A once critically endangered bird is experiencing a remarkable recovery in Yosemite National Park, made possible by a handful of rock climbers.
Green Matters reported that peregrine falcon numbers at Yosemite have more than doubled in the last 15 years. Like that of the bald eagle, the falcon's population dropped dramatically because of contamination from the chemical pesticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane in the mid-20th century. DDT causes raptor eggshells to thin, and many crack before incubation. The falcons were lost entirely in the Eastern United States and barely clung on in the West.
Their recovery began with the banning of DDT by the Nixon administration in 1972 and their listing in the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The heroic rock climbers enter the tale at the end of the 1970s. A climber found a rare nesting site at Yosemite in 1978, sparking a joint revival effort between climbers and conservationists.
The climbers helped by ascending cliffs and removing DDT-contaminated eggs from nests and replacing them with dummy eggs. The weakened eggs were then hatched under careful watch at a nursery, and the climbers brought the chicks back to the nests with their parents none the wiser. There were just eight breeding pairs in Yosemite in 2009; today, 17 pairs are rearing 25 chicks. The program's success has taken everyone by surprise.
"I didn't think this program would work, but it did," Ken Yager of the Yosemite Climbing Association said. "It's a joy to be climbing up there and to hear the peregrines screech and to see them fly."
This noble bird of prey uses superior speed and agility to catch its prey in midair. They dive-bomb unsuspecting birds, reaching speeds of up to 200 mph. As apex predators, they keep ecosystems healthy by controlling prey populations and picking off the sickly and weak. The peregrine, which means wanderer, is found on every continent save Antarctica, per the National Park Service.
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As the story illustrates, local conservation efforts take many forms. Reviving or reintroducing a species takes effort and teamwork, but when we pull together, great things are possible.
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