Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Listing the Giraffe

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR <SUBAGY>Fish and Wildlife Service</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 17</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FWS-HQ-ES-2024-0157; FXES1111090FEDR-256-FF09E21000]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1018-BH64</RIN> <SUBJECT>Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Listing the Giraffe</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce our 12-month finding on a petition to list the giraffe (including its subspecies) as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act or ESA). After a review of the best available scientific and commercial information, we find that the following listing actions are warranted: We propose to list all three subspecies of the northern giraffe ( <E T="03">Giraffa camelopardalis</E> )—the West African giraffe ( <E T="03">Giraffa camelopardalis peralta</E> ), the Kordofan giraffe ( <E T="03">Giraffa camelopardalis antiquorum</E> ), and the Nubian giraffe ( <E T="03">Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis</E> )—as endangered species under Act. We also propose to list the reticulated giraffe ( <E T="03">Giraffa reticulata</E> ) and the Masai giraffe ( <E T="03">Giraffa tippelskirchi</E> ), both from east Africa, as threatened species with protective regulations issued under section 4(d) of the Act (“4(d) rule”). After a thorough review of the best scientific and commercial data available, we find that, based on the Act's section 4(a)(1) factors, it is not warranted at this time to list either subspecies of the southern giraffe ( <E T="03">Giraffa giraffa</E> )—the Angolan giraffe ( <E T="03">Giraffa giraffa angolensis</E> ) and the South African giraffe ( <E T="03">Giraffa giraffa giraffa</E> )—but we are proposing, under the authority of section 4(e) of the Act, to treat both of these subspecies as threatened species based on their similarity of appearance to the West African giraffe, Kordofan giraffe, Nubian giraffe, reticulated giraffe, and Masai giraffe. If we finalize this rule as proposed, it would add all giraffes to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife, under the authority of either section 4(a)(1) or 4(e) of the Act, and extend the Act's protections to these taxa. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> <E T="03">Comments on the proposed rule:</E> We will accept comments on the proposals in this document that are received or postmarked on or before February 19, 2025. Comments submitted electronically using the Federal eRulemaking Portal (see <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> , below) must be received by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on the closing date. We must receive requests for a public hearing, in writing, at the address shown in <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> by January 6, 2025. <E T="03">12-month petition finding:</E> The 12-month petition finding for the Angolan giraffe and South African giraffe announced in this document was made on November 21, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> <E T="03">Written comments:</E> You may submit comments by one of the following methods: (1) <E T="03">Electronically:</E> Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> In the Search box, enter FWS-HQ-ES-2024-0157, which is the docket number for this rulemaking. Then, click on the Search button. On the resulting page, in the panel on the left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, check the Proposed Rule box to locate this document. You may submit a comment by clicking on “Comment.” If your comments will fit in the provided comment box, please use this feature of <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov,</E> as it is most compatible with our comment review procedures. If you attach your comments as a separate document, our preferred file format is Microsoft Word. If you attach multiple comments (such as form letters), our preferred format is a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. (2) <E T="03">By hard copy:</E> Submit by U.S. mail to: Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS-HQ-ES-2024-0157, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: PRB/3W, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803. We request that you send comments only by the methods described above. We will post all comments on <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> This generally means that we will post any personal information you provide us (see Information Requested, below, for more information). <E T="03">Availability of supporting materials:</E> Supporting materials, such as the species status assessment report, are available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> at Docket No. FWS-HQ-ES-2024-0157. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Rachel London, Manager, Branch of Delisting and Foreign Species, Ecological Services Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: ES, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803; telephone 703-358-2171. Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States. Please see Docket No. FWS-HQ-ES-2024-0157 on <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> for a document that summarizes this proposed rule. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Executive Summary</HD> <E T="03">Why we need to publish a rule.</E> Under the Act, a species warrants listing if it meets the definition of an endangered species (in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range) or a threatened species (likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range). If we determine that a species warrants listing, we must list the species promptly. We have determined that the three subspecies of northern giraffe—West African giraffe, Kordofan giraffe, and Nubian giraffe—each meet the Act's definition of an endangered species, and the reticulated giraffe and Masai giraffe each meet the Act's definition of a threatened species; therefore, we are proposing to list these species as such. Listing a species as an endangered or threatened species can be completed only by issuing a rule through the Administrative Procedure Act rulemaking process (5 U.S.C. 551 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ). <E T="03">What this document does.</E> We propose to list the West African giraffe, Kordofan giraffe, and Nubian giraffe as endangered species under the Act. We also propose to list the reticulated giraffe and Masai giraffe as threatened species with protective regulations under section 4(d) of the Act. We find that listing the Angolan giraffe and South African giraffe as endangered or threatened species under the factors set forth in section 4(a)(1) of the Act is not warranted. However, we propose to list the Angolan giraffe and South African giraffe as threatened species under the authority of section 4(e) of the Act, with protective regulations under section 4(d) of the Act, based on their similarity of appearance to the West African giraffe, Kordofan giraffe, Nubian giraffe, reticulated giraffe, and Masai giraffe. <E T="03">The basis for our action.</E> Under the Act's section 4(a)(1), we may determine that a species is an endangered or threatened species because of any of five factors: (A) The present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range; (B) overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes; (C) disease or predation; (D) the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; or (E) other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence. We have determined that West African giraffe, Kordofan giraffe, and Nubian giraffe are endangered due to the following ongoing and imminent threats: habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation because of the conversion of natural habitats and vegetation to croplands and urbanization (Factors A and E), and poaching for consumption, personal use, and trade (Factor B), which are all exacerbated by rapid human population growth and the effects from climate change (including the inter-related effects such as civil unrest and human food insecurity) (Factor E). We have further determined that the reticulated giraffe and Masai giraffe are threatened due to the following threats: habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation because of the conversion of natural habitats and vegetation to croplands and urbanization (Factors A and E), and poaching for consumption, personal use, and trade (Factor B), which are exacerbated by rapid human population growth and the effects from climate change (including the inter-related effects such as civil unrest and human food insecurity) (Factor E). We have determined that both Angolan giraffe and South African giraffe are not warranted as endangered or threatened species due to the following threats: habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation because of the conversion of natural habitats and vegetation to croplands and urbanization (Factors A and E), and poaching for consumption, personal use, and trade (Factor B), which are exacerbated by rapid human population growth and the effects from climate change (including the inter-related effects such as civil unrest and human food insecurity) (Factor E). Under the Act's section 4(e), we may treat any species as an endangered or threatened species based on its similarity of appearance to a species listed as an endangered or threatened species. This “similarity of appearance” listing is intended to p ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 337k characters. 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