Peregrine falcon rebounds to get off endangered list

Copyright 1998 The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) August 26, 1998

WASHINGTON -- The peregrine falcon is endangered no more.

The world's fastest bird, a champion predator found in the Sierra Nevada and once threatened by pesticide use, has now recovered sufficiently to fly out from underneath federal protection.

"Every American should be proud," Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said Tuesday in Atlanta. "We don't have to stand idly by and watch our wildlife go extinct. We can bring species back. We have proved it with the peregrine falcon."

By trumpeting the peregrine falcon's dramatic comeback, Babbitt also hopes to rally support for the relentlessly controversial Endangered Species Act. About 1,136 species remain on the protected list.

"It shows how effective a law the Endangered Species Act is when allowed to work as intended," Babbitt said.

Only a relative handful of species, like the American alligator, have recovered enough to escape the federal list since the law was written in 1973. The once-endangered bald eagle has moved to the less ominous threatened status, and its own proposed removal from the list is imminent. On Wednesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service formally proposed adding the falcon to the roster of those taken off the list. A public comment period will follow.

Earlier this year, Babbitt caught flack for seeming to exaggerate progress in the endangered species program. For instance, he contended that 29 formerly threatened or endangered species were on the verge of removal from the list. He called that a remarkable sign of progress. However, a number of the species were coming off the list because they were determined to be extinct, or because of taxonomic reclassification.

The real turning point for the 200- mph falcon came when the United States banned the use of the powerful pesticide DDT in the early 1970s. The pesticide fatally thinned the falcon's eggshells. The falcons have increased from 324 pairs in the '70s to 1,593 pairs now.

The birds, which nest on high ledges and rocks, prey on other birds, such as ducks.

With a wingspan of 36 to 44 inches, the peregrine falcon is much smaller than the bald eagle, which has a wingspan of up to 90 inches.

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