Hug This Animal: Bald Eagle

So far in Hug This Animal, we’ve talked about the polar bear, cheetah and red panda.

Today, we’re going to Hug a Bird that is no longer threatened with extinction. The bald eagle, the national bird of the United States, is a conservation success story. It was one of the original species protected under the Endangered Species Act when it was started in 1973.

In June of 2007, the US Fish & Wildlife Service announced that the bald eagle was being removed from the list of threatened and endangered species. (The bird will remain protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.)

Although Alaska’s population of eagles were never threatened, the lower 48 states were home to only 400 nesting pairs of bald eagles in 1963. Today, there are around 10,000 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states! To see how the eagles are distributed by state, go here to download a PDF from the Fish & Wildlife Service.

Why were eagles in trouble?

This is an important question to consider. And the answer shows just how much our actions affect wildlife in ways we could never imagine.

It’s not really hunting that affected the eagle so much, though that was probably a factor as well. The bald eagle had been protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act since 1940, but the numbers declined drastically after World War II.

Unfortunately, use of the pesticide DDT was very widespread after World War II. This pesticide seriously affected eagle populations since the eggs that were laid by eagles with exposure had weakened shells.

The EPA banned the pesticide in 1972, and the Fish & Wildlife Service went to work. They started captive breeding programs, reintroductions, protecting habitat around nests and other preservation activities.

I went eagle watching this past Sunday. I saw two nests and one eagle, with its eye on the Mississippi River. I wasn’t close enough to get a good eagle photo, but I did get this nest photo.

If you’d like to get a good look at a bald eagle on your next visit to a zoo, go here to download a PDF of AZA zoos with bald eagles.

If you live near bald eagles, visit this Fish & Wildlife Service page to make sure you are not disturbing nesting bald eagles.

And don’t worry. I’ll be back next week with an endangered animal post.

Source for information for this eagle post is the US Fish & Wildlife Service.