Injured eagle on mend

A YOUNG wedge-tailed eagle with a broken leg is being monitored at Raptor Refuge after a Glenorchy man picked it up beside a road in the Central Highlands on Sunday.

Andrew Weston said he saw the eagle eating road kill on the Interlaken road on Sunday.

“I wasn’t sure if he had been shot or run over so I grabbed a couple of jumpers, wrapped up his talons and brought him back to town,” he said.

Mr Weston took the eagle to the After Hours Veterinary Emergency Centre in North Hobart where a radiograph revealed the bird had a twoweek-old fracture.

“It had been living on road kill because it couldn’t hunt but was still in good body condition,” he said.“If it had been left it would have died.”

It was taken to bird specialist James Harris at Mayfair Veterinary Hospital who said he couldn’t operate because the fragmented fracture had started to heal.

He was transferred to the Raptor Refuge at Kettering.

“He’s getting plenty of tucker and we’ll just watch him to see how he uses his talons, how he flies and if he eats well and whether he looks like he can survive in the wild again,” refuge founder Craig Webb said.

Mr Webb said Raptor Refuge had 10 eagles and 18 other raptors in care.

The reward for information about the shooting of an eagle near Orford earlier this month has been raised to $12,000.