The Post reports today on endangered species in the District. It seems technically Washington is home to three species on the endangered species list — the bald eagle, which is making a comeback, a tiny crustacean called the “Hay’s Spring amphipod,” and the eastern cougar. The cougar remains endangered in name only — scientists believe its been extinct since 1900.

It seems somehow fitting that one of D.C.’s endangered species is a shadowy creature which hides out in mud and slime:

It’s harder to measure the progress of the Hay’s Spring amphipod — an eyeless white crustacean whose only habitats in the world are in the District, scientists say.

The amphipod, which usually grows to a quarter- or a half-inch long, resembles a tiny shrimp with legs like dental floss. It lives in six seeps, or oozy springs, in Rock Creek Park and on the grounds of the National Zoo.

It stays mostly in groundwater and the mud around the seep, eating bacteria and fungi on decaying leaves. …

For more information, see the Threatened & Endangered Species Program at the National Park Service’s Center for Urban Ecology.