Endangered sparrow faces extinction in the wild

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 what’s causing

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 determined its rapid demise. this year after finding 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 22 females