PHOENIX (CN) – A conservation group challenged denial of Endangered Species Act protections for an Arizona snake before the Ninth Circuit panel Friday. The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned to list the Tucson shovel-nosed snake, subspecies of the western shovel-nosed snake known for its distinct red and black color pattern, as endangered in 2004, and again in 2020 after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the petition. The center claims at least 39% of the snake’s habitat, confined to Maricopa and Pinal counties in the northern Sonoran Desert of central Arizona, has been eliminated by agriculture and urban development with the rest likely to be developed in the near future, signaling impending doom for the subspecies.