CROSS-BORDER TRANSPLANTS

Hunting and poisoning in the late 1800s and early 1900s and pesticide-related reproductive failures in the postwar years meant that only 417 nesting bald eagle pairs remained in the Lower 48 states by 1963 — just a handful of those in the eastern U.S. DDT was banned in the early 1970s, but the endangered bald eagle needed a boost. In 1983, Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife experts approached Jon Gerrard and Manitoba’s wildlife branch about transferring bald eagles to their state. Six Manitoba-born eaglets — each taken from nests with two chicks — were soon packed in pet carriers headed to Massachusetts and New Jersey for “hacking” (acclimating to new wild areas), with a dozen more from Saskatchewan going to Pennsylvania. These and other provinces worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on eagle reintroduction programs until the 1990s. Massachusetts, where bald eagles had been extirpated since 1905, now has more than 50 nesting pairs. New Jersey, home to a single successful nest in 1970, now has around 150, and Pennsylvania manages upward of 270 breeding pairs. It’s a littleknown story about how Canadian eagle experts helped save an American emblem.