Firetruck1988 Is On The Blog

Good Evening!

Hello everyone, for my guest blog I thought I would cover something a little different.  I am going to be covering bald eagles in captivity.   

Many of you may have seen bald eagles in zoos, these eagles along with all eagles that live in captivity are non releasable birds which means that they have some problem that prevent them from ever being returned to the wild.  All raptor rehab centers try to return injured eagles to the wild if possible.  A captive life is the best thing for these non releasable birds because they will get to live out the rest of their lives in a safe environment and will be well cared for.  Captive bald eagles live a lot longer than wild ones do, which is normal for animal in captivity to live longer than their wild counter parts.  The oldest bald eagle in captivity lived to be 48 years old.  This is due to the medical care that they receive in captivity and due to the fact that they do not need to compete for food.  The first time I ever saw a bald eagle was in a zoo.  

The American Eagle Foundation has a breeding program that involves their captive eagles.  The American Eagle Foundation is only of the only places to currently have a breeding program for captive bald eagles.  The offspring of these eagles are release into the wild when they are old enough.  This is done by taking the eaglets from their parents and raising them using eagle puppets and then placing them in special towers that they will fledge from.  One of the most famous captive eagles is Challenger, who is trained to fly during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner at major sporting events such as the Super Bowl.  Challenger was blown out of his nest during a storm and was found by some people, when he was old enough they tried to release him, but he had become imprinted on people, so he was sent to the American Eagle Foundation where he still lives today.  Challenger was named in honor of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger.

I hope you enjoyed my little blog on eagles in captivity.