Orphaned bald eaglets get second chance
Special to the News Journal 1:08 p.m. CST February 5, 2016 p402_premium class is utilized by Google Consumer Surveys
St. George Island, FL
Bald eaglets that were orphaned by their parents have new families at the Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida.
(Photo: Special to the News Journal)
A month-old orphaned bald eaglet has been adopted by two non-releasable adult bald eagles at the Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida since attempts last week to reunite it with its original parents were unsuccessful.
This eaglet is now being cared for by foster parents, Apollo and Winnie, who are permanently injured adult bald eagles and residents of the WSNF. The eaglet’s sibling is also currently recovering at WSNF from a fractured leg and wing, and will be placed with foster eagle parents, Amelia and Junior, as soon as medically stable.
Both eaglets are off display to the public because of the need to keep them wild and will be reunited later when they are ready to be released. Video cameras at the Sanctuary allow viewing of the eagle family without any disturbance.
Eagles abandoned on St. George Island
The story of these eaglets begins on St. George Island, with eagle neighbors Kevin and Chantel Burdett along with Lauren Levi and Kenny Piotrowski, who rescued the two fallen eaglets in the hours after a severe January storm that toppled their nest tree. The eaglets were transported to wildlife rehabilitator Chris Beatty of the Florida Wild Mammal Association in Crawfordville for emergency care by an ANERR staff member. Initially, Beatty stabilized both eaglets, offered them food, and applied a splint to Eaglet 2’s leg, which was fractured in the fall. Beatty contacted Dorothy Kaufmann at the WSNF for her expertise in managing bald eagle rehabilitation cases, and the eaglets were transported the next day.
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Eaglet 1 was uninjured, so planning began to try returning this healthy eaglet to a replacement nest built and secured in an adjacent tree by a coordinated effort between three state agencies, two wildlife rehabilitators, one veterinarian, the largest electric utility in the country, 1 bucket truck, several concerned citizens, 1 retiree, and 1 federal agency to attempt to reunite this eaglet with its parents: the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Franklin County Extension (UF/IFAS); the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; several neighbors living in sight of the original nest; the retired director of Audubon EagleWatch (AEW); the FWMA and the WSNF.
Attending veterinarian Dr. Tommy Knight of Westside Animal Hospital determined Eaglet 1 was healthy enough to attempt a reunion with its parents. A nesting platform was secured in a new nest tree and Eaglet 1 was placed in the new nest by Duke Energy representatives.
Weather seemed to dictate the little eaglet’s destiny. Just as the storm that blew both the tree and the nest that it had fallen from last week, the reunion day turned out to be very cold and rainy for all involved. Unfortunately, efforts to reunite the eaglet with its original parents were unsuccessful and Plan B was formulated to return the eaglet to WSNF so it could be raised by experienced eagle foster parents to have the best chance at a later release back to the wild.