By Kale Williams

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Oregon is home to hundreds of types of animals. Some are fuzzy and cute, others cunning and elusive. Nearly every species that resides in the state has seen some impact from humans and that impact is not always positive.

For those in danger of extinction, protections can be provided under the Endangered Species Act.

A species can be listed as endangered for a variety of reasons including loss of habitat, over hunting, disease, predation or inadequate regulation. Species can get on the endangered list in two ways: either through assessment by a federal biologist or through a petition brought by a member of the public.

Once a species is listed, it is entitled to special protections from hunting, trade and habitat loss. A recovery plan is usually developed, among other measures.

Below you'll find the most recognizable and high-profile of Oregon's endangered species, some of which are considered threatened, others endangered. Click here for

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LISTED SPECIES

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Gray wolf (Canis lupis)

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Status: Endangered in Oregon west of a boundary line that extends south from the Washington border along U.S. 395 to Burns, then continues south on U.S. 78 to Burns Junction, and continues south on U.S. 95 to the Nevada border. Wolves east of that line are not federally listed.

The gray wolf has a long and complicated history in Oregon. Once ubiquitous in the state, and across the northern United States, the wolf was hunted to near extinction and completely eradicated in Oregon. Wolves were shot and poisoned using carcasses laced with strychnine until the last animals remained only in a corner of northern Minnesota.

In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began a reintroduction effort in the northern Rocky Mountains. Wolves, captured in Canada, were released in Yellowstone National Park and a wilderness area in Idaho. Those animals proliferated quickly and the first wolf to return to Oregon, thought to have dispersed from the packs in Idaho, crossed the border into the Beaver State in 2008.

Since then, Oregon's wolf population has grown, now

. With their growth, however, has come tension over how to deal with wolves that prey on livestock, with ranchers and animal advocates frequently clashing over how best to deal with wolves that kill stock animals.

Threats: As apex predators, the wolf faces few natural threats. But with just 124 documented animals in the state, the Oregon wolf population faces threats from natural mortality, poachers and death at the hands of the state if any particular animal or pack is deemed a persistent threat to livestock.

Range:

Most wolf activity in Oregon is concentrated in the northeast corner of the state, especially in Wallowa and Baker Counties. The state's most famous wolf, OR-7 of the Rogue Pack, roams the rugged hills of southern Oregon and, just last year,

for the first time in the Mount Hood National Forest.

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Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis)

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Status: Threatened

Very little is known about the Canada lynx's presence in Oregon. Museum's hold specimens from seven Oregon Counties and nearly 250 bounty records exist from a dozen counties, but since 1985 there have been fewer than 80 sightings of the elusive creatures in the state.

Threats: A relative to the bobcat, the Canada lynx is a medium-sized cat -- averaging about 22 pounds and a little over 2 feet in length. They prefer forested landscapes with large fallen trees in which to make their dens. The Canada lynx is a specialized hunter, preying almost exclusively on snowshoe hare.

The Canada lynx has come under threat from human intrusion into forests, primarily from logging, forest thinning and fire suppression. The animal's numbers have also been impacted by over-hunting, loss of habitat and increased competition from other animals like bobcats and coyotes.

Range: While it is unclear exactly where any remaining Canada lynx live within Oregon, their potential range stretches along the Cascade Range, down to southern Oregon, and east to the Blue Mountains and the Idaho border.

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Columbian white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus leucurus)

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Status: Threatened along the Columbia River, delisted in Douglas County

Threats: Once numerous from the western slopes of the Cascades to the ocean and from Puget Sound south to the Umpqua River, the Columbian white-tailed deer has dwindled to just a two geographically-distinct populations as loss of habitat, hunting and development pushed the population to fewer than 1,000 animals in the late 1960s, when the deer was listed as an endangered species.

The white-tailed deer in Douglas County's Umpqua River basin have since rebounded, now numbering more than 5,000, and were taken off the endangered species list in 2003. The deer that inhabit the banks of the Columbia, however, remain in jeopardy after flooding in 1996 further depleted the population.

The westernmost species of white-tailed deer, the Columbian variety prefers riverbanks and streambed habitat, using tidal spruce stands on the Columbia and willow and cottonwood stands along the Umpqua to make its home.

Range: Just two pockets of Columbian white-tailed deer remain in Oregon, one along the banks of the Columbia west of Portland and the other in Douglas County in the Umpqua River basin.

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Marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus)

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Status: Threatened

The marbled murrelet has been the subject of much debate, with environmental advocates arguing the seabird should be uplisted to endangered status and interests from the timber industry countering that some data show the creature has been rebounding from historic lows.

Murrelets are robin-sized birds that primarily feed on fish and small invertebrates in near-shore waters from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to the central California coast. While they spend most of their lives at sea, these small birds require old-growth forests to nest and raise their young.

The status of the murrelet, which was listed as threatened under both state and federal guidelines in the early 1990s, was

. They petitioned the state to uplist the bird, hoping to change its status from threatened to endangered, which would require the state to hatch a recovery plan for the birds.

In February, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife agreed, voting to uplist the species, but

, opting instead to wait for a status review of the species.

Threats: The primary threat to the marbled murrelet is loss of nesting habitat.

Range: Pacific coast from Alaska to central California.

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Western snowy plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus)

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Status: Threatened

The western snowy plover forages in wet sand and tidepools for invertebrates on beaches up and down the Pacific coast. Small birds that nest in shallow, sandy depressions, the snowy plover has been listed under the Endangered Species Act since 1993.

