Bug-Eating Venus Flytrap Won’t Get Endangered Species Protection

The Venus flytrap—a toothy, insect-eating plant native to wet pine forests in the Carolinas—will not be protected under the Endangered Species Act, the US Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday in a decision that refutes the findings of 26 scientists who petitioned for the plant’s protection.

The rare carnivorous plant, which is often poached to be sold on the black market, is unlikely to go extinct over the next 50 years due to wildfires and wetland habitat loss in eastern North Carolina and South Carolina, the agency said in a Federal Register public inspection notice.

The decision was made ...