American Bald Eagle vs

Haliaeetus leucocephalus compared with Clostridium peptidivorans

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	American Bald Eagle
Kingdom	Animalia (Animals)	Bacteria (Bacteria)
Phylum	Chordata (Chordates)	Firmicutes_A
Class	Aves (Birds)	Clostridia (Clostridia)
Order	Accipitriformes (Hawks & Eagles)	Clostridiales (Clostridiales)
Family	Accipitridae (Hawks & Eagles)	Clostridiaceae
Genus	Haliaeetus (Sea Eagles)	Clostridium
Species	Haliaeetus leucocephalus	Clostridium peptidivorans

Conservation Status

American Bald Eagle

NE — Not Evaluated

Population: ~316.7K

Trend: Increasing ↑

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	American Bald Eagle
Diet	Carnivore	—
Average Lifespan	28 years	—
Average Length	90 cm	—
Average Weight	5.0 kg	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

American Bald Eagle

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, and flooded grasslands and savannas, among 10 distinct biome types spanning the Neotropic and Palearctic realms. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Europe (8 countries), North America (United States), and South America (Ecuador).

Habitat

Native to Asia, inhabiting ecosystems characteristic of the region.

Range

Found in Taiwan.

American Bald Eagle

The national bird of the United States and a symbol of American conservation success, bald eagles have a wingspan of up to 2.4 meters and inhabit forests and wetlands near open water across North America. Powerful aerial predators and scavengers, they specialize in fish but also take waterfowl and carrion. Nearly extinct by the 1960s due to DDT poisoning and hunting, the bald eagle recovered dramatically following pesticide bans and the Endangered Species Act.

Clostridium peptidivorans is an anaerobic, endospore-forming bacterium in the family Clostridiaceae specialized in the fermentation of peptides and amino acids, as indicated by the species epithet meaning 'peptide-devouring.' It was isolated from anaerobic environments rich in proteinaceous material, including oil field brine waters and sediments where complex organic nitrogen compounds are abundant. Like all clostridia, it is a strictly anaerobic, Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium that forms resistant endospores. C. peptidivorans uses Stickland fermentation reactions — coupled oxidation and reduction of amino acid pairs — to derive energy from peptide and amino acid substrates, producing organic acids, ammonia, and other end products. The ability to metabolize peptides makes it an active participant in the anaerobic degradation of protein-rich organic matter in subsurface environments. Its discovery in oil field environments suggests that peptidivoranous clostridia play roles in the anaerobic cycling of organic nitrogen in deep subsurface biotopes, contributing to biogeochemical processes in petroleum-associated anaerobic microbial communities.