Peregrine
Falcon
Watercolor
Don R. Eckelberry
Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World
(1968)
by Leslie Brown and Dean Amadon, McGraw-Hill,
New York.
The Peregrine
Falcon, known for its dramatic stoops, served as an
icon for the hazards of DDT and other environmental
pollutants as declines from eggshell thinning led
to classifying the bird as endangered in 1970. By
1975 the North American population was reduced to
159 known nesting pairs.
After 29 years of
federal protection and ceaseless efforts of the
Peregrine Fund, the University of Minnesota's
Raptor Center and the University of California's
Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, the
population grew to 1650 pairs by 1997, and was
removed from the Endangered Species List in 1999.
Monitoring will continue for 13 years, determining
the population status of at least two falcon
generations.
Stanford Note: It
has long been rumored that Peregrine can be seen at
Hoover Tower, but there are no official
records.
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