After a decade of research and breeding programs, the osprey population in Illinois has grown significantly, according to the State Journal-Register. Ospreys are fish-eating raptors that live around bodies of water.
The rehabilitation has occurred mostly due to efforts led by University of Illinois Springfield Associate Professor Tih-Fen Ting and her team, who began work in 2013. Over the next decade, the number of known breeding pairs grew from 16 to 90.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources support Ting's research. Students have also played a major role in helping raise, monitor, and track ospreys that were translocated from Massachusetts. They are also studying how prey abundance may affect reproductive success in their local populations.
Ting's program uses a technique called "hacking," which relocates young ospreys and cares for them until they can survive on their own in the wild. The UIS partnered with the Massachusetts Audubon Society's South Coast Osprey Project to obtain the chicks, which were eventually released in the Banner Marsh State Fish and Wildlife Area and Lake Shelbyville Fish and Wildlife Management Area.
"Among the few general approaches used to reintroduce birds of prey, hacking is considered the best technique because of its versatility in practice for a wide variety of raptor species and its potential to establish site fidelity in the released birds," Ting said in a community announcement.
The main issue Ting's team is encountering is that ospreys in Northern Illinois are not nesting on the artificial nest platforms, but are choosing the cell towers and utility poles instead, creating a potential safety and maintenance concern.
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Ospreys were once considered seriously endangered due to the effects of a pesticide called DDT, according to the Sierra Club. Since DDT was banned in the early 1970s, the birds have made a big comeback in many parts of the continent, which is essential as this bird helps its ecosystem by managing fish populations and bringing other nutrients to land.
The osprey joins many other birds who are experiencing comebacks due to necessary research, including the wood hen and the Blue-billed Curassow.
Ting is ecstatic with the current progress of her team.
"It's very exciting to see the number of osprey nests increasing over the years," she added, per the State Journal-Register.
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