California museum finds bald eagle safe after missing several days

Photo shows Sequoia bald eagle and Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo director John Aikin. (Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo)

A Northern California museum’s missing bald eagle has landed safely after flying off and spending several days on the lam.

Sequoia, a 25-year-old eagle was back at the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo after she left her handler during a public flight demonstration at Byxbee Park in Palo Alto on Monday afternoon, director John Aiken told KTVU Fox 2.

Sequoia became agitated by a hawk and wandered away, according to Aiken.

The eagle was found without a feather out of place by two women hiking in Rancho San Antonio Preserve in Los Altos, the San Jose Mercury reported.

The hikers snapped a photograph of the eagle and sent it to the museum in a text. The museum confirmed it was indeed Sequoia and Aikin rushed to meet the hikers on the Chamise Trail, the paper reported.

"By the time I got up there, she had flown off," Aikin told the paper. "I went over to the edge of the canyon and there she was."

Aikin blew a whistle and held out a dead white mouse. Sequoia flew right to him, the paper reported.

Following some rest and a bath, Sequoia was back to greeting kids visiting the museum and zoo Friday afternoon.

"Many of us think she longs for freedom, but I actually think she longs for routine," Aikin told the Mercury. "She enjoys the daily exercise and being out sometimes, but she also enjoys the routine of being home."

Sequoia was originally found shot in the wild. She has a paralyzed tail and even though she can fly, she cannot move well enough to catch prey.

Museum officials say Sequoia wears a tracking device and that the last time they saw her signal, she was near Stanford University on Tuesday afternoon.

Click here for more from KTVU Fox 2.