Rare Florida Sparrow Could Vanish This Year And More Birds Could Be At Risk

WLRN 91.3 FM | By Jenny Staletovich

Published January 17, 2018 at 9:38 AM EST

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An endangered grasshopper sparrow sits amid grasses at White Oak, a 10,000-acre conservation preserve north of Jacksonville, one of two captive breeding programs started by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after sparrow numbers plummeted to less than 50

The grasshopper sparrow, a tiny Florida prairie bird perched on the verge of extinction for the last decade, may have encountered a final, unconquerable foe: an invasive new disease quickly killing off its young.

The disease has spread so rapidly that wildlife managers now fear another endangered sparrow, the Cape Sable seaside sparrow in the Everglades, could also be at risk if numbers fall any lower.

“Extinction is a real possibility,” for the grasshopper sparrow, said Larry Williams, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Florida supervisor for ecological services. “We are very anxious to know what these diseases are, and how they’re operating.”

Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.