WILDLIFE CENTER OF VIRGINIA TO TRANSFER BALD EAGLE TO CONSERVATION AMBASSADORS IN CALIFORNIA

The Wildlife Center of Virginia, a leading teaching and research hospital for native wildlife, is transferring a non-releasable adult Bald Eagle to Conservation Ambassadors, an environmental education program in California.

The eagle will be boarding a plane at the Charlottesville airport on Wednesday morning, connecting through to Los Angeles. Representatives of Conservation Ambassadors will be on hand at the airport to pick up the eagle. The Bald Eagle being transferred this week has been a patient at the Wildlife Center in Waynesboro for nearly two years. This adult bird was admitted on October 11, 2006 from Westmoreland County, Virginia. The bird - a small male - was found at a marina; its feathers were partially covered in oil. While the eagle ran very well, it could not fly and was emaciated. Within the first month of hospitalization, the eagle lost many of his flight feathers.
		[+] Bald Eagle, Patient 06-2169

This week's trip may not be the only trans-continental flight for this Bald Eagle. Conservation Ambassadors occasionally brings animals to Busch Gardens Europe in Williamsburg for the summer season. This eagle may be one of those making a future trip.

This eagle was among the 29 Bald Eagles admitted to the Wildlife Center during 2006. In 2007, the Center treated 36 Bald Eagles - a single-year record for the Center's 25-year history. Thus far in 2008, the Wildlife Center has admitted 21 Bald Eagles.

It is estimated that the Bald Eagle population of North America numbered about half a million before European settlement. With the loss of habitat, shooting, and the effects of DDT and other pesticides, the U.S. eagle population plummeted.

In 1977, 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 500 active Bald Eagle nests in the Commonwealth.

The Bald Eagle population in California has seen a similar rebound. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the number of nesting pairs of eagles in California had fallen to fewer than 30 - all in the northern part of the state. Eagles are now nesting in at least half of California's counties - from north to south - and an average of about 1,000 eagles now winter in the state each year.

Thus far this year the Wildlife Center has also transferred non-releasable Bald Eagles to the Cape May County Zoo [New Jersey], the Greenburgh Nature Center [New York], and Maymont Park in Richmond, Virginia.

Every year, about 2500 animals - ranging from Bald Eagles to chipmunks - are brought to the Wildlife Center for care. Since its founding in 1982, the nonprofit Center has cared for more than 49,000 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.

During 2007, the Center marked its 25th anniversary and received the National Wildlife Federation's prestigious National Conservation Achievement Award for exemplary leadership in conserving wildlife and connecting people with nature. Additional information about the Wildlife Center is available at www.wildlifecenter.org.

Additional information about Conservation Ambassadors is available at www.zootoyou.org.