D  e  s  e  r  t     E  x  p  o  s  u  r  e     March 2005

A Wing and a Prayer

The Peregrine Fund's one-man Las Cruces operation works to help reintroduce the Aplomado falcon.

By Jeff Berg

Adult Aplomado falcon. Photo by Steve Bentsen, courtesy the Peregrine Fund.

The Peregrine Fund, which is based in Boise, Idaho, has some 20 different projects worldwide that deal with raptors. The group was started in 1970 by Dr. Tom Cade, an instructor at Cornell University and a falconer, who was concerned about what was going on with peregrine falcons and the use of the chemical DDT. Over the years, the fund has grown in scope and focus, and now deals exclusively with raptors in the wild. The fund's conservation efforts stretch from Greenland to Zimbabwe, on all continents except Antarctica, and also extend to the organization's small, one-person satellite office located in Las Cruces.

It is here that Angel Montoya, a field biologist, is based, and where he compiles his research on the Aplomado falcon, an endangered raptor that flourished in the grasslands of the southwest and the coastal plains of Texas until the 1930s. It is now being reintroduced to the area, and 1,004 birds have been released in Texas.

The Aplomado was listed as endangered in 1986. The reintroduction, which began in Texas, is being done through a method called "hacking." Montoya explains, "We release the young at an age that they would normally fledge (when a bird is ready to fly) from the nest, but continue to give them supplemental feedings for up to six weeks."

When asked if oil and gas drilling on Otero Mesa might impinge on a future release, Montoya replies, "It is not known if it would affect them. The falcons released in Texas were released near pump-jacks, and the birds are pretty tolerant."

The Aplomado (which means "lead colored" in Spanish) is a medium-sized falcon, measuring about 15-16 inches. Both genders are similar in appearance, with a blend of blue-gray, white and black plumage, but the female is generally heavier than the male by nearly 50 percent. The birds weigh about 7.5-15.5 ounces. Their lifespan is normally 8-12 years in the wild, but in captivity they can survive for up to 20 years.

At one time, especially in the early part of the last century, the Aplomado falcon was abundant in southern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona and the coastal areas of Texas. Early naturalists apparently encountered the birds quite frequently in their travels and studies, but by the 1950s, the falcons were all but gone.

"No one knows why they disappeared when they did, since no studies were ever done back then," says Montoya. "There is a lot of speculation about the reasons for the falcons' decline—habitat changes, woody brush encroachment, shooting and the collection of specimens and eggs for personal collections and museums." The use of DDT is also still a suspect.

In the late 1970s, a biologist, Dean Hector, traveled to the Gulf of Mexico and found a few breeding Aplomados along the eastern coastal states of Mexico.
Although reintroduction has not started in New Mexico, a documented nesting pair was noted in the Deming area in 2002, but has not been observed nesting since that time. This was the first documented sighting of a nesting pair since 1952. Another 30-some nesting pairs are scattered throughout northern Mexico.

Montoya first came to work for the Peregrine Fund in 1999, but his interest in the birds started when he went looking for released falcons in 1990. It was on the White Sands Missile Range in 1991 when a photograph confirmed the first documented Aplomado since 1952.

"I looked in Chihuahua (Mexico) for Aplomados," Montoya says, "and I was able to find a population of the birds that was not previously known."

Montoya's discovery of these raptors helped lead to the reintroduction of Aplomados in the Valentine, Texas, area, southeast of El Paso. In 2002, the Peregrine Fund arranged for the release of some Aplomado falcons that had been bred in captivity onto several ranches in the Valentine area. Since the bird was an endangered species, the undertaking also took advantage of what is called the Safe Harbor Agreements. These agreements allow "participating landowners to be exempt from regulations regarding endangered species," and encourage ranchers to be active in conservation programs.

But this provision will not be as useful for any future releases in southern New Mexico, since Safe Harbor deals only applies to private land. New Mexico, of course, has a much higher percentage of public land than Texas does.
The outcome of this first Valentine area release was positive enough to allow for the summer 2004 release of 81 more birds that had been bred in captivity. More Aplomados were also released in the coastal area of Texas. With a slight ease in the long drought, the birds are expected to do well, as their food supply—other birds, insects and occasionally bats, rodents and lizards—should be in abundance.

Montoya says, "In New Mexico, we are working to release Aplomados using what is called the '10-J,' which states that the reintroduction is a 'experimental non-essential population designation' under the Endangered Species Act. As soon as that occurs, we will release birds in this area (southern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona), possibly in 2007."

The US Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced a public hearing on this draft proposal and the accompanying environmental assessment. This plan apparently has the reintroduction planned for 2005. The hearing will be at the NMSU Corbett Center Student Union, on Tuesday, March 15, beginning at 7 p.m. Contact person is Elizabeth Slown, 248-6909.

Environmental groups have expressed concerns that the birds' habitat is not being fully protected as the falcons are reintroduced. They've argued that the original basis for excluding critical habitat—that no birds existed in the United States—is no longer accurate.

As with other endangered species programs, people on both sides of the issue feel that their side of the debate is the correct one. Montoya has some thoughts about that. "The birds are tolerant of humans," he says, "and the falcon is recoverable without designating critical habitat."

For more information about the Peregrine Fund, visit www.peregrinefund.org, or contact Angel Montoya at 523-5550.

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