Brown pelicans recovered from DDT and hunting but still face habitat loss

Evidence

Above all this activity soared the biggest birds of all: the brown pelicans. They, too, were once endangered, and in some senses still are. In the early twentieth century they were almost hunted out of existence, and they suffered again until the pesticide DDT was banned in the 1970s. Although brown pelicans were taken off the endangered list in 2009, their numbers have fluctuated as they continue to face habitat loss. But this year, I’ve been hearing people mention seeing pelicans they’ve never noticed before. Just before heading to the park, I’d gotten an email from the artist Gail Wight, who told me that after two years of few pelicans, around fifty had arrived near her home on the coast. Now the pelicans were flying plentifully past me, so close that I could see their faces, greeting me one at a time with their joyous six-foot-wide wingspans. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 680

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims