Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a> celebrated the \u201cmajestic save\u201d that sent two valiant officers straight into gator-infested waters early Wednesday morning.<\/p>\nThe bald eagle crashed into a resident\u2019s yard in Palm City, Florida. It sat on the grass, seemingly stunned by its own poor coordination, according to a photo shared by the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
An injured bald eagle fell into a canal full of alligators on Wednesday. Martin County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
The bald eagle first landed in a yard before it spiraled into the canal. Martin County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
Then, once it gathered its bearings, the out-of-place fowl tried to take flight again \u2014 and plunged right into a nearby canal that is frequented by alligators.<\/p>\n
MCSO Corporal William Weiss and Animal Services Officer Shannon McGee responded to the \u201cdistressing call\u201d placed by a resident. By the time they arrived, they realized the bald eagle was adrift in the murky waters. <\/p>\n
Weiss and McGee both trudged through the sludge while the helpless eagle floated deeper into the canal. <\/p>\n
Eventually, they retrieved the battered bird and rushed it to a local wildlife hospital. <\/p>\n
The eagle is making a slow but steady recovery, pending further evaluation. It suffered \u201ca significant wing injury,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office said, but it\u2019s not clear if it was hurt before or during the accident.<\/p>\n
Two officers waded into the water to retrieve the bird. Martin County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
It was still drenched from beak to claw when it arrived at the animal hospital, according to photos shared by the sheriff\u2019s office. One wing appeared to have a large, bloody gash.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office lauded the eagle-eyed resident \u201cfor making the call immediately, which played a critical role in ensuring a quick response and ultimately saving the eagle.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bald eagles, as the official national bird of the US, are protected under federal law.<\/p>\n
The bird suffered \u201ca significant wing injury.\u201d Martin County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
Killing a bald eagle is a federal crime with a maximum sentence of one year behind bars and a whopping $100,000 fine, according to the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.<\/a><\/p>\nThe bald eagle was previously on the endangered species list. It was removed in 2007 after conservation efforts helped restore the population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida authorities narrowly saved a bald eagle after it crash-landed in a yard \u2014 then plummeted into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[13715,62896,49,48,8824,6388,6975,66,886,323],"class_list":["post-564148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-alligators","tag-animal-rescue","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-eagles","tag-florida","tag-police","tag-science","tag-us-news","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}