--- title: Comeback stories: bald eagles, humpback whales, condors and the kakapo — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Comeback stories: bald eagles, humpback whales, condors and the kakapo», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Not every story ends in extinction: when people stop the harm and protect a kind of animal, it can --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Comeback stories: bald eagles, humpbac… # Comeback stories: bald eagles, humpback whales, condors and the kakapo Lesson 282 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 14 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/0/) — Not every story ends in extinction: when people stop the harm and protect a kind of animal, it can come back, sometimes from just a few dozen. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/1/) — The bald eagle on American coins nearly vanished, because a pesticide called DDT made its eggshells so thin that they cracked when the parents sat on them; after DDT was banned in 1972 and eagles were protected, the numbers grew from about 400 pairs to over 70,000. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/3/) — These stories show that saving a species is hard and slow, but it really works. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/4/) — In the 1960s there were only about 400 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the lower 48 states of America, because DDT made their eggshells thin; after DDT was banned in 1972 and eagles were protected, there are now over 70,000 pairs. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/5/) — Humpback whales were hunted almost to extinction; after a ban on commercial whaling in 1986, many groups grew strongly, and there are now tens of thousands. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/6/) — Peregrine falcons also crashed because of DDT; people bred and released them, even in cities, where tall buildings are like cliffs and pigeons are their food. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/7/) — Sea otters were hunted for their fur almost to extinction, and protection brought them back along the Pacific coast; they eat sea urchins, which eat kelp, so otters protect kelp forests. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/8/) — In 2016 giant pandas moved from endangered, in great danger of dying out, to vulnerable, still at risk but less so; China protected bamboo forests and made corridors between them, and there are now about 1,800 or more in the wild. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/9/) — The Arabian oryx was extinct in the wild by 1972; zoos bred a herd and released them in Oman and other lands, and it was the first animal to go from extinct in the wild back to vulnerable. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/10/) — In 1987 only 27 California condors were left and all were taken into care; zoo breeding and release raised the number to over 500, but lead from hunters' bullets in dead animals still poisons them. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/11/) — The black-footed ferret was thought extinct until a dog found one in Wyoming in 1981; a breeding programme saved it, and in 2020 a ferret was cloned from cells frozen in 1988. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/12/) — Mountain gorillas fell to about 250 in the 1980s; rangers, local people and gorilla tourism helped them grow to over 1,000, and park rangers risk their lives to protect them. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/13/) — Red kites were wiped out in England by the late 1800s; birds from Spain were released from 1989, and now there are thousands; they eat mostly dead animals and are no danger to people. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/15/) — Every kakapo has a name and is watched by rangers, and there are now about 250. - ← previous: [Extinct forever: the dodo, the passenger pigeon, the thylacine and more](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/281-extinct-forever-the-dodo-the-passenger-pigeon-the-thylacine-and-more/) - next →: [Wolves in Yellowstone, beavers in Britain and bringing nature back](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/283-wolves-in-yellowstone-beavers-in-britain-and-bringing-nature-back/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)