US takes Brown Pelican off endangered species list

Nearly 40 years after it was pushed to the edge of extinction by pesticide use, habitat loss and hunting, the brown pelican was Wednesday taken off the endangered species list, US officials said."We can celebrate an extraordinary accomplishment: the brown pelican is endangered no more," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said."It has taken 36 years, the banning of DDT and a lot of work by the US government, the states, conservation organizations, dedicated citizens and partners, but today we can say that the brown pelican is back," Salazar told a telephone news conference.The brown pelican was listed as endangered in 1970 after its numbers had been slashed by the use of the pesticide DDT, by hunters who sought it for its feathers, and by widespread loss of its coastal habitat.The birds' recovery and removal from the list of endangered species was due largely to a US ban on the use of DDT in 1972, Salazar said.The population was now back up to more than 650,000 of the birds across Florida, in the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean, and in the Caribbean and Latin America, Salazar said.At its lowest point, the number of brown pelicans had fallen to around 10,000, said Tom Strickland, Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks.The pelican population in the United States first began to decline in the late 19th century when hunters seeking the birds' plumage for women's hats "slaughtered them indiscriminately," said Strickland.But the species recovered after then president Theodore Roosevelt ordered the creation of a wildlife refuge -- the first in the United States -- on the appropriately named Pelican Island off the Florida coast.But after World War II, pelican populations again plummeted because of the widespread use of DDT and other pesticides in coastal areas to control mosquitoes.Adult pelicans with high concentrations of DDT were unable to properly form calcium and laid eggs with thin shells, which broke before the chicks were ready to hatch.A new threat to the bird is posed by global warming, which could see sea levels rise and wipe out huge swathes of the pelican's coastal habitat, the officials said."We could lose up to a million acres (405,000 hectares) of brown pelican habitat due to sea-level rise caused by global warming if modeling predictions are right," said Sam Hamilton, director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service."We will continue to monitor the pelican and its environment to ensure that we will never again see this beautiful bird pushed to the edge of extinction," he said.The United States will work with government agencies and non-governmental groups in Mexico, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands to keep an eye on the health and numbers of brown pelicans, said Hamilton, adding that the bird could be relisted if numbers are seen to be falling again.