2006 - Midwest Peregrine Falcon Restoration Project

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BLOOD SAMPLES
We continued collecting blood in 2006 from all wild young banded in the U.S., and from
whatever wild breeders were handled. The goal is to provide the research base for measuring
inbreeding, outbreeding, genetic variation, changes in occupancy of territories, dispersal of adults and
young, success of the different genetic stocks introduced, development of genetic structure in the new
Midwestern population, and other topics yet to be determined.
The peregrine blood samples collected over the years uniquely represent the history of the
Midwest population. Only a handful of eggs, study skins and skeletons, acquired randomly, have
been preserved, in contrast to the nearly full coverage of blood samples saved. Sophisticated as
current techniques of blood analysis may seem today, they will be considered primitive in a few
years. The blood specimens are in the permanent tissue collections at the Bell Museum of Natural
History, University of Minnesota, where they are available for study now and in the future.
We need to continue to try to:
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
-Identify all breeders.
-Band all wild young produced
-Collect blood from all young and any adults handled
-Appropriately manage pairs nesting on man-made structures
-Maintain good working relationships with building owners and personnel responsible for public
structures used as nest site
-Monitor the newly-established peregrines on the river cliffs and on suitable cliffs elsewhere in the
region
-Collect, coordinate, and circulate information among Midwest peregrine workers through reports
and regular informal contacts
-Develop permanent names and obtain accurate lat/long information for each nesting site
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Midwest Peregrine Project is a cooperative effort involving many people and
organizations. The University of Minnesota provides the overall coordination of the project through
Pat Redig and Jane Goggin of The Raptor Center with continuing advice, encouragement and
unbounded enthusiasm from Bud Tordoff of the Bell Museum of Natural History and the Department
of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. We are able to maintain our database on peregrines, which is
the basis of the various reports you receive, through the enthusiastic cooperation of people interested
in peregrines in the 13 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces in our area. The database is available
online to anyone interested at Richard Peifer, Kyle Hammond,
and Bruce Fall make the online database possible. We thank all of you who have sent us information.
We are grateful to those who read parts of an early draft of this report for help in detecting errors and
omissions. Please let us know about mistakes that were missed.