The Center for Biological Diversity submitted a petition for rulemaking to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, urging the agency to list the southern population of the bog turtle as either endangered or threatened in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia and to designate critical habitat for the turtles. The bog turtle is North America’s smallest turtle, and its southern population has declined as much as 50% in the past twenty years, with fewer than 2,000 of the thumb-size turtles remaining.
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