KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Injured eagle receives unique beak

Injured eagle receives unique beak

by Jason Lamb
Friday, February 5, 2010

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The wounded bald eagle found in December with severe damage to his beak is getting a little help -- from a place you might not expect.

"We decided to call him Cyrano," said Cindy Palmatier at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center. "It seemed appropriate somehow."

This is a unique place with a unique bird -- and a unique problem.

"The current and most workable theory is that he got some fishing line wrapped around that beak," Palmatier said. "And over time, it just slowly cut in and cut in and cut in."

It's hard to imagine this damage getting any worse, so the center's staff have a problem to solve.

"Which is, prevent that beak from breaking backwards," Palmatier said.

But this is Alaska, where a trip to any ordinary veterinarian to fix it just wouldn't do.

"They asked me if I had an interest in helping to repair a damaged bird's -- bald eagle's beak," said dentist Kirk Johnson. "And I was willing to try."

Of course, Johnson's usual specialty is people.

"OK, this is just a big tooth for a different individual," Johnson said.

The original plan involved a specially made mold sent out of state -- and a lot of hassle.

"We knew we wanted to come up with a solution that was going to be easy," Johnson said. "Woke up two o'clock in the morning and it was like, ‘OK, I got it -- I know how to do this.'"

Johnson's idea was unorthodox, to say the least.

"It's the product they use when they make temporary crowns in humans," Palmatier said. "You see how it blends right in with the angle of his beak, covers up all the defectiveness we have in there."

"The Alaska spirit," Johnson said. "It's kind of like duct tape: if you have a problem, there's always a solution."

What was that Johnson said about duct tape?

"You know, it sounds very bizarre to say we're holding all of this on with poster putty -- but that's really, truly is what we're doing," Palmatier said.

You might think he would stop there -- but you'd just be drawing conclusions.

"We wanted something that was going to be yellow," Johnson said. "I was looking around the office there and saw a yellow highlighter pen, thought, ‘Well, that's sort of Alaska style. Let's get a yellow highlighter and paint this bird beak yellow."

Yellow beak and all, Cyrano is doing pretty well these days.

"I think Kirk did an excellent job of coming up with this type of material to make the beak out of," Palmatier said.

Who needs fancy prosthetic beaks anyway when poster putty, a highlighter and a little Alaska ingenuity will do?

Bird Treatment and Learning Center staff say Cyrano is doing just fine with his new beak. They don't believe he can return to the wild, but will be able to be used as an educational bird.

Right now, the only special consideration is that he's got to eat fish already chopped up so he doesn't have to rip or tear at anything.

Contact Jason Lamb at jlamb@ktuu.com