Thirteen bald eagles were found dead over the weekend near a farm on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
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A call Saturday afternoon brought Maryland Natural Resources Police to a farm in Caroline County, according to the Washington Post.
Bald eagles have been spotted across Maryland, but are particularly fond of the area along the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, including the Eastern Shore, the Department of Natural Resources said.
When the officials arrived at the scene, they found an additional nine dead bald eagles in a field located on Laurel Grove Road in Federalsburg.
According to Thomson, the eagles have been tagged “and the investigation is being handed over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service”.
It was not immediately clear what had caused the birds to die. Bald eagles were officially removed from endangered and threatened status in the U.S.in 2007, although they are still enjoy protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
“Our special agent has never seen this many dead eagles in eight years on the job”, says Hibbard. As far as we know, this is the largest single eagle die-off [in Maryland] in three decades.
“The people in this lab do awesome work… they’ve pulled feathers from the birds who bring down planes and they can tell what they had for breakfast”, Thompson said.
Eagles aren’t known to eat dead animals frequently, but numerous substances used to rid the region of mice don’t cause immediate death.
The bald eagle is a symbol of the federal government and is featured in the presidential seal and on US currency.
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However, under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, it is still illegal to hunt the birds. A reward of $2,500 is being offered for information that leads to a conviction.
