Raven Ridge “Trout Drive” for eagles
Washington Boro (WHTM)– Earlier this year, an immature bald eagle came into Raven Ridge Wildlife Center suffering from severe lead poisoning.
“It was 18.6,” said Tracie Young, Chief Rehabilitator for Raven Ridge. That’s 18.6 micrograms of lead per deciliter, or 0.186 parts per million. That may not sound like much, but for birds of prey it can be devastating.
For Tracie Young and the volunteers at Raven Ridge Wildlife Center, this problem is all too familiar. Where does this lead come from?
“Lead shot, ammunition, lead sinkers, and lead jigs. When sportsmen use lead ammunition, whether it be deer hunting, small game, that’s a soft metal. And when it hits the target, it fragments into a million pieces,’ said Tracie. “And that lead goes throughout the meat. So if the sportsman is not able to find the animal or they dress the deer out in the field and leave, there are scavengers like eagles, hawks, and vultures who are going to do what they do best, and that’s clean up. Lead the size of two little BBs ingested by a bald eagle will kill it.”
Tracie started treating the eagle to remove the lead from its body. The process is called chelation therapy, and involves injecting chemicals that bond with lead in the body to form a compound that can be excreted. It’s expensive – Tracie showed us a tiny vial of medicine that costs almost $100.
The eagle began to improve, and soon recovered its appetite. It showed a preference for fish – especially trout.
“We were down to our last trout,” said Tracie. “We took a picture of the eagle eating. And I thought let’s just do a Sunday post. A nice post. If people are out trout fishing, if you have a couple of trout and would like to donate to Raven Ridge, we sure could use it.”
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The post went up on Facebook – and the public responded.
“The community was more than generous with the trout drive, as we called it,” said Tracie. “It got to the point where we were getting so much trout, we were running out of freezer room. We had one of our supporters actually donate a small chest freezer, which is now packed full of trout, which is fantastic.’
“It was surprising because a lot of the trout fishing turned into a family activity, because we actually had a lot of children that saw the story and wanted to go get fish for our eagle. And, you know, even if it was one fish, they each caught, they made the effort and and brought it to us. So that made us feel good.”
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The eagle seemed like it was getting better. “This eagle was a fighter and just eating and starting to improve. And we were so hopeful.”
But on May 8, Raven Ridge put up a new post on Facebook, announcing that the eagle had died.
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“It was a massive hemorrhage that claimed the life of the eagle,” said Tracie, “Which was from the lead poisoning. All of our team, we were brokenhearted. We try everything to make sure that these animals make it, but sometimes it’s out of our hands what we can do.”
As for all the trout, well, it’s not going to just sit in the freezer. Two other bald eagles have arrived at Raven Ridge. One, an adult bird, has a lead level of 19.6. The other, a juvenile eagle, is one of the few birds so show up with no lead in its system. Tracie suspects it ingested rat poison by scavenging a dead rodent.
Whatever reason brought them here, they’re both eating trout.
“We’re averaging anywhere from 4 to 6 trout a day now for both the Eagles,” said Tracie. “And because we don’t know how long it’s going to take for the rehabilitation, we’re going to be going through trout again pretty quickly.” She’s hoping people will keep bringing in trout, or any kind of fish for that matter. “We’ll find room for them.”
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As for reducing the lead poisoning problem, Tracie said it comes down to sportsmen making the switch away from lead.
“It’s a real easy choice. Don’t use lead ammunition. We’ve dealt with a lot of birds of prey, scavengers, foxes, raccoons, but people don’t realize that this is happening, and a lot of times they don’t realize it’s happening until we say “eagle.”
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