She needed help.
The other day, a juvenile eagle in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, found herself in a tricky situation. She’d gotten tangled up in fishing line and was stuck on the ground, unable to fly back to her nest.
Tracie Young, founder of Raven Ridge Wildlife Center, got a call about the eagle and rushed over to help. While Young was on her way to the scene, local game wardens removed two fish hooks from the eagle’s beak and foot.
As soon as Young arrived, she inspected the bird and discovered that in addition to her injuries, she was dealing with dehydration and exhaustion.
Young pieced together that the eagle, who was in her fledgling stage, must have fallen out of her nest. Her parents had tried to feed her a fish that still had a hook in it, and while she was eating, she got entangled in the line, then lost her balance and fell.
Unfortunately, Raven Ridge Wildlife Center and other animal rescues see countless cases of animals injured by fishing equipment. It’s important to note that if you ever come across an animal caught in a fishing line, you should immediately get in contact with a wildlife rescuer and not try to free them yourself — for your safety and the animal’s safety.
The fish the juvenile bird had been trying to eat was still attached to the hook on her beak. The fish was clearly not fresh and had deteriorated over the course of at least a few days, which suggested that the eagle had been immobilized by the fishing line for quite some time.
“My concern was, I didn’t know how long this eagle might have been in that state,” Young told The Dodo.
Young brought the young eagle back to Raven Ridge Wildlife Center, where she assessed her wounds and applied antiseptic ointments to them. She was pleased to see that the wounds were not as deep as she’d initially thought. After receiving fluids, the eagle started to quickly regain her energy and strength.
“[O]ver the next couple of hours … she really started to perk up,” Young said.
Because the eagle was at a crucial stage in her development in which she was learning how to fly and hunt, Young wanted to get her back to her nest as quickly as possible. Since the bird was responding so well to the fluids, Young decided to release her that very day.
“I didn’t want to waste any time keeping the bird overnight or anything like that,” Young said.
The local fire department lifted Young up in a crane so she could place the young eagle back in the nest, which was high up in a tree in someone’s backyard. As she placed the bird in the tree, she could see her parents circling above.
“The next morning, the homeowner … did report to us that the mom and the dad were both in the nest with the juvenile eagle,” Young said.
Thanks to everyone who worked together to rescue the young eagle, she got reunited with her family right when she needed it most.