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INTRODUCTION 

 The Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo reqalis ) is the largest 

 buteo in North America and has been shown to be strongly- 

 associated with grasslands, and to a lesser extent, shrub 

 steppe communities where open areas are available for 

 foraging. Ferruginous Hawks historically nested over much 

 of western North America (Figure 1) . Many researchers have 

 inferred or demonstrated that Ferruginous Hawk populations 

 have declined through portions of their range and since 

 1982, this species has been classified as a Category 2 

 species by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service 

 (USFWS) (Woffinden 1975, Oakleaf 1985, Powers and Craig 

 1976, Murphy 1978, Bechard 1981, Evans 1982, Houston and 

 Bechard 1984, Schmutz 1984, Schmutz et al. 1984, Woffinden 

 and Murphy 1989, USFWS 1992). In 1991, the USFWS was 

 petitioned to list this species as "endangered" under the 

 Endangered Species Act (Ure et al. 1991) ; a listing that was 

 subseguently deemed unmerited due to the high variability 

 within and between populations in terms of productivity and 

 to the fact that the petition presented insufficient 

 information to warrant such a listing (USFWS 1992) even 

 though Ferruginous Hawks are currently considered a 

 "threatened" species by the Canadian Wildlife Service 

 (Johnsgard 1990) . Much concern remains regarding the long- 

 term viability of Ferruginous Hawks over much of their 

 range. 



