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inspiration
Collaborative Conservation
Threatened
Species
Rebound
by April Thompson
The founders of the United States
chose the magnificent and pervasive
bald eagle—a bird unique
to North America and sacred to many
Native American tribes—as a symbol
of their proud and flourishing new nation,
but by 1967, it was on the brink
of extinction.
When the combination of habitat
loss, pesticide use and other factors
landed it on the endangered species
list, the country rallied. Conservation
organizations, indigenous tribes, businesses,
individual citizens and government
at all levels worked together to
strengthen the numbers of this national
icon, which had dwindled to 417
breeding pairs in the lower 48 states,
despite the fact that the species was
doing well in Alaska and Canada.
Captive breeding programs, law
enforcement efforts, habitat protection
around nest sites and the banning of the
toxic pesticide DDT all contributed to
the recovery plan, spearheaded by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Today,
the bald eagle is again soaring high—
just five years after being removed from
the list some 10,000 pairs now make
their nests in the lower 48.
More than 40 percent of the
world’s millions of species have similarly
suffered and are now in critical condition,
according to the International
Union for Conservation of Nature; new
threats like climate change make their
44 Rhode Island Edition RINaturalAwakenings.com
futures ever more tenuous. Yet the bald
eagle’s stunning comeback proves that
being labeled an endangered species
isn’t necessarily a death sentence. The
California condor, peregrine falcon and
black-footed ferret are among many
animals that have returned from the
verge of extinction via protective actions
taken under the U.S. Endangered
Species Act.
Other decimated populations
targeted by international conservation
efforts, from Rwanda’s mountain gorillas
to India’s wild tigers, also show encouraging
signs of recovery. Rhinos, for
example, are returning to the African
wilderness thanks to community-based,
public/private conservation programs
that fight poaching, habitat loss and
other human threats to this prehistoric
creature. Since its launch in 1997, the
World Wildlife Fund’s African Rhino
Programme estimates that the white and
black rhino population on the continent
has more than doubled, from approximately
11,000 to 25,000.
For wildlife success stories across
America, visit fws.gov/endangered.
To learn of progress among other
global species and how to help,
explore Priority Species at Panda.org.
April Thompson regularly contributes
to Natural Awakenings. Connect at
AprilWrites.com.