© Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah
Utah wildlife officials are scrambling to determine what led to the death of four bald eagles in northern Utah in the last week. The eagles all appeared healthy, with the exception of head tremors, but eventually died. Three were delivered to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah in Ogden and another to Great Basin Wildlife Rescue in Mapleton.
Utah wildlife officials are scrambling to determine what led to the death of four bald eagles in northern Utah in the last week. The eagles all appeared healthy, with the exception of head tremors, but eventually died. Three were delivered to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah in Ogden and another to Great Basin Wildlife Rescue in Mapleton.
The eagles all appeared healthy, with the exception of head tremors. The raptors also displayed evidence of paralysis and digestive issues.
The birds were delivered to or picked up by officials from the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah in Ogden and the Great Basin Wildlife Rescue in Mapleton.
The deaths are particularly troubling and mysterious because the birds were found in different locations - Corinne, Grantsville, Lehi and Weber County.
"It just rips your guts out. They are obviously suffering and you are helpless. It is so hard to watch," said DaLyn Erickson with the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah. "Never in my career have I heard of four bald eagles in such a widespread area dying at the same time like this."
The first bald eagle arrived at the Ogden facility Dec. 1 from Weber County. Another eagle landed at the Mapleton rehabilitation center on Dec. 8. The last two arrived in Ogden this week.
All four displayed head tremors - uncontrolled shaking of the head; something that made Erickson suspicious of possible lead poisoning. But preliminary results from testing at the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Logan, a cooperative lab with Utah State University and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, came back with unexpected results.
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