Ajax, beloved Grandfather Mountain bald eagle, has died nine years after his rescue
Ajax, the beloved Grandfather Mountain bald eagle, died Wednesday due to complications from an infection, officials with the N.C. nature park in Linville said. He was 11.
“We will miss his strength and confidence,” Christie Tipton, animal habitats curator for the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, said in a statement. “He was always so regal and stately.”
The foundation cares for injured and orphaned animals born in the wild or into captivity before they arrive at Grandfather Mountain.
Ajax was about 1 1/2 years old when he arrived at Grandfather Mountain on Aug. 26, 2015, from the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Florida, foundation officials said.
He’d fallen from his nest on a golf course and broken a clavicle and humerus in his wing and a femur in his leg, according to the foundation.
The goal was to rehabilitate him so he could fly off into the wild, but he didn’t heal enough to migrate and hunt prey. He was taken to the not-for-profit Grandfather Mountain center to live with Griffin, an older bald eagle.
Ajax was testy at first, center officials recalled. He squawked at and nipped anyone who neared, and that’s how he got his name, after the Greek warrior.
Visitors liked hearing him, Tipton said. “He was very chatty, and he would always let us know what he thought,” she said.
Ajax eventually settled in, flying to different perches in the habitat and sunning himself.
“He loved to play in the pond and enjoyed the trout that were provided as an enrichment,” Tipton said. He especially enjoyed Griffin, “sometimes sharing a perch,” she said.
How to honor Ajax’s legacy
Donations can be made in Ajax’s memory to the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation at www.Grandfather.com/donate.
Or choose a gift for a Grandfather Mountain animal on the animals’ Amazon.com wish list at www.bit.ly/GMAmazonWishlist.
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 8:55 AM with the headline "Ajax, beloved Grandfather Mountain bald eagle, has died nine years after his rescue."