Want to see the world's fastest animal raise babies? It's happening several stories above Downtown and you can watch it from a 24-hour livestream.
The Mercantile Library has a nesting box placed by conservation group Raptor Inc. on its window ledge.
Inside, peregrine falcons — which are fighting their way back from endangered species status — are raising chicks. And now there's a camera streaming every moment.
A few of the falcons have been nesting on and around the Mercantile building Downtown for the last several years.
Library Collector Cedric Rose says the urban environment around the library is perfect for the birds of prey.
"Cities in particular mimic their natural environment, which is cliffs," he says. "They don't nest, per se, they just scrape out a little thing on a cliff. In cities, there aren't any other predators, and there are lots of pigeons for them to eat."
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The falcons can reach speeds up to 200 miles an hour while diving for prey — the fastest any animal on Earth is known to travel. Humans across the globe have revered the birds for millennia for their speed and grace.
But the peregrine falcon populations across the United States and other countries dropped dramatically due to the use of the pesticide DDT and other factors in the second half of the 20th century. DDT caused the shells of bird eggs, including those of peregrine falcons, to become so thin that few young survived. The birds are just now starting to recover.
Rose, who has written at length about the falcons, credits conservation work by Raptor, Inc. for the birds' local resurgence. He hopes the story of the falcons — and watching a new generation of them grow up — inspires people to become more conservation minded.
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"They are this narrative of survival and resurgence, and thriving, honestly, in the midst of an urban area," he says.