This is ARLAND, an adult male Golden Eagle who came to IBR after it was thought he'd been hit by a car. He'd been picked up by a Wyoming Game Warden and taken home for the night. As he didn't think anything was wrong he took the bird back to where he was found and turned him loose. The next morning he was still in the same place. By the time I got ARLAND I realized that his crop was still full, it should have emptied during the night. I took him into Dr. Blessing, we anestisized him and removed all the old meat out of the crop and flushed it with a weakened solution of Pepto Bismal. It worked and as you can see from this photo, he is up and doing well. He can fly to the top of this short tower and will be put into the larger eagle flight barn this weekend. As this is an adult bird and the breeding season is fast upon us, I will take him back to the area where he was found for release. Not, of course, near the road.
One of the things that injures raptors the most is a vehicle. The easiest way to fly is into the open, and the area that fills that bill is a roadway. It takes a large bird quite some time to get going from a standstill so they have no way to evade a fast moving car or truck. If you ever see a roadkill please slow down so that any birds feeding on it are safe when they try to fly away.
No comments:
Post a Comment