Threats: Snowy plover are at their most vulnerable in the days and weeks after they hatch. Unable to fly, baby plovers usually leave the nest within hours of emerging from their eggs. Virtually defenseless, their parents don't feed them, instead leading them to food and deploying distraction tactics to deter predators.

As beaches have become more popular and coastal populations have grown, much of the nesting habitat of the snowy plover has been lost. State and federal agencies now cordon off some beach areas to provide undisturbed areas for the birds to raise their young.

Range: The western snowy plover populates beaches from southern Washington to the southern tip of Baja, Mexico.

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Yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus)

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Status: Threatened

The yellow-billed cuckoo was never a common bird in Oregon, but the last 50 years have seen a precipitous decline in their preferred habitat along rivers and streams. Recognizable for their long, black and white tail, the cuckoo gets its name for an elongated downward-curved bill which is yellow on the bottom.

They have a distinctive clucking call that has been described as sounding like "cow, cow, cow." The cuckoos have been called stormcrows or raincrows, as they are known to call out repeatedly before storms.

Threats: The yellow-billed cuckoo prefers riparian habitats for nesting, making its home along streams and riverbanks. Some estimates say suitable habitat for the birds has declined by 90 percent since 1950. While the creatures were never super common in Oregon, sightings have become increasingly rare, with the last breeding records for the birds coming in 1940. Most confirmed observations of the cuckoo in recent history have come from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County.

Range: As river dwellers, yellow-billed cuckoo habitat has historically been along rivers, both the Columbia and Willamette in Western Oregon, and at wildlife refuges in Harney, Deschutes and Malheur counties.

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Streaked horned lark (Eremophila alpestris strigata)

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Status: Threatened

A subspecies of the wide-ranging horned lark, the streaked variety is endemic to the Pacific Northwest. Recognizable for their namesake streaks, these birds once flew the skies from British Columbia to southern Oregon.

Threats: The streaked horned lark prefers wide open habitat with few trees and shrubs in areas of 300 acres or more. Loss of this habitat -- usually from conversion to agriculture, development and invasion by trees and other plant species -- have led to a precipitous decline.

"The streaked horned lark has been extirpated throughout much of its range, including all of its former range in British Columbia, Canada, the San Juan Islands, the northern Puget lowlands, the Washington coast north of Grays Harbor, the Oregon coast, and the Rogue and Umpqua Valleys in southwestern Oregon,"

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Range: Today, the streaked horned lark exists in three geographically-distinct populations: one in the southern lowlands of the Puget Sound, another on the Washington coast and lower Columbia River islands and, lastly, the largest population lives in the Willamette Valley.

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Northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina)

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Status: Threatened

The northern spotted owl has been on the endangered species list since 1990. The chocolate-brown birds prefer old-growth forests with dense canopies and use a "perch-and-pounce" strategy to prey on small rodents and forest mammals.

Threats: The northern spotted owl has seen significant loss of habitat due to timber harvest and land conversion, with some estimates suggesting as much as 60 percent of the birds' preferred forest type has been lost over the last 190 years. Since the mid-80s, when many studies of the species began, northern spotted owls have declined at a rate of 2.9 percent a year throughout their range.

Range: Historically, these owls ranged from southwestern British Columbia through western Washington and Oregon and as far south as San Francisco. Today, the birds are extremely rare in British Columbia, the Cascade Mountains of northern Washington and the Coast Ranges of southwest Washington and northwest Oregon.

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Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas)

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Status: Endangered

The green sea turtle is one of the largest hard-shelled turtles to swim the seas and one of the only herbivores, subsisting on mostly algae and sea grasses, which give its skin the distinctive color for which its named.

Threats: Green sea turtles face a range of threats, from getting caught in fishing nets to boat strikes to loss of nesting habitat.

Range: These turtles range widely and can be found in waters all over the world. They nest in more than 80 countries and live in the coastal areas of 60 more. They aren't common in Oregon, but in winter months, will sometimes get blown into the cold waters offshore by storms or strong currents.

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Olive Ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea)

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Status: Threatened

Olive Ridleys are thought to be the most abundant sea turtle in the world, with some 800,000 females nesting per year. But given their nesting habits -- they gather in large groups to lay eggs all at once -- the species is vulnerable to poaching and illegal harvest.

Threats: As noted above, the nesting rituals of Olive Ridleys make them vulnerable to poaching, but they are also at risk due to plastic pollution in the ocean, entanglement in fishing gear, ocean noise and habitat loss.

Range: The Olive Ridley turtle swims the waters off the Pacific coast and most of the world's subtropical oceans. It is considered endangered off the Pacific coast of Mexico and threatened everywhere else. Like the green turtles, Olive Ridleys aren't common in Oregon, but sometimes get blown into the cold waters offshore by winter storms or strong currents.

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Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa)

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Status: Threatened

Named for the black spots that cover their head, back and legs, the Oregon spotted frog is the most aquatic frog in the Pacific Northwest, almost always found in or near perennial bodies of water that host aquatic plants, which the amphibians use for basking and to hide from predators.

Threats: The spotted frog is under threat from invasive species -- like bullfrogs and warm-water game fish -- but also from a precipitous decline in natural habitat. Some estimates say that 95 percent of historic marshlands, prime habitat for the frogs, in the Willamette and Klamath basins have been lost. Development, including dams and irrigation ditches, have degraded water quality and forced the frogs into small, distinct populations, separated from each other geographically.

These isolated populations are vulnerable to naturally occuring threats like drought and disease.

Range: The Oregon spotted frog is only known to occur in Wasco, Deschutes, Klamath, Jackson and Lane counties.

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-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048