The Bald Eagle Back and Better than Ever!

The Bald Eagle Back and Better than Ever!
By Joshua S. Hill
mongabay.com
July 3, 2007

"Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light…" goes the first line for the national anthem of the United States of America. And on July the fourth, the self-proclaimed defenders of freedom celebrate that freedom that they so dearly love on their Independence Day. And what better way to celebrate that day, then to hear that their National bird has made a miraculous comeback after dwindling to a measly documented 417 birds in 1963.

It was July the 12th, 1995 that the Bald Eagle was officially transitioned from "Endangered" to "Threatened" by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, a continuing trend of political moves to keep the American national emblem alive. 1940 saw a law made making it illegal to hunt and kill the eagle, and it was much later when Congress passed the Endangered Species Act that secured the birds future by banning any disturbance, development or bulldozing of the birds shrinking habitat.

Today though, the American Bald Eagle now soars high and free, with numbers approaching 10,000 flying over continental America. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced at a ceremony at the Jeffersonian Memorial that "from this point forward we will work to ensure that the eagle never again needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act."

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus Leucocephalus). Photo by R. Butler

Part of this promise is the fact that hunters are still not allowed to line the Bald Eagle up in their scopes, thanks to state statutes and the original 1940 Congress law.

This is not only big news in America either, considering the amount of publicity the failing species received over the past decades. Many of the world's animal protection agencies and followers have hoped that the majestic creature would one day again be able to live in relative safety. It seems that that day has arrived, and we can all be pleased and have hope for other endangered animals.

Joshua S. Hill is a free-lance writer based in Australia.

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