SREL Reprint #2920

Threatened and Endangered Species: Bald Eagle

A. Lawrence Bryan, Jr., and William L. Jarvis

Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, PO Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802

Abstract: The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) has a varied history in the United States. Regionally abundant since the colonial period, the species became somewhat rare in the contiguous United States in the mid-1900s due to human persecution (hunting, poisoning) and reduced reproduction due to pesticides, primarily DDT (Buehler 2000). Bald eagles were listed for protection under the Bald Eagle Protection Act in 1940, the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 (southern subspecies), and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 (population within the contiguous United States). As environmental DDT levels and human persecution have decreased, portions of the population have made significant increases and may have reached pre-DDT levels. In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service down-listed the status of the bald eagle from endangered to threatened under ESA, and in 1999 the agency proposed delisting the species. No ruling has yet been offered on that proposal, and bald eagles remain in the threatened category.

SREL Reprint #2920

Bryan, A. L., Jr. and W. L. Jarvis. 2005. Threatened and Endangered Species: Bald Eagle. pp. 295-301 In J. C. Kilgo and J. I. Blake (Eds.). Ecology and Management of a Forested Landscape: Fifty Years on the Savannah River Site. Island Press.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).