Beauty and the Beak

Beauty is an 8 year old American Bald Eagle rescued two years ago in Alaska after she was found nearly dead and emaciated after a having her top beak shot off and left to die. The resulting damage from the bullet left Beauty with only a small portion of her left upper beak and nearly eliminated the majority of the right side. A team attached an artificial beak to the 15-pound eagle in mid-May, improving her appearance and, more importantly, helping her grasp food. “She's got a grill,” joked Nate Calvin, the Boise engineer who spent 200 hours designing the complex beak. The new beak is only a temporary fix, designed to nail down precise measurements. A final beak made of tougher material will be created and attached later, though her saviors don't plan to release her back into the wild. They say that she has spent too much time with humans that the final beak will still not be strong enough to tear flesh from prey. (via Animal Crazy)