The ability of the Pacific walrus to adapt to changing sea ice conditions just cost itself a spot on the endangered species list.
But it isn't time to rejoice that the species is safe. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
The walruses showed their wits over the past decade, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, by finding their way to new beaches in northwestern Alaska and Russia to forage.
They've also shown a willingness to swim up to 130 miles or more at a time to prime foraging areas, according to a story last week by the Associated Press.
These moves prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revise their 2011 position that the walruses deserved endangered species protections, stating it cannot be determined whether they will become endangered "in the forseeable future."
As floes of Arctic sea ice continue to melt farther away from the shallow continental shelf where the animals feed, walruses have been forced ashore, according to the AP.
This has resulted in deaths of young animals, forced nursing females to swim longer distances and increased trampling of smaller animals inhabiting the walrus' new foraging grounds.
"They're not adapting, they're suffering," Shaye Wolf, climate science director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told the AP. "They did not want to list. This is an anti-science, anti-wildlife administration that denies the reality of climate change, which is the primary threat to the walrus."
Climate change has forced the walrus to adapt and save itself for the time being, but humans can't seem to do the same.
Rather than step up to help solve the problem, Fish and Wildlife has decided the walruses aren't worth the money or effort because they're hanging on for now.
The majority of humans, including our own President Donald Trump, aren't willing to accept climate change as a very serious threat to ours and other mammals' way of life.
Listing the walrus on the endangered species list was an opportunity to shine a light on the reality of climate change.
But unless it starts affecting how we humans get our food, our current federal government clearly isn't going to care.
