U.S. Wildlife officials declared nearly two dozen species extinct in a release Monday. Some of the species once called Kentucky and Tennessee home.
Two native Kentucky species and seven Tennessee species are among those newly declared extinct.
Ivory-billed woodpeckers and tubercled-blossom pearly mussels — which were also native to Illinois, Indiana and Tennessee — can no longer be found in the Bluegrass State. The Volunteer State is also no longer home to Bachman’s warblers, southern acornshells, upland combshells, or four varieties of pearly mussels — green-blossom pearly mussels, tubercled-blossom pearly mussels, turgid-blossom pearly mussels, and yellow-blossom pearly mussels.
These animals have been added to the list of at least 650 extinct species in the U.S.
Scientists say that more species will be lost due to the exploitation of natural habitats, increasing climate change, pollution, and the expansion of foreign and invasive species.
The Center for Biological Diversity says that the ivory-billed woodpecker has not yet been delisted from the Endangered Species Act because there is scientific disagreement over its extinction.
