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Friday is Endangered Species Day and people in Colorado and across the nation are celebrating successful efforts to save bald eagles, brown pelicans, peregrine falcons and other species from extinction.

Michael Saul, Rockies and Plains program director for the nonprofit conservation group Defenders of Wildlife, noted the bipartisan 1973 law is still at work in Colorado, protecting a number of species, including the Gunnison sage-grouse.

Saul said the bird is renowned for its unique mating rituals, where males dance to impress the ladies every spring.

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"They puff up their white chest feathers and then expand repeatedly these yellow air sacks in their chest," Saul explained. "It creates a weird popping sound."

Critics of the Endangered Species Act claimed it slows development and hurts the economy. The Trump administration recently issued an executive order to clear the way for drilling, logging and mining by changing the law. Harming or killing endangered animals would still be prohibited but the habitats species rely on would lose protections.

Saul pointed to data showing most development can go forward under the Endangered Species Act, as long as companies take the minimum steps necessary to avoid pushing a species over the brink into extinction. He believes Trump's executive order will not hold up in court.

"If somehow this executive order survives the courts, it would do a lot of damage to our ability to keep species like the Gunnison Sage Grouse or the Canada Lynx away from extinction," Saul cautioned.

Colorado has used the Endangered Species Act to bring back black-footed ferrets, river otters and gray wolves. A new state law opens the door to bring wolverines back to the southern Rocky Mountains.

Saul noted the back molars of the tenacious and elusive scavenger are rotated 90 degrees, which enables them to tear through the frozen carcass of a moose and crush bones.

"Those impressive skills aren't enough to save them from the threat of losing their snowpack habitat due to climate change," Saul stressed. "They need our help, and they need us to bring them back to Colorado."