Citing a lack of “legal authority to let the egg hatch,” Kentucky wildlife officers destroyed a rare bald eagle egg laid by a pair of birds in captivity at a state game farm.
The Kentucky Courier-Journal reports the egg, which was discovered April 7, surprised game officials in Frankfort, Ky., because they believed the injured eagles – one of which had been shot and the other had flown into a power line – were sterile. The flightless pair have shared a pen for seven years. Experts say it’s rare for eagles in confinement to mate.
State officials told the paper allowing the egg to hatch would have violated their federal permit. The farm only is permitted to exhibit birds, not raise eaglets.
Federal officers with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service point out that instead of destroying the egg, the state could have transferred it or the eaglet, once hatched, to a facility with the proper permit. One such facility is located in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., roughly 100 miles away.
The Courier-Journal reports Kentucky game officials initially said they didn’t take that option because it was too costly. Lee Carolan, a biologist who directs education and information for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, explained that the exhibit would have to close and the site would have to be monitored around the clock, which required overtime.
“We are not authorized to do overtime,” she told the paper, adding that the state would have to pay the cost of shipping the eaglet to a properly permitted site.
In a subsequent interview, however, Carolan contradicted herself and said the expense was not a factor. Instead, she said officials had concluded the egg was likely damaged by the parent birds while trying to protect it from officers who attempted to retrieve it.
There was “probably not even a coin-toss chance” that it would have hatched, the paper quotes Carolan as saying.
Eagle eggs take approximately a month to hatch. Proper procedure calls for the parent birds to sit on the eggs or for the egg to be nurtured in an incubator.
Carolan didn’t notify her superiors about the egg until after she had destroyed it. She said she was more concerned about the welfare of the parent eagles.
State wildlife commissioner Tom Bennett told the Courier-Journal he trusted Carolan’s conclusions about the viability of the egg, noting he was told it had been rolled around on rocks and gravel for up to two days and that the adult eagles were flinging themselves against the side of their cage to protect it and scare off visitors.
According to Al Cecere, president of the American Eagle Foundation in Pigeon Forge, most captive eagle eggs laid recently have been infertile, although he said eggs can be examined with a strong light to determine if they are viable.
Cecere said the cost of raising, feeding and releasing an eagle into the wild can approach $5,000. He noted that he doesn’t charge state agencies to take eagles, and that he occasionally takes unhatched eagle eggs.
Cecere told the Courier-Journal Kentucky wildlife officials called him earlier this week to make arrangements to take any eggs or hatchlings produced at the game farm next year.
After dwindling to fewer than 500 mating pairs in 1963, the number of eagles in the country swelled under federal protection to some 6,000 pairs by 1999. The comeback prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to elevate its status from endangered to threatened.
