June 11, 2008—More than three years after a poacher shot off her upper beak, a bald eagle named Beauty—pictured above, before and after her operation—has been outfitted with a new one.
A team attached an artificial beak to the 15-pound (7-kilogram) eagle in mid-May, improving her appearance and, more importantly, helping her grasp food.
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"The eagle has landed, and she has a beak," engineer Nate Calvin said after the surgery. Calvin spent 200 hours designing the complex prosthetic appendage.
The nylon-composite beak is only a temporary fix, designed to nail down precise measurements. A final beak made of tougher material will be created and attached later.
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Although the the bird's saviors don't plan to release her back into the wild, the artificial beak is key to Beauty's survival.
A wild eagle that must be hand-fed by humans would eventually have to be euthanized, especially when its life span could run four more decades, said Jane Fink Cantwell, who took Beauty to a raptor recovery center in Idaho two years ago.
— Nicholas K. Geranios, Associated Press
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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