A reward is being offered after three bald eagles were discovered dead within a five to ten-mile radius of Bedford in Taylor County in southwest Iowa. Conservation officers say the first eagle was discovered March 17th south of Lake of Three Fires State Park in a ditch off of county road. The bird was an adult that had been shot through the wing and chest.
Another decomposed bird was found in the park by a deer antler hunter and was reported to the park ranger. The third bald eagle, an immature bird, was found in a ditch west of the park on March 20. Conservation officers say they don’t know for sure what killed two of the birds and one has been sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offices in Minnesota for testing. Bald eagles are a protected species, listed as threatened in the lower 48 states.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has offered a 25-hundred dollar reward for information leading to an arrest in the deaths, and Iowa’s Turn In Poachers organization has offered a one-thousand dollar reward. Information can be reported 24 hours a day, anonymously through the Turn In Poachers hot-line at 1-800-532-2020.