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Fyfe and a small team collected chicks from the few nesting pairs left in the wild and kept them on his property in Fort Saskatchewan until a facility at the Canadian Forces Base in Wainwright was ready in 1973.

The recovery program was controversial at the time. Some criticized keeping birds in captivity and others doubted the young would be able to survive after being released into the wild.

Fyfe’s team experimented on species that were less at risk and came up with creative ways — such as monitoring falcons’ behaviour via closed-circuit televisions — to find compatible pairs for mating. The team became the first to see their falcons return from the wild and become parents.

This success led to the reintroduction of peregrine falcons in places where they had all but disappeared.

By the time the Wainwright facility closed in 1996, his team had raised more than 1,500 falcons for release. Peregrines were taken off the endangered species list three years later.

Photo by Ian Scott / The Edmonton Journal

Fyfe was invested as a member of the Order of Canada in 2000 for his role in the peregrine falcon’s recovery, but this honour came after his retirement and after he was falsely suspected of running an international falcon-smuggling ring.

The theory that Fyfe’s program could be a front for sending endangered falcons to the Middle East was based on the assumption that peregrines could not be raised in captivity. An extensive audit and investigations by his own department and law enforcement officials in Canada and the United States found no evidence to support the claim of smuggling.