Mammals

This small mammal is restricted to a relatively small population in southern Saskatchewan.  The change in status from Special Concern to Threatened is based mainly on the threat of increased drought, and sylvatic plague, both of which would be expected to cause significant population declines if they occur frequently.  Drought events are predicted to increase in frequency due to a changing climate.  Sylvatic plague was first recorded in 2010.  Although the Canadian population is in a protected area, it exists within a small area, and is isolated from other populations, all of which are located in the United States.

This small rabbit-relative is a Beringian relict that is restricted to talus slopes in alpine areas in northern west British Columbia, Yukon, and Northwest Territories.  This region comprises over half the global range of this species, and is witnessing climate-driven shifts in habitat, temperature, and precipitation at faster rates than elsewhere in Canada. A demonstrated sensitivity to climate variability, coupled with poor dispersal ability and the naturally fragmented nature of its populations, heightens the vulnerability of this small mammal to climate change. The species is well-studied in a very limited portion of its range, but baseline information on population trends at the range level, and a clear understanding of the extent and severity of climate impacts to this species and its habitat in the coming decades is limited. However, the best available information suggests that this species may be particularly sensitive to a changing climate, including concomitant increases in precipitation variability, leading to reductions in habitat availability. The potential of negative impacts of climate change to the persistence of this species over the long term is substantial.

Birds

This subspecies is a shrub-thicket specialist that occurs at the northern edge of its range in Canada. The small population, which is restricted to the Southern Mountain Ecological Area in British Columbia, is localized to a particular type of riparian habitat. A number of threats have been identified as serious concerns, including cattle tramping of rose thickets, road maintenance and urbanization, agricultural and potential hydro-electric development of the Similkameen River.

This subspecies is a shrub-thicket specialist that occurs at the northern edge of its range in Canada. Its population in southern Ontario is localized and very small. Since the last status report was produced, declines have occurred in the Ontario population, owing to habitat loss. The potential for rescue effect has also been dramatically reduced, because population declines are evident across most of the northeastern range of this subspecies.

This subspecies is a shrub-thicket specialist that occurs at the northern edge of its range in Canada. The discrete population that occurs in the Prairie Ecological Area is localized to riparian systems and is relatively small. However, the population appears to be stable and potentially increasing. Few threats have been identified as serious concerns.

Amphibians

This unusual frog of an ancient lineage has a scattered distribution in western British Columbia, where it occupies cool, clear, fast-flowing mountain streams and adjacent older forest. Habitats continue to be lost and degraded as a result of forestry and other human activities that occur throughout much of its Canadian distribution. Siltation of breeding streams and loss of older forest cover associated with resource use are main threats. Threats identified in the previous assessment in 2000 continue to degrade and fragment habitats, and new threats, such as run-of-river independent hydropower projects, have the potential for rapid and widespread increase throughout the species’ Canadian range. Specialized habitat requirements, life history characteristics that include low reproductive potential, and patchy distribution make the frogs particularly vulnerable to human activities and climate change.

Fishes

This small shark is widely distributed in the north Pacific throughout the shelf waters of western Canada. An average of six pups are born every two years; the gestation period of 18-24 months is one of the longest known for any vertebrate, and the age of female sexual maturity (35 years) is one of the oldest. The species is subject to both targeted and bycatch fishing mortality. The species remains relatively abundant in Canadian waters, but low fecundity, long generation time (51 years), uncertainty regarding trends in abundance of mature individuals, reduction in size composition, and demonstrated vulnerability to overfishing are causes for concern.

Widely distributed in Atlantic Canada, from the Labrador Shelf to Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine, this species attains a very large maximum size (3 m) and has a relatively long generation time (greater than 21 yr).  Abundance in Canada is probably low relative to historical levels due to large fishery removals in the late 1880s and early 1900s.  Trawl surveys provide the only long-term abundance indices but provide limited information on mature individuals, which can avoid this gear.  Longline indices better sample mature individuals, but time series are relatively short.  Since the 1970s, abundance indices on the Grand Banks and Labrador Shelf declined, but have increased since 2002.  Abundance indices show increases, particularly since the 1990s, on the Scotian Shelf and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  Fisheries (directed and bycatch) were essentially unrestricted prior to the 1980s.  Management measures since then include catch limits in most areas and a requirement to release small individuals, but catch limits have been exceeded in the past and minimum size is below size at maturity. However, a recent analysis of the Scotian Shelf/Southern Grand Banks population indicates that the population is productive, abundance is above the level which would give maximum sustainable yield, and fishing mortality is below the level of a maximum sustainable yield.

