The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Eagles make a comeback in Georgia
New nesting territories exceed recovery goals.
Few things are as closely associated with the United States as the bald eagle. Once on the endangered species list, bald eagles have made a big comeback in Georgia.
Bald eagles were taken off the national endangered species list in 2007, and their numbers have been growing.
According to aerial surveys conducted by the Department of Natural Resources, there are around 218 nests currently occupied in Georgia. That number breaks 2015’s record of 210 and puts the state on a threeyear streak of having more than 200 active nests.
Bald eagles were nearly nonexistent in the state as recently as 1970.
“The bald eagle has come back a long ways since it was listed. If you look back at the data a long way, back in the ’60s, there were perhaps 450 nests in the whole lower 48 (states). Now there’s 218 in Georgia alone; I think there’s 1,300 in Florida,” said DNR Nongame Conservation Program Manager Bob Sargent, who also led the survey.
Glynn County is in the top five of 68 counties across the state that had active bald eagle nests. Chatham came in first with 22, followed by Decatur with 18. Camden and McIntosh are tied at 13, and Glynn and Liberty are tied with 11. That far surpasses the original goal set when the recovery efforts began in the 1970s.
“We had specific recovery goals, so in the Southeast, the goal was to establish 600 nesting territories in the Southeast U.S., and in Georgia the goal was 20. Obviously we’ve substantially overshot that goal,” Sargent said.
While this is an impressive milestone, it isn’t the end of the road for bald eagle preservation efforts.
“They’ve been removed from the protection of the endangered species act, but they are still uncommon,” Sargent said.
Sargent largely credited the 1973 Endangered Species Act with laying out the framework for the comeback. One of the methods they used was a technique called “hacking.”
In the late 1970s and up until 1995, the DNR had 89 young eagles brought in from out of state, and they would keep them in cages outdoors at the top of towers, Sargent said, allowing the eagles to view the outside world.
“They get accustomed to the outside world, and then the cages are opened and the birds depart when they’re ready,” Sargent said. “Nobody is sure if that ever made significant contributions to the recovery, though.”
Hacking was also used in efforts to bring back the peregrine falcon.
“Of course, that was one tool, along with habitat protection, protecting environments, educating the public, nest surveys and research,” Sargent said. “Outlawing of the use of DDT helped.”
Sargent said outlawing the once-common pesticide allowed the eagles’ comeback to stick.
“You outlaw it at the end of 1972, but it took a number of years for the effect of DDT to gradually fade away. It’s a very persistent pesticide in the environment,” Sargent said.
One of the more pernicious ways it affected eagles was through a process Sargent called biological magnification.
When DDT was used in the environment, it ended up in small organisms, Sargent said. “Those (organisms) are eaten by small fish, say a shiner, which are eaten by larger fish, a bass, which in turn are eaten by osprey or eagles,” Sargent said. “You get a little bit of this in a small species of fish, and a larger species like a bass eats five or six of these shiners .... It gets 10 times the dose if it eats 10 shiners.”
One small dose of the stuff wasn’t enough to hurt an eagle, but as it climbed the food chain the dosage would become more concentrated.
“The eagle could get as much as 50 times the dose by eating one of these larger fish,” Sargent said. “It’s a cause for concern when it comes to this bird, but it’s also a concern for the quality of our human environment. A species like this is a barometer for the quality of our environment, especially our aquatic environment.”
Of course, that wasn’t the only danger to eagles. Sargent and the DNR, along with other preservation agencies, are continuing to work to limit the dangers that could prevent recovery. A neurological disease called ADM is affecting eagles in west Georgia. Eagles are also being hit by cars when they attempt to go after carrion on roads in the winter months. Eagles can also get lead poisoning from eating carcasses of animals left behind by hunters, and some eagles have died after eating euthanized animals that weren’t covered up properly. There are also some areas in the state that have good habitats for bald eagles, but for reasons yet undetermined, do not have them. While the work continues, Sargent said breaking the record of active nests is a great achievement, and he looks forward to seeing even more bald eagles around the state in the years to come.
‘The bald eagle has come back a long ways since it was listed.’ Bob Sargeant, DNR Nongame Conservation Program Manager