WINNIPEG - February 26, 2009 - “The Eagle Has Landed,” again, at the Assiniboine Park Zoo. For the third straight year, a magnificent, white-headed Bald Eagle has paused on its annual northern migration to visit the Zoo’s captive pair of eagles. Arriving earlier than customary this year (usually in early March), the mature bird has remained on-site in nearby trees for two weeks, instead of the usual one week. This individual and the Zoo’s four Bald Eagles repeatedly call back and forth and flap their wings in excitement, as the visitor flies around and over the Eagle Exhibit.

The visiting eagle does not hesitate to land inside the nearby and uncovered Arctic Fox Exhibit to pick up a fish or piece of meat, with the frenzied white foxes or Zookeeper David Curtis only a few metres away. There is some concern that the hungry eagle may try to capture and fly off with a fox, although the foxes usually retreat underground when the large bird swoops near.

Our Zoo Curator, Dr. Bob Wrigley, recently published an article in International Zoo News on the migratory habits of local wild Bald Eagles, and the remarkable longevity and breeding of the Zoo’s senior pair – rehabilitated wild-born individuals still raising chicks at a record age believed to be about 45 years. Each March and April, several hundred wild Bald Eagles migrate north along the Red River Valley, passing over Winnipeg and the Zoo.