When they received word of an injured bald eagle on a highway, animal protection officers in North Carolina swooped into action to save the stricken bird.
The Sun Journal reported that officers rescued a bald eagle from a highway in Craven County and took it to the nearby Outer Banks Wildlife Shelter in Newport. Officials are keeping tight-lipped about the eagle's precise location because of future rehabilitation plans. Once treated, staff are hopeful the eagle will return to the wild.
Tending to a hurt bald eagle is easier said than done; even such basic information as the bird's gender hasn't been confirmed yet.
Courtney Cole, the rehabilitation director for the shelter, explained, "We don't have too much information on it right now because they're pretty high stress animals." She suspected the eagle was hit by a car, a sadly all too common experience for wildlife.
The bald eagle represents a significant conservation success story in the United States. They were on the brink of extinction because of chemical pesticides contaminating their food supply. A federal ban on DDT and local conservation efforts resulted in a huge upturn in the eagle's population.
For example, in neighboring Georgia, eagles are experiencing improved nesting success. Those gigantic nests are used by other species once the eagle fledglings take flight; it's just one of several ways a robust bald eagle population benefits the ecosystem.
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The bald eagle's rescue demonstrates the key work being done nationwide at the local level and the importance of supporting that work, either financially or through volunteering. Wildlife rehabilitation is somewhat underrated conservation work, but every raptor returned to the wild makes a positive impact, and studies show they do well in the long run after treatment.
In a social media post about the story, a commenter claiming to be the rescuer offered some additional details about the eagle. "I grabbed him with a sweatshirt and put him in a fabric bin in the bed of my truck until Animal Services came and got him. He is beautiful!"
"Never seen a [sic] eagle so happy to be taken into custody," said a commenter. "He was smiling until 'til they locked him up," quipped another.
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