But we also think that they are essential for helping control and regulate populations of what are called meso predators. And those are things like raccoons and opossums. Those guys, when they get overabundant, they actually can really hit the populations of songbirds, especially species that nest on the ground like Bob White Quail. We noticed when we were doing our camera work out at Alligator River that all the places where the wolves were, there was also these really abundant populations of quail calling, which is significant because the quail are practically endangered across much of the southeast. And one of the reasons people think that is that there's too many of these raccoons and other nest predators out there. But that's not true at Alligator River.

And I think the big fields there at the refuge are just not a safe place anymore because of the wolves are not safe for the raccoons to be wandering around looking for quail eggs. And so that explains why during our quail surveys, we were hearing so many quail that my interns could barely keep up. And you have, what, over 250 red wolves living in captivity? Is the goal to put them back into the wild? Yeah. So the red wolf is a prime example actually of a species where zoos and wildlife centers have played in a central role in recovering an endangered species and provision. extinction in the first place. Like the Blackfooted ferret, the California condor, the decision was made to catch all the few remaining Red Wolves back in the 70s, bring them into captivity, and they

actually declared the Red Wolf extinct in the wild in 1980. And then it was returned by 1987, because it turned out the Red Wolf actually did breed pretty well in zoos. And we're up to, as you say, like 270 captive animals, like 40 different captive breeding facilities around the country. And so it's going well. The challenge is, of course, that the, Endangered Species Act mandates that we recover the species in the wild. And I think what a lot of people don't know is that there's actually some evidence that stay, a wild species that stay in captivity for too many generations, they can actually suffer from some interesting evolutionary impacts of that. And so the challenge is to get the Red Wolf back in the wild very soon.

Yeah, it sounds like it might be. It's my understanding that there's some controversy about Red Wolf genetics that some people think they really aren't a legitimate species. Tell me about that. Yeah, so the Red Wolf, maybe more than any other endangered species that I can think of, has actually borne the brunt of being the target of a lot of interesting molecular genetic studies. And really, as each new technique and tool came out in the 90s, 2000s, there was always, there was a new paper about Red Wolves and often sort of conflicted with the previous story. And I think the punchline And eventually we got to the point where Congress actually asked the Fishmore Wildlife Service to commission the National Academy of Sciences to study the question, is the

Red Wolf a real species? And they came back and said, yes. It's a really, really august body of evolutionary biologists and geneticists said, yeah, it's unique enough to be considered a species. And they also said, you know, maybe don't ask us about the origins because it's really hard to tell. And that's one of the takehomes is that if you destroy 99.99% of a species, it's kind of hard to go back and really understand the origins of that species using genetic techniques.

Yeah, so did this confusion affect conservation efforts at all for the Red Wolves? It did. It was one of the reasons I think why the Fish and Waller Service was able to convince people that it was maybe okay to deemphasize the Red Wolf Conservation Program during that 2015 to 2020 window. There was the confusion out there, is the Red Wolf real. And I'm hoping that we've moved past that now with that National Academy report that came out and then we can actually get back to focusing on saving what is clearly a unique tax on. Yeah, as you said, the Fish and Wildlife Service essentially pulled the plug on their efforts to conserve Red Wolves. And they have since ramped the program back up, right? How did that lack of federal support, though, affect conservation during that time period?

Yeah, well, let me start by reemphasizing what you said. The Biden administration has actually done a remarkable job of turning the ship around for Red Wolves, you know, reinvesting in the success of the program. They've released close to 30 wolves over the last couple of years from captivity, finally again, and they've increased the transparency of the program. And so they're doing what they can to rebuild things, but they're literally almost starting from scratch, which is really frustrating because, yeah, during that time period, we basically lost most of the wolves. You know, over 100 wolves just disappeared from the land.

And what was the biggest factor in them disappearing? Were people shooting them or hunting them or what? A lot of it was, it's true, a bump in illegal gunshot mortality. And so I think that was a big part of it. There was some trapping, even some, unfortunately, some poisoning with pesticides and things, is horrible things like that. But actually, the truth is, there's actually about 65 wolves disappeared. If you look at the official population chart from the official eye service in 2015, 2016,

They just sort of disappeared from the landscape and there's no official record of what happened to them. I really doubt that they went on to live happy long lives in the wild. I think they were also gunned down. So what are the biggest challenges then in getting back, getting back the population and getting where you would like them to be? Well, I think we can sort of, we can think about it in terms of what are the opportunities now to get these wolves back on the ground. And I think one of the key ones is that we can rebuild landowner tolerance. with a robust incentives program. I'd really like to see Congress step in and fund a program that would reward the landowners in eastern North Carolina

for being the ones to host this endangered species program that the rest of the country really wants to have happen. We really want to stay. Let me see if I could parse that. When you say rebuild landowner tolerance, to me that means don't shoot them anymore. Exactly. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah.

That's a euphemism for don't kill them. Don't kill them. Yeah. The Red Wolf, I think, can survive if we stop shooting them. And, you know, if we call it pay for presents, if you call it a Red Wolf leasing program, where you're leasing farmlands and forest lands to have people host the Red Wolves, I think either way, there's a lot of room to make that happen in a way that's really going to rebuild trust. Thanks for taking time to be with us today.

Dr. Ron Sutherland, Chief Scientist for the Wildlands Network, based in Durham, North Carolina. Thanks very much. To see photos of the critters and the plants that we've talked about. talked about, visit ScienceFriday.com slash endangered. And that's all the time that we have for now. A lot of folks help make the show happen, including Sandy Roberts, George Harper, Annie Niro, Jason Rosenberg, and many more. Tomorrow, we're going to take a look at something near and dear to our hearts here at

Science Friday, the state of science journalism. But for now, I'm SciFRI producer Kathleen Davis. We'll catch you next time.