In the early 1970s, only 200 nesting pairs of Double-crested Cormorants remained in the entire Great Lakes. By 2000, that number was 115,000.
This is Tohopa — and his species is one of the great conservation comeback stories of the 20th century. Persecution at nesting colonies, then DDT, drove two separate population crashes across North America. After DDT was banned in 1972 and the species gained federal protection, the recovery was dramatic. The global breeding population now stands at 630,000.
Tohopa is part of my upcoming exhibition Back From The Brink at @michaelreid.southernhighlands — a series of paintings celebrating bird populations pulled back from the edge through conservation effort worldwide.