Endangered Species in Los Angeles County

Unarmored Threespine Stickleback

• The only remaining populations of the unarmored threespine stickleback live in the drainage water from the Santa Clara River that flows into the Los Angeles River and in San Diego County. It is a scaleless, pugnacious, freshwater fish measuring only 2 inches (5 cm) long. The male turns bright red when mating in order to find females. The unarmored threespine stickleback has been listed as endangered since 1970. Maintaining its habitat in the Santa Clara River is the goal of environmentalists.

Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly

• The Palos Verdes blue butterfly was thought to be extinct as of the early 1980s. The population was only known to be around 300 individuals by 1980 with only four to seven adults seen in 1983. Harsh winters in 1983 and 1984 led experts to believe the butterfly extinct until it a colony of a few hundred butterflies was rediscovered in 1994 by a Department of Defense worker at San Pedro, California, just South of the butterfly's natural habitat of the Palos Verdes Peninsula on the Pacific Ocean coast of Los Angeles County. The species is a subspecies of the silvery blue butterfly and was discovered in the 1970s. It lives in the cool, foggy, seaside of the coastal hills.

El Segundo Blue Butterfly

• Populations of the El Segundo blue butterfly are found in only two places along the coast of Los Angeles County: on 2 acres of an oil refinery in the beach community of El Segundo and on the western end of Los Angeles International Airport, north of El Segundo. Estimates are that there were an average of 750,000 butterflies in and around the dunes of El Segundo before the area became populated in the 20th century. By 1984, there were less than 700 adult butterflies. Current estimates of the number of individual El Segundo blues fluctuate. Airport officials project 72,000. Environmentalists predict significantly less.

The Gray Whale

• The gray whale was originally found both in the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In the late 17th century or early 18th century, hunting eliminated the Atlantic gray whale. The species is now found only in the North Pacific. It migrates along in the winter to Northern Mexico. The animal became protected in 1947. In 1994, the species was removed from the list of endangered species as its populations had grown. The species is still monitored to keep it from falling back into a danger zone as there are still threats to it. The gray whale remains federally protected.