ORLANDO, Fla. — A Central Florida bird has begun to plunge so swiftly toward extinction in the wild that biologists are considering the risky option of capturing the last of the species, including fewer than two dozen females.
If that happens, those Florida grasshopper sparrows would be added to a pair of small, captive populations. But there are rising fears the captive birds are being threatened by lethal disease as they are being bred for what biologists hope will be their eventual release.
“We are at a moment of reckoning,” Audubon biologist Paul Gray said.
State, federal and environmental groups have struggled for much of the decade to revive the bird, spending more than $1 million on research, captive breeding, predator deterrence and restoration of landscapes. But they have not conclusively determined what’s causing its rapid demise.
Small, brown and sometimes singing a grasshopperlike buzz, the sparrow is unknown to city or suburban dwellers as it inhabits remote, treeless prairies of Osceola County and farther south. It is often referred to as the most endangered bird in the continental U.S.
Last year, biologists counted 40 females and 74 males in the wild. They were disheartened this year after finding 22 females and 53 males.
Officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say that despite intensifying efforts for their recovery, Florida grasshopper sparrows are on a path to vanish from their native landscape in as few as two years.
“We are trying to set expectations, which for us (is) the likelihood of a wild, sustaining population is low,” said Larry Williams, the agency’s supervisor for ecological services in Florida.
Ashleigh Blackford, a supervisory biologist with the wildlife service, said assaults on the sparrow that include loss of habitat, predators, fire ants, storms and disease may be beginning to “snowball.”
“We want to be transparent with the public that we are getting very close at this point,” Blackford said of possible extinction in the wild.
Last year, the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation in Palm Beach County began to hatch Florida grasshopper sparrows for the first time in captivity.
Foundation director Paul Reillo said captive breeding, while promising initially, has been challenged by the emergence of a deadly disease that involves parasites invading their guts.
As laboratory work proceeds toward identifying pathogens and possible remedies, Reillo thinks the Fish and Wildlife Service must move quickly.
“The only option for preventing extinction and for recovery is to bring all the birds into captivity,” Reillo said. “If you leave it on the landscape, it will go extinct. If you don’t bring it in, you’re losing genetic diversity that would give you hope for the future.