Arthropods

There is sufficient information to document that no individuals of the wildlife species remain alive in Canada.  This includes that it: (1) is a large distinctive and conspicuous insect not seen for 39 generations; (2) has not been seen despite a tenfold increase in the number of field entomologists and an estimated 300,000 general trap nights at which at least some should have resulted in capture of  this species, as well as studies of carrion-feeding beetles that did not reveal it; (3) comes to lights yet still not seen in thousands of light traps; and (4) a recent directed search in the general area where last seen 60 and 39 years ago that failed to find this species.

This Canadian endemic is known from only five locations within a very small area of south central British Columbia. The species’ grassland habitat is limited and continues to be degraded. Threats include introduction and spread of invasive species, changing fire regimes, pesticide drift and unrestricted ATV use. 

Molluscs

This small, freshwater mussel is currently found in two rivers in southern Ontario; another population may still survive in the Thames River where one fresh shell was found in 1998. The original COSEWIC assessment (2001) concluded that it had been lost from most of its Canadian range and was confined to the Sydenham River but live mussels from a reproducing population were subsequently found in the Ausable River beginning in 2006. The two remaining populations are in areas of intensive farming and subject to siltation and pollution with siltation being particularly problematic. Invasive Zebra Mussels have rendered much of the historical habitat unsuitable. An invasive fish species, the Round Goby, may pose a new threat by competing with the mussel’s two known larval host fishes and by eating juvenile mussels.

Vascular Plants

This small hemiparasitic annual plant is known from vernal pools and seeps in the endangered Garry Oak ecosystems of southern Vancouver Island. Its small range, fluctuations in number of mature individuals and few locations coupled with destruction of individuals and degradation of habitat through recreational use, grazing by introduced Canada Geese, competition from invasive plant species, and residential development put it at on-going risk.

A hemiparasitic herbaceous plant which grows in three small populations within the Great Lakes sand dunes habitat in southwestern Ontario. Its small population size and threats associated with water-level changes, disruption of natural process including fire suppression, recreational activities, and invasive plants places the species at on-going risk.

In Canada, this rare sedge is found in southern Ontario and Quebec where fewer than 250 mature plants have been found.  There have been substantial historical population losses attributed to residential development and other forms of land use.  Continued declines are attributed to late season flooding, land drainage, invasive alien species, recreation, erosion, garbage deposition, water regime regulation, and residential and urban development.  Recovery efforts have included re-introduction at three sites in Quebec.

This orchid is known historically from only 3 sites in Ontario, but it has not been seen since 1996 despite searches at two of the three previously known sites.  The species requires rich, deciduous or mixed, moist forest on sandy soil with abundant humus; this habitat continues to decline in quality due to trampling and exotic plants and earthworms.  It is possible that this species may still be extant in Canada since many orchids are known to have long dormancy periods and often occur in very low numbers.

This small herbaceous mustard is limited globally to one meadow complex in southwestern Yukon; it is found nowhere else on Earth. The meadow complex is under threat from industrial activities, nearby human habitation, invasive species, and trampling by humans and forest encroachment. Human use of the meadows is projected to increase, and encroachment by woody species due to natural succession is causing suitable habitat to decline.

The species is an Atlantic Coastal Plain Flora species. A rare Canadian disjunct shrub restricted to very specific salt marsh habitat in southern Nova Scotia. Its coastal habitat is declining due to increasing shoreline development. Further, climate change effects, including rising sea level and increasing and more frequent storm surges, will cause habitat loss and degradation as well as impact individuals over the next few decades. 

A perennial, herbaceous legume that inhabits sand dune landscapes within the prairies of south-central Saskatchewan and south-western Manitoba. Threats to the extent and quality of habitat continue, including a lack of fire allowing encroachment of competing vegetation, invasive alien plant species, recreational traffic, sand extraction as well as a general decline in open sandy habitat. However, a larger population size is now known due to greatly increased survey effort, and as a result the level of risk is now thought to be much reduced.

Mosses

Lichens

This lichen occurs predominantly in montane cloud forests in Quebec and in coastal fog forests in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In both the coastal and montane situations the species is found in humid spruce/fir forest where it reproduces by fragmentation and very seldom by sexual reproduction. Since the last status report, many new locations have been found in all three provinces, recent surveys estimate more than three million individuals, at 41 locations. However, in the long term, climate change and anthropogenic threats may reduce populations of this lichen.