{"id":880301,"date":"2026-09-02T04:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T04:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/880301\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T04:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T04:36:12","slug":"rescued-eagle-taken-to-hobbitstee-wildlife-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/880301\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescued eagle taken to Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"

An eagle is recovering after it was found covered in a strange substance. CTV\u2019s Krista Simpson reports. <\/p>\n

A bald eagle is recovering and getting cleaned up after it was found covered in a sticky substance at the Brantford landfill on Monday.<\/p>\n

A supervisor at the landfill initially noticed the bird and contacted city bylaw, Ian Harrower, supervisor of bylaw compliance, told CTV News on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe location was deep within the landfill, was very muddy, you couldn\u2019t really access it by any normal vehicle,\u201d Harrower described.<\/p>\n

Harrower said a group of bylaw officers went to check out the situation, using dirt bikes and a utility task vehicle to get to the area.<\/p>\n

\"\"bald eagle brantford substance goo Bylaw officers in Brantford rescue a bald eagle on Aug. 31, 2026. (Courtesy: Ian Harrower) <\/p>\n

There they found the bird, who was unable to fly but still very active, running around.<\/p>\n

Bylaw officers managed to corral it near a fence and wrap the bird in a jacket.<\/p>\n

\"\"bald eagle brantford substance goo Bylaw officers in Brantford rescue a bald eagle on Aug. 31, 2026. (Courtesy: Ian Harrower) <\/p>\n

Concerned it had a broken wing, the bylaw team contacted Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge in Nanticoke, Ont., and asked them to assess the bird.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn exam, there was no broken wing,\u201d said authorized wildlife custodian Chantal Theijn. \u201cWe did do x-rays just to make sure. But the eagle was covered in a mysterious substance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theijn said the substance was sticky, like a \u2018goo.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cAll the feathers were stuck together,\u201d Theijn describes. \u201cDown to the skin, all the feathers were sticky and covered in whatever the mysterious substance is.\u201d <\/p>\n

Given the rain that fell on Monday, Theijn suspects it could be a mixture of substances that would be in a landfill.<\/p>\n

The eagle was given a bath and dried overnight in an incubator.<\/p>\n

\"\"eagle goo Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge An eagle, covered in an unspecified substance, at the Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge. (Courtesy: Chantal Theijn) <\/p>\n

While precautions were taken during the initial wash, Theijn said whatever covered the bird did not appear to be toxic.<\/p>\n

Theijn said it\u2019s likely the bird will need a number of baths before it regains its ability to fly again, noting that not only was the bird covered in the goo, soap removes the oils from the feathers, rendering them, in Theijn\u2019s words, \u201cuseless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take a good couple of weeks, if not longer, for her to be a fully flighted eagle again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"eagle goo Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge An eagle, covered in an unspecified substance, at the Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge. (Courtesy: Chantal Theijn) <\/p>\n

Theijn said the eagle otherwise appears healthy and in reasonably good spirits.<\/p>\n

The plan is to release the bird once it is clean and able to fly again.<\/p>\n

While it is difficult to assess the eagle\u2019s age due to the dirty plumage, Theijn said the bird is more than five years old and appears to be in the \u201cprime of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theijn said eagles can have a lifespan of as long as forty years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you know, she hopefully has a ways to go.\u201d <\/p>\n

As for those that helped rescue the eagle from the landfill, they\u2019re happy to hear the bird is doing well.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the supervisor at the landfill site to my bylaw staff, everything worked out,\u201d Harrower said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good plan that got put in motion and everything worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An eagle is recovering after it was found covered in a strange substance. CTV\u2019s Krista Simpson reports. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-880301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880301","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=880301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}