PUXICO — Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were joined by John Watkins and volunteers from the Watkins Wildlife Rehab community to release a bald eagle Saturday at the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge.
The eagle was found March 2 at Mingo in poor condition and taken to the Watkins Wildlife Rehab facility. The eagle was sent to rehabilitation due to an extremely high dosage of lead poisoning, officials said.
Recovery took about six months, while the eagle received medicine and regained its ability to fly and function independently.
The eagle was given a medicine called Chelation to remove the toxic lead from her system over the course of her recovery.
“We were really worried about her ability to recover,” Watkins said Saturday. “She had such a high level of lead in her system, we weren’t sure that she was going to survive.”
The Watkins Wildlife Rehab Facility receives about six to 12 eagles a year due to lead poisoning.
Bald eagles can ingest lead in several ways, but the most common way is from lead fishing tackle and lead ammunition fragments from field dressed deer gut piles.
The eagle made a full recovery and was released close to where she was found at Mingo, Watkins said, in case the female had a nest or a mate. Eagles mate for life and use the same nesting spot every year.
Once the eagle was brought out of the holding crate, she searched for a place to fly.
The eagle let everyone know she was ready to go by letting out a couple of whistles and flapping her massive wings. As she was released, she flew a good way before landing in thick brush, hunkering down, and took in her surroundings.
Mingo staff said they have about two dozen bald eagles who live at the refuge year-round, but they believe this eagle might be from the 100 or so who migrate to the area for the winter months.
The refuge was one of the early sites that reintroduced bald eagles to Southeast Missouri while they were listed as federally endangered.
Between 1981 and 1988, nestling eagles were brought to the refuge and placed in boxes on a hacking tower that mimicked nests in order to imprint them on the area, staff reported. Refuge staff and volunteers climbed the tower and hand-fed the eagles until they fledged the nest. The program went on to successfully fledge 34 bald eagles.
In 2007, the bald eagle was removed from the list of threatened and endangered species and is a success story for the Endangered Species Act.
Mingo National Wildlife Refuge is located one mile north of Puxico, on State Highway 51.