Muserology Cafe

How To Clean An Eagle (September 2008)

by Michelle Wetherell, age 17, Alaska

On Friday, January 11, 2008, a huge truckload of fish guts, fish oil, and slime was backed, uncovered, out of a fish processing plant in Kodiak, Alaska. Almost instantaneously, more than 50 bald eagles—all male—converged on the fish entrails. As employees tried to get the truck back inside, around 20 eagles died—they were either crushed by the remaining 30, or drowned when they were pushed down into the oily fish remains. The fortunate survivors were captured and flown to the Bird Treatment and Learning Center (TLC) in Anchorage, Alaska, where they began arriving Sunday afternoon. That’s when Bird TLC’s secretary began calling volunteers, like me, asking us if we could come and help wash the birds.

Believe it or not, fish oil is nearly as critical to remove as crude oil (petroleum) is. Unlike crude oil, the fish oil is nontoxic and is not particularly harmful if ingested, but it mats an eagle’s feathers, interfering with their interlocking barbs and barbules. This endangers the birds for a couple of reasons. First of all, when the feathers are matted and coated in fish oil, the eagles can’t waterproof properly. If the feathers aren’t waterproof, any water they’re exposed to (primarily rain, for eagles) will penetrate straight to the skin—somewhat like a person with a very holey raincoat in a torrential downpour.
Additionally, the birds cannot thermoregulate (control their body temperature) properly when covered in fish oil. Feathers are the best insulator, even better than fur or cloth. When clean, the outer feathers interlock, and the downy feathers underneath create air pockets that are warmed by the bird’s body. These air pockets, trapped by the interlocking outer feathers, insulate the bird. But when coated in fish oil, the feathers do little to insulate—and at the time, the temperature in Anchorage was below zero. Thus, it was birdy bath time.
On Sunday, the wash-and-rinse process was led by Barbara Callahan, from the International Bird Rescue Research Center. Monday, however, Barbara trained several Bird TLC volunteers to take over the process. One volunteer was put in charge of washing, and I was put in charge of rinsing. (It was a bit of a role reversal—me, a 17-year-old, in charge of a team of people ranging from college age to their 50s or 60s.)

Before washing, we have to determine that the bird is stable enough to undergo the stressful wash-and-rinse process. We begin by taking its temperature. If it’s too low, we don’t wash the bird. If its temperature is good, we proceed by drawing blood. Once we’ve determined the bird is stable, we move on to washing.
This all-important process is incredibly time-consuming. It takes no less than 30 minutes to wash an eagle. The bird is placed in a tub of water, with one person holding the feet and another holding the head, keeping it above the water. Dawn dish soap is poured into the tub, and the hot water (about 106°F) is agitated around the bird’s body. Close attention is paid to the inner leg and to the flap of skin on the inside of the wing, called the patagium.
Once the bird is fish-free, it moves on to the rinse team. This is also a long process, about another half-hour. Using a short but fairly high-powered hose, we spray the bird (and the volunteers holding the bird—accidentally, of course) with water. When the bird’s feathers start to repel the water and lie relatively flat, it’s time for the smell test. If the bird has spots that smell fishy, the rinser (me, for about 15 or 16 of the 30 birds) uses a toothbrush with soap to scrub the spot until the fishy smell is gone. If the bird smells soapy, we rinse some more. Finally, if the bird smells neither fishy nor soapy, it’s time to towel him off and put him in a kennel under a pet dryer (a bit like a propped-up hair dryer).
By Wednesday, all of the eagles had been cleaned. I quickly lost track of how many I had washed and rinsed each day, because the birds start to blur together after you’ve done a couple. The whole thing was a rather surreal experience. Just the sheer number of birds was incredible—30 bald eagles at one time is a record for us.
I think this event should serve as a reminder to people that almost everything we do has some impact on the environment eventually. I’m sure the workers at the fish processing plant had no intention of harming any wildlife when they backed their truck out uncovered. Yet it resulted in the death of more than 20 bald eagles, a federally protected species.