MONTREAL — The world is full of dangers when you're a falcon chick less than six weeks old and learning to fly — even if you're a member of the fastest species on Earth.
"We all want to see them fly," she said in a phone interview."But it's stressful because there's always the risk of injury." While the chicks landed safely, their species faces tough odds of making it to adulthood, according to David Bird, an emeritus professor of wildlife biology at McGill University. Bird says about 50 per cent of falcon chicks don't survive to their first birthday. Other estimates put that number at two-thirds.
However, Bird said there's no doubt the falcons are survivors. Widespread use of pesticides such as DDT and killings by humans decimated their numbers by the 1960s and 1970s. But in the decades since DDT was banned, recovery projects have been successful, to the point where the falcons"have gone from being near extinct in eastern North America, to now almost in some eyes becoming a pest species," he said, noting some people don't like birds on their building ledges.
Belisle helped install a nest box in 2008, where more than two dozens chicks have hatched over the years. They are filmed 24 hours a day.
Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)
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