Frustrated, he filed a federal lawsuit in 2005 challenging the restriction. That restriction hampered Minnesota resident Edmund Contoski's plans to develop his lakefront property. For instance, the general rule for building around an eagle nesting site is that it can't come within a 330-foot (100-meter) radius. Threatened status means that a species is no longer in immediate danger of extinction but still needs protection.Īlthough they were designated as threatened, strict rules regarding the eagles' habitats persisted. Then, in 1995, the government transferred bald eagles in the lower 48 states from endangered to threatened classification. The agency divided the country into five regions to manage the revitalization. By monitoring the growth of that group of bald eagles and eventually releasing them into the wild, the species began to rebound. Fish and Wildlife Service headed the repopulation efforts through programs like breeding a colony in captivity at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland. That designation offered the eagles more habitat protection from development and made it illegal for anyone to kill them. In 1967, bald eagles were added to the endangered species list. Rachel Carson's 1962 book "Silent Spring" about DDT's harmful environmental effects helped bring about the ban on the pesticide's use in 1972. ![]() Since the hatchlings couldn't survive, the number of bald eagles shriveled accordingly. Once in their bloodstreams, DDT caused females to produce eggs with shells too thin to protect the embryo. ![]() From there, eagles would ingest the fish and effectively consume the poison. This meant that fish swimming in the polluted waters would absorb the chemical. The bald eagle ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus) population received the biggest blow from the environmental prevalence of a chemical pesticide called Dichloro-diphenyl-trichlorethane ( DDT), which seeped into freshwater supplies. Because the bird of prey's diet may include livestock such as chicken and lamb, some farmers and ranchers hunted bald eagles to protect their farms. Eagles prefer not to live near humans, instead selecting tall, mature trees near water for nesting. As people settled throughout the Western half of the United States, some bald eagle habitats were destroyed in the process.
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