An endangered eagle in Russia survived a gunshot. It didn’t survive the 50 days officials took to authorize its treatment.

At the Karelia Zoo, a white-tailed eagle listed in Russia’s Red Book of endangered species has died, months after it was found in June with a gunshot wound near Smolensk. Wildlife rescuers said obtaining the documents needed from authorities to treat the bird took 50 days. A post on the zoo’s social media on August 9 said:

Rosprirodnadzor’s rules require anyone who finds a Red Book-listed animal in need of treatment to first “take urgent measures to help it,” then report the find to the agency and ask its central office for permission to temporarily keep the animal for treatment. Point 34 of Rosprirodnadzor’s regulations says such requests must be forwarded “urgently” to the agency’s director or a deputy, who must sign and deliver a telegram granting permission to the applicant the same day. The regulations also state that the central office is to communicate its decision “promptly.”

The eagle, which had gunshot wounds to its wings, was picked up in the Vyazma district of the Smolensk region in mid-June. A segment on the program Vesti-Smolensk reported that the bird “came to the houses on its own” in one of the local settlements, prompting residents to contact AistYasha, a wild bird rescue foundation opened in 2025 by Andrey and Elena Davydenko in a village near Smolensk.

Wildlife rescuers named the eagle Prince Vyazemsky and took it to veterinarians. The fund’s social media posts said one of the bird’s wings had a through-and-through wound while a bullet was lodged in the other; a local clinic removed the bullet and prescribed treatment for lead poisoning. In one of its first posts, on June 13, AistYasha said it “reported the situation to the police, notified Rosprirodnadzor, and informed the forestry ministry.”

AistYasha staff said from the very start that the bird needed to go somewhere with highly qualified medical care and suitable conditions, naming the Moscow Zoo. “We’re now preparing the paperwork to transport it to the Moscow Zoo, because we, of course… can’t provide it the conditions it needs, the conditions it deserves. Because this is simply a huge eagle with a wingspan of 2.5 meters (8.2 feet),” Andrey Davydenko said on June 15. Judging by his remarks, he had already reached an agreement with the Moscow Zoo.

On June 19, Davydenko said the bird’s condition had “stabilized, more or less,” but that it “urgently needs to be taken to specialists” so its wounded wing could be treated. State television covered Prince Vyazemsky on the program Vesti-Smolensk on June 24, noting that “putting together the necessary package of documents is the hardest part” and that “without a referral from Rosprirodnadzor, the Prince’s move is impossible.” “Prince Vyazemsky will never fly again, but if his wing can be saved, the eagle will be able to live safely and for a long time in Moscow, under the care of zoo specialists,” the reporters concluded.

AistYasha said on June 30 that “there’s been complete silence from Rosprirodnadzor”:

Rosprirodnadzor finally responded in early July, the foundation said, after State Duma deputy Vladimir Burmatov, whom the fund had written to “in desperation” back in June, contacted the agency. Burmatov’s letter, according to the published documents, is dated June 24. On July 1, Stanislav Stefanenko, head of Rosprirodnadzor’s interregional department for the Moscow and Smolensk regions, sent Deputy Agency Head Tatyana Kuznetsova a request to authorize helping the eagle. More than two weeks later, on July 17, AistYasha published Rosprirodnadzor’s response authorizing the transport of the Red Book-listed eagle to the Moscow Zoo.

The very next day, though, the foundation asked its followers to help transport Prince Vyazemsky and two storks in an entirely different direction — to St. Petersburg, home to the Chizhik-Pyzhik veterinary clinic, which treats birds. Responding to followers’ questions on VK, Davydenko said the Moscow Zoo was “taking a very long time to think it over” and that the bird would instead go to the Karelia Zoo, whose management he had reached an agreement with. He said he had also resubmitted documents to Rosprirodnadzor seeking permission to transport the rare bird to Karelia.

As of publication, the Moscow Zoo had not commented on the situation with the wounded eagle or on any possible arrangements with the AistYasha foundation.

As of August 2, the foundation was still waiting for Rosprirodnadzor to make “minor corrections to the paperwork in order to officially register the eagle at its new location.” Those corrections appear to have come through soon after: roughly 50 days after the bird came into the rescuers’ care, the foundation reported on August 5 that the eagle and the storks had arrived at the clinic in St. Petersburg and would head to the zoo after an examination. In a new segment on the regional state broadcaster GTRK Smolensk, Andrey Davydenko complained about “bureaucratic delays with the permit, the seizure act, and referrals” that had kept the eagle from getting help in time. “From the moment the bird arrived to the moment we got the paperwork, 50 days passed,” he said.

The foundation shared news on August 6 that, according to the clinic’s examination, Prince Vyazemsky the eagle “turned out to be a lovely lady,” and that the bird was already on its way to the zoo, where “fairy-tale conditions” awaited it.

The Karelia Zoo reported on August 8, however, that the bird had died, linking the death to the excessively long wait for the necessary documents. The published video includes remarks from a veterinarian at the St. Petersburg clinic, who says the eagle underwent surgery and was prescribed treatment after muscle necrosis had already begun. A voiceover then says that “the aftermath of the overly long wait turned out to be irreversible” and that “the staff of the Karelia Zoo and veterinary specialists did everything possible to ease her suffering and give her care in her final days.”

As of publication, Rosprirodnadzor had not commented on the situation with the eagle.