Comeback kid

Science World, Oct 11, 2004 by Jacqueline Adams

Bald eagles are back. Once rare, the number of eagles is now so high that these raptors (birds of prey) may soon lose their spot on the government's list of endangered species.

Habitat loss, hunting, and DDT poisoning brought eagles to near extinction (no members of the species remain) in the 1960s. DDT--a chemical used to keep crops safe from insects--caused eagles to produce eggshells too weak to house babies.

Conservation efforts and a ban on DDT boosted the number of nesting eagle pairs in the lower 48 states from 417 in 1963 to 7,678 in 2003. Result? The birds will likely come off the endangered species list by the end of 2004.

Bryan D. Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary, says, "It's probably one of the greatest conservation success stories we've had in this country."