Pony Party, Beauty and the Beak

Please follow the link to the Yahoo!News story about the bald eagle whose beak was shot off, and the efforts of those attempting to make a prosthetic to enable her to eat.  There are some pictures of the bird, named ‘Beauty’ (hence the cheesy title of this pony party).

Part of Beauty’s beak was shot off several years ago, leaving her with a stump that is useless for hunting food. A team of volunteers is working to attach an artificial beak to the disfigured bird, in an effort to keep her alive.

The 15-pound eagle was found in 2005 scrounging for food and slowly starving to death at a landfill in Alaska. Most of her curved upper beak had been shot away, leaving her tongue and sinuses exposed. She could not clutch or tear at food.

Beauty was taken to a bird recovery center in Anchorage, where she was hand-fed for two years while her caretakers waited in vain for a new beak to grow.

Beauty still won’t be able to survive in the wild, but with the nylon composite appendage, she will hopefully be able to eat and drink the food given her by these dedicated caretakers.  She may even get a job fostering orphaned eaglets, or possibly even breeding some of her own.

~73v