Thirty years ago, peregrine falcons were nearly extinct in the Midwest. Today, environmental protection efforts have succeeded in returning the fast-flying raptors to their earlier numbers… and even better. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Diane Richard has more:
Transcript
Thirty years ago, peregrine falcons were nearly extinct in the Midwest. Today, environmental protection efforts have succeeded in returning the fast-flying raptors to their earlier numbers… and even better. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Diane Richard has more:
A twenty-year program to restore peregrine falcons is seeing new signs of
success this summer: hatchlings.
Experts estimate that as many as 300 peregrine falcons will hatch this year.
In the sixties, DDT all but wiped out the population. But the peregrine
falcon is back, thanks to a ban on the pesticide and conservation efforts by the Midwest Peregrine Falcon Restoration Program.
Since the eighties, this regional partnership has released birds bred in captivity. Today, it’s monitoring peregrine falcons at 30 sites across 13 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.
Mark Martell is a conservation coordinator with the restoration program. He
says the challenge now is to keep the population thriving.
“We don’t have a lot of experience with taking a species from zero
individuals up to a stable population. So we want to make sure this
population stays stable.”
To do so, Martell says researchers will spend the next 20 years keeping tabs
on the falcons and their chicks.
For Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Diane Richard.