MANKATO, Minn. — A bald eagle was rescued after getting tangled in fishing line and suspended over the icy waters of the Minnesota River on Sunday.

The 4-year-old bird is now recovering at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center, where staff members have removed wrappings from his wing. However, he is not out of the woods yet, as tests showed high amounts of lead toxicity in his system. 

Although his breathing is OK, he’s able to lift his injured appendage and his doctors did not find any neurological damage, the raptor has not yet regained his feistiness.

“We are cautiously optimistic. He is feeling better, but he’s still not feeding himself,” said Julia Ponder, a veterinarian at the University of Minnesota’s hospital for birds of prey.

It’s not uncommon for the center’s staff to discover lead poisoning in eagles brought to the facility in St. Paul, Ponder said. Scavenging for food is largely responsible for the bird’s sickness.

Her avian patient may have dined on gut piles left after recent hunts in the area to identify deer with chronic wasting disease.

Any fragments of ammunition the eagle swallowed would have been regurgitated along with other indigestible items when the bird cast out a pellet, Ponder said. Enough of the poisonous material entered the bird’s bloodstream and made him ill.

The raptor will not receive a name while he is receiving treatment at the bird hospital but has been assigned number.

“It’s No. 17 (for the year) then some other numbers,” Ponder said, then laughed. “We have been referring to him as The Eagle That Was Found At Mankato.”

The animal rights organization PETA has sent its Compassionate Fire Department Award and a box of treats as thank-you gifts to the bird’s rescuers. Mankato firefighters and Nicollet County sheriff’s deputies used a boat to reach the bird trapped about 20 feet from shore. After he was freed from the tangle of fishing line, they brought the eagle to the Raptor Center.

PETA’s media representative said a framed certificate, a box of vegan cookies and a copy of “The Engine 2 Diet “— a Texas firefighter’s 28-day plan for staying in prime firefighting shape by eating plant-based meals — was mailed Monday to the Mankato Department of Public Safety.

Schmierbach writes for the Mankato, Minnesota Free Press.