FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Bald eagle Liberty is making himself home in Fort Wayne Zoo’s Australian Adventure. His habitat is where the walk-through aviary used to be.
“I just love how people get really excited about him. One of my biggest passions is our native wildlife that we have here. So seeing people get really excited about something they can find in their own backyard or story about the skies here at the zoo is just amazing. And I love telling people that you know there is wildlife worth protecting here,” Emma Boczulak, an animal care specialist, said.
Bald eagles are found in the wild all across North America, including in Indiana.
Bald Eagle arrives at Fort Wayne Zoo
“There’s about 300 nesting pairs currently in Indiana. Which, for kind of comparison, in the 80s, there was only about 300 nesting pairs in the entire nation. Most of them were in Alaska, and at one point, I believe it was around the 1900s, they were completely extirpated from Indiana. So, due to habitat loss, and then later DDT impacting their reproductive success, there was a huge loss, and they are nearly extinct from our landscape. Seeing them come back, especially starting in the 2000s, and that’s only just been exploding in their success, has been amazing to see,” Bocuzlak said. “Tiny changes can make such a big difference, and it’s also sort of sad to think about a bird that we revere so much as a society, as Americans, thinking about how our own actions ultimately almost wiped them off the face of the planet, I think was a huge wake-up call, and really just hopefully inspired people to be a little bit more mindful and think about conservation of our own wildlife.”
Liberty was rescued after an injury more than ten years ago. His wing is still slightly damaged, which is why he can’t be released back into the wild.
“You do see him flying around in here because he is able to fly a little bit to get around this space, it’s not adequate to what he would need to be able to survive in the wild,” his keeper explained.
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Now, after almost two months in his new home in the Fort Wayne Zoo, Liberty is settling in…