Golden eagle injured in illegal trap (WV)

[Donna]

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A golden eagle that probably was passing north over West Virginia on its migratory route dropped down for a bite to eat near Clarksburg, got caught in a leghold trap, and had to have one toe and the tip of another one amputated.

The bird of prey will be nursed back to health at the West Virginia Raptor Rehabilitation Center near Morgantown. Recuperation is expected to take two to three weeks. Then it will be released near Clarksburg where it was found Tuesday.

A homeowner spotted the injured creature and notified Susan Olcott, a diversity biologist with the state Division of Natural Resources.

"They thought they had a turkey vulture that was injured sitting up on a brush pile," Olcott said.

When Olcott arrived, she immediately realized it was a golden eagle.

For backup, she contacted Mike Book, chairman of the raptor rehabilitation center.

Book said capturing a turkey vulture is nothing like capturing a bigger, stronger bird like the golden eagle.

"It's kind of like wrestling a German shepherd or a bear - and you'd rather have somebody that's wrestled a bear," he said. "They felt better having somebody that has handled the eagles."

Book said he caught the eagle easily, though. He walked toward it with a sheet and draped it over the bird.

"It never flinched. It never moved the whole time," he said.

Book said he believes the trap was illegally set.

"Any trap that catches a bird of prey in it is set illegally," Book said.

He said he believes someone set the trap with exposed bait on top, which is against the law. Normally, a trap is buried so that animals, guided by their sense of smell, have to dig to get the bait.

Birds of prey hunt by sight, not smell, so Book believes the bait was in plain sight.

"Eagles don't just get down on the ground and start walking around where you're going to set a trap," he said.

Olcott said the trap wasn't identified either. The law is that all game traps must contain tags with the trapper's name and address.

Though the bird could've been snagged miles away, Book said it probably happened near where it landed.

When the trap was removed, Olcott and Book noticed that one of the bird's toes was hanging by a small piece of tissue and another toe was badly injured.

They rushed the bird to veterinarian Jesse Fallon, who removed one toe, bandaged the eagle's foot and started the animal on antibiotics, antifungal medication and pain relievers.

Fallon said eagles are extremely susceptible to fungal pneumonia when they're stressed.

Fallon performed surgery Thursday afternoon to remove the tip of its other injured toe. The bird should be healthy enough to move to the raptor rehabilitation center by Saturday, he said.

Fallon said the eagle will remain on both kinds of medication - hidden in the rats it eats - while it's at the rehabilitation center.

Olcott said the eagle will probably do just fine without the two toes because its middle and back toe - the strongest and most essential for hunting - were unharmed.

Katie Fallon, Jesse's wife and education director for the raptor center, said golden eagles are prevalent west of the Mississippi River, but there aren't many in the East.

Researchers aren't sure exactly how many there are in the East, but Fallon said Pennsylvania-based Tussey Mountain Eagle Watch usually counts a couple hundred flying over the group's observatory every spring.

Fallon said the birds that do live on this side of the country spend winters in the southern United States and migrate to Canada in the spring to breed. She said the injured bird was probably just passing through West Virginia on its way north.

[Annette]

That is very bad.   

[Bird Crazy]

grrr I know what I'd stick in that trap if I ever caught the no good bleep who set it.

[valhalla]

Way back in high school, one of the guys had a permit to trap varmints on the Newark Watershed Property.  Fox and mink were the targets and because they weren't winter traps (when the fur is most abundent), he was only paid a few dollars (enough to keep him in smokes).  Winter trapping wasn't allow because of the deer and the hunters (permits were issued back then).  The summer trapping was to keep these nasty little critters away from nests.  Illegal trapping 35-40 years ago carried some stiff penalties in NJ anyway.  John was a former "city" kid who learned trapping from one of the town's last Cherokee Indians (half) - long deceased.