iN VIDEO: Injured eagle 'Crash' takes to the sky in Salmon Arm once more | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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iN VIDEO: Injured eagle 'Crash' takes to the sky in Salmon Arm once more

Crash taking to the sky.
Image Credit: B.C. Wildlife Park

Some stitches, a couple of doses of antibiotics, and a month spent in rehab learning to fly again, and Crash the bald eagle has taken to the sky once more.

Staff from B.C. Wildlife Park in Kamloops released Crash back into the wild in Salmon Arm, Nov. 6, following three months in care for the young bald eagle.

B.C. Wildlife Park animal care manager Tracy Reynolds said Crash was taken back to the site in Salmon Arm next to her nest and nearby where she was found injured.

"As soon as I opened the kennel she flew directly to her nest," Reynolds said.

The fledgling was originally discovered in July injured up a tree near her nest.

While learning to fly something went horribly wrong for the young bird.

Crash waits patiently before her release.
Crash waits patiently before her release.
Image Credit: B.C. Wildlife Park

"She went to land in a tree and managed to somehow impale herself on a branch... the tree branch went right through her wing," Reynolds said. "She was just hanging there."

In what she described as a "heroic" deed a hydro worker used his equipment to rescue the young eagle from the tree. The bird was then taken to the Fawcett Family Wildlife Health Centre at the wildlife park in Kamloops where it received medical attention.

Reynolds said the hole in Crash's wing was big enough to put a small wrist through and the bird received stitches and two lots of antibiotics after the original wound became infected. The eagle then spent two months recovering before being moved into a flight pen for a month-long session of rehabilitation learning to fly again.

She said Crash's chance of survival, now it's back in the wild, is probably as good as any young bald eagle.

Crash is one of eight bald eagles the health centre has taken in this year, and one of around 350 animals the centre has received so far in 2019.

The difference, Reynolds said, is that the majority of eagles the centre cares for are there because of a human-caused reason. Crash is a rare case of an animal that inflicted the injury upon itself.

And although the name might make perfect sense, Reynolds said they didn't intentionally name the young injured eagle, the name Crash just stuck.


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