Recovery of peregrine falcon populations from declines caused by pollution

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Recovery of peregrine falcon populations from
declines caused by pollution
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One type of pollutant

• Pesticides
• Definition any compound used to kill or reduce
  activity of an animal that competes with us for
  food or another product (in crop or storage
  systems), or is unpleasant to us for another
  reason.
• Synthetic (created by humans) organic
  (carbon-containing) pesticides
• one types is chlorinated hydrocarbons (CH)
• DDT is a CH

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Problems of pollutants in ecosystems

• Unanticipated, unintentional, or previously
  unknown consequences, e.g.
• Toxicity to nontarget organisms
• Persistence
• Long-distance transport
• Selective force for evolutionary change
  pesticide resistance

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Effects of DDT and Other CH's

• Characteristics
• Chemical stability or persistence
• High mobility
• High solubility in lipids
• Toxicity
• Biological activity
• Metabolized to DDE
• Interferes with ca deposition in vertebrates

Result in bioaccumulation and biomagnification
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Side effects of DDT

• First identified by Rachel Carson , Silent
  Spring, 1963.
• Direct side effects
• Direct mortality of nontarget organisms
• Reduction in food availability in ecosystems
• Indirect side effects
• Bioaccumulation
• Biomagnification
• These produce
• Sublethal toxic effects (poisoning).
• Eggshell thinning in birds at ends of long food
  chain

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Peregrine falcon

• Top predator
• Feeds on ducks, other birds
• information

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Peregrine Falcon Decline

• Original, worldwide distribution
• Never abundant (top predator)
• In mid-to late-70's western Peregrine populations
  dropped to an all time low of only 19 known
  pairs.
• Eastern Population
• 450 to 500 pairs historically nested on eastern
  cliffs.
• extinct by 1970

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Peregrine falcon recovery

• Western U.S.
• over 2,700 captive produced Peregrines have been
  released into the wild since 1977
• known population in over 800 pairs in 2001
• Eastern U.S.
• than 1,200 young released
• began breeding in the wild in the 1980s
• within ten years about 150 re-established pairs
• produce more than 100 young per year
• Peregrine Falcon removed from U.S. Endangered
  Species list in October 1998
• Peregrine Fund
• United States Fish and Wildlife Service

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DDT use

• DDT banned in US in 1973
• widely dumped
• L.A. River, storm drains
• Heavily polluted areas in Southern California
• still used in developing countries
• many birds encounter in migration

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Recovery of avian populations--California