After the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the agency is proposing to protect the Texas kangaroo rat as an endangered species.
The agency proposes to protect nearly 600,000 acres in Childress, Cottle, Hardeman, Wichita and Wilbarger counties in North Texas for critical habitat. The conservation group said the animals’ habitat is threatened by agriculture, extermination of bison, large-scale eradication of prairie dogs and elimination of natural fires.
“It shouldn’t take 40 years for the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect an animal that’s been losing habitat for more than a century,” said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate at the Center.
