December 14th, 2007
The Bald Eagle Defies Extinction
Many Americans feared the extinction of their national symbol, but the bald eagle has been slowing growing in numbers and largely recovered from its earlier decline. The bald eagle was found to be endangered in 1940 and a law was passed, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, to protect it from hunting. Once the threat from hunting was gone, the species found its numbers declining further by the ingestion of DDT. In 1963 the numbers of breeding pairs was only 417, leading to the 1973 inclusion in the list of endangered species.