When an injured bald eagle was spotted near a lake in Kansas, a team featuring two firefighters, a sheriff’s sergeant, and an animal conservationist quickly came together to rescue the iconic bird. Thanks to their hard work, they were able to save the bird and get it the help it needed.
One morning, Sergeant Justin Antle received a call about an injured bald eagle near a lake outside of Wichita. He hurried over and spotted the bird. It stayed near the lake, where it would fly about 10 feet in the air before landing.
“You could tell that it was injured,” Antle told ABC News. “It did not want to fly up at all.”
Antle called Ken Lockwood, the program director at the Eagle Valley Raptor Center, to help him out. He also asked for the help of two firefighters from the Sedgwick County Fire Department. Once the team was assembled by the lake, they began following the bird, trying to capture it without injuring it. The eagle was nervous, though, and wouldn’t let the men get too close to him.
“Even when they can’t fly, they run like jack rabbits,” Ken Lockwood told ABC News. “They do. They run like crazy.”
The team ended up following the bird around for two hours before they were finally able to corner it next to a grove of cedar trees. Once they had the bird, Lockwood examined him. He found out that the bird was a male, and he guessed that he was around three years old. The bird was thin, which is normal for young eagles — older birds sometimes steal their food, and they can have trouble hunting because of their inexperience.
The young eagle was sent over to the Kansas State University’s veterinary school for blood work and x-rays. After that, he will be brought back to the Eagle Valley Raptor Center for rehabilitation. He’ll spend a couple weeks in a pen with another eagle, where he’ll get exercise and learn how to interact with other members of his species.
Once the eagle’s injuries are healed, Lockwood plans to call up the sheriff’s office and fire department to assist him in releasing the bird back into the wild.
Lockwood explained that these two departments are vital parts of the rescue process. “The sheriff’s department can put it on their resumes that they’re eagle catchers now,” he told ABC News. “It’s an eagle – that’s our national symbol. You just have to go rescue them. You can’t just let it die.”
Thanks to the rescue team, this bald eagle is getting the help he needs for his injuries. Soon, he’ll be ready to fly off again and begin his life in the wild!
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