The Bald Eagle, Dante, at the Photo Photo Wild! event held at the Carolina Raptor Center in Huntersville, NC.

Dante came to Carolina Raptor Center in the summer of 2007, from a private rehabilitator and educator in Ohio. He was found in Ottawa County, Ohio, in 1997, after his nest fell out of a tree - with Dante and his sibling inside!! His sibling had only minor injuries and was able to be relocated to another nest where he fledged later that summer. Unfortunately, Dante was trapped underneath the nest when it fell (bald eagle nests can weigh several tons!), and his left wing was very badly injured. Back to the Wild, a rehabilitation center in Ohio, gave him the best treatment possible, and then sent him to the University of Minnesota Raptor Center for additional treatment for his wing, as they were hoping he might be releasable. Unfortunately, his wing injury was quite severe, and after many months of rehabilitation, the Minnesota Raptor Center sent him back to Ohio as a permanently non-releasable eagle. After returning to Ohio, Dante was continuing to struggle with his injured wing, and the decision was made to amputate nearly all of his left wing. Dante then spent several years as an education bird at Back to the Wild before being transferred to another Ohio rehabilitator for education purposes. After only a year in his new home, the educator decided to downsize the number of education birds at her facility and began to look for a new home for Dante. He was flown in to Charlotte from Cleveland, Ohio, this past summer.