Challenger

Named in honor of the lost space shuttle crew, "Challenger" has performed free-flights during the USA's National Anthem at hundreds of events coast to coast—raising substantial public awareness for the Bald Eagle protection cause. 

"Challenger" is a non-releasable bald eagle cared for by the non-profit American Eagle Foundation (formerly named national Foundation to Protect America's Eagles), headquartered at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

In early 1989, Challenger was blown from a wild nest as a baby during a storm, and was hand raised by the people who found him. Unfortunately, he experienced too much human contact at a very young age and became highly "human socialized." As a result, "Challenger" thinks he's a person, and cannot survive on his own in the wild.

He was released into the wild twice during the summer of 1989. After his second release into the wild, "Challenger" was rescued from a close encounter with death. He had landed near a man to beg for food, and almost got beat up by that person with a stick. Another man was "Challenger's" guardian angel that day. He stopped the stick-wielding human from doing bodily harm to the eagle. This had been the third time Challenger had sought out people looking for food when he became hungry, so he was placed under the care of the American Eagle Foundation for educational purposes by federal and state fish & wildlife agencies.

American Eagle Foundation