Since bald eagles have reached their highest numbers since World War II, they might be removed from the endangered species list. (Photo courtesy of USFWS)
Bald eagles could be taken off the endangered species list soon.
Rebecca Williams reports bald eagles have reached their highest numbers
since World War II:
Transcript
Bald eagles could be taken off the endangered species list soon.
Rebecca Williams reports bald eagles have reached their highest numbers
since World War II:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says there are just under 10,000
breeding pairs of eagles in the lower 48 states. That’s up from a
record low of just 400 breeding pairs in the 1960s.
For many years, eagles were seen as predators and shot. After World
War II, the pesticide DDT weakened the birds’ eggshells… so they
couldn’t reproduce.
Valerie Fellows is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She says
they’ll decide whether to take the eagles off the endangered species
list by the end of June:
“We can determine at any point if populations start to plummet,
that we can re-list them and add them
to the Endangered Species Act.”
Fellows says bald eagles also have other safety nets. They’re
protected by several federal laws that make it illegal to kill or harm
the birds.
For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.