Located on Vancouver Island is the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre (NIWRC). Wildlife manager, Robin Campbell, specialists and local volunteers are ready to provide help at the centre. Brought here for help are orphaned, rescued and injured wildlife.

One day an eagle was brought in with gunshot wounds that had damaged the eagle’s beak. What could the NIWRC do to help this bird? Without a strong healthy beak, a bird will slowly starve to death. The beak permits the bird to feed, drink, preen, and defend itself. A working beak is very important to a bird’s survival.

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Let’s look it up! permits: make something possible 1

Prosthetics for Animals

Let’s look it up! vastly: a large number, size or amount

NIWRC’s team, especially Fred Leak have helped so many injured birds over the years. The work they, and many others, have done has led to new ways to help injured animals survive again. They have replaced legs, beaks, fins, and tails that have been lost or damaged, and with success. This has vastly changed the art of healing sick and injured animals.

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Birds With Damaged Beaks

Eagle PreeningRobin Campbell and Eagle

Eagle with Broken Beak

Other Prosthetic TechnologyNIWRC Team in Action

Let’s look it up! solution: to be successful in solving a problem

Let’s look it up! prosthetic: an artificial body part artificial: made by humans, not natural denturist: a person who makes dentures

Brian Andrews, a dentist, and Fred Leak, a denturist, worked together as a team to repair the injured eagle’s beak. Usually these men fix human teeth that are broken or missing, but for this eagle, they designed and made the first artificial beak.

Robin and his team at NIWRC also helped with the eagle’s recovery. The eagle needed constant care. Over the next eight years, the eagle would go through ten new prosthetic beaks. The team also helped other recovery centres with injured birds.

At another recovery centre, a team aided an eagle found in a garbage dump. This eagle had also suffered from a gunshot wound to its beak. The wound was so bad that the bird was helpless. It could not hunt or preen itself. It had to be hand and tube fed.

Volunteers at the centre spent many years caring for the eagle before they too found a solution. They used three-dimensional (3-D) printing technology to mold a beak made out of nylon. Once the eagle received its new beak, it was able to eat, drink, and preen itself again.

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Photo Credit: Nate Calvin

Prosthetic Eagle Beak

Vancouver Island

Nanaimo

Errington

Island Highway Parksville

Qualicum

North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre