SIDNEY, B.C. - Rescuers will try to reach a six-week-old eagle reality star that is tangled up in fishing line in his nest.
The eaglet is one of a trio of baby bald eagles featured in a live wildlife video stream from his nest in Sidney, B.C., on Vancouver Island.
Wildlife biologist David Hancock, whose foundation established the eagle cam, feared the bird he's dubbed Donald would not make it after a plan to try to reach the nest by helicopter had to be abandoned Wednesday.
A crane was brought in to install the cameras but the ground has been so wet that it was feared it would sink if it was used to rescue the little bird, so that plan was abandoned earlier.
Now Hancock says an area company has offered huge mats that should allow the heavy equipment to come in and raise him up to free the baby eagle.
The nest is one of four featured on
www.hancockwildlife.org, and the most popular, getting 55 million viewers from around the world in one month when it first went up six years ago.
UPDATEDavid Hancock of Hancock Wildlife Foundation rescues a 5 week old eaglet that had caught its foot in nylon line - wrapped around one of its talons near the claw. The eaglet was removed, checked over and replaced - then the two web cameras in the tree were given a quick service.
Yay for him and thank you nycbird for letting me know. A baby eagle snagged on fishing line in its Vancouver Island nest has been successfully freed in a rescue operation Thursday.
A three-tonne crane was manouevred into position under the tree near Sidney, B.C., and the eaglet was cut free, removed from the nest briefly and put back.
The rescuers were hoping to free the bird's leg and leave the eaglet in place with its two siblings and two parents, but were prepared to bring it down for nurturing at a wildlife reserve. That plan turned out not to be necessary.
"It was a very, very successful operation," said biologist David Hancock, whose foundation has placed webcams near the nest and close to eagle nests in several other locations in southwestern B.C.
Hancock was one of the two men aboard the crane platform and personally took the young bird out of the nest.
He said the line around the animal's leg was not wound too tightly and so had not cut off circulation. He removed the line from the three-kilogram bird and put it back into the nest.
Eagle parents a concern
Rescuers were anxious to see if the parents would return to the nest following the human intervention. The two full-grown birds could be seen watching from a distance during the rescue operation.
The struggle of the eaglet had been broadcast live online by the webcam mounted near the edge of the nest.
The animal's predicament had prompted calls from concerned viewers around the world for Hancock's foundation to mount a rescue.
But the operation at first seemed impossible because the nest is at the top of dead tree that is too dangerous to climb, and the ground around the nest was too soft to support a crane tall enough to reach it.
But the ground had dried by Thursday afternoon and special heavy-duty mats were brought in to help support the huge machine.
Show Posts
Good spotting Joyce!!
