CLAYTON — A sick golden eagle that was rescued at a cattle ranch in Clayton just before Christmas has been released back into the wild.
Jennifer Sanders found the bird and said eagles regularly stop by her ranch
This one was clearly in distress, she said.
“We don’t normally see them on the ground but if we do see them on the ground, they usually jump up and fly away or they’ll just walk on the ground a little bit," said Sanders. "And this one just kept flopping around on the ground.”
She took it to the Lindsay Wildlife Experience where veterinarians determined the bird was severely underweight and suffering from lead poisoning, “probably from ingesting some sort of animal that was shot and ingesting some sort of lead ammunition,” said Aireo Shipman, the facility’s rehabilitation manager. “He came in thin and not standing and not acting like an eagle acts.”
A healthy adult golden eagle should weigh about 9.5 pounds, but this bird weighed only 5.5 pounds.
The bird stayed at the rehab center for more than six months.
“It just took a long time, a long time to get the lead out of the system,” says Dr. Allison Daugherty.
Lindsay Wildlife Experience has seen an increasing number of birds with lead poisoning in recent months.
Shipman hopes that Assembly Bill 711, which went into effect July 1 and bans hunters in California from using lead ammunition, will reduce the number of sick birds.
Written by Jessica Yi.