Today, Friday, 5/20, is Endangered Species Day. Check this link out for a fun BINGO game to learn about some of Wisconsin's endangered and rare species.

The key point is that almost all of our endangered species can be saved. Saved means restored to viable, robust populations with more than just hardy, isolated survivors. The Bald Eagle is the most outstanding example nationwide. Several efforts are keys to such successes. One can be the promulgation and enforcement of conservation regulations. Eagles, Whooping Cranes, and other rare raptors are still being killed today and those incidents must be investigated and prosecuted. In other cases, we need to have better scientific information of the needs of some species and the pressures they face.

But in most cases, the greatest need is for lots of healthy habitat. That can includes large scale conservation efforts that benefit many plants and animals over 100s or 1000s of acres—think kind thoughts of Madison Audubon with our Goose Pond and Faville Grove Sanctuaries. It can also include small but essential tweaks to existing habitat—for example the Black Tern nesting platforms that Madison Audubon has helped build and deploy in southern Wisconsin.

The Kettle Pond at Faville Grove Sanctuary. *Photo by David Musolf*

Once you've played Endangered Species Bingo today, enjoy another contest. Go through that montage of photos and identify the which of those species live on Madison Audubon lands or which Madison Audubon is helping to conserve. We hope to expand that list each year and each opportunity, but as of now, the Bingo species that have been documented on our sanctuaries include:

Little brown bat (threatened) - Goose Pond and Faville Grove
Great Egret (threatened)
Pale purple coneflower (threatened) - Goose Pond and Faville Grove
Peregrine Falcon (endangered)- Goose Pond and Faville Grove
Short-eared Owl (special concern)- Goose Pond and Faville Grove
Rusty patched bumble bee (special concern in WI, federally endangered)- Goose Pond and Faville Grove
Northern long-eared bat (threatened) - Goose Pond
Karner blue butterfly (special concern in WI, federally endangered) — maybe soon?!
Red-shouldered Hawk (threatened) - Goose Pond
Prairie vole - Faville Grove

Take care,

Topf Wells, Madison Audubon advocacy committee chair