Natural History Wanderings

The Economist reports

In the justices’ hands was a three-inch amphibian known as the dusky gopher frog. One of the most endangered species in the world, the dusky gopher numbered 135 in 2015—all of them living near a pond in Mississippi. Weyerhaeuser Co. v United States Fish and Wildlife Service asks whether the federal government erred in 2012 when it designated 1,544 acres in Louisiana as additional “critical habitat” essential to the species’ survival.

The area in question belongs to Weyerhaeuser and a few other lumber companies,

Read full story at An endangered frog takes centre stage at the Supreme Court – On the brink of extinction