Aplomado Falcons are rare birds. So rare, in fact, that no one
really knows how many exist. Their historic range extended from
casual visits to Tierra del Fuego north to northern Mexico and
southern Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Fossils of their
Pleistocene predecessors have been found in what is now called
Ecuador and Peru. No one even knows how many lived the United
States. We do know that by the early 1960s none were residents
in the United States. A vicious combination of DDT and
elimination of the native grasslands had eradicated them. Some
survived in northern Mexico but very few. A breeding program
begun in 1977 has released about 500 Aplomados in Northern
Mexico and southern Texas and southern New Mexico. The remaining
natural grasslands of the Chihuahuan Desert are natural habitat
for them. One of the many good things Ted Turner has done with
his life is make available one of his New Mexico ranches for a
release program. This ranch is just south of the Bosque del
Apache Wildlife Refuge in central Ne