Liberty: The Bald Eagle

This picture was taken during spring break, and was found within the South Carolina aquarium in Charleston. This is a picture of Haliaeetus leucocephalus or the Bald Eagle. The bald eagle photographed is named Liberty, who was damaged in the wild due to a collision and is unable to fly. Bald eagles are secondary, apex predators who sit at the top of the food web within mountain ecosystems. Due to trophic cascades, changes made within the bottom of the web, can cause powerful, indirect interactions via bottom-up control. This can be clearly seen via the effects of DDT on Bald Eagle populations. After World War II DDT became a prevalent pesticide and insecticide, however its effects within the ecosystem was unknown. The DDT seeped into the watershed of the ecosystems, where plants and fish absorbed it. As apex predators, the eagles would consume prey which contained DDT and therefore become heavily poisoned due to bioaccumulation. The DDT inhibited a chemical property of the egg shell and caused it to become weak and brittle, and when the eagle would roost and sit on the egg, the eggs would break. Today, DDT is banned, but the new threat to eagle populations in AVM or Avian vacuolar myelinopathy. It is believed this deasease is passed from the invasive aquatic hydrilla plant to waterfowl and then the eagle, however this new disease is not well understood as the exact causative agent is still unknown to researchers. More information and sources can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avian_vacuolar_myelinopathy & www.fws.gov/midwest/eagle/recovery/biologue.html & www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/avian_vacuolar_myel...

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