Animals Back From the Brink

Bald eagles

America's national symbol flew off the Endangered Species List in 2007 and won't be landing on it again anytime soon. Hunting and pesticide contamination once decimated bald eagle populations, and by 1950 only 416 mating pairs soared over the lower 48 United States. A major threat to the eagles was the pesticide DDT, which Rachael Carson made infamous in the book Silent Spring. The pesticide built up in the food chain and caused the eagles' eggs to have fatally thin shells.

Aggressive protection programs and the banning of the pesticide DDT saved America's avian symbol. Now, the eagles are so numerous that the National Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't bother keeping yearly tallies. The last count of mating pairs in the lower 48 was 9,789 in 2006. Bald eagle watching is now a tourist attraction in many states. The eagles are out of immediate danger, but still fiercely protected by national laws which make it illegal even to collect feathers from naturally deceased birds without permission.

However, the protected status of bald eagles and their kin, the golden eagle, have caused problems for some Native American groups that need feathers from the birds for their religious ceremonies. U.S. government officials allot the feathers to religious leaders, but only after years of waiting on a long list.

Saltwater crocodile

The world's largest crocodile went the way of the dinosaurs in much of its range. The saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) once ambushed prey along coastal waterways from Vietnam to southern India and northern Australia. A global fashion for crocodile leather killed off the animals in most of continental Asia. Many were also killed out of fear or as food.

However, the crocodiles down under are staging a comeback. “Salties,” as Aussies call the crocs, rebounded in much of northern Australia, after their populations in the 1970s dropped to approximately five percent of their former numbers. Legal protections and bans on crocodile products have allowed the giant reptiles to bounce back. They are now considered a species of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

One of the largest crocodiles ever captured recently died in captivity. The 20+ foot long reptile, known as Lolong, died in captivity in the Philippines on Feb. 10, 2013.

Wild Turkeys

The wild turkey, Ben Franklin's choice for America's national bird, suffered the same fate as the bald eagle. Wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) were abundant from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic when European colonists first arrived. Then, hungry colonists and habitat loss nearly gobbled up the turkey. By the mid-1800's wild turkeys had been wiped out in much of the Midwest and Eastern U.S. The birds survived in remote parts of Missouri and Arkansas.

Attempts to restore populations using domesticated turkey's failed, possibly because the original domesticated turkeys hailed from Mexico and couldn't effectively go feral in the frigid north. Only birds transplanted from their holdouts in Missouri and Arkansas managed to survive reintroduction programs. The reintroduction of these birds was a huge success and turkeys have returned to much of their former range, and even areas where they never lived, like Hawaii and southern California.

Read more at Discovery News