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Beauty, a rescued Alaskan bald eagle, sits in her pen at a raptor recovery center near St. Marie's, Idaho, Wednesday, April 23, 2008. A surgery in May 2008 will provide Beauty with a new artificial beak, to replace the one damaged by a gunshot wound. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)

Part of Beauty's beak was shot off several years ago, leaving her with a stump that is useless for hunting food. A team of volunteers is working to attach an artificial beak to the disfigured bird, in an effort to keep her alive.

The 15-pound eagle was found in 2005 scrounging for food and slowly starving to death at a landfill in Alaska. Most of her curved upper beak had been shot away, leaving her tongue and sinuses exposed. She could not clutch or tear at food.

Beauty was taken to a bird recovery center in Anchorage, where she was hand-fed for two years while her caretakers waited in vain for a new beak to grow.

"They had exhausted their resources and she would likely be euthanized," Cantwell said.

The artificial beak won't be strong enough to allow Beauty to cut and tear flesh from prey. But it will help her to drink water, and to grip and eat the food she is given.

While birds of prey are notoriously skittish around humans, Beauty has become somewhat comfortable with people.