Five bald eagles have been found dead, baffling Michigan officials who are now calling for information from the public about the “troubling case.”
The eagles’ bodies were discovered in the same area of Delta County’s Garden Peninsula, on the banks of Lake Michigan, between April 3-17.
“It was confirmed that these deaths were not due to natural causes, predators or vehicle collisions,” the state’s Department of Natural Resources said in a post on social media.
Bald eagles are the national bird of the United States. They are protected under federal and state laws.
Offenses, including killing the birds, can rack up hundreds of thousands in fines and jail time.
Violating the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, for example, can lead to a federal fine of $100,000, imprisonment for a year or both, with penalties increasing substantially for additional offenses. Second violations are considered felonies.
State penalties include a 90-day misdemeanor, fines ranging from $100 to $1,000 per eagle and a reimbursement of $1,500 per eagle, the department noted.
The department has not yet shared any information about a potential suspect for the deaths.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local tribes are assisting the department with the investigation.
Tipsters with any information that leads to an arrest and prosecution may be eligible for a cash reward and can remain anonymous. Tipsters should call or text the department’s Report All Poaching Hotline at 800-292-7800.
“The DNR is requesting tips from the public to help solve this ongoing investigation,” First Lieutenant Mark Zitnik, the department’s law enforcement supervisor in Newberry, said in a statement.
An American comeback
While it is unknown how many criminal actions are taken toward bald eagles throughout the U.S., human activity is the biggest threat to the iconic birds.
The leading causes of death among eagles in 2020 were lead poisoning and vehicle trauma, previous research from the department, Michigan State University and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service showed.
Bald eagles were once listed as an endangered species due to threats from habitat destruction, illegal shooting and food sources contaminated with the insecticide known as DDT, but conservation actions have helped the species to rebound.
In 2007, federal officials announced that the birds had been recovered from the list of threatened and endangered species.
The only eagle species found solely in North America, there are now an estimated 316,700 bald eagles living in the lower 48 states – a number quadruple the estimate of 2009.
This estimate indicates that the bald eagle population has quadrupled since the last set of data was collected in 2009.
