The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said Wednesday that Jackie died from highly pathogenic avian influenza, ending the uncertainty around the bald eagle’s death and narrowing the cause to a disease that had been building inside her for weeks. The finding came after a necropsy by veterinary pathologists at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, who concluded the infection was the primary underlying cause of her decline.
That answer matters because Jackie was not just any eagle. She was followed by millions of devoted fans, and her illness drew intense attention after she was found weak and disheveled on the shoreline of Big Bear Lake in July. From there, she was taken to Ojai for treatment, where tests showed anemia and she received one blood transfusion from another eagle before she died on Aug. 10 in the care of the Ojai Raptor Center.
The necropsy added details that help explain the last stretch of her illness. The infection caused a severe stomach ulcer and signs of chronic disease involving the ventriculus, or gizzard, and those problems contributed to blood loss, anemia and a serious secondary bacterial infection. Chris Eksteen said the necropsy results helped connect many of the findings seen throughout the eagle’s hospitalization, tying together what veterinarians had observed while she was alive.
There was still another layer to the case. Testing found brodifacoum, a rat poison, in Jackie’s liver and other persistent environmental contaminants, but officials did not believe it was the primary cause of her illness or death. The necropsy did not find the uncontrolled bleeding typically linked to anticoagulant rodenticide, and experts ruled out West Nile virus and heavy metals as contributing factors. In other words, the poison was present, but it was not what killed her.
One major question remains unanswered: how Jackie contracted avian influenza in the first place. Her remains have already been cremated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Eagle Repository to prevent the spread of bird flu, and Shadow remains in Big Bear and appears healthy. Days after Jackie died, Shadow was spotted with a different female, a small sign that life around Big Bear Lake has moved on even as fans continue to absorb the final answer about the eagle they had watched for so long.
