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Posted by Robin Diaz on 17:39:29 03/19/09
In Reply to: Hey, this is subspecies anatum, right?! posted by Rock Jetty
When chemicals caused Peregrine Falcon populations to decline, this bird was brought to the public's attention during environmental awakening in the 1970's. Due to certain banned chemicals and restorative management, the population began a slow but steady increase.
There are 19 subspecies of Peregrine Falcon, each having ~2 subgroups. North American populations consist of F. p. anatum, F. p. tundrius and F. p. pealei, with the first two the most numerous. With the numerous subspecies and subgroups, individual variation within a population is common and called intergradation. In addition, variation caused by expanding gene pools of the reduced population with introduced populations (restorative management), made the problem of differentiation even more difficult.
Recovering populations will have some short-term variation until stabilizing selection occurs. During the past 20-25 years, many North American Peregrine Falcons could not be clearly categorized as to subspecies. [Some morphologically recognizable local populations still occur.] So, perhaps the predicted stabilization is occurring, as Raul and Tyler's posts reflect.
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