The recovery of the American alligator is considered one of the greatest endangered species success stories. By the 1950s, decades of overhunting, critical habitat lost, and pollution from pesticides brought the gator dangerously close to extinction. The tide finally began to turn in 1962 when Florida lawmakers outlawed gator hunting in the state. The species was granted federal protection soon after, in 1966. These measures paid off: today there are an estimated 5 million American alligators thriving once again in the southeastern United States.
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The California condor is a North American wildlife icon — the continent's largest land birds and one of nature's most industrious scavengers — and also one of our most critically endangered avian species.
Tigers are one of the most iconic faces of wildlife conservation worldwide. These species are still endangered, but indeed on the rise — although it wasn't long ago that tiger populations teetered on the edge of extinction.
Our relationship with gray wolves is a complicated one, spanning centuries of tension and dating back to the beginning in the 1600s with North American colonization.
The bald eagle has been a national symbol of the United States since 1782 — but not that long ago, this iconic species was on the verge of a complete extinction.
