SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — There’s a shock and sadness within the wildlife community after a bald eagle father ate and killed two of his hatchlings at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown.
The center said the baby bald eaglets hatched last week. One of eaglets passed away on April 8, while the other died shortly after being born on April 12.
University of Florida Professor and Pulitzer Prize winning author Jack Davis said while the behavior is unusual, it’s not uncommon.
“Sometimes a parent will eat a baby, kill a baby and not kill the other one. Sometimes one of the siblings will kill another, so unfortunately those things happen,” Davis said on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
Davis said each bald eagle is different in personality traits. Some may be more aggressive than others.
“It could very well be that this male was angry about something,” he said. “Each bald eagle has its own personality. This particular male could’ve just been super aggressive.”
In his book titled “The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America’s Bird,” Davis talks about how the birds mate for life but can separate if something as tragic as this happens.
“Both the female and male are equally responsible for feeding and caring for the young. Sometimes that doesn’t happen. I write about a couple in my book in which a male wasn’t upholding his responsibilities and the female dumped him,” he said.
While the hatchlings have died, the nest continues to be under protection at the center.
The population of the bald eagle has more than quadrupled since 2009.
There are currently about 316,700 bald eagles in 48 states.