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Defenders in Action: Defenders Fights to Save the Sonoran Pronghorn
Defenders is working to protect the Sonoran pronghorn, a critically endangered subspecies of pronghorn that is specially adapted to life in the hot desert of southern Arizona and northern Mexico . According to the most recent estimates, the Sonoran pronghorn -- the fastest land mammal on this continent -- is on a rapid spiral toward extinction, with only 25 to 50 animals remaining in the United States. Yet Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton refuses to comply with a court order aimed at saving the species.
More than a year and a half ago, Defenders won a major legal victory for the Sonoran pronghorn when a federal judge ruled that the agencies responsible for managing its last remaining range, including the Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management, were required by federal law to assess the total impacts on the species of all of their activities combined. When the agencies still failed to conduct a meaningful cumulative impacts analysis, Defenders went back to court in August in an attempt to force Secretary Norton to obey the court’s original order. Defenders is also seeking more immediate help for the pronghorn by asking for the removal of cattle and fences from 90,000 acres of federal land in pronghorn habitat.
Time is running out for this majestic desert creature. Defenders will continue its efforts to ensure the survival and recovery of the pronghorn through litigation and any other means available.
