Environmental Effects On Bald Eagles

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, better known as DDT is a notorious organochlorine pesticide that is created by the reaction of chloral with chlorobenzene in combination with sulfuric acid(Britannica p.1). It was first used as an insecticide in 1939 by Hermann Muller in Switzerland. DDT works as an insecticideby acting on the nervous system to generate the same neural impulse over and over causing body tremors and eventually death. DDT is an extremely stable chemical compound containing C14H9Cl5 which leads to some significant resistance issues when used as a pesticide. The most problematic property of DDT is its high fat solubility and extremely low water solubility meaning that it has a tendency to stick around in the environment for longer than we want since it is readily taken up in the bodies of nearby mammals.

Have you ever thought of bald eagles not being around anymore in this century? Some people must’ve thought about this when they couldn’t see their national bird flying around or caught on camera. Maybe the everyday things they were doing were harming the poor birds?

Historically, Americans treated their nation's symbol about as well as they did their other natural resources. Recent guesstimates of eagle numbers at the time of European settlement range from 25,000 to 75,000 birds, though the species distribution was spotty. Feeding largely on fish and carrion, and thus harmless to human interest, bald eagles were nevertheless classed as vermin, to be shot on sight. (Graham 2)

Once, several students went up to the Quabbin Reservoir, found an active eagles nest, tore it apart and found 60 cat collars. Bald eagles were at homeostasis until they were put on the endangered species list from the 1950s up until the early 1980's. Ever since, federal law has protected bald eagles and

Ospreys had been endangered in Pennsylvania because of the effects of DDT poisoning. In 1986, the first reintroduced ospreys successfully nested in the county. Since there, there are several nests along local

These methods lead to the reduction of chick survival and bird population. The emission of fumes from the insecticides cuts off the air supply of oxygen which birds initially require to survive. Farmland bird species is on decline because of ill advised changes in farming techniques. These include increased agrochemical inputs and loss of mixture farming.

DDT is a very controversial product… but why? DDT was a pesticide used in the 1950s and it was very effective at killing mosquitoes. This was good because mosquitoes carry a very deadly disease called malaria. But soon the government banned its use in the USA. It supposedly has been decreasing the populations of bald eagles. They think that it makes the eggshells thinner, so when the eagle it trying to keep the eggs warm it might break the eggs on accident. Many people are happy about this ban and others are not. Some researchers feel that evidence supports a ban on DDT while others feel that it is an over reaction to an environmental concern. DDT has been shown to help control the malaria parasite. Evidence supports the banning

Then when the eagles sat on their eggs they would break their own eggs and that is how herbicide orange almost made the bald eagles extinct.

DDT has been used since WW2 as an insecticide to control the outbreak of malaria and typhus among troops and civilians. This is because malaria is spread by mosquitos and DDT was considered to be a powerful in eliminating these populations, thus decreasing the infection rate for malaria. Since it was first discovered as an insecticide, worldwide it was used in very large amounts because nobody knew any better and it was considered to be revolutionary. It wasn’t until 1962, when biologist Rachel Carson first outlined the potential harm DDT has on the environment, believing it caused cancer in humans and harmed bird wildlife. This led to the United Stated ban of DDT use in 1972, and later, a worldwide ban under the Stockholm

For this week’s forum, I choose to talk about the bald eagle. The scientific name for the bald eagle is Haliaeetus leucocephalu and comes from the accipitrine family. With the bald eagle growing three feet tall had having a wing span of seven feet, this magnificent bird has few predator’s. Crow’s enjoy harassing the bald eagle, but pose very little threat. Animals such as the; great horned owl, squirrels, raccoons and ravens will try to snatch the eggs from the nest of the bald eagle. The one major predator of the bald eagle is humans, in the past farmers would kill eagles to protect their crops and livestock, bring the eagles almost into extinction. The bald eagle is no longer on the endangered species list, but it’s still illegal to

In 1782 there were approximately 40,000 bald eagles in the United States, but farmers considered

You now need a permit to take accidentally or to just take an eagle’s nest. This was published on January, 23 of 2017 by the Fish and Wildlife Service. This rule basically got put into place because too many people were out taking the nests from eagles without permission. There also was not a law put into place at that time but it was doing harm to the nation’s bird because they no longer had a nesting location, which then was bringing a lot of unwanted stress to the bird’s life. For even myself I never knew this was a law so it will be something even I look out for now when going through the woods either at school or my

Many duck hunters every year participate the killing of a plethora of waterfowl. During this mass killing of Aves, viewed as a sport, carcasses are left in the field for scavengers to pick from. These carcasses peppered with lead bullets, are the “most frequent mortality cause for bald eagles” (R. Russel & J. Franson). As these eagles eat the carcasses they are likely to ingest little lead pellets. According to the necropsy examination of bald eagles throughout the United States, lead poisoning is most prevalent in the central and south eastern part of the states (R. Russel & J.

Lab Report: Owl Pellet Kirsten de Jong September 19, 2015 1. An owl pellet is made up of portions of things which an owl can’t digest. The pellet can contain things like feathers, bones, fur, and teeth, these things have very little nutritional value to the owl. These things are tightly formed together in the owl’s stomach, which is then spit out by the owl every 12 hours producing two every day.

Around the 1990s, bald eagles flourished throughout Southern Louisiana, but poisonous insecticide called DDT, severely destroyed the bald eagle population. Due to the poisonous of DDT, by the 1970s, bald eagles were placed on the species on the endangered list. In 1972, approximately seven nesting territories remained in South Louisiana until the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries began conducting surveys to monitor nesting birds in 1984. By 1985, the active nests had significantly increased to 18 and today, more than 150 active nests exist. After long three decades, the bald eagle has been removed from the threatened species; however, it is still protected by state and federal laws because it is a rare animal.