ST. LOUIS – In an effort to save an ‘injured’ bald eagle in the wild, the Missouri Department of Conservation rehabilitated the bird, only to find out that the eagle wasn’t hurt at all; it was just fat.
The discovery came after x-rays showed that the bald eagle had consumed suspected raccoon roadkill and was deemed ‘too fat to fly’, Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield shared in a social media post.
The Missouri Department of Conservation initially rescued the eagle along the boundary of Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield after finding the bird not being able to fly.
X-ray photos were able to capture the remains of the raccoon, outlining the mammal’s small paw sitting inside the bald eagle’s stomach.
Following the discovery, the bald eagle was rehabilitated and released back to the wild near the location it was found along Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield.
