Rescuing injured eagle a gentle, careful process

CAMDENTON, Mo. -- It is not uncommon for Phelps County conservation agent Darrin Wood to receive calls regarding injured wildlife throughout the year.

He received one of those calls in late March regarding an injured bald eagle that was spotted on private property north of Route P on Highway 68 in Maries County.

"I promptly responded," Wood said. "I was taken about a quarter of a mile onto the caller's property where a group had been waiting with the injured bird."

Wood said he was able to quickly capture the eagle and place it into a large pet taxi for safe keeping.

"The eagle did not appear to have a wing injury, which left me with a few possible diagnoses: lead poisoning, possible head trauma due to flying into something or a gunshot wound," he said.

The next day Wood contacted the University of Missouri and took the eagle to the Raptor Rehabilitation Project in Columbia.

Throughout the year, Wood routinely receives calls from the area from people who have come across injured wildlife. However, a call regarding an eagle is a rare one.

"This was my first live eagle call. There have been two eagles shot in Osage County in the past few months that I know of, which could have been linked to this eagle if it was shot," Wood explained.

He just recently contacted the Raptor Rehabilitation Project and found out that the exact cause of the eagle's injury was inconclusive.

However, Raptor Rehabilitation Project staff were able to conclude that the eagle was a mature male that suffered a traumatic head injury at some point that completely detached the retina in his left eye, which was too severe to rehabilitate for release back to the wild. The eagle had to be euthanized.

"This type of injury is common among injured hawks and owls but rare for an eagle," Wood noted.

The examiner at the Raptor Rehabilitation Project found that the level of lead in the eagle's blood was 0.36 parts per million, which is higher than average and could have caused the eagle to become disoriented and lose coordination, leading to its injury. The examiner said the staff commonly find 0.1-0.2 ppm lead in eagles.

"We were able to agree on a few theories that could have caused this eagle's injury. He could have been feeding on a carcass near a road and flew up too late and partially been struck by a vehicle or the level of lead in his blood caused him to become disoriented and fly into something like a tree or power pole, causing the injury," Wood said.

He and the examiner also agreed that the location where the eagle was found was unusual.

"We believe that he was injured elsewhere and finally became exhausted where he was found," Wood said.

Wood added that the best thing for people who do run across an injured animal to do is to call a conservation agent first before trying to assist the animal.

Many of the injured animals will not understand that someone wants to help it and take the advances as a threat to its life and try to fight back.

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Information from: Lake Sun Leader, http://www.lakesunleader.com/