Specialists hope that Healesville Sanctuary's oldest animal will make a full recovery following surgery to remove a cancerous growth.
Jess, a male 46-year-old wedge-tailed eagle, has lived at the sanctuary since 1974.
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Curing a wedge-tailed eagle
Jess, a male 46-year-old wedge-tailed eagle, has lived at the sanctuary since 1974.
The elderly eagle has starred in television commercials, graced wine labels, appeared on a postage stamp and made a cameo appearance in the Australian film Healing.
Ophthalmologist Dr Andrew Turner discovered a growth on Jess' eyelid in the middle of 2015. Although it was considered harmless at the time, the growth recently flared up, requiring surgery.
Jess was sedated using isoflurane, an anaesthetic dispersed from a mask that the eagle breathed into.
With Jess safely anaesthetised, Dr Turner was able to reduce the size of the mass. Radiotherapist Faye Tuchton then applied radiotherapy directly to the deepest layer of the cancer.
Healesville Sanctuary senior veterinarian Leanne Wicker said Jess was recovering "really well".
"He has pain relief on board and his keeper said that Jess was bright and perky. He's already taken himself down for a bath so he seems to be feeling alright," she said.
In addition to making it through surgery, Jess is believed to have created history in another way.
"The radiotherapist had never operated on a wedge tailed eagle before and she hadn't heard about it being done, either. There's a good chance Jess is the first wedge tailed eagle to have radiotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma," Dr Wicker said.