3 Curious Stories About Species Recovery

We live in a world where bad news gets more traction than good, but that doesn’t mean that good things aren’t happening. Here are three good news stories about species recovery.

Northern Pocket Gophers

The eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 devastated the adjacent landscape, burying soil and plants beneath a blanket of ash and volcanic rock. Three years after the eruption, recovery of the vegetation was limited. To try to solve the problem, scientists came up with a unique idea—translocating northern pocket gophers to the site.

Northern pocket gophers are small, mostly subterranean mammals, who are digging specialists. They push soil to the surface, a habit scientists thought would be especially useful in a place where soil was deeply buried. And they were right! Within six years, the pocket gopher sites were growing with thousands of plant species while the untreated sites remained bare.

Przewalski’s Horse

Recovery efforts for the once-nearly extinct Przewalski’s horse have been ongoing for decades. Several of these unique horses were reintroduced to Kazakhstan in 2024 and this year, the first foal was born in Kazakhstan in over 200 years. 

The goal for all recovery programs is for species to breed in the wild. The birth of this foal marks another important step to recovery for the Przewalski’s horse. 

Atlantic Cod

For centuries, the Atlantic cod fishery shaped the economic and social communities of Atlantic Canada and especially Newfoundland. In 1497, European explorer John Cabot described the cod as so plentiful that one could walk to shore on their backs. Then, in 1992, after decades of overfishing, cod populations collapsed, wiping out the fishery and an entire way of life. Now, after nearly 35 years, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has assessed that the Atlantic cod population has returned to healthy levels, allowing a small fishery to reopen.