Toronto officially has its very first documented case of a bald eagle nest in recorded history, marking a sign of hope for the city’s environmental efforts.
Last week, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) confirmed the nest of the once-endangered species is the first of its kind in the area, initially spotted near the home of a Toronto resident Jules McCusker.
The birds of prey were only just removed last year from the list of at-risk species in Ontario; back in the 1960s, the number of bald eagles across North America hit an all-time low, with only a few hundred nesting pairs remaining.
In Ontario particularly, bald eagles almost went extinct from the impacts of hunting and commonly-used pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, also known as DDT.
DDT, which was regularly used on farmer’s fields at the time, would accumulate in predatory birds and affect the durability of their eggs, resulting in brittle shells which would crack when the adults went to incubate them.
Luckily, bans on hunting and elimination of DDT overtime has led the birds to steadily come back to their former environments in North America. The Ontario environment ministry reports that today, there are roughly 2,600 bald eagle nests throughout the province.
In order to protect the Toronto nest, its location is not being disclosed to the public in an effort to prioritize the birds’ welfare.