The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it was granting protection to longsolid and round hickorynut mussels, which have declined in many Eastern and Midwestern streams.

The fungal disease white-nose syndrome has driven a once common bat in Indiana to near extinction.

A native plant called running buffalo clover once considered extinct is being removed from the federal endangered species list after bouncing back in a half-dozen states -- including Indiana -- east of the Mississippi River.

Though it's a state endangered species in Indiana, the northern long-eared bat only listed as "threatened" at the federal level.

Federal officials said Tuesday that 35 years of legal protection and habitat restoration efforts had brought the interior least tern back from the brink of extinction.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said longsolid and round hickorynut mussels have disappeared from some states and are doing poorly elsewhere. The longsolid can no longer be found in Indiana.

Once found in 31 states and provinces the rusty patched bumblebee now occupies only scattered areas in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada.

The species are already listed as an endangered in multiple states including Indiana. A federal designation would mean more protections, including funding.

The groups first threatened suit in May when the Fish and Wildlife Service missed its deadline to respond to their petition to list the lake sturgeon. The agency has since responded, but now its missed its next deadline in the process.

From a tiny Pacific island to a leafy Indiana forest, a handful of sites where the United States made and tested some of the most lethal weapons known to humankind are now peaceful havens for wildlife.