Abstract

Rachel Carson, The Silent Spring, published in 1962 was a wake up call to the peril of synthetic pesticides. Brown Pelicans almost disappeared from the Texas Coast. The birds were poisoned by wide spread use of DDT. Pelican eggs were thin-shelled and broke during incubation. Texas Parks and Wild Life estimated that there were less than 100 between 1967 and 1974. This paper will explore how the near demise of the Brown Pelican, Peliconus occidentalis provided the public and scientific community compelling evidence for the toxicity of DDT.