RED IN TOOTH AND CLAW :

Soaring City Slickers : Birds of prey are being reintroduced to U.S. cities. Will they stay? (Jennifer Uscher, 8/26/02, Scientific American)

The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), a bird that more than any other symbolizes North America's wide-open spaces and vanishing unspoiled wilderness, is now the newest avian resident of New York City. In June 2002, the city's Parks Department teamed with the Earth Conservation Corps to transplant four eaglets to a tree house in Inwood Hill Park on the northern tip of Manhattan in the hopes that, after the birds are released, they will one day return to nest in the city.

Though other birds of prey have been successfully reintroduced in U.S. cities, some local biologists and birdwatchers have doubts about the project, charging that the area is not remote enough from human activity and that the Hudson River, where the eagles will soon fish, is still dangerously polluted. They wonder whether the eagles will adapt to urban life as well as other raptors, including red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) and peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus), and will soon be seen soaring over midtown’s skyscrapers on their seven-foot wingspans.

It was great when they reintroduced the peregrine falcons in NYC and all the animal lovers were all dewy-eyed. Then the things started swooping down and snatching pigeons in front of people and ripping them apart on ledges outside office windows and folks realized what predators actually behave like. The sudden descent of ambivalence was palpable and immensely amusing. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 28, 2002 10:00 AM