This threatened woodpecker found its way back home.
Peachtree Rock, a nature preserve in Columbia, South Carolina, welcomed back a long-lost resident: the red-cockaded woodpecker.
The red-cockaded woodpecker is a small, striped woodpecker native to the southeastern United States, including Georgia and South Carolina. The woodpecker is considered near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and Peachtree Rock hasn't seen this species in 50 years.
The woodpecker was seen making a home in a pine tree, which is fantastic news. "Having a threatened species move back into an area for the first time in nearly 50 years is about the best grade you can get on your conservation report card,'' the Nature Conservancy's director in South Carolina, Dale Threatt-Taylor, told The State.
The woodpecker and other birds in the area experienced population decreases due to the removal of surrounding trees. It's not uncommon; habitat loss is one of the biggest drivers of extinction.
Over 47,000 species — 28% of all assessed species — are at risk of extinction, per IUCN's Red List. Without action, many of them could go extinct within the next 25 years.
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Protecting existing land and restoring lost habitats are among the best ways to bring back endangered species. Conservation teams across the globe are working to restore endangered species, including gray wolves in Colorado and elephant seals in Chile.
Conservation works. One meta-analysis of conservation efforts found that conservation efforts, including habitat preservation and invasive species control, "improved the state of biodiversity or slowed its decline in most cases (66%) … [and] were generally found to be highly effective," according to the University of Oxford.
The woodpecker's return gives researchers hope and reassures them that hard work pays off. As Threatt-Taylor said, "Nature can do amazing things when we give her the right tools.''
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