20-year-old bald eagle 'Clark' spotted in human queue at Charlotte airport checkpoint in North Carolina

Weird things are visible and trending on social media every day. Now it is an eagle's turn for that, as Clark the bald eagle's presence at a security checkpoint went viral recently.

As said by TSA Southeast, the eagle was at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport after going through security.

It is not the first time that Clark, bred in Missouri at the World Bird Sanctuary, was spotted in public, as the eagle is known for making frequent appearances in public.


Having made an appearance on Sunday in North Carolina at a convict of High Point University, the bald eagle was also spotted returning home on Monday, the following day.

@ElijahWhosoever on the social media app Twitter showed how the eagle was seen going through the TSA checkpoint of Charlotte Douglas International Airport by sharing a video that managed to cross 120,000 views.


Who is Clark?

Located in Missouri, the World Bird Sanctuary had bred Clark, as listed on the organisation's website, in the conservation department. It has been twenty years since then. The website also reveals that because the species were endangered then, Clark was supposed to be in the wild, but he could not be with his siblings in the wild as he had deformities in his feet. The reasons were that during the winter, he would have to endure frostbite and loss of toes due to the cold and his feet being unprotected from it.


How did people react to Carl's appearance?


Later on, some Twitter users wondered why Clark had not been stopped from entering the TSA checkpoint. High Point University had a fun reply in Clark's support as it said that in their largest first-year class, the heads were flown over by him on Sunday during the gathering, which is their official ceremony to welcome the newest class in their university, and that it had served as a symbol for the new beginning.


Clark has done the training to do appearances and events as he is one of the World Bird Sanctuary's flying ambassadors, given that the eagle resides in captivity.


The Sanctuary's website also has the bald eagle's resume, which is quite brilliant. It includes the special appearances he made at the football games of the Chicago Bears and flying over at the time of the national anthem during the baseball games of the St. Louis Cardinals. The website further reveals that for any event, you can rent the eagle for a minimum of $29 to $129.

More on Clark's spotting


On Wednesday, Mark Howell, who is the regional spokesperson of TSA, posted some pictures of Clark with which he noted that the TSA officers were familiar with looking at an eagle as they looked over their shoulders on their respective uniforms. However, he was confident that a double take was done by the team of @CLTAirport, when earlier that week, a real eagle was spotted by them. The pictures were shared on the official Twitter account of the TSA Southeast region.


Tiffany Valdez told the Washington Post that to have some certain exceptions by allowing a few animals to travel by flight, the company works on a case-by-case basis with organisations dedicated to animals. He is the spokesperson for Southwest Airlines.