By 1987, The Peregrine Fund was well known for its successful Peregrine Falcon captive breeding and release program, so the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service invited us to lead the Aplomado Falcon recovery efforts. We were able to modify our existing propagation program to facilitate the breeding of Aplomado Falcons. 

In 1993, after six years of captive breeding, we began full-scale releases to reintroduce Aplomado Falcons back into their historical range along the Texas Gulf Coast. Just two years after reintroductions started, the program experienced its first sign that reintroductions were working. In a milestone event, a pair of released falcons produced the first wild-fledged falcon in the U.S. in 43 years.

From 1993 to 2013, The Peregrine Fund released 936 Aplomado Falcons throughout South Texas. With the wild population proving to be stable, the captive breeding program was discontinued in 2013, and efforts shifted to monitoring and assessing threats to the wild population.