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Restoring the Peregrine Falcons to West Virginia |
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Background
Peregrine Falcons are the fastest animal on the planet, diving after prey from the sky at over 260 miles an hour. Primarily bird hunters, they have gradually been rebounding from the devastating effects of DDT, a pesticide used between 1940 - 1972. The overuse of the pesticide caused such population declines in Peregrine Falcons (among other species) that they were faced with extinction and were placed on the Endangered Species List. Now with DDT banned in the United States, the Peregrine Falcon is making a comeback, enough so that they were able to be removed from the Endangered Species List in 1999. Peregrine
falcon populations, although rebounding, have
still not expanded into the full range of their native haunts. Three
Rivers Avian Center, the WV
Department of Natural Resources, the National
Park Service -
New River Gorge and the Center for Conservation Biology
joined together in this effort to re-establish these birds to Southern
Appalachia. Working
with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and State Wildlife Biologists
from Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, young
peregrines are taken
from dangerous nesting sites in each state and brought to the New River
Gorge near Fayetteville and Beckley, West Virginia. From 2006 through
2011, 120 Peregrines were raised and released into the New River Gorge . |
| 2006 |
| 2007 |
| 2008
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| 2009 |
2010 |
| 2011 |
| Annual
Reports on File |
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| 2006 |
2007*
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2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| *
This link goes to the New River Gorge National River website page for
the Peregrine Restoration Project year 2007. It contains
information concerning the satellite transmitters used to track 6 of
the birds that year as well as maps illustrating those Peregrines'
travels
around the country. Due to circumstances beyond our control, the
project report for that year is unavailable. |
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