Petition to list the Ridgway’s Hawk (Buteo ridgwayi) under the U.S. Endangered Species Act

Abstract

WildEarth Guardians requests that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) list the Ridgway’s hawk (Buteo ridgwayi) as a “threatened” or “endangered” species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Ridgway’s hawks survive as a small and fragmented population in one location in the wild. The number of breeding pairs continues to decline. Once found throughout Hispaniola and adjacent islands, and at least one island off of Puerto Rico, the species range has been reduced to one location in the Dominican Republic – Los Haitises National Park and lands immediately adjacent. The protection offered by the park is considered ineffective and the forest is being rapidly cleared as the Dominican Republic’s human population increases (growth rate is estimated at 1.33 percent). The most recent estimate of the Ridgway’s hawk population was 80-100 pairs, confined to approximately 208 k2 of rainforest, or 160-240 mature individuals.