Regarding the “endangered” status of piping plovers, our Northeast US piping plovers are not now, nor have they ever been, listed as endangered. Their official listing is, “threatened in some areas.” This is important because it means that they could be wiped out of these certain areas, for instance, the buggy trail on Long Beach and they would not go extinct. You just wouldn’t see them on the buggy trail. Additionally, studies have shown that the number one factor in nesting failure is red fox predation, not beach buggies.
I am a big fan of protecting animals of all kinds but saving the plovers that nest in heavily trafficked areas doesn’t make good sense to me. Darwin was right, the fittest of the species will survive.
– Jay Horton