An Eastern golden eagle that 10 weeks ago was severely injured in a leg trap set for a coyote or fox in West Virginia, has recovered and passed its pre-release physical at the National Aviary with flying colors.

Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Veterinarians Dr. Pilar Fish, left, and Dr. Todd Katzner hold a golden eagle during an examination at the National Aviary on Pittsburgh's North Side yesterday. At right is Erin Estell, manager of interactive experiences and animal promotions. The bird was injured in a steel animal trap in West Virginia. It will be released back into the wild next week. Click photo for larger image.

The eagle underwent a battery of medical tests and X-rays at the aviary on the North Side yesterday -- even having its talons buffed to razor sharpness with an electric drill-mounted sanding stone -- in preparation for its release next Thursday near where it was found on Mt. Storm, near Scherr, W.Va.

"We wanted to get him out as fast as we could so he could catch up on his migration," said Dr. Pilar Fish, director of veterinary medicine and animal programs at the aviary. "He needs to be able to kill and eat his prey with that foot and, amazingly, he has regained full function."

When the broad-winged, brown-and-white mottled raptor is set free it will be wearing a satellite telemetry device in a Velcro harness on its back. Like the tiny tracking transmitters already attached to two other golden eagles, it will provide migration data for an on-going study designed to help determine where new wind power installations can safely be sited in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the East to minimize impacts on the birds.

"This is the first time we've been able to track these golden eagles with this degree of intimacy," said Todd Katzner, the aviary's director of conservation and field research. "We get one spot from the transmitters each hour, providing detailed information on where the individual eagles migrate through the entire Appalachian Mountain flyway."

But there was a time when the aviary's golden eagle was lucky to have a heartbeat, let alone a global positioning system signal. When the 3-year-old bird was found after spending at least two days in the trap, its right shin had been cut down to the bone on both sides by the steel jaws of the trap and the bone was "crushed like an eggshell" on one side, Dr. Fish said.

"It was evident that he had been in the trap for several days," Dr. Fish said. "He was dehydrated, stressed and infection had set in. The damage was so severe we initially thought it likely that he would lose his foot."

After 10 days in captivity during which the eagle was fed and given 12 different medications, Dr. Fish had to perform surgery to clean out and close up the most severe of the shin wounds.

Near the end of the almost two-hour surgery, the eagle experienced irregular heartbeats and went into cardiac arrest. CPR was performed and the bird was revived, but remained unstable for another day.

Dr. Fish said burn ointment and bandages were used on the wounds to grow back the skin and combat infection, and a regime of drugs and feedings were used to strengthen the eagle, which weighed in yesterday at 8.8 pounds. It weighed 7.2 pounds when it was brought in to the aviary.

"The injured claw is still atrophied and weakened, but it should get stronger," Dr. Fish said following the exam.

The eagle will spend the next week in a 36-foot-by-18-foot enclosure outside the aviary, fattening up even more on a diet of white mice and quail.

Migration routes and locations of the two birds already wearing tracking devices can be viewed online at www.aviary.org/csrv/eaglePA.php. Next Thursday the flight pattern of the third bird will be added.