The Return of the Bald Eagle
There were many decades in which the U.S. national symbol was believed to be headed for extinction, but the species has since made a remarkable comeback. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act was passed in 1940 to keep the bird from being hunted after the bald eagle was found to be endangered. Once the threat from hunting was gone, the species found its numbers declining further by the ingestion of DDT. The number of breeding pairs in the U.S. dipped to a low of 417 in 1963, leading to inclusion in 1973 on the endangered species list.
Instead of the expected extinction of the species, the bald eagle has executed a miraculous rise in the number of breeding pairs. The bald eagle is no longer listed as an endangered species thanks to the nearly 10,000 pairs that roam the American skies. But, the species will not be left entirely alone by the experts. Bald eagles will be tracked and their numbers monitored for the next five years. If the monitoring shows a decline in the number of breeding pairs, experts can then move to get the bird back onto the endangered species list.
The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act will continue to protect the bald eagle even as it stays off the endangered species list. There is also protection afforded to the eagles from an act passed in 1918- the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The act was passed to protect migratory birds, such as the bald eagle, in other countries that share birds with the U.S. due to migration. Buying and selling the eggs, feathers or nests of bald eagles are all made illegal under the act, keeping the birds safe from those who would hunt them for profit in Canada and Mexico as well as the U.S.
The 1972 ban on the use of DDT has also done much to protect bald eagles. DDT traveled up the food chain to the bald eagle, and other animals, causing a steep decline in the number of breeding pairs. The toxic chemical penetrated the entire food chain, resulting in the deaths of eagles as well as many other bird species. This chemical eventually made its way from the waterways and into the eagles. When the eagles caught fish from these lakes and streams, the fish had already been contaminated. The chemical then affected the eagles by keeping them from producing the hard shells needed to protect the baby eagles until it was time to hatch. Bald eagle eggs from contaminated mothers were so thin that the mothers often broke the shells during the incubation period. With DDT now gone, the number of bald eagles can continue to grow.
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