After examination by Florida's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FSW), four bald eagles discovered dead or gravely ill in Santa Rosa County (in western Florida) last month were found to have ingested poison, the Pensacola News Journal reported.
"It doesn't appear to be natural causes," Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Maj. Bruce Cooper told PNJ.
Most likely, the four birds -- two of which are dead, while the other two are expected to recover -- came into contact with a deadly substance by chance. Cooper and his department aren't suspicious of foul play.
"Normally in our experience poisonings are not intentional, they tend to be a byproduct of something else," he said.
Extrapolating on his following statements, however, doesn't rule out a responsible party. Perhaps a person, a group, or a company illegally or irresponsibly deposited something poisonous that reached bald eagles without even knowing.
"We really need the complete the investigation before we know what, if any, charges would be appropriate," said Cooper, who expects the investigation to wrap in a few weeks, according to PNJ.
If there is someone to blame for the four birds, they're lucky the incident occurred now and not ten years ago, when the bald eagle was considered an endangered species. They were removed in 2007, when their population soared to nearly 10,000. Still, much fewer bald eagles exist today than when over 100,000 of them spurred the country's early leaders to crown them the national bird in the 1700s, according to the FWS.
