Brown Pelican Back From the Brink of Extinction
November 12th, 2009State Bird of Louisiana Removed from Endangered Species List
A brown pelican fishing on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay…
by Glynn Wilson
In the final act of a success story for federal environmental policy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has removed all populations of the brown pelican [pelecanus occidentalis] from the list of threatened and endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.
Decimated by the pesticide DDT used to kill mosquitoes that spread the deadly infectious desease malaria in the post-World War II period, the majestic bird has fully recovered due to the ban on DDT in 1972.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Sam Hamilton made the announcement in Louisiana, where the brown pelican is the state bird.
“At a time when so many species of wildlife are threatened, we once in a while have an opportunity to celebrate an amazing success story,” Salazar said. “Today is such a day. The brown pelican is back!”
The brown pelican was first declared endangered in 1970 under the Endangered Species Preservation Act, a precursor to the Endangered Species Act. Since then, thanks to a ban on DDT and efforts by states, conservation organizations, private citizens and many other partners, the bird has recovered. There are now more than 650,000 brown pelicans found across Florida and the Gulf and Pacific Coasts, as well as in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The Fish and Wildlife Service removed the brown pelican population in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and northward along the Atlantic Coast states from the list of endangered species in 1985.
“Today’s action removes the remaining population from the list,” Salazar said.
“After being hunted for its feathers, facing devastating effects from the pesticide DDT and suffering from widespread coastal habitat loss, the pelican has made a remarkable recovery,” Strickland said at the press conference in New Orleans. “We once again see healthy flocks of pelicans in the air over our shores.”
Action was taken to protect the brown pelican, along with hawks, eagles and other birds, after former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Rachel Carson published the book Silent Spring in the early 1960s and alerted the nation to the widespread dangers associated with the unrestricted use of chemical pesticides, which rendered the birds’ eggs so fragile they could not support young.
