Description: Lawsuit alleging that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to make a mandatory finding of whether the Suckley’s cuckoo bumblebee should be listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
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Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 04/21/2022 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Lawsuit Challenged Failure to Make Listing Determination for Climate Change-Threatened Suckley’s Cuckoo Bumblebee. Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Arizona alleging that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to make a mandatory finding of whether the Suckley’s cuckoo bumblebee should be listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The complaint alleged that climate change was among the threats to both the Suckley’s cuckoo bumblebee—which is “a social parasite relying on host bumblebee colonies to care for its young”—and to its host, the western bumblebee. In particular, the complaint alleged that “[e]xtreme temperatures threaten [the bees’] ability to fly and forage” because at temperatures above 75°F, “they are unable to control their body temperature and cannot fly” and because “[r]ising temperatures also cause droughts, which leads to the depletion of floral resources.”