Utah bald eagle deaths confound

SALT LAKE CITY - Bald eagles are dying in Utah - 20 in the past few weeks alone - and no one can figure out why.

Hundreds of the majestic birds, many with wingspans of 7 feet or more, migrate in the state each winter, gathering along the Great Salt Lake and feasting on carp and other fish that swim in the nearby freshwater bays.

Earlier this month, however, hunters and farmers across five counties in northern and central Utah began finding the normally skittish raptors lying listless on the ground. Many suffered from seizures, head tremors and paralysis in the legs, feet and wings.

Many of the eagles were taken to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah, where Buz Marthaler - a longtime animal caretaker - and other handlers tried to save the birds. Within 48 hours, most were dead.

“It’s just hard to have your national bird in your arms, going through seizures in a way it can’t control, when you can see its pain but don’t know what’s happening to it,” said Marthaler, 56, co-founder of the facility in Ogden.

Officials suggest the eagle die-off might be connected to the deaths of thousands of eared grebes that began in Utah in November. Eagles are known to prey on the small shore birds. Because the grebes are thought to have died from avian cholera, many scientists theorize the eagles became sick from feeding on infected grebes.