Pelicans have roosted on the nation's list of endangered species longer than nearly all other creatures. Now the winged icon of America's surf and sand is about to be officially declared healthy.
The Interior Department on Friday announced a proposal to remove brown pelicans from the national endangered species list, 40 years after they hovered on the brink of extinction.
A single threat caused most pelican populations to plummet, and a single savior brought them back. Their plunge toward extinction was stopped not by the Bush administration, or even the previous five administrations, but back in President Richard Nixon's day.
Pelicans suffered almost complete reproductive failure in the 1960s and early 1970s because the pesticide DDT accumulated in their bodies, weakening their eggs and killing chicks. When DDT was banned in the United States in 1972, the species started to rebound.
Today, more than 70,000 breeding pairs of pelicans inhabit California and Baja California, and total numbers have surged to about 620,000 birds along the West Coast, the Gulf Coast, and in Latin and South America.
In announcing the proposal, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall said the fish-eating, long-lived birds are no longer threatened with extinction, "either in the foreseeable future or in the long term."
"This species has had a long journey," Hall said. "This is truly a success story."
For several decades, the plight of the pelican has symbolized the fragility of nature as well as its fortitude. Their near extinction illustrated not only what can go terribly wrong when man-made chemicals such as DDT build up in the environment, but the ability of nature to rebound once the chemicals are removed.
Plunging headfirst into the ocean to trap anchovies in their gigantic pouched beaks, pelicans are instantly recognizable to many Californians. On summer days, they roost on whatever is handy -- a light pole, a jetty or a yacht. They are gregarious and social, and on land seem clumsy, with their heavy wings that span seven feet. But they are strong swimmers and when they take to the air, often with a running start, they form a graceful, silvery-brown squadron gliding effortlessly across the sky.
Unlike many seabirds, pelicans don't normally venture inland. They are like die-hard surfers, permanent fixtures of beaches and islands. So their collapse was easily noticed in the late 1960s, particularly in the Los Angeles region, where their DDT exposure was the highest.
