An alert motorist helped rescue an injured bald eagle that was lying in a roadside ditch in south Georgia, authorities said.
Lowndes County Animal Services Officer Jeff Atkison said he was sent to an area near the Florida state line after a motorist reported the disabled bird, the Valdosta Daily Times reported.
Atkison said he was helped by licensed trapper Marshall Locher, of Locher's Reptiles, who kept the eagle contained until an officer from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources arrived, the newspaper reported.
The wildlife official took the bird to Quaifwood Animal Hospital in Tifton to be examined by a veterinarian, Lowndes County officials told the Daily Times.
The eagle is in protective care at Auburn University’s Southeastern Raptor Center, the newspaper reported. Lowndes County officials named the bird Moody, in a nod to the personnel at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, the newspaper reported.
Bald eagles are no longer a federally endangered species but were added as endangered species to Georgia’s Protected Wildlife List in 1974.
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