Lakewood Ranch video shows bald eagle rescued from gator. Here’s what happened
Doug Hay was inside his Lakewood Ranch home when a commotion outside caught his attention.
After checking out the lake near his house, Hay saw a group of bald eagles circling the water.
“But one of them, the one that hit the lake water, wasn’t doing too good,” Hay told the Bradenton Herald. “I figured they had a fight or something over territory or whatever. She got the worst of it.”
Hay sprang into action after noticing the eagle dipping below the water’s surface a few times.
“I started swimming out because I knew it was going to drown, either that or the gator was going to get it,” he said.
Hay’s wife, Diane, captured the rescue mission in a video posted to social media.
Bald eagle rescue on video
Without his intervention, where he swam to the bald eagle, grabbed it and brought it back to land, the eagle wasn’t likely to survive.
“That bird definitely would not be alive today if (Doug) did not do that,” Wildlife Center of Southwest Florida Executive Director Pamela DeFouw said.
Added Hay: “I wasn’t concerned about the gator. She was only about seven feet. But my wife did notice the gator circle around and she (told) me, but I’m like, ‘I’ve got no choice now.’ ... The gator never, never really entered my mind.”
The eagle was transported to the Wildlife Center of Southwest Florida in Venice on Sunday, April 20. The following day, the eagle underwent surgery to repair a hole in its chest.
DeFouw said the eagle likely sustained the puncture to its chest in a fight with another eagle, though it is difficult to confirm that is what happened.
“If you’ve ever seen videos of eagles walking up and fighting, it’s brutal,” she said. “It’s a very, very vicious thing that they go through.”
DeFouw said they are cautiously optimistic for the eagle’s recovery due to how deep the wound was and how much bacteria from the freshwater lake got inside its chest.
“We want those sutures and everything to completely heal before we start unrestricting its activity,” DeFouw said. “But it’s going to be a little bit of a process, because after it heals, it still has to go through physical therapy and flight conditioning and everything to assess it.”
Jumping into the lake
In the video, Hay is shown swimming back to shore while holding onto the eagle’s legs. Hay said the eagle didn’t try to bite him, flap its wings or anything else to resist his rescue.
After getting back to shore, Hay said the eagle would not fly away. So he called a wildlife center for guidance, and was told to give it a few hours. After waiting, Hay said the eagle wasn’t doing anything, so he tried to get the eagle away from the water’s edge.
“She started running and jumping around, so I couldn’t grab her,” Hay said. “I didn’t have the proper tools to get her.”
Instead, Hay said the eagle was corralled into the nature preserve across the street. From there, he called Justin Matthews, owner of Matthews Wildlife Rescue in Manatee County.
The video shows Matthews using a net and glove on his arm to get hold of the eagle to take it to the Southwest Florida Wildlife Center in Venice.
Hay said they told him it would be a long road to recovery for the eagle.
“I asked (the Wildlife Center) … when you guys decide to release her, can I be there for that?” Hay said.
Hay said they told him he could be present for the eagle getting released into the wild, should that day arrive.
“The bird’s our national symbol for freedom,” Hay said. “And I just had to get it.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2025 at 5:50 AM.
