How does hunting harm threatened and endangered species, migratory birds, and refuge visitors?
The refuges that initiated hunting since 1997 previously provided undisturbed habitat for wildlife, including dozens of threatened and endangered species, such as Gray Bats, Bald Eagles, Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers, Wood Storks, Florida Panthers, Eastern Indigo Snakes, Least Terns, Piping Plovers, Indiana Bats, Louisiana Black Bears, Roseate Terns, Gray Wolves, Whooping Cranes, Brown Pelicans, Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy Owls, Eskimo Curlews, Golden-Cheeked Warblers, Northern Apolomado Falcons, Jaguars, Ocelots, Black-Capped Vireos, and Northern Flying Squirrels. Twenty-one of the refuges that initiated or expanded hunting since 1997 are located within the Mississippi Flyway, a critical migration corridor between North and South America for numerous species of birds protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Migratory birds in the Mississippi Flyway have experienced significant declines over the last 30 to 50 years.
