POISONED WEDGE TAILED EAGLE

This is a juvenille Wedge Tailed Eagle that is injured (?) and is next to one of our dams right now - I have called Steve Irwin's cousin David Irwin from Raptor Domain here on Kangaroo Island, to come help him. He's going to catch him and try to rehabilitate him. As yet, I do not know what is wrong with him, but he won't stand on his legs, so I hope he hasn't got spinal damage from learning to fly. I could get very close as he is worn out.

Stay tuned, and I'll update this description with what happens...

Ok, so David Irwin has just come and collected our Wedgie and said he thinks it's got paralysis or arthritis in it's legs and feet. It's wings are fine, and it's in good condition, but he thinks it's been on the ground a while, judging by the dirtiness of it's tail feathers. He thinks it is a young male, less than 4 years old. As we were capturing it, two adult and one young eagle came by to feed it. One adult had a crop full of food and David thinks that's what they would be doing. So, he is now taking it into the vet's to get its legs xrayed and will let us know how it does. If it comes good, David will release it back here to be with it's family, or will keep it at his raptor park if it needs looking after. Win win for the little eagle. We got to have a pat, which is something you don't get to do every day! Hooray for the Irwin's!

Here's Henley with David Irwin and the eagle once it was caught:



UPDATE: It turns out that the Wedgie has been poisoned. Someone around our place is laying out poison to get rid of wallabies, feral cats etc, but the vet has found that the eagle has some poison in it's system. They are monitoring him, hoping that they caught it in time. I'm so glad we rescued him as the poison is a little like ratsak - it makes their stomachs bleed until they die and is just horrible. We had a wallaby at our place the same day with it too, but it disappeared somewhere (maybe the eagle tried to eat it). I don't know why he would have been walking the way he was, not on his feet, but maybe he was too weak to. I'm going to write an article on this to send to our local newspaper, with pictures, so that those who are setting out the baits may reconsider what they are doing. Only thing I can do as RSPCA doesn't have a lot of say when it comes to farmer's practises (shooting roos etc).