By LAURA FOSMIRE
LANSING -- Michigan's gray wolf may be getting the most attention, but it isn't the only species jumping on and off the endangered species list.
Scientists say many other animals and plants face extinction in the Midwest. Development, habitat destruction and alien rivals are to blame.
The eastern massasauga, Michigan's only venomous snake, has candidate status on the federal endangered-species list. Although not considered endangered within Michigan, its fate is of special concern.
The rayed bean, a type of freshwater mussel that is endangered in Michigan, also has candidate status on the federal list.
"Candidate listing means that a species should be listed, but they haven't gotten around to placing it on the list yet," said Chris Hoving, the endangered species coordinator with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment. "It could also mean that a species is in near-threatened status and they want to move it up to that level."
"In Michigan we have about 24 or 25 federally endangered species," Hoving said. "On the state list we have a total of about 400 endangered or threatened species."
T.J. Miller, chief of the endangered species sector of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Minnesota, said his agency takes several factors into account when evaluating a species' risk.
"One is habitat destruction," he said. "Another is if there are any diseases or threats that a species is undergoing that might cause it to become endangered. We also consider if a species is being overutilized for either commercial, recreational or educational purposes."
Habitat destruction is a large contributing factor to the troubles facing the massasauga.
But Randy Worden, president of the Michigan Society of Herpetologists, said there are others.
"Probably the biggest reason it's dying out is human persecution," he said. "People think if it's a snake, it's automatically evil and must be killed.
"The second biggest is probably habitat destruction. It likes to live in fens -- bogs with flowing water -- but people drain them to build houses and other things on them."
The rayed bean, on the other hand, has fallen victim to another animal. It owes its depletion largely to invasive zebra mussels in the Great Lakes and connecting streams and rivers.
"Since zebra mussels arrived in the late 1980s, they've really done a number on the native species," said Peter Badra, a conservation scientist with the Michigan Natural Features Inventory.
"The zebra mussel has to attach to a hard surface to survive. If you have a sandy stream, a lot of times the only thing to attach to is the native mussels like the rayed bean," he said. "Then you get a native mussel with a lot of zebra mussels globbed onto it. It interferes with their filter feeding and kills them."
The eastern massasauga is Michigan's only rattlesnake.
"Nobody's really sure why no others rattlers have come," Worden said. "It could be that glaciers pushed most of them out of the state and this is the only species that's found its way back."
Laura Fosmire writes for Michigan State University's Capital News Service.
