In Canada?
That applies in the US, and the authorities tend to be lenient if you’re saving as opposed to harming or harassing an eagle.
The events of the OP happened in Canada. Their laws are a bit different in regards to bald eagles.
Before they showed up, the eagle was helpless. But now, the big bird’s flying across the sky.
I work with injured bald eagles quite frequently. It appears that the bird was caught in a leg hold trap like one of these. You get glimpses of the chain that attaches it to a stake or branch.
Bald eagles most commonly defend themselves with their feet. Their talons can exceed an inch in length and produce more than 1,000 PSI of pressure. Rarely do they bite. So in handling them, it is usually sufficient to maintain a good hold on their legs. Their beaks can pretty much be ignored. Oh, occasionally you’ll have reason to regret that and receive a bite, I admit. We had one eagle used for educational presentations “in hand” (on a falconry glove) that was perfectly safe if held up near your face, until he decided he had been out in public long enough. Then old George Washington would bite you on the cheek. It was his signal to put him away. Visitors would then ask “Is that real blood?” Yes, yes it was. The trick was to put him away before he reached his limit.
This bird is surely exhausted. He’s been jumping against that restraint for a considerable time, long enough that he is lying prostrate and gasping. His mouth is busy providing an airway, little chance he’ll use it for biting. But regardless, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t recognize the benevolent intent of his rescuers. We find eagles to be extremely good at what they do but they have very limited ability to modify their behavior for changed circumstance. Teaching them anything (like “step onto this glove, then step off”) takes literally months and hundreds and hundreds of repetitions. They don’t “figure it out”, they just eventually become acclimated to it. So, based on quite a few years and an awful lot of individual birds as my sample size, I’m just not ready to see any recognition of intent, let alone gratitude, in this encounter.
Still, huge props to these guys for taking the time and trouble!
That’s really cool.
What type of animal are these types of traps usually used for?
Thanks, CannyDan.
Just out of idle curiosity - based on your experience have you ever suspected a difference in the learning ability of different species of raptors ( as opposed to different individuals )? Other folks I’ve talked with have indicated they find them pretty “bird-brained” generally ( the anti-crows, if you will ), but I wonder if some are a little brighter than others for whatever reason, like perhaps more varied diet. Or are they all mostly just kinda vaguely dumb, but highly efficient killing-machines?
It’s my understanding (nothing in my actual experience) that leg hold traps are used for fur bearers.
Tamerlane, some species are “easier” to “man” and to manage in hand. Redtailed Hawks and Harris’ Hawks are probably the easiest or most accommodating. The accipiters (Cooper’s Hawk, etc.) are little balls of static electricity, too busy zapping their attention from this to that and back again to be good candidates. This is a generalization though, as I’ve had some especially stupid redtails and an occasional decent Coop. We even have a Sharpie just now that does well on a display perch, and in hand. Plus as a caveat I’m speaking about wild birds. Captive hatched and imprinted birds have their own set of problems but can be easier to accommodate to educational work.
I like “the anti-crows”! I’ve sometimes described raptors as being the opposite of corvids in the adaptability department. Privately I’ve used the description “stupid” but that gets me in trouble with raptor aficionados so I usually talk about their difficulty in adapting.
We aren’t falconers, but we borrow a lot from classic falconry. Since our goal is educational, and usually involves birds that cannot be released to the wild, our techniques are somewhat modified.
I sometimes describe the process of manning a new bird to my staff and volunteers as involving The Three "F"s – there are only these 3 things in a raptor’s world. The first thing in a raptor’s world is Fear. Repeated exposure to human contact, first at a distance and slowly becoming closer and closer, can dramatically reduce the fear response. Then there is Food. Raptors pretty quickly realize that humans don’t represent food. So in a raptor’s world, if you aren’t something to Fear, and you aren’t Food, there’s only one thing left for you to be. Furniture. At that point they just ignore you. And they’ll ignore an entire auditorium full of fidgety 4th grade kids. Or a stadium full of screaming football fans (see eagle free-flight demonstrations at halftime shows). At that point you have a manned bird suitable for educational display.
ETA – Caracaras are smart!. A researcher who comes here to work with them, wonders if they’re really raptors and not highly modified corvids. Just speculation, but they are behaviorally quite different.
