Bald Eagle Research Paper
ENDANGERED SPECIES
IN
DOUGHERTY COUNTY
BALD EAGLE
[pic]
FOR:
SCIENCE
MR. DEGUIRE
Name / Scientific Name
[pic]
The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), our national bird, is the only eagle unique to North America. The bald eagle's scientific name signifies a sea (halo) eagle (aeetos) with a white (leukos) head. At one time, the word "bald" meant "white," not hairless. Bald eagles are found over most of North America, from Alaska and Canada to northern Mexico. About half of the world's 70,000 bald eagles live in Alaska. Combined with British Columbia's population of about 20,000, the northwest coast of North America is by far their greatest stronghold for bald eagles. They flourish here in part because of the salmon. Dead …show more content…
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 …show more content…
Another method, called hacking, is a procedure adapted from the sport of falconry, and it was particularly successful in New York State, where only one unproductive pair of eagles was nesting in 1970. At eight weeks of age, nestling eaglets, many flown in from nests in Alaska, were placed on man-made towers located in remote areas. Biologists stayed hidden while providing them with food, and released them when they became able to fly. By the 1990s, there were 20 nesting pairs in New York, many of them around New York City's reservoir system in the Catskills. 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 and other 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 increased 10-fold, from less than 450 in the early 1960s, to more than 4,500 adult bald eagle nesting pairs in the 1990s. In the Southeast, for example, there were about 980 breeding pairs in 1993, up from about 400 in 1981. The largest concentrations were in the states of Florida and
IN
DOUGHERTY COUNTY
BALD EAGLE
[pic]
FOR:
SCIENCE
MR. DEGUIRE
Name / Scientific Name
[pic]
The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), our national bird, is the only eagle unique to North America. The bald eagle's scientific name signifies a sea (halo) eagle (aeetos) with a white (leukos) head. At one time, the word "bald" meant "white," not hairless. Bald eagles are found over most of North America, from Alaska and Canada to northern Mexico. About half of the world's 70,000 bald eagles live in Alaska. Combined with British Columbia's population of about 20,000, the northwest coast of North America is by far their greatest stronghold for bald eagles. They flourish here in part because of the salmon. Dead …show more content…
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 …show more content…
Another method, called hacking, is a procedure adapted from the sport of falconry, and it was particularly successful in New York State, where only one unproductive pair of eagles was nesting in 1970. At eight weeks of age, nestling eaglets, many flown in from nests in Alaska, were placed on man-made towers located in remote areas. Biologists stayed hidden while providing them with food, and released them when they became able to fly. By the 1990s, there were 20 nesting pairs in New York, many of them around New York City's reservoir system in the Catskills. 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 and other 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 increased 10-fold, from less than 450 in the early 1960s, to more than 4,500 adult bald eagle nesting pairs in the 1990s. In the Southeast, for example, there were about 980 breeding pairs in 1993, up from about 400 in 1981. The largest concentrations were in the states of Florida and