American Bald Eagle Population Quadruples In Just Ten Years
Once threatened with extinction in the 1960s, there are now more than 300,000 bald eagles, as the country celebrates ‘a historic conservation success story’.
The number of bald eagles - America’s national symbol - has increased fourfold since 2009, a new report has found.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a total of 316,700 bald eagles are now thought to reside in the lower 48 states, rising from 72,000 recorded back in 2009.
“Today’s announcement is truly a historic conservation success story. Announcements like ours today give me hope. I believe that we have the opportunity of a lifetime to protect our environment and our way of life for generations to come. But we will only accomplish great things if we work together”, says Deb Haaland, U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
The sacred species “should be revered, respected and protected”, Bryan Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at William & Mary, VA, told The New York Times.
But this has not always been the case. In 1917, the Alaskan government deemed the birds a threat to the salmon industry, and so paid out 50 cents - later increasing to one dollar - for every bald eagle killed. This controversial bounty system lasted for 36 years, during which time more than 120,000 birds are known to have died.
Their numbers across the country as a whole were then decimated by the widespread use of DDT, promoted by the government as an agricultural pesticide in the mid-1940s. By 1963, the bald eagle population had plummeted to an all-time low, of just 417 known breeding pairs.
This prompted the introduction of several important conservation efforts. In particular, the birds were placed on the Endangered Species list in 1967, while the use of DDT was outlawed in the U.S. in 1972.
The population is now thriving, with especially large numbers found in Florida, the Great Lakes, and the Pacific Northwest.
And Professor Watts added that some eagles are even nesting as yard birds in residential areas, something that would have been unthinkable just decades ago.
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