By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The bald eagle, the U.S. national bird whose numbers dwindled in the 1960s, is expected to be removed on Thursday from the list of creatures classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The "de-listing," if it happens as conservationists predict, would be a recognition of remarkable efforts to bring the bald eagle back from the brink, including the banning of the pesticide DDT in

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE (TWRA Wildwatch)-The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency announced today that it has successfully completed a state-wide undercover investigative operation targeting individuals who were trafficking in venomous reptiles, resulting in arrests and animal confiscations across the state. 

Since its commencement in September of 2006, “Operation Striking Distance” has resulted in seven persons being arrested or cited within Tennessee, with six more persons to be charged. TWRA officers and investigators have seized more than 100 venomous snakes, alligators, and turtles. 

THE HAGUE, Netherlands— It could be ivory concealed in a container, cans of caviar in a suitcase or baby chimpanzees in a crate. The smuggling of wildlife goods is a low-risk, high-profit enterprise proving increasingly attractive to crime syndicates.

Exports of wildlife, including fisheries and timber, are estimated at $150 billion to $200 billion a year. The illicit side of the business is likely worth tens of billions of dollars, experts say.

"It's big, and it's getting bigger,'' says Peter Younger of Interpol, the international police

DOVER, Del. (Associated Press)— A fisherman who landed what state wildlife officials believe is a juvenile great white shark could face federal charges.

Authorities don't believe Michael Davidson and his companions on board the 33-foot ``Little One'' landed a great white deliberately. They may have misidentified 5 1/2-foot shark as a mako, said Lt. Aaron Hurd of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife.

CALCUTTA, India— Poachers seeking to bag a Royal Bengal tiger in the Sunderbans reserve are encountering a unique new security measure to keep them away: hundreds of crocodiles that have been released in the mangrove forest.

Originally brought into the reserve in the late 1990s for breeding, the crocodiles are having the unintended beneficial effect of scaring away poachers from the forest - home to the largest wild