Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

The parties agreed that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would review the Suckley's cuckoo bumble bee's status as threatened or endangered and submit a finding by December 10, 2024.

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.”