Hunted for its feathers and poisoned by the chemical pesticide DDT, the brown pelican was nearly extinct in the wild 50 years ago. When laws were passed protecting the brown pelican from hunting and banning the use of DDT, the species began to slowly recover. Today, more than 600,000 brown pelicans live in the United States, the Caribbean, and South America. (Nagel Photography/ Shutterstock) Read More