Most of us are old enough to remember when America’s national bird, the majestic bald eagle, was on the verge of extinction. They’ve made such a great comeback, that some of the younger generation may not even know they were ever endangered. The revival of the bald eagle population in North America is one of the most successful endangered species stories in history. Granted, the history of wildlife conservation is rather short, but the success is important in better protecting and reviving other endangered species in the future and present.
“In the last 25 to 30 years, bald eagles went from almost non-existent to more than 500 nesting pairs to date in Louisiana,” explained Will Selman, a biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “You’ll find them at the marsh-swamp interface, where the cypress meets the marsh.” The bald eagle’s turnaround from the brink of extinction is largely credited to the banning of unchecked habitat destruction from logging and such, as well as banning the pesticide DDT, which was poisoning the eagles. Thanks to wildlife activist intervention, the population of bald eagles is thriving and the national bird can be seen even in urban areas.
When just a decade or so ago, you were lucky to spot a bald eagle at a National Forest or Conservation area, it is shocking that the national bird can now be seen along highways and near large cities. A bald eagle was recently spotted near Nicholls State University in Louisiana. This is a great sign for the once endangered species. It means that the bald eagle population is growing enough that their habitat also has to expand. “The initial individual that colonizes an areas will take the best territories … As younger eagles come back they are going to move to more marginal habitat,” Selman added.
“They are becoming increasingly urbanized,” explained Nick Smith, graduate student at LSU. “They are nesting more frequently in urban areas and reproducing quite well.” Smith is part of a ground-breaking GPS tracking study of the local bald eagles, run by the Louisiana State University. Tracking the migration of the Louisiana bald eagles revealed some very surprising information, getting the attention of wildlife researchers around the country.
“We always knew they went north, but we never knew exactly where,” Smith said. Thanks to GPS tracking technology, researchers can take the guess-work out of where the bald eagles travel. The eagles were tracked using GPS collars, and were tracked from the southern-border state of Louisiana all the way up into Canada, during their annual migration north. The bald eagles spend their summer as far north as British Columbia and Manitoba.
“They come out of Louisiana much like a tornado and migrate north and west,” Selman said. The Louisiana bald eagle migration is interesting for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the researchers had no idea that the birds travelled all the way into Canada, assuming they just travelled further north into the United States. Secondly, the researchers were surprised that the Louisiana bald eagle’s migration was so different from the recorded migration of the bald eagles in the neighboring state of Florida. While the Louisiana birds travel north and west, bald eagles from Florida travel north, along the east coast of the United States.
After more than three decades of protection efforts and recovery, the bald eagle was removed from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services federal list of threatened and endangered species on August 9, 2007. “Louisiana now has a long standing record of bringing endangered species back,” said Selman. “The American alligator, the brown pelican and the bald eagles are the most successful endangered species stories. Louisiana has had a hand in all three of them.”
GPS tracking has made a huge difference in the wildlife conservation movement. Scientists and activists understand that the global ecosystem is complex and interconnected. It is hard to truly understand how one species going extinct could impact other wildlife and humans alike. The bald eagle’s plight received a lot of attention, likely because of it’s symbol as our national bird. It seems important that we not let our national bird go extinct, but there are lots of other animal on the federal list of endangered species, which could have a larger impact than affecting our national image.
GPS Technology Reveals Incredible Bald Eagle Migration
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