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Why do we put cams on eagles’ nests?
This question was asked by a viewer on our YouTube Chat.
Cams are placed on Bald Eagle Nests mainly for educational purposes. At one time, our National Bird was an endangered species
Cams enable close monitoring of nests to track the health of eagles, eggs, and eaglets. For instance, past studies have revealed that DDT in the eagle’s diet was leading to egg breakage and prevented hatching.
The educational aspects of cams bring awareness to the surrounding communities of how we can be proper stewards in caring for our National Symbol of Freedom.
Other studies showed the effects of lead poisoning. This allows us to teach hunters and fishermen to not use lead bullets and lead sinkers. The effects of lead can be very deadly and a painful death to raptors. For example, a deer is shot and what remains behind in the field when the hunter is finished cleaning his deer, is a feast for raptors that is full of lead from the exploding bullets. Or lead sinkers can be found in fish that they eat.
Nest cams bring so much awareness to their plights in life.
Due to all the efforts, in Michigan alone, we now have approximately 900 breeding pairs of Bald Eagles. In the early 80’s, there were only about 85 breeding pairs.
