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GOLF & OUTDOORS> John N. Felsher
EAGLE spotting
AMERICA’S NATIONAL SYMBOL CALLS MISSISSIPPI HOME
Story by John N. Felsher
Mississippians might spot eagles in more places than around The
University of Southern Mississippi campuses in Hattiesburg and
Long Beach.
When the United States became a new nation, Benjamin Franklin
wanted to declare the wild turkey the national symbol. Instead, the
Founding Fathers chose the bald eagle, but things didn’t always go
so well for the national bird.
Many people shot eagles whenever they saw them to protect
chickens and other farm animals. However, poison nearly led to their
extinction. The widely used pesticide DDT contaminated fish and
birds that ate insects. When eagles consumed contaminated prey,
they ingested the poison. The pesticide made bird eggshells very
brittle. When eagle parents sat on their nests, their crushed their
offspring.
In the early 1800s, bald eagles lived everywhere in what became
the Lower 48 states. By the mid-20th century, though, eagles
became very scarce in every state except Alaska. In the 1950s, only
412 nesting pairs remained outside of Alaska and Canada.
The Environmental Protection Agency finally banned DDT in 1972.
Slowly eagle populations began to recover. The EPA downgraded
eagles from “endangered” to “threatened” in 1995 and removed
the birds entirely off the list in 2007.
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