SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE, Va. – The Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center recently released a bald eagle at Smith Mountain Lake! It was injured after a fight with other eagles, but that scuffle was only half the battle.
The eagle's rehab began with a wildlife veterinarian.
It came from Rocky Mount, when a bystander saw the eagle fight with two younger birds.
“Someone in Rocky Mount actually watched the eagle in a fight with two juveniles, and the adult lost and ended up being slammed to the ground.”
Sabrina Garvin, President of the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center
“When he came in, he was literally - just like - flat out, like a star fish.”
Allyson Lee, Vet Tech at Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center
The Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center receives about five injured eagles every year, but they oftentimes need to be rehabilitated at the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro.
The eagle flew a short distance in its pen in Roanoke, the pen isn’t nearly enough to complete the bird’s rehabilitation.
A proposed large bird flight aviary at the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center is entangled in the latest legal battle with one of its neighbors, who says, “not in my backyard.” This fight has been in the courts for over eight years.
“We don’t have a hundred-foot flight cage... We have architect plans to build, but due to the lawsuits, we cannot build our flight pen.”
Sabrina Garvin, President of the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center
After several weeks in rehab, biologists returned the eagle to Roanoke, where a crew released him, healthy once again, at Smith Mountain Lake.
The SWVA Wildlife Center will continue to find workarounds until the courts decide if they can build an aviary large enough for eagles to fly.