Wildlife Conservation
Peregrine falcons spend their winters in Houston, roosting on the skyscrapers downtown, or in the Galleria and the Medical Center, and dining on pigeons fattened up on office workers’ lunch scraps. Downtown work ers who leave their office at dark can see bats emerge from under the Waugh Drive and Louisiana Street bridges over Buffalo Bayou. The Houston Arboretum shelters flying squirrels, swamp rabbits, armadillos, and coyotes.
Because the Houston/Galveston area includes eight different ecosystems and is on a major flyway for migratory birds, the region has an abundant variety of wildlife – either in residence or passing through. Many are common, but each county in the region has at least two endangered or threatened plant or animal species. Galveston County has seven.
Endangered species that live in or visit our region include alligators, whooping cranes, Houston toad, bald eagles, Eskimo curlews, Atwater’s prairie chickens and brown pelicans.
The Katy Prairie, which is home to 60 mammal species and 55 species of reptile and amphibian, is just west of Houston. Its wetlands house songbirds, herons, egrets, sand hill cranes, ibises, hawks and bald eagles and, in the winter, dense clouds of migrating ducks and goose. Galveston Bay contains water birds, shorebirds, shrimp, crabs, oysters, fish, and many other species. Seven Kemp’s ridley turtle nests were found on Galveston Island last year. The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary is in the Gulf of Mexico.
The most significant threat to both plant and animal wildlife is habitat destruction or fragmentation caused by development. Possums, raccoons, and squirrels are adapting to residential areas, even in Houston’s inner city; but as new development occurs in the Houston Galveston area’s farthest suburbs, foxes, coyotes, deer, and feral hogs are becoming homeless. Many will die of starvation, injury, or deliberate extermination by unhappy homeowners.
In addition, invasive plant and animal species, pollution, and pesticide use contribute to loss of wildlife. Tallow trees and Japanese privet crowd out native trees and grasses without providing food or shelter for native plants and birds. An ongoing task at local nature preserves is invasive species removal. Fire ants kill many baby animals and invasive bird species usurp nesting sites of native birds.
Coastal habitats are also vulnerable to hurricane damage, oil spills, erosion, and salt water contamination. There was some habitat loss due to Hurricane Rita, but it is too early to tell if there will be long-term effects. Some of the Attwater’s prairie chickens that live at a preserve in Texas City were evacuated for the storm and survived, as did those left behind. The captive breeding program was moved from the Houston Zoo to NASA, in part for safety.
Some species of bird, although not all, are not fussy about their habitat and easily find replacement habitats. For them, the trend toward habitat gardening and use of native plants is beneficial.
Conservation groups have developed a variety of methods such as partnerships, land trusts, conservation easements, and outright purchase to maintain undeveloped land in the area. Methods of flood control that allow waterways to retain more of their natural configuration also have the effect of preserving habitat.
There are several bits of optimistic news about wildlife preservation. Fifty-one Kemp’s ridley turtle nests were found on the Texas coast during the 2005 nesting season. This breaks the previous record of 42 nests recorded in Texas during 2004. In addition, the found nests were disbursed from Galveston Island to South Padre Island, which is significant because Kemp’s ridleys return to the beach where they were hatched to lay eggs, making them very vulnerable to habitat loss and natural disasters. This turtle is the smallest of the sea turtles and was very near extinction.
The bald eagle population has recovered enough that the EPA has proposed removing the eagle from the endangered species list.
Houston’s Waugh Bridge Bat Colony has become so large that it is a local attraction. The parks department has identified it with a sign, a viewing area is scheduled for construction, and parents are already bringing their children to watch the bats emerge. Viewing these bats also stimulates discussion about the other bat species that live in this area, which are more vulnerable, and hopefully will encourage their protection.