5/26/2023 0 Comments Large snake force feeding syringe"Maybe this one will make it." "The Spark Just Went Out of Him"īert Tuckey was racing to the dentist when he noticed the bald eagle sitting in the snow beside his dirt driveway. Her attention shifted back to the eagle she cradled in her arms. Securing its talons with one hand and its head with the other, Warren checked her bleeding face in a mirror. Now Warren was playing raptor wrangler and nurse for a third poisoning victim. Warren was tormented by questions: What more could she have done? Just a week ago, another one had died within 24 hours of its arrival. She had rescued the eagle from the snow on a ranch along the Hoback River, then administered injections of medicines and chelating agents and force-fed it food and liquids under the instructions of a veterinarian.īut that eagle died within a week. It was a female, the largest bald eagle Warren had ever handled in her three years at the Teton Raptor Center. The death of one of them a few weeks earlier still haunted Warren. A half dozen or so lead-poisoned ones make it to the rehab center every year, but no one knows how many die unseen in the backcountry. During Wyoming's big game hunting season, virtually all eagles have lead in their system from scavenging bullet-riddled carrion. This was the third eagle in a little over a month to arrive in such a feeble state. It arrived at the Teton Raptor Center slumped on its breast, wings drooped: another casualty of lead poisoning. Less than 36 hours earlier, this eagle was too weak to hold up its white-feathered head. It was a surprising move for a bird in such poor shape. "Oh, my God!" shouted a veterinary technician, jumping back. It snapped its yellow hooked beak, puncturing her right cheek. With her other hand, she pinned the bird's wings before they could unfold to their six-foot span.Īs Warren slowly removed the ailing eagle from an oxygen chamber at the animal hospital where she worked, it suddenly awakened from a stupor. Jackson, WyomingMeghan Warren grabbed the bald eagle's legs with thick leather gloves to secure its powerful talons.
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