as if God made the innocency

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Great Auk exploited by seafarers 16th century
last remaining large colony off Newfoundland
100,000 bird disappeared by early 19th cent.
as if God made the innocency of so poore a
creature, to become such an admirable
instrument for the sustenation of man
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Eskimo Curlew The Prairie Pigeon once darkened
the skies in NE and Newfoundland during its
migration was common in 1870 and nearly extinct
in 1890. (1) After the PP disappeared it
became The spp of choice for new foods to
exploit (2) Spring migration depended upon
abundant insect food on the native tallgrass and
mixed prairies destroyed by conversion to
agriculture, suppression of fire, and elimination
of the bison herds (3) Reports that it had
almost total reliance on a single food The
Rocky Mountain grasshopper, a swarming pest spp
that mysteriously became extinct 1900
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Always look on the Bright Side of Life, Always
look on the Right Side of Life Eric Idle
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Avian conservation was ultimately inspired by
the disappearance of these once great
flocks the reports by men like Audubon, writers
such as Thoreau, Emerson (later Leopold, Carson),
and local chapters of the Audubon society that
stirred public outcry over the slaughter of
egrets for fashionable hats
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Wood Ducks 1900 becoming very scarce and are
likely to be exterminated before long.

• - Closed to hunting in 1918 and began one of the
  most successful recoveries ever,
• helped in part by a high reproductive rate
• Recovered most of its former range by 1930 and
  opened for hunting in 1941
• 1960s numbered in 1-2 millions
• 1970s and 1982s spreading to previously
  unoccupied areas
• Aided by North American Waterfowl Management
  Plan (1986) and
• Ducks Unlimited (1937) that by 2001 conserved
  9.1 million acres of waterfowl
• habitat in NA

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The majestic Whooping Crane, once prominent on
the northern Great Plains, it had diminished to
16 individuals wintering n the TX coast in 1941.
Its demise was similar to the wood duck, hunting
then drainage and plowing of the prairie but
unlike wood ducks, a very slowly reproducing spp
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Aransas NWR and Wood Buffalo NP created in 1922,
1937 Foster parenting by Sandhill cranes and
release programs have increased their numbers to
45 pairs in 1993
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Peregrine Falcon - The anti-DDT Poster Child At
the time of the banning of DDT in 1972
peregrines were nowhere to be found except Alaska
and very northern Canada
Saved through a combo of art. insemination,
incubation of fragile eggs, cross-fostering, and
soft release at natural and artificial nest
sites Finally removed from the Endangered Spp
List by 1999
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California Condor Hunting, lead poisoning,
roadkills reduced their numbers to 21 birds in
the 1980s all removed from the wild. The
first successful captive breeding occurred in
1988. Today there are over 150 individuals in
captivity and 30 in the wild (first released in
1992). There are no-self sustainable
populations at this point, but the first pair of
nesting condors in No. CA in over 100 years just
recently occurred.
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THE END