COLUMBIA, S.C. (WACH, AP) -- South Carolina's Riverbanks Zoo is getting a rescued female bald eagle that will live in a new exhibit space.
Bird curator Martin Vance says the eagle is thought to be about one year old. She was found in December in a ditch and had a shoulder injury that prevented her from hunting. Veterinarians at Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research in Delaware nursed her back to health and Riverbanks offered her a home.
The zoo in Columbia had two bald eagles but sent them to other zoos in 1998. Vance says visitors said they missed seeing the nation's emblem.
Bald eagles can live up to 25 years in the wild and well over 35 years in zoos. Their plumage is mainly brown until the birds reach adulthood—at about five years old—at which point they get their characteristic white head. Bald eagles get their name from an older meaning of the word bald, “white headed.”
It's thought that 10,000 pairs of bald eagles live in United States and 250 of them are in South Carolina.
Guests visiting the Zoo will have an opportunity to see this remarkable bird on exhibit daily beginning this Friday, Feb. 17.
The bald eagle will be on display adjacent to Riverbanks’ grizzly bear exhibit.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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