Rehabilitated Eagle Being Monitored with GPS Tracking
29 Oct 2015Injured bald eagle found in Virginia is being tracked with GPS during rehabilitation.
Earlier this summer at the Westlake Golf Course, a young bald eagle was found extremely sick and malnourished. She was immediately taken to the Wildlife center of Virginia where caretakers began taking care of her.
She is now looking much healthier and is starting to fly on her own; something she was unable to do before. Researchers at the wildlife center feel confident that she will make a full recovery. She will also be returned to Smith Mountain Lake, according to Amanda Nicholson, the wildlife center’s director of outreach.
This rehabilitated bald eagle is now being tracked with a GPS tracking device in order to monitor her movements, behavior, and flight patterns when she is finally released.
Named Bald Eagle #15-1261 for the study, tracking data will hopefully show biologist Jeff Cooper and his research team at the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries how rehabilitated eagles do when they go back into the wild.
This particular eagle is not the only one being researched. She also has other enclosure mates as part of the study who are being tracked to reveal their migration patterns during the winter and to look further into how these types of birds use airspace. This include the average distances, speeds, and heights at which they fly. This can help researchers demonstrate how bald eagles react to real-life issues, including airstrikes. She joins many other bald eagles that are currently being tracked with GPS devices.
Specifically, the research time is excited to be able to track an eagle that has been rehabilitated, as the others tracked were relatively healthy. They can see the changes and similarities between her and the healthy eagles while they are tracked. All of the enclosure mates were around the same age so it will be good to compare them during the study.
All three of the most recent enclosure mates at the research center were ill and in need of rehabilitating. So far, they have done 15-minute test runs to let them fly around inside the large enclosure. Soon, they will be released as soon when they can do so safely and be on their own.
Comments are closed.