Bald Eagle Timeline: Initial Abundance
The earliest written accounts of bald eagles date back to the 1660s, before the founding of America. At that time, bald eagles were thriving in forests and lakes throughout the territory that was to become the original thirteen states. Experts estimate that the population size was between 100,000 and 250,000 eagles.
How can they make that estimate? Evidence includes eyewitness accounts such as the one below recorded by John Josselyn, a traveler to New England who interviewed residents and recorded their observations in the first book about American animal and plant life, New-England’s Rarities Discovered.
The timeline begins with the earliest recorded observation of the bald eagle in America.
1668: "Infinite Number of Bald Eagles", Wood of Massachusetts
“In the year 1668…thither reported at the same time an infinite number of Gripes [Bald Eagles], insomuch that being shot by the Inhabitants, they fed their Hogs with them for some weeks.”
John Josselyn, Roger L’Estrange, G. Widdowes, George Brinley, and Levi Z. Leiter, New-England’s Rarities Discovered (London: Printed for G. Widdowes at the Green Dragon in St. Paul’s Church-yard, 1672)
So what does this quote tell us about the eagle population? We learn that there was an “infinite” number of eagles in 1668 and that many people shot them and fed them to their pigs! This may seem shocking today, but in Colonial times the bald eagle was not yet the symbol of our nation—as our nation did not yet exist!
This written observation also talks about hunting in Colonial America. Hunting is an example of a disturbance, something that causes a change to a population. Populations can bounce back from disturbances, up to a point. For example, the loss of individual animals to hunting can be made up for by new births. When a population recovers from a disturbance, like hunting, scientists say it’s resilient.
But, not all disturbances are easily overcome, as you will see later in the story of the bald eagle.
Timeline Tip: Where does a biodiversity timeline begin?
Start your timeline with observations of events from the earliest available sources. Quotations from long ago can be difficult to find, but such viewpoints offer a historical perspective that shows how a species changed over time.
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