A week went by, and I’m now minus-seven on my blogging pledge. In the interim, I missed posting about a wonderful use of technology to expose Internet users to a slice of biology. As March ended, so did the incubation period for three eagle eggs in Decorah, Iowa.
The Raptor Resource Project is a non-profit established in 1988. RRP specializes in the preservation of falcons, eagles, ospreys, hawks, and owls by strengthening breeding raptor populations through the creation and maintenance of nests. RRP pointed a video camera at the top of an 80-foot tree near a Midwest fish hatchery to follow the progress of the new eagles as they entered the world. Infrared light, not visible to the eagles, provided a round-the-clock vigil in which the whole world could participate.
An international audience watched three eagles hatch
The video stream of the eagles has received over 32 million views. The first of the three eggs was laid on February 23. At any moment, up to 150,000 people checked in to see the eggs as they hatched, one by one, during the first week of April.
The eagle couple are getting to be old pros at this process of hatching and fledging a fresh batch of eaglets. The male and female have been together for four years, successfully contributing to continued population growth of the species with 11 offspring. Eagles left the endangered list in the 1990s, after pesticides threatened their survival.
There is a certain allure of being able to observe wildlife in this way. I can recall spending quite a bit of time during late night work sessions watching the ecosystem awake in Botswana near Pete’s Pond, which has since been taken offline. In general, we aren’t fans of zoos due to the inherent problems of captivity, even with the good ones. Webcams, though, are less invasive and allow the observation without disrupting their natural activities.
