[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/15184546 w=500&h=375]
A bald eagle, named Beauty, was found with the top half of her beak shot off. Rescued by Jane Fink Cantwell of Birds of Prey Northwest, Beauty is unable to feed or clean herself due to the loss of anatomy. While visiting the rescue center with his daughters, Nate Calvin of the Kinetic Engineering Group offered to help create a prosthetic beak. Calvin made a mold of the disfigured upper beak, laser-scanned it, modeled a prosthetic beak to fit the existing beak in a 3D modeling program, and 3D printed the prosthesis with a nylon-based polymer.
With the assistance of a dentist, the prosthetic beak was successfully implanted into Beauty’s existing beak. Beauty is now able to preen, drink and feed on her own once again.
[via Make]