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| Mission
Statement
The Endangered Species Problem
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This is perhaps one of the most interesting and poorly known islands off
the west coast of North America. It is notorious, however, due to the fact
that no area of equal size in North or South America has experienced more
extinctions of endemic plants and birds during the last 200 years. European
explorers, whalers, and sealers arrived in the early 1800s are released
goats, rats, and cats onto the island. By the time the first scientists
visited Guadalupe in the 1870s, much of the unique flora and fauna was
driven to extinction by habitat destruction or predation. Still many species
hang on by a thread, with huge, ancient trees that cannot reproduce because
the goats eat the young sprouts, or birds that depend on the dying forests
of palm, cypress, and pine for habitat.
The
San Diego Natural History Museum has formed a partnership with the Mexican
government and several other institutions, including the ESRC, to undertake
an expedition funded in part by the National Science Foundation in the
summer of 2000 to determine the current status of the sensitive natural
resources of Isla Guadalupe (http://www.sdnhm.org/research/guadalupe/).
This expedition will provide a current database necessary for the ESRC
and its Mexican counterparts to formulate and initiate a recovery plan
to save what is left of one of Mexico's richest natural treasures. Isla
Guadalupe is already a BioSphere Reserve, but much work is needed to stop
further degradation and secure the future of this island and its inhabitants.
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© 2000 Endangered Species Recovery Council. All rights reserved.
