The Peregrine Falcon has three subspecies that live in North America. They are the America, Artic, and Peale Peregrine Falcons. The American (Falco peregrinus anatum) resides in southern Alaska, Canada, United States and northern Mexico. The Arctic Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus tundrius) dwells on the north slope of Alaska east across northern Canada to Greenland, and migrates to Latin America in the winter. The Peale's (Falco peregrinus pealei) is a year-round resident on the coasts of Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska north to the Aleutian Islands. The Peregrine Falcon has the most natural distribution of any bird in the world. It can be found on every continent except Antarctica. There are other places where it can't be found, such as high mountains, large deserts, jungles and isolated islands throughout the ocean. The Per

By the second year of life Peregrine falcons reach sexual maturity and are ready to mate. This species is monogamous and breed in the same territory throughout all of their lives. If a male dies or is out-competed by a stronger peregrine than the female will switch mates. After one month of courtship, the female will lay her eggs in the spring. After about 33 days of incubation, which the female and male both share, two or three eggs will hatch. After approximately 42 days of fledging the chicks will have learned to fly. They are still dependant on their parents for food because they must learn how to hunt. Parents can teach young peregrines how to hunt in about a month and a half.

DDT was a pesticide that could be used to kill any living thing. The scientists that created it didn't realize that it would build up in the tissue of and organism and could spread to another if it was eaten. If DDT was used to kill insects, a bird would eat many of the infected insects and the DDT contamination would spread to the bird. Then the Peregrine Falcon would eat the contaminated bird and the Peregrine falcon would become contaminated as well. Since the Peregrines were on the top of their food chain, their concentrations of DDT was much higher than the animals below them. When Peregrine falcons became contaminated with DDT they produced eggs with a thin shell. Thin-shelled eggs would brake during incubation, causing the Peregrine population to cease. In current times, they are making a comeback.

The Peregrine falcon population has always been meager. Studies in the 1940's to 1950's show that there were only 500 breading pairs in Eastern US and 1,000 in Western US and Mexico. The decline of the Peregrine falcon began in the 1950s with

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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)