Posted on 06/06/2008 12:32:01 PM PDT by RDTF
ST. MARIES, Idaho — More than three years after a poacher shot off her upper beak, a bald eagle named Beauty can finally live up to her name — with the help of volunteers.
A team attached an artificial beak to the 15-pound eagle in mid-May, improving her appearance and, more importantly, helping her grasp food.
"She's got a grill," joked Nate Calvin, the Boise engineer who spent 200 hours designing the complex beak. The Boeing Co. and a maker of synthetic skin in California have volunteered to help make the permanent beak.
-snip-
The bird was found in 2005 scrounging for food and slowly starving at a landfill in Alaska. A bullet had taken from her curved upper beak, leaving her tongue and sinuses exposed, with a stump useless for grasping food. Cantwell said eating with her beak was like using one chopstick.
She also had trouble drinking and couldn't preen her feathers.
Beauty was taken to a bird recovery center in Anchorage, where she was hand-fed while her caretakers waited in vain for a new beak to grow.
-snip-
After the surgery, Cantwell cradled the eagle and prepared to return Beauty to her aviary, saying: "The eagle has landed, and she has a beak."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The Bionic Eagle...
Cool
Carolyn
“A final beak made of tougher material will be created and attached later, though her saviors don’t plan to release her back into the wild. They say that she has spent too much time with humans that the final beak will still not be strong enough to tear flesh from prey.”
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Unfortunately, she can never be released as the faux beak is not strong enough for flesh-ripping, is not self-sharpening, and does not grow.
Birds can regenerate beaks?
Thanks for posting that!
sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry,
great story!
Looking for some laughs I ran across Red Skelton’s pledge of allegiance, in case anyone would like to see it again.
Well, fingernails grow back if they’re trimmed, but not if they’re torn out with pliers (oog!).
Yeah, they are like fingernails in a sense. Damage one enough, though and it won't grow back.
LOL! :)
They grow like fingernails, only slower. Pet parrot-type birds often need to have their beaks trimmed by a vet, since they don’t get worn down as much as they would in the wild (plus the birds tend to live a lot longer than in the wild).
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