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Show Peregrine Falcons Re-Introduced A Utahn has been appointed to one of two recovery teams established to assist in the propagation and reintroduc-tion reintroduc-tion of the endangered American peregrine falcon, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. DIVISION OF Wildlife Resources Research Chief Al Heggen will serve on the nine-man Rocky Mountain Southwest Population Recovery Team. The team will primarily be involved with reversing the downward population trend of the peregrine in the western United States. EGGS FROM pairs with a history of unsuccessful nesting nest-ing because of DDT will be replaced with eggs produced by captive peregrines. Old, abandoned eyries will be inventoried and selections made among them for possible possi-ble releases' of captive-produced captive-produced young. THE Peregrine is known for its speed, grace, beauty and skill. It has been clocked in dives at 200 miles per hour. At such speeds, it delivers a fierce blow to its prey, almost entirely birds, with a half-closed half-closed foot. The peregrine once nested throughout the 48 lower states. Today, the American peregrine population is wiped out east of the Rocky Mountains. Moun-tains. No more than 50 active nests are known to exist in the United States. PESTICIDES, especially the aforementioned DDT, and industrial pollutants have been the major reasons for the decline and have caused thinning of eggshells, making them too fragile to survive normal incubation. Habitat destruction, shooting shoot-ing and other human dis-'oirbances dis-'oirbances have also been fac-. tors in the bird's decline. THREE OF the 18 peregrine subspecies are found in the United States--the Arctic, the Peale's am. the American. Other members on the western wes-tern peregrine recovery team incL.de Gerald Craig, Colorado Division of Wildlife, leader; Morlan W. Nelson, Tundra Films. C. EUGENE Knoder, National Na-tional Audubon Society; Frank M. Bond, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dr. James H. Enderson, Colorado College; Dr. Joel V. Kussman, National Park Service; Ser-vice; and Dale L. Wills and Dr. Richard D. Porter, U.S. Department of Agriculture. |