News Release

St. Pauls, Newfoundland and Labrador, May 6, 2005
500 species now considered to be at risk by COSEWIC

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) met on May 1-6, 2005 near Gros Morne National Park on the west coast of Newfoundland. The committee considered 41 reports in assessing a variety of organisms ranging from a tiny lichen to two species of whales.

The Bowhead Whale, a circumpolar Arctic whale that lives more than a hundred years, was separated into 3 populations. The Hudson Bay-Foxe Basin and the Davis Strait-Baffin Bay populations were assessed as Threatened and the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort population was assessed as Special Concern.

The Committee also assessed four species of butterflies and moths found on remnant prairie habitats. Two of them, the White Flower Moth and Ottoe Skipper received Endangered status.

The Okanagan population of Chinook Salmon was reviewed by the Committee in response to an emergency assessment request by the Fisheries Department of the Okanagan Nation Alliance, a First Nations organization. The Committee agreed that the population met the definition of a species under the Species at Risk Act, that the population was Endangered. Changes in fisheries downstream in the Columbia River are expected this summer and constitute a new and imminent threat to this population.

Williamson's Sapsucker, a woodpecker associated with old-growth Western Larch forests of British Columbia, was also assessed as Endangered. The habitat for this species is rapidly disappearing due to forest harvesting.

Eighteen plant species were assessed, including the White Meconella, a globally rare poppy native to Garry Oak communities of southeastern Vancouver Island. This species is Endangered by loss of habitat because of housing developments and encroachment by alien species. Habitat loss and competition with alien species continue to be the primary threats to Canada's biodiversity, especially for those species at risk in southern Canada.

One Atlantic marine fish was assessed, the Winter Skate. The Winter Skate assessment resulted in four designations; the Southern Gulf population is considered Endangered and the Eastern Scotian Shelf population is Threatened, both due to dramatic declines in the abundance in the populations, particularly of mature, large Winter Skates in these areas. The Georges Bank-Western Scotian Shelf-Bay of Fundy population was assessed as Special Concern. There were insufficient data to assess the status of Winter Skate, Northern Gulf-Newfoundland population.

The remnant native population of Westslope Cutthroat Trout was assessed as Threatened in Alberta, with the main threat being hybridization with non-native trout. The British Columbia population is considered to be Special Concern.

The Lake Sturgeon was assessed as Endangered in western Canada and as Special Concern in the eastern parts of its range. This species has been affected throughout most of its range by a variety of threats including historical over-harvest and habitat loss from the construction and operation of dams.

Information from new studies of the Great Lakes, an area particularly rich in aquatic biodiversity, allowed COSEWIC to assess the status of several fish species including Spotted Gar, Warmouth and Spotted Sucker.

COSEWIC assesses the national status of wild species, subspecies, varieties, or other designatable units that are considered to be at risk in Canada. To do so, COSEWIC uses scientific, aboriginal traditional and local or community knowledge provided by many experts from governments, academia and other organizations. These assessments are available to the public now and will be forwarded to Federal Minister of the Environment in August for consideration for listing under the Species at Risk Act (SARA).

There are now 487 species in various COSEWIC risk categories, including 184 Endangered, 129 Threatened, 152 Special Concern, and 22 Extirpated species (no longer found in the wild in Canada). In addition, 13 are Extinct and 39 are Data Deficient.

COSEWIC comprises members from each provincial and territorial government wildlife agency, four federal entities (Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada Agency, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Federal Biodiversity Information Partnership, chaired by the Canadian Museum of Nature), three non-government science members and the co-chairs of the species specialist groups and the Aboriginal traditional knowledge subcommittees.

Definition of COSEWIC terms and risk categories:

Wildlife Species: A species, subspecies, variety, or geographically or genetically distinct population of animal, plant or other organism, other than a bacterium or virus, that is wild by nature and it is either native to Canada or has extended its range into Canada without human intervention and has been present in Canada for at least 50 years.
Extinct (X): A wildlife species that no longer exists
Extirpated (XT): A wildlife species no longer existing in the wild in Canada, but occurring elsewhere
Endangered (E): A wildlife species facing imminent extirpation or extinction
Threatened (T): A wildlife species likely to become Endangered if limiting factors are not reversed
Special Concern (SC): A wildlife species that may become a Threatened or an Endangered species because of a combination of biological characteristics and identified threats
Not at Risk (NAR): A wildlife species that has been evaluated and found to be not at risk of extinction given the current circumstances
Data Deficient (DD): A wildlife species for which there is inadequate information to make a direct, or indirect, assessment of its risk of extinction.

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Further details on all species assessed, and the reasons for designations, can be found on the COSEWIC website at:

www.cosewic.gc.ca