Desperate officials launch program to save Florida grasshopper sparrow

[Chris Merkord]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that it is launching a captive breeding program for Florida’s grasshopper sparrow. If nothing is done, experts predict the sparrow will go extinct in three to five years. Florida Fish and Wildlife

In a desperate bid to save a nearly extinct species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that it is launching a captive breeding program for Florida's grasshopper sparrow.

 

If they do nothing, experts predict the sparrow will go extinct in three to five years, just like its cousin, the dusky seaside sparrow. The dusky disappeared from the Earth in 1987 when the last survivor died at Disney World.

 

If the Florida grasshopper sparrow vanishes, it would be the first bird species to go extinct in the United States since then, according to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

 

View the full article from the Tampa Bay Times