I think what you said about raptors being good at being raptors is the key thing - they are what they are, they’re good at being what they are, and they probably don’t want to be anything else.
Me, I’d make a lousy eagle and I’m sure if I tried any nearby eagle would look at me and say “WHAT a frickin’ idiot!”
It doesn’t have to be gratitude - it could be as simple as “well, they didn’t eat me when I was helpless, I can probably catch my breath first and then take off”. Or maybe not even that much thought.
References to helpless birds in North Ontario only happen so often, people!
I got it, Mr. Young. 
Sorry, I was rushing to go home. I failed to acknowledge the following:
Drunky Smurf, it is cool! But a lot of them are fucked up beyond all help. That part is sad and frustrating.
carnivorousplant, you’re welcome!
The bald eagle is a species of special concern in Ontario. For the most part they are doing fine, but we keep an eye on them and try to protect their habitat, for they had a very hard time of it in years past due to persistent chemicals (e.g. DDT) and heavy metals that linger in their bodies after they eat contaminated fish, which pretty much wiped them out along Lake Erie in the 60s, and they also lost shoreline habitat to urban sprawl, particularly in the Golden Horseshoe region of Lake Ontario. They’ve been coming back in those areas, but have a ways to go yet. (An aside: if you are into songbirds, hi thee to Lake Erie’s Point Pelee during the spring migration. You won’t see any bald eagles, but you will a remarkable variety and number of migratory songbirds.)
If songbirds are not your thing, and you want to see bald eagles, head to the northwest of the province in the Lake of the Woods and Quetico area – the area north of northern Minnesota – where bald eagles are thriving. The odds there are good that you will find one or more on a lake of any significant size.
They are doing just fine in north-eastern Ontario, but the population densities are lower than in the northwest due to there not being as many major lakes and rivers. The bird the fellows rescued was in Dowling, a little north of Sudbury, in north-eastern Ontario, where despite their being a species of special concern, there is no special protection for bald eagles. Only the the general federal cruelty to animals prohibitions and general provincial animal protection and hunting prohibitions would apply concerning contact with them. For example, had the one brother released the eagle for the other brother to shoot it, it would have been a federal violation.
The administrative diving line between northern and southern Ontario is the French River/Lake Nipissing/Mattawa River. In the southern end of the province (including lakes Erie and Ontario, and most of the population of the province) where the bald eagle is still recovering, there still is no greater level of protection because all in all they are doing well, but a few years ago, when they were not doing as well in their recovery, there were deemed to be threatened, rather than just of special concern, so at that time it was a provincial offence to kill, harm, harass, capture or take them alive, or sell them or sell their parts. Even then, no one in their right mind would confuse rescuing an eagle with harassment.
I’m like that for a lot of things. 
To a lawyer, it’s sort of like prepping someone for examination.
Yes, my experience is that pretty much any bird other than Ravens/crows, Jays and Parrots are indeed “bird brains”.
I’m not sure I’d go quite that far. It is a continuum, and I’d certainly put the Corvids and the raptors at opposite ends of it. I agree, the parrots and their allies are (mostly) toward the “brighter bulb” side of the range. So are most Passerines though. Waterfowl too are pretty good at figuring out new situations. And our Turkey Vultures have social behaviors and play with toys. (We provide little rattles and the like that you’d give to a toddler.)
Quail, pheasants and their ilk are quite a lot further towards the birds of prey despite Ben Franklin’s supposed praise of the wild turkey. Terns too seem ill equipped when out of their specialized element, but gulls are the opposite, highly adaptable and capable of considerable craft.
I won’t belabor this hijack any longer, partly in the interest of brevity and partly because I’ve just thumbed through a field guide and reminded myself that, while there are a number of species I am quite familiar with, there are lots more that I know little or nothing about. If anyone wants my thoughts on a particular species, I’ll be happy to accommodate them. Otherwise I’ll shut up before I stick my foot too far into my own mouth.
No, I accept your modification of my rather generalized post. Corvids are* damn* smart, raptors are pretty stupid, between them lie a lot of other birds.
Thanks!
Thanks CannyDan - quality info :).