The Way of the Dinosaur

The Hawaiian dark-rumped petrel, the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, the Santa Cruz long-toed salamander and the Col orado River squawfish -- to say nothing of the timber wolf, the grizzly bear and the American alligator -- may soon go the way of the dinosaur: to extinction.

According to Interior Secretary Stew art L. American Udall, no species -- 14 fewer than 78 mammals, native 36 birds, six reptiles and 22 varieties of fish -- are on the brink of vanishing from the earth forever. In almost every case, their deadly enemy is man. The Indiana bat, for instance, is in danger because the caves in which it lives have become tourist attractions and because of acts of vicious vandalism (two boys killed 10,000 in Carter Cave, Kentucky, pulling them off the ceiling and trampling them to death). The Florida alligators are on the decline because of com mercial poachers; the Atlantic sturgeon because of polluted waters; the peregrine falcon because of farmers' pesticides; the dusky seaside sparrow because of the mosquito-control program at Cape Kennedy.

Udall's list was the first issued under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966. Unfortunately, the law gives the Federal Government almost no muscle to back up the Secretary's urgent plea. Udall's only real prerogative is to publicize the list and add hopefully, "An informed public will act to help reduce the dangers threatening these rare animals."

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