this is wonderful news...........but, as was also said, it will require constant vigilance on our part to keep them safe...........
Bald eagles off endangered species list...........
by Sunnygal41 3 Replies latest social current
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JeffT
On the first Earth Day (April 1970 my freshman year in college) I heard that within a few years no one would see bald eagles in the lower forty-eight. We now have lots of them in Western Washington - they're becoming a common place sight. I think nature has enormous restorative powers if we give it a chance.
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5go
Population decline and recovery
Once a common sight in much of the continent, the bald eagle was severely affected in the mid-twentieth century by a variety of factors, among them thinning of egg shells, attributed to the use of the pesticide DDT. While DDT itself was not lethal to the bird, it made an eagle either sterile or unable to lay healthy eggs: the eagle would ingest the chemical through its food and then lay eggs that were too brittle to withstand the weight of a brooding adult. By the 1950s there were only 412 nesting pairs in the 48 contiguous states of the USA.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service attributed bald eagle population reductions to a "widespread loss of suitable habitat," but noted that "illegal shooting continues to be the leading cause of direct mortality in both adult and immature bald eagles," according to a 1978 report in the Endangered Species Tech Bulletin. A 1984 National Wildlife Federation publication listed hunting, power line electrocution, collisions in flight and poisoning from eating ducks containing lead shot as the leading causes of eagle deaths. Other potential causes of Bald Eagle populations reductions that have been reported in the scientific literature include oil, lead, mercury, stress from noise, disease and human and predator intrusion. Though its population has declined within the last half century, its population is such that its risk level is in the least concern category on the IUCN Red List.
The bird was first protected in the U.S. and Canada by the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty, later extended to all of North America. The 1940 Bald Eagle Protection Act in the U.S., which protected the bald eagle and the golden eagle, prohibited commercial trapping and killing of the birds. [12] The bald eagle was declared an endangered species by the U.S. in 1967, and amendments to the 1940 act between 1962 and 1972 further restricted commercial uses and increased penalties for violators. The Act was eventually applied to trade in eagle feathers by Native Americanheaddress makers. Whether the species is reclassified from endangered to threatened will have no effect on these separate legal protections.
Permits are required to keep this species in captivity (e-CFR 1974). As a rule, the Bald Eagle is a poor choice for public shows, being timid, prone to becoming highly stressed, and unpredictable in nature. However, the Hawk Experience company does provide an impressive daily flying display of their captive-bred and trained Bald Eagles 'Archie' and 'Sidney' at Warwick Castle in the UK. The Bald Eagle can be long-lived in captivity if key demands are met, but does not breed well even under the best conditions.
Currently, the Bald Eagle population is slowly but steadily recovering. Organizations such as the Fraternal Order of Eagles which carry the Eagle as their emblem, have helped the American Bald Eagle on its recovery by supporting other groups that rescue and preserve the eagles and their habitat. The Bald Eagle can be found in growing concentrations throughout the United States and Canada, particularly near large bodies of water. The U.S. state with the largest resident population is Alaska with half of the estimated 70,000 Bald Eagles on Earth.
The bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list on Jun 28, 2007.
Info on it.
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greendawn
The world has already lost many species due to human greed and stupidity and whenever a species is brought out of the extinction risk area that is great news let's hope that more endangered species will be saved the earth can't afford to lose its rather limited variety of higher animal species.
