In The Midst Of Human Tragedy, Endangered Species Resurges

A tiny silver lining in 2020.

You’ve probably seen the videos and heard stories about the wildlife running throughout major cities in the United States since the Coronavirus lockdowns began back in March. With coyotes roaming Chicago’s Loop to raccoons chilling in downtown New York, our country has kind of gone “wild” once again with fewer people out and about.

Even now with fewer restrictions, raging wildfires on the West Coast, and more people out and about once again, we’re seeing rare animals – not just jackals in Tel Aviv! – making appearances.

With strict travel bans in place and local shutdowns, there haven’t been as many ferries running in the harbor around the ever-busy city of Hong Kong. With the less congested waterways, some amazing creatures have been showing their faces once again, as they did long ago – the Chinese White Dolphin (pink in color), otherwise known as the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin – in the normally congested areas around the city.

Sightings of these unusual aquatic mammals have increased by 30% since March from last year, when only 52 of the 2,000 dolphins would show up around the city. Scientists are embracing this opportunity to study the unique mammals by dropping microphones into the water and observing them more easily than ever before.

Local governments haven’t made any serious efforts yet to protect this vulnerable species, but marine biologist, Lindsay Porter, hopes that the population will experience a boom while the waterways remained unclogged by mass numbers of boats.

During lockdowns, India has also seen some massive swells in wildlife appearances, specifically of sea turtles on their beaches. For the first time in seven years, baby Olive Ridley sea turtles were seen en masse during daylight hours crossing the beach and going home to the sea.

This species of turtle is one of the smallest species in the world and they are on the threatened species list. During lockdowns, however, they’ve been thriving and scientists are hopeful, as well, that these beautiful little creatures will continue thriving and restore numbers while the Coronavirus continues raging across the world.

Other species of sea turtles made mass appearances on beaches in Florida and other locales that usually have crowded beaches year-round.

While our country is on fire, it’s hard to believe anything good could come out of such tragedies as a worldwide pandemic race-influenced riots, and massive wildfires caused by human error, there is one positive thing: an endangered species of woodpecker is making a comeback.

The red-cockaded woodpecker is a fire-friendly species in that it goes through burned forests in search of insects and creating shelters for other species in the process. These different species help regenerate fire-ravaged areas by eating fire-retardant plants and seeds and distributing these seeds via their droppings.

And in this process, this endangered woodpecker species is doing better than it has in many years, thanks to the many burnt-out trees where they can find food, build habitats, and find safety and protection from human interference.

The black-backed woodpecker is also thriving, thanks to the fires, as are 37 other species that have increased their population numbers by 40%.