BaldEagle-RachaelCarruthers

= = =Bald Eagle- (Haliaeetus Leucocephalus)=



Natural Habitat and Location
Before the European movement to America bald eagles covered most of North America. They had populations of about half a million and they nested near most main bodies of water. About half of the worlds bald eagle population now live in Alaska, and 20,000 live in British Columbia. The north weasten coast is the most bountiful place to find bald eagles because of their large salmon populations.

Niche
Bald eagles nest in trees or on cliffs and feed on a range of animals. Their diet includes fish, rabbits, waterfowl, and occasionally young deer. bald eagles have monogamous partners, for as long as they live. Only when a mate dies does a bald eagle find a new mate. Bald eagles gain the ability to reproduce when 5 or 6 years old. They live to about 30 years in the wild, and longer in captivity. Bald eagles breed in months February through March, and they lay two or three eggs. Bald eagles migrate throughout the year, going south in the winter and back up north in the summer.

Population Status
There are about 80,000-110,000 bald eagles in the world today, from numbers of half a million before the arrival of European settlers in the US. Bald eagles were officially declared endangered south of 40 parallel in 1967, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 following after. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 prohibits taking, importing, and exporting species declared endangered, authorizes the assessment of civil and criminal acts violating the act, and gives grants to states that maintain endangered animal programs. A endangered species is a species in danger of extinction while a threatened species is likely to become endangered in the near future. The decline in bald eagle populations was mainly caused by competition with humans. The new settlers competed with the bald eagles for fish, and as the settlers moved west so did their habitat destruction. Humans also harmed the eagles with hunting, poisoning, and use of DDT which thins the egg shells so they brake easily. On June 28, 2007 bald eagles were taken of the endangered species list, and are no longer threatened. The Bald eagles are still protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. These acts make it illegal to take, transport, import, export, and sell the eagles without a license.

Conservation Efforts
Ever since the Endangered Species act of 1973 bald eagle populations have been on the mend. Thirty four years after the act bald eagles were declared no longer threatened. Still populations are growing. In about forty years America went from having 417 pairs to 10,000, and more are expected.

Work Cited
//History Of The Bald Eagle//. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2009, from bald Eagle Info database.

Fahrenthold, D. A. (2007, June 29). U.S. Declares Bald Eagles No Longer Threatened. //The Washington Post//. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/28/ AR2007062801562.html

Endangered Species Act of 1973. (n.d.). //Digest of Federal Resource Laws of// //Interest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service//. Retrieved from http://www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/ESACT.html

Chinery, M. (Ed.). (1992). Bald Eagle. In //Kingfisher Illustrated Encyclopedia of// //Animals// (p. 30). London: Kingfisher. (Original work published 1984)