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The Bald eagle is listed as threatened by the United States
Fish and Wildlife Service and is protected from trade by CITES
Appendix I status. This species is no longer in danger of extinction
and because of this the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing
to declare the bald eagle fully recovered and remove it from the
threatened and endangered species list. Even if it is removed
from the list, it will still be protected by the Migratory Bird
Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
Reintroduction programs have helped bring the bald eagle back
to areas from which they had disappeared. Some states continue
reintroduction efforts today. Eaglets used for reintroduction
may be captive-hatched, or, since usually only two young per nest
survive, they may be transferred from a bald eagle nest with a
clutch of more than two. These "extra" eaglets are placed
in the nest of an adult pair whose own eggs are infertile or fail
to hatch. The "foster parents" readily adopt the eaglets
and raise them as their own. In another method eight week old
nestling eaglets, many flown in from nests in Alaska, are placed
on man-made towers located in remote areas. Biologists stay hidden
while providing them with food, and release them when they become
able to fly. This technique worked well in New York where only
one unsuccessful pair of eagles lived in New York in the 1970's.
By the 1990s, there were 20 nesting pairs. The most spectacular
recovery, however, took place in the Chesapeake Bay area, where
only 32 pairs were nesting in 1977 to produce 18 young, and in
1993, 151 pairs contributed 172 fledglings to the expanding populations.
With these recovery methods, as well as habitat improvement and
the banning of DDT, bald eagle populations have steadily increased.
Indeed, the number of nesting pairs in the lower 48 United States
has increased 10-fold, from less than 450 in the early 1960s,
to more than 4,500 adult bald eagle nesting pairs in the 1990s.
Bald eagle recovery in the United States can be considered one
of our conservation success stories. However, it will take continued
watchfulness to insure that this success continues to perpetuity
allowing bald eagles to continue as a symbol of our country's
hard fought freedom.
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