Smithsonian Magazine reports that an endangered bird that disappeared from the Los Angeles River has now returned and is growing in number:
Along a gentle bend of the Los Angeles River, in a stretch of land called Taylor Yard, a sound like a high-pitched record scratch can just be heard above the cacophony of city life. This is the call of the least Bell’s vireo, an olive-gray songbird that is only five inches from tip to tail. The riparian species native to Southern California has lived an endangered existence for more than 40 years. Now, the small bird’s return here symbolizes a new future for one of the country’s most maligned waterways.
Before the concrete tide of urbanization washed over the Los Angeles River Basin, the river-fed wetland that was here represented the perfect habitat for this rare species. But for the past century, this area was one of the largest rail yards in the region, and as an expanding city grew right up to the river’s now concrete-laden banks, the vireo all but disappeared.
Until, suddenly, it returned. The 2007 creation of Rio de Los Angeles State Park, which is itself part of the sprawling rail yard, set the stage. In the early 2010s someone reported hearing the vireo’s memorable call. A few years later, a photo captured a vireo mid-song, and in 2022 a nesting pair took refuge in a tree. This year, the news was even better.
‘We actually saw fledglings,’ says Evelyn Serrano, the director of the Audubon Center at Debs Park in Los Angeles. ‘We saw the nest and we saw the babies, so we were very excited. It’s tough to survive in an urban environment when you’re a little bird like that, but it’s definitely possible.’”
Endangered Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs have come back from near extinction. “After nearly disappearing for good, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs are once again hopping happily around California’s alpine lakes,” reports Smithsonian Magazine.
Mountain gorillas are making a comeback in Rwanda.
Bengal tigers are making a comeback in Bangladesh, as are Asian antelopes and olive ridley turtles.
A giant fish believed to be extinct was found in the Mekong River.
Sea turtles are making a comeback in the Mediterranean, especially in Greece.
Crocodiles are making a comeback in Cambodia. Crocodiles are also flourishing in Australia after previously coming close to extinction there.
A giant pangolin was spotted in Senegal after being absent from that West African country for a quarter century.
Wild horses recently returned to Kazakhstan after being absent for two hundred years.
