WILDLIFE CENTER OF VIRGINIA TO RELEASE TWO BALD EAGLES

Birds, Treated at Wildlife Center, Will Be Released near Lake Manassas

The Wildlife Center of Virginia, the nation's leading teaching and research hospital for native wildlife, will release two Bald Eagles on Friday, August 11 at 1:30 p.m. in Prince William County, near the south shore of Lake Manassas [near Greenwich].

Participating in the release will be Ed Clark, President and co-founder of the Center.

The birds to be released are two Bald Eagles that hatched near Lake Manassas this spring. The tree in which their nest was located was destroyed in a storm in May 2006. The two birds, at that point unable to fly and defenseless from predators, were rescued by two Wildlife Center veterinarians and admitted as patients to the Wildlife Center in Waynesboro on May 19. At the time of their admission, each weighed slightly more than eight pounds. Center staff did a complete diagnostic workup, including x-rays and blood work, on both birds. X-rays of one of the birds indicated a fracture in one leg - an injury that may have been sustained during the storm.

Since their admission, both birds have been fed a diet of mice, rats, and fish - similar to the diet they would have had in the wild - and have been examined weekly by Center vets. The birds, now weighing about 12 pounds each, have spent the last few weeks in one of the Center's 60-foot flight pens.

Center staff believe that these birds have developed the flying and hunting skills that will enable them to fend for themselves in the wild. As immature eagles, the birds lack the distinctive white heads associated with Bald Eagles; those white feathers will not fully appear until the birds reach maturity, at about age five.

"With today's event, the Wildlife Center celebrates not only the release of eagles born this year in Virginia but also the continuing comeback of the bald eagle population - a comeback made possible by the Endangered Species ActÕs protection of nesting sites and critical habitats, changes in federal pesticide laws, state-of-the-art wildlife veterinary medicine, and the work of public and private institutions committed to the protection of this national symbol," Clark stated.

It is estimated that the bald eagle population of North America numbered about half a million before European settlement. With the loss of habitat, hunting, and the effects of DDT and other pesticides, the U.S. eagle population plummeted. In 1977, for example, there were fewer than 50 bald eagle nests in Virginia.

Today, the bald eagle population in Virginia is on the rebound. There are now more than 400 active bald eagle nests in the Commonwealth. While the eagle population in Virginia is concentrated along the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries, the Bald Eagle population appears to be expanding inland.

Every year, between 2,000 and 3,000 animals - ranging from Bald Eagles to opossums to chipmunks - are brought to the Wildlife Center for care. "The goal of the Center is to restore our patients to health and return as many as possible to the wild," Clark said. "At the Wildlife Center, we treat to release."

The Wildlife Center of Virginia is an internationally acclaimed teaching and research hospital for wildlife and conservation medicine. Since its founding in 1982, the non-profit Center has cared for more than 45,000 wild animals, representing 200 species of native birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. The Center's public education programs share insights gained through the care of injured and orphaned wildlife, in hopes of reducing human damage to wildlife. The Center trains veterinary and conservation professionals from all over the world and is actively involved in comprehensive wildlife health studies and the surveillance of emerging diseases. Additional information about the Wildlife Center is available at www.wildlifecenter.